Validating a Comprehensive Model of Environmental Concern Cross‐Nationally: A U.S.‐Canadian Comparison*

Objective. The dimensionality of “environmental concern” remains ambiguous despite decades of research on environmental attitudes and beliefs. We attempt to provide insight into this issue by using the belief systems perspective and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test a comprehensive conceptualization of environmental concern. Methods. The study employs a comparative design by using national probability samples of citizens from Canada and the United States, and a comprehensive conceptualization model to maximize content validity. We utilize CFA and structural equation modeling techniques to avoid well‐known measurement error problems in survey research. Results. Eight key facets of environmental concern have moderate to high factor loadings on one underlying construct, and all but perception of community problems and national problems have high loadings. Further analyses provide construct validation for our measurement model. Conclusion. Our results suggest that even among the general public, attitudes toward environmental issues are relatively well organized into a broad and coherent sense of “concern for the environment.” The similarity in the U.S. and Canadian results increases our faith in the validity of our comprehensive conceptualization of environmental concern, as well as the utility of the belief systems perspective and CFA modeling for future studies of environmental attitudes and beliefs.     

Women and War: Militarism, Bodies, and the Practice of Gender

Women around the world, in various geographic spaces, social and cultural contexts, as partners, wives, sisters, daughters, mothers, mourners, and victims experience war. Women's experience of war and their participation in it, either as actors or resistors, victims or perpetrators ( Moser and Clark 2001 ), cheerleaders or critics, are always influenced by the construction of gender operating in and around their lives. While constructions of masculinity and femininity are always circulating in and around militarism and war, women's bodies are sometimes primary considerations for military and state leaders; this creates a visibility/invisibility/hyper-visibility problem for women in wartime. In this essay, women's participation in war as soldiers, refugees, prisoners, jailers, activists, and suicide bombers and the accompanying shift in the practice of femininity and masculinity is explored.     

Castles in the Air: Welfare Services for Ex-prisoners

Prison aftercare in New Zealand has a history of haphazard planning and fragmented policy implementation, and a recent governmental review of penal policy recognized the inadequate provisions currently made for prisoners' re-establishment in the community. The research reported in this paper has shown that, at a local level, a considerable degree of confusion and ignorance exists among people presumed to have knowledge in the field of prison aftercare. This shortfall of knowledge and lack of cohesion among existing services must be taken into account before effective policy changes aimed at improving prison aftercare can be implemented.     

Personal Trauma and Risk Behaviors Among Youth Entering Residential Treatment

The focus of this study was to determine the prevalence and types of traumas experienced by adolescents prior to admission to long term mental health residential care and the impact of these traumas on their risk behaviors. The research was conducted at a state-supported residential mental health treatment facility functioning under the authority of the Department of State Health Services. Client level data was extracted from social assessment forms (N = 457) in case records of clients. Results confirmed that exposure to trauma was pervasive among adolescents admitted to the facility. Findings also revealed a link between trauma and risk behaviors among youth entering residential treatment facilities. Increased trauma exposure significantly impacted the risk behaviors of youths entering the residential treatment facility. The results indicate that the total number of traumas experienced was a greater predictor of risk behaviors among these youth than the specific traumas experienced. Internalizing behaviors such as self-harm and suicide attempts also increased with the number of traumas experienced by the adolescent. The study demonstrates the need for further exploration of the complex relationship between personal trauma, mental health, and social development in adolescents.     

“He’s a total TubeCrush”: post-feminist sensibility as intimate publics

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the website TubeCrush, where people post and share unsolicited photographs of “guy candy” seen on the London Underground. We use TubeCrush as a case study to develop Berlant’s intimate publics as a lens for examining post-feminist sensibility and masculinity in the liminal space between home/work. The paper responds to notions of reverse sexism and post-sexism used to make sense of women’s apparent objectification of men in the digital space, by asking instead where the value of such images lies. We suggest that in TubeCrush, value is directed onto the bodies of particular men, creating a visual economy of post-feminist masculinity of whiteness, physical strength, and economic wealth. This celebration of masculine capital is achieved through humor and the knowing wink, but the outcome is a reaffirmation of urban hegemonic masculinity.     

Counseling Support for the Forgotten Transgender Community

The needs of people with nonconforming gender behavior are not homogeneous, for people who self-identify as transgender are not and should not be considered the same as individuals who self-identify as transsexual. Limited counseling resources are available for clinicians working with individuals who self-identify as transgender but have no desire to proceed to sexual reassignment surgery (SRS). Though it appears many of the recommendations for transsexuals are relevant for the broader range of transgender individuals, significant differences exist between them, warranting further investigation. This article presents a summary of approaches for gender-variant clients not matching the transsexual paradigm.     

Young adult's immediate reaction to a personal alcohol overdose

Following an emergency medical transport for alcohol overdose, first-year college students were asked to complete a survey assessing their reactions to the transport experience, their assessment of why they required this emergency response, and plans for future personal alcohol consumption. Transported students who responded to a baseline survey of all first-year students regarding expectations about alcohol are compared to first-year students overall. The 50 first-year transported students did not perceive themselves at risk for alcohol overdose prior to the event and were typically not heavy consumers of alcohol. The majority attributed the overdose event to bad decision making. Most students planned to alter the amount and the pace of their future alcohol consumption. Additional education on the circumstances of alcohol overdose may help young adults learn their own limits for safe consumption.