Examining the efficacy of the GameSense gambling prevention programme among university undergraduate students

This article describes a study assessing the effectiveness of a gambling prevention programme, GameSense, in modifying gambling cognitions and intentions among university undergraduate students of diverse ethnicities (N = 122). Although GameSense is a widely used intervention, the effectiveness in modifying gambling cognitions and behaviours has not yet been demonstrated. In the present study, randomly assigned treatment participants completed the programme and then played a gambling game in which they could win tokens for a desired prize. Control participants played the game but did not receive the prevention programme. At the end of the game, all participants completed measures assessing gambling cognitions, immediate and future gambling intentions, and their desire to continue gambling. Programme participants showed increased knowledge about gambling, increased resistance to gambling fallacies, and fewer immediate and future intentions to continue gambling regardless of how much they won or lost, compared to the no-treatment control group. The present results indicate that the GameSense programme is effective in altering cognitions about gambling and immediate and future intentions to continue gambling. Results are discussed in terms of the modification of gambling cognitions following completion of the intervention programme and the changes in future gambling behaviour as a consequence of those changed cognitions.     

Religion and Migration around the Globe: Introducing the Global Religion and Migration Database

International migration is a global phenomenon involving nearly 215 million people, equivalent to 3% of the world’s population. Previous databases of global migration catalog international migration using a variety of variables (sex, education, age); however, religion is rarely addressed within these data sets. Representing nearly half a million data points, the Global Religion and Migration Database (GRMD) was constructed – the only global database estimating the global migrant population (stock) by origin, destination, and religious affiliation. This research note serves as an introduction to the GRMD, detailing the construction of the database and providing key findings from a global perspective.     

Queer Intimacies: A New Paradigm for the Study of Relationship Diversity

Recognition of sexual and gender diversity in the 21st century challenges normative assumptions of intimacy that privilege heterosexual monogamy and the biological family unit, presume binary cisgender identities, essentialize binary sexual identities, and view sexual or romantic desire as necessary. We propose a queer paradigm to study relationship diversity grounded in seven axioms: intimacy may occur (1) within relationships featuring any combination of cisgender, transgender, or nonbinary identities; (2) with people of multiple gender identities across the life course; (3) in multiple relationships simultaneously with consent; (4) within relationships characterized by consensual asymmetry, power exchange, or role-play; (5) in the absence or limited experience of sexual or romantic desire; (6) in the context of a chosen rather than biological family; and (7) in other possible forms yet unknown. We review research on queer relational forms, including same-sex relationships; relationships in which one or more partners identify as transgender, gender nonbinary, bisexual, pansexual, sexually fluid, “mostly” straight, asexual, or aromantic; polyamory and other forms of consensual nonmonogamy; kink/fetish relationships; and chosen families. We argue that a queer paradigm shifts the dominant scientific conception of relationships away from the confines of normativity toward an embrace of diversity, fluidity, and possibility.     

Almost most powerful tests against composite alternatives

Likelihood ratio considerations are used to derive uniform bounds on the acceptance and rejection regions of the family of locally most powerful randomization tests for a two-sample comparison of censored data, When applied to radioimmunoassay data, these bounds are close enough to permit effective decision making. The methodology extends to a wide class of testing problems.     

A neo-classical education transitions approach: A corrected tale for three cohorts

Analysts have regarded education transitions research as revealing late stage educational egalitarianism in the United States (e.g., Stolzenberg, 1994) and as sufficiently robust to guide policymakers (e.g., Hout, 2007). However, critics suggest parameter estimates are contaminated by selection bias (e.g., De Graaf & Ganzeboom, 1993), key parameter differences are unidentified (e.g., Cameron & Heckman, 1998), cross-transition comparisons are faulty, and the data are inappropriate. Useful modifications have been offered, (e.g., [Breen and Jonsson, 2000], [Hauser and Andrew, 2006] and [Lucas, 2001]), but analysts have yet to comprehensively address the challenges critics pose. In response, we propose a neo-classical education transitions approach that uses fuller sets of data and models that explicitly address the primary threats to proper inference. Using this approach we re-assess the educational attainment process for a baby boomer cohort, a Generation X cohort, and a Generation Y cohort. All cohorts fail to replicate the waning coefficients pattern. Methodologically, the study responds to criticisms in a way that offers methods for continued cross-national comparative research. Substantively, the study undermines confidence that standard education transitions research can provide policy guidance and the claim of late stage egalitarianism in the United States educational attainment process.     

The Airline Discount Fare Allocation Problem

This paper describes a useful extension of the well-known, single-period inventory or newsboy problem. Given a fixed number of identical seats available on a scheduled airline flight, what percentage should be offered for early sale at a predetermined discount fare and what percentage reserved for later sale at a higher full fare? This two-tiered pricing strategy with early discount pricing might be appropriate in any situation in which the price sensitivity of the inventoried items decreases as the end of the period approaches. Similar to the newsboy problem solution, the decision rule that maximizes expected profit is expressed as a simple function of the percentage difference in the two fares and two carefully defined probabilities.     

Difference in Condom Use Between Bear Concordant and Discordant Dyads During the Last Anal Sex Event

The purpose of this study was to understand how bear identity influenced condom use during the last anal sex event. Participants were recruited to complete an online, anonymous self-report survey through bear-related sexual and social networking websites. A total of 1,080 men who identified as gay or bisexual and as a member of the bear community and were 18 years or older completed the survey. Overall, fewer than a third of men reported condom use during the most recent receptive (28%) and insertive (30%) anal sex event. Men in bear concordant pairings were less likely to use a condom during receptive and insertive anal sex compared to those is discordant pairings (p < .05). Findings suggest that bear identity concordance influences condom use during anal sex after accounting for an individual’s relationship to their most recent partner as well as other confounding variables.     

Shame,Peer, and Oscillating Frames in DWI Conviction: Extending Goffman's Sociological Landscape

Goffman argues that “the interaction order” is a substantive domain autonomous from formal social organization. His scholarship generally analyzes the interaction order in its autonomous workings but neglects the areas in which it is legally regulated. Analyzing the case of legal detention and conviction for the offense of driving while intoxicated (DWI), the article illustrates and extends Goffman's paradigm. A DWI conviction is the result of the legal system's response to distortion at the level of the interaction order. Conviction creates new interactive frames. The interaction order resists the official moral definition of DWI.     

Multiple sclerosis and employment barriers: a systemic perspective on diagnosis and intervention

Although they have a recent work history, 70 to 80% of adults with multiple sclerosis are unemployed following their diagnosis. This high rate of unemployment constitutes a great loss of potential to the American economy. To help individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) return to work or retain employment, rehabilitation professionals must understand the barriers resulting in unemployment and implement interventions to reduce or remove those concerns. In this article, Hershenson's systemic model of rehabilitation counseling is presented as a diagnostic scheme for identifying barriers to employment. Counselor consultation on barrier removal via reasonable accommodation is presented as one example of a rehabilitation intervention consistent with the systemic diagnostic model.