The Use of Protective Behaviors in Relation to Gambling Among College Students

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate a measure of gambling protective behaviors and examine the relationship between indices of gambling behavior, including frequency, quantity and problem severity, and the use of gambling protective behaviors. Undergraduates from a large public university (N = 4,014) completed a web-based screening survey comprising measures of gambling and health behaviors, from which those who gambled within the past 6-months (n = 1,922, 48 % of the entire sample) were invited to complete the baseline assessment, including the Gambling Protective Behavior Scale (GPBS). The GPBS was determined to have two subscales, primarily consisting of harm reduction strategies that reduce the money or time spent on gambling, or avoidance strategies that help to minimize engagement in gambling activities. Hierarchical multiple regressions found participants’ sex moderated the relationship between use of protective behavioral strategies and gambling outcomes. However, effects were in the opposite direction to those hypothesized. Specifically, because women gambled less, had lower gambling problem severity, and reported more frequent use of gambling avoidance protective behaviors, the relationship between use of gambling protective behaviors and gambling outcomes was stronger for men than women. Men who used more avoidance strategies gambled less frequently compared to men who used fewer avoidance strategies. Similarly, men who used more harm reduction strategies spent fewer dollars on gambling and had lower scores on gambling problem severity compared to men using fewer harm reduction strategies for women these relationships were less pronounced. Implications of incorporating specific gambling protective behavioral strategies into prevention and treatment programs are discussed.     

Hope,Coping, and Relationship Quality in Mothers of Children With Down Syndrome

Parenting a child with Down syndrome may pose unique challenges for parents’ relationship quality. This study used structural equation modeling with a sample of 351 mothers of children with Down syndrome to test if hope mediated the association between mothers’ various coping behaviors and mothers’ relationship quality. Hope was defined as a generalized positive state that comes from a personal sense of agency. Results indicated a greater degree of religious coping and internal coping were each significantly associated with more hope, whereas support seeking was not related with more hope. Higher hope was significantly associated with greater relationship quality. Bootstrapped indirect effects from both religious coping and internal coping to hope, and then hope to relationship quality, were identified. Implications for therapists and future research are described.     

An Evaluation of the Positive Action Program for Youth Violence Prevention: From Schools to Summer Camps

New Orleans has experienced some of the highest per capita rates of homicide in the nation. In response, the City of New Orleans developed the NOLA FOR LIFE murder reduction strategy, one aspect of which is the implementation of Positive Action, a character building program for youth. The Positive Action program has offered promising results for curbing youth violence when implemented in school-based settings. However, given the city’s mostly charter-based school system, summer camps are among the few entry points available through which to implement city-wide youth initiatives. During the 2016 summer camp session, an evaluation was conducted to determine whether incorporating the Positive Action curriculum into a 6-week summer camp results in youth experiencing positive changes in peer self-esteem, the ability to get along with others, bullying behavior, and normative beliefs about aggression. This evaluation compares youth that received the Positive Action curriculum during summer camp with those that received the traditional summer camp curriculum. A multi-method approach of quantitative pre-and post-surveys of youth and focus group interviews with camp teachers were employed. Results from the quantitative data suggest few statistically significant findings, while qualitative data suggests that Positive Action may be effective at reducing violent norms and behavior. Implications for social workers and the need for adapting school-based violence reduction interventions for non-traditional settings are discussed.     

Self-compassion and suicidal behavior in college students: Serial indirect effects via depression and wellness behaviors

Objective: College students may be at heightened risk for suicide and suicidal behavior due to maladaptive cognitive-emotional factors and failure to practice basic health behaviors. However, self-compassion and wellness behaviors may protect against risk. The relation between self-compassion and suicidal behavior and the contributing roles of depressive symptoms and wellness behaviors was examined. Participants: Participants were 365 undergraduate students. Data were collected in April 2015. Methods: A cross-sectional, survey design was employed. Participants completed measures assessing self-compassion, depressive symptoms, wellness behaviors, and suicidal behavior. Serial mediation analyses were conducted covarying age, sex, and ethnicity. Results: Self-compassion was inversely related to suicidal behavior, and this relationship was serially mediated by depressive symptoms and wellness behaviors. Conclusions: Self-compassion may protect against suicidal behavior, in part, due to reduced depressive symptoms and heightened engagement in wellness behaviors. Individual and campus-wide strategies promoting self-compassion and wellness behaviors may reduce suicide risk on college campuses.     

Cognitive Deficits in Executive Functions and Decision-Making Impairments Cluster Gambling Disorder Sub-types

To identify Gambling Disorder (GD) subtypes, in a population of men seeking treatment for GD, according to specific executive function domains (i.e., cognitive flexibility, inhibition and working memory as well as decision making) which are usually impaired in addictive behaviors. A total of 145 males ranging from 18 to 65 years diagnosed with GD were included in this study. All participants completed: (a) a set of questionnaires to assess psychopathological symptoms, personality and impulsivity traits, and (b) a battery of neuropsychological measures to test different executive functioning domains. Two clusters were identified based on the individual performance on the neuropsychological assessment. Cluster 1 [n = 106; labeled as Low Impaired Executive Function (LIEF)] was composed by patients with poor results in the neuropsychological assessment; cluster 2 patients [n = 46; labeled as High Impaired Executive Function (HIEF)] presented significantly higher deficits on the assessed domains and performed worse than the ones of LIEF cluster. Regarding the characterization of these two clusters, patients in cluster 2 were significantly older, unemployed and registered higher mean age of GD onset than patients in cluster 1. Additionally, patients in cluster 2 also obtained higher psychopathological symptoms, impulsivity (in both positive and negative urgency as well as sensation seeking) and some specific personality traits (higher harm avoidance as well as lower self-directedness and cooperativeness) than patients in cluster 1. The results of this study describe two different GD subtypes based on different cognitive domains (i.e., executive function performance). These two GD subtypes display different impulsivity and personality traits as well as clinical symptoms. The results provide new insight into the etiology and characterization of GD and have the potential to help improving current treatments.     

Comparison of two approaches to prevention of mental health problems in college students: Enhancing coping and executive function skills

Objective: College students face a significant number of stressors, increasing risk for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. The current study examines two promising avenues of intervention aimed to reduce stress and prevent psychopathology in this population: a coping skills group and a cognitive training program. Participants: 62 undergraduate students from two universities were recruited from 2013 to 2015. Methods: Students were randomized to a 6-week coping skills group or cognitive training program and completed measures of stress, coping, executive function, and symptoms of anxiety, depression and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at pre- and post-intervention. Results: Participants in both conditions reported significant decreases in social stress, executive function difficulties, and anxiety symptoms post-intervention. Students in the cognitive program improved significantly more on measures of behavior regulation and ADHD symptoms compared to the coping group at post-intervention. Conclusions: Brief stress management interventions targeting coping and executive function may benefit college students at risk for psychopathology.     

Revitalizing social work education through global and critical awareness: examples from three Scandinavian schools of social work

ABSTRACT

Increasing globalisation, reorganisation of the Scandinavian welfare regimes and the awareness of increasing global roots of local social problems necessitated change in the curriculum of social work in three Scandinavian schools of social work in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Recent global transformations, increasing global inequalities, increasing forced migration and the emergence of glocal social problems make the traditional education and methods of social work ineffective and in some cases harmful for people in need of social work intervention. This article examines the need to provide critical, global and multilevel perspectives in social work education in order to prepare social work students for the increasing social problems with global roots. The article, which is based on cross-national collaborations in social work education between three Scandinavian countries, addresses global and critical components in theoretical courses, professional training and field practice in the social work education of the countries in question. It is argued that social work education should move beyond the old division of classical and international/intercultural toward including global and critical perspectives in an integrative manner in all programs.