Health Behavior Change and the College Personal Health Class: A Multifaceted Approach

Abstract

Both the literature review and the results of a behavioral change project conducted at the University of Oregon indicate that health courses can bring about positive lifestyle changes when behavior is made a focus of the class. A multi-faceted behavioral intervention strategy was developed and used with 433 students enrolled in personal health classes during the fall term, 1983. At the end of the term, 23% of the students reported they were 100% successful in obtaining their desired behavioral changes. Another 40% reported they had just missed their goal. Overall, it appears the intervention was highly successful. More research is needed to validate the approach.     

Social workers' views of parents of emotionally disturbed children: Replicating a US study

Abstract

This article reports the results of a survey of Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) members in relation to their views of parents of emotionally disturbed children. The survey involved a random sample of AASW members. It replicates a US study of members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) conducted by Johnson, Renaud, Schmidt and Stanek (1998). The study was conducted in order to see if there was any similarity in the views of United States (US) and Australian social workers in regard to their view of these parents. The data from the Australian sample using the US Providers' Beliefs About Parents (PBAP) instrument did not support the conclusions of the study in the US. This result emphasises the importance of replication studies when transferring measurement instruments from one country to another.     

Consanguinity and Other Marriage Market Effects of a Wealth Shock in Bangladesh

This paper uses a wealth shock from the construction of a flood protection embankment in rural Bangladesh coupled with data on the universe of all 52,000 marriage decisions between 1982 and 1996 to examine changes in marital prospects for households protected by the embankment relative to unprotected households living on the other side of the river. We use difference-in-difference specifications to document that brides from protected households commanded larger dowries, married wealthier households, and became less likely to marry biological relatives. Financial liquidity-constrained households appear to use within-family marriage (in which one can promise ex-post payments) as a form of credit to meet up-front dowry demands, but the resultant wealth shock for households protected by the embankment relaxed this need to marry consanguineously. Our results shed light on the socioeconomic roots of consanguinity, which carries health risks for offspring but can also carry substantial benefits for the families involved.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Gambling: Links Between Young Adult and Perceived Grandparent Gambling Attitudes and Behavior

This study examined associations between the gambling attitudes and behavior of 213 young adults and their perceptions of the gambling attitudes and behavior of their closest grandparent. Regression analyses showed that young adult gambling attitudes mediated the relations between perceived grandparent gambling attitudes and behavior and young adult gambling behavior. Grandparent–grandchild relationship quality experienced while growing up did not moderate the relations between young adult and perceived grandparent gambling attitudes and behavior. Men experienced gambling at a younger age and reported more positive gambling attitudes, more frequent gambling activity, higher levels of gambling pathology, and higher levels of gambling affinity than women. Implications of results and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

An Integrated Scenario Ensemble-Based Framework for Hurricane Evacuation Modeling: Part 1—Decision Support System

This article introduces a new integrated scenario-based evacuation (ISE) framework to support hurricane evacuation decision making. It explicitly captures the dynamics, uncertainty, and human–natural system interactions that are fundamental to the challenge of hurricane evacuation, but have not been fully captured in previous formal evacuation models. The hazard is represented with an ensemble of probabilistic scenarios, population behavior with a dynamic decision model, and traffic with a dynamic user equilibrium model. The components are integrated in a multistage stochastic programming model that minimizes risk and travel times to provide a tree of evacuation order recommendations and an evaluation of the risk and travel time performance for that solution. The ISE framework recommendations offer an advance in the state of the art because they: (1) are based on an integrated hazard assessment (designed to ultimately include inland flooding), (2) explicitly balance the sometimes competing objectives of minimizing risk and minimizing travel time, (3) offer a well-hedged solution that is robust under the range of ways the hurricane might evolve, and (4) leverage the substantial value of increasing information (or decreasing degree of uncertainty) over the course of a hurricane event. A case study for Hurricane Isabel (2003) in eastern North Carolina is presented to demonstrate how the framework is applied, the type of results it can provide, and how it compares to available methods of a single scenario deterministic analysis and a two-stage stochastic program.