Subjective well-being and exercise in the second half of life: a critical review of theoretical approaches

Research has shown repeatedly that the ??feeling better?? effect of exercise is far more moderate than generally claimed. Examinations of subgroups in secondary analyses also indicate that numerous further variables influence this relationship. One reason for inconsistencies in this research field is the lack of adequate theoretical analyses. Well-being output variables frequently possess no construct definition, and little attention is paid to moderating and mediating variables. This article integrates the main models in an overview and analyzes how secondary analyses define well-being and which areas of the construct they focus on. It then applies a moderator and/or mediator framework to examine which person and environmental variables can be found in the existing explanatory approaches in sport science and how they specify the influence of these moderating and mediating variables. Results show that the broad understanding of well-being in many secondary analyses makes findings difficult to interpret. Moreover, physiological explanatory approaches focus more on affective changes in well-being, whereas psychological approaches also include cognitive changes. The approaches focus mostly on either physical or psychological person variables and rarely combine the two, as in, for example, the dual-mode model. Whereas environmental variables specifying the treatment more closely (e.g., its intensity) are comparatively frequent, only the social support model formulates variables such as the framework in which exercise is presented. The majority of explanatory approaches use simple moderator and/or mediator models such as the basic mediated (e.g., distraction hypothesis) or multiple mediated (e.g., monoamine hypotheses) model. The discussion draws conclusions for future research.     

Maternal morbidity and mortality

The following interview with Dr. Yves Bergevin on the consequences of maternal morbidity and mortality in developing countries was conducted in November 2007. Dr. Bergevin, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FCFP, is Senior Program Advisor for Reproductive Health at the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) Africa Division. He provides the overall program leadership for reproductive health programs in Africa for UNFPA, including HIV Prevention, Maternal Health, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health Commodity Security. Dr. Bergevin has held several senior level positions in global health, including Chief of Health at UNICEF, where he fostered a renewed focus on child survival. Prior to this, he was Principal Advisor for Health, Population, and Nutrition at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He is the author of over 100 papers, abstracts, and reports. He has also served as a Member of the Board on Global Health, National Academies of Sciences (USA), a Member of the STOP TB Coordinating Board and of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board.     

Sexual Abuse Allegations by Children with Neuropsychiatric Disorders

All Swedish court cases from 2004 and 2006 concerning alleged child sexual abuse (sexual harassment excluded) were identified through criminal registers. Fourteen cases (one boy) concerned a child with a neuropsychiatric disorder. The diagnostic groups were mental retardation (10 cases), autism (three cases), and ADHD (one case). Psychiatric experts were engaged in only two cases. When experts were involved, the courts focused on credibility issues. When the courts applied neuropsychiatric arguments in the absence of an expert, they used developmental arguments. When the authors found that significant neuropsychiatric issues were not discussed by the court it concerned interpretations of symptoms and developmental standpoints. The results illustrate the complexity and pitfalls of drawing conclusions about associations between symptoms and personality characteristics on one side and accuracy of sexual abuse allegations on the other. Moreover, the results highlight the importance of a high quality system for providing courts with adequate neuropsychiatric knowledge.     

Correction to: Think Tanks: New Organizational Actors in a Changing Swedish Civil Society

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In the captions for Figures 1 and 2, a reference was inadvertently omitted.     

Drug use

In “Drug Use,” Peter Reuter, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs and Department of Criminology, examines substance abuse and addiction among welfare and low-income mothers. He describes the changing patterns of drug use in the general population. Reuter explains that drug use increased rapidly in the late 1970s, declined in the 1980s, and remained relatively flat in the 1990s. The patterns, however, are driven largely by changes in marijuana use. The pattern of frequent use of more dangerous drugs, such as cocaine, is somewhat different. The heavy use of cocaine—especially crack cocaine—peaked during the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, the number of new addicts had fallen dramatically, although not many heavy users discontinued their use. As a result, the stock of frequent users held constant through much of the 1990s and only recently began to decline as more users discontinued their use or died. His main data sources are the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), Monitoring the Future (MTF), and the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse (NHSDA).     

Inquiry

The following interview with Dr. Denise Johnston was conducted in October 2005. Dr. Johnston is a child development specialist and the founding director of the Center for Children of Incarcerated Parents, which has served more than 20,000 clients and is staffed almost exclusively by formerly incarcerated parents and children of prisoners.     

INQUIRY

The following interview with Awash Teklehaimanot was conducted in June 2005. Dr. Teklehaimanot is Director of the Malaria Program at Columbia University and a member of the Task Force on Malaria for the UN Millennium Project. He is a senior staff member of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, where he provides leadership in the development of the global Roll Back Malaria program. Dr. Teklehaimanot has extensive international experience in public health with particular focus on Africa. He provides technical support to malaria-endemic countries, coordinates a number of WHO-funded research activities in Africa, and spent several years as the director of Ethiopia's National Malaria Control Program. He is a professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and has been lecturing at the Harvard School of Public Health since 1992.