Vulnerability and Comorbidity Factors of Female Problem Gambling

This study helps to address a deficiency of gender-specific research into problem gambling. It focuses on the gambling behaviors, family and personal histories and comorbid psychological disorders of 365 female gamblers from across Ontario, Canada, who responded to a mail-in survey. Specifically, this study looks at rates of depression and anxiety, concurrent struggles with other behaviors (such as alcohol and drug use, disordered eating, overspending and criminal activity) and abuse history reported by female gamblers. The reported rates are considerably higher than for the general female population. The findings of this study agree with previous research. They suggest that prevention strategies and treatment practices for female problem gamblers should take into account women’s mental health, addiction and trauma history as contributing factors in the development of problematic gambling.     

Contests for Professional Status: Community College Faculty in Sociology

Community colleges are playing an increasingly important and visible role in higher education in the United States. However, the additional attention to community colleges has not produced the same degree of recognition regarding the importance and needs of the faculty within those institutions, who make up about 27 percent of all faculty members nation-wide. This article examines factors influencing the professional status of community college faculty. We argue that understanding the position of community college faculty in higher education today depends upon understanding that professional status is a dynamic and contested terrain, rather than a series of static characteristics. Following Abbott’s (1998) analysis of the efforts of librarians to achieve professional status, we consider how the changing structure of higher education in the United States may impact community college faculty as professionals, both positively and negatively. As one example of community college faculty raising their issues within a discipline-wide professional organization, we examine the current state of community college faculty with the American Sociological Association (ASA). We consider potential status changes for community college faculty in sociology within the context of the broad threats to the professional status of faculty across the higher education landscape. Paradoxically, these threats might result in an opening for efforts by community college faculty to improve their professional status, perhaps in coalition with faculty in other sectors of higher education.     

The Relationship of Parental Alcoholism and Family Dysfunction to Stress Among College Students

Abstract

The relationship between collegiate adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) and adult children from dysfunctional families (ACDFs) was examined to determine whether ACOAs and ACDFs were at greater risk of stress than non-ACOAs and non-ACDFs. The participants were 549 students from a midwestern university. The data collection instruments were the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, 6-Item Version (CAST-6); the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales, Version II (FACES-II); and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). A substantial proportion of the sample was classified as ACOA, ACDF, or both, and there was considerable overlap between the two groups. Both ACOA and ACDF status were found to be significant predictors of stress, with ACDF status being a better predictor than ACOA status. Possible explanations for the results and implications for collegiate wellness programs are discussed.     

Beyond talk: Contributions of quantity and quality of communication to language success across socioeconomic strata

Infants from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households hear a projected 30 million fewer words than their higher-SES peers. In a recent study, Hirsh-Pasek et al. (Psychological Science, 2015; 26: 1071) found that in a low-income sample, fluency and connectedness in exchanges between caregivers and toddlers predicted child language a year later over and above quantity of talk (Hirsh-Pasek et al., Psychological Science, 2015; 26: 1071). Here, we expand upon this study by examining fluency and connectedness in two higher-SES samples. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we sampled 20 toddlers who had low, average, and high language outcomes at 36 months from each of 2 groups based on income-to-needs ratio (INR; middle and high) and applied new coding to the mother–toddler interaction at 24 months. In the high-INR group, the quality of mother–toddler interaction at 24 months accounted for more variability in language outcomes a year later than did quantity of talk, quality of talk, or sensitive parenting. These results could not be accounted for by child language ability at 24 months. These effects were not found in the middle-INR sample. Our findings suggest that when the quality of interaction, fluency and connectedness, predicts language outcomes, it is a robust relation, but it may not be universal.     

SMEs and Marketing: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper presents a systematic review of recent academic literature analysing the role, organization and management of marketing activities in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, 310 articles published between 2006 and 2015 in 69 main journals devoted to small firms/entrepreneurship and management/marketing fields were analysed. This review shows that SMEs’ marketing has received great attention in both management and marketing literature in recent years. Findings reveal, on the one hand, the emerging role of networks and information and communication technologies in marketing behaviour by SMEs, and on the other hand a research gap in terms of specific marketing practices. Entrepreneurial marketing has been used as the main conceptual framework in reviewed studies, even if findings overall still point out a distance between the theoretical bases of reviewed contributions and the study of SMEs’ marketing behaviour and practices. Therefore, future research on the role of resources, relationships and networks could benefit from the combination of theories developed within the field of entrepreneurship with other approaches such as the resource‐based view, the dynamic capabilities theory and the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) framework.     

Migrant Health Policies. Actors and Levels in a Multi‐Level Perspective

Until recently, migrant health policies have been overlooked as a topic of policy analysis. Although interest in the issue has developed in parallel with the progressive acknowledgement of the presence of unhealthy migrants and the transformation of welfare states and policy dynamics in Europe, studies on migrant health policies have often focused on the state as a unique unit of observation while hindering the role played by other institutional and non‐institutional actors taking part in the migrant health multi‐level governance. This contribution will bridge this gap, deconstructing the various actors and levels involved in migrant health policymaking from a multi‐level perspective. By critically reviewing migrant health policy research and discussing it with the new MIPEX Health Strand, this contribution suggests a more encompassing perspective in the analysis of migrant health policies and processes, looking at the different players at stake in this multifaceted policy field.     

What Adolescents Seeking Help Teach us About a School-Based Counseling Service

Adolescents are reluctant to seek help, especially those at psychopathological risk. School may represent the ideal setting to intercept teens in trouble by reducing some barriers to help-seeking behavior; despite this, some obstacles remain difficult to overcome. The present study, involving a large sample (N?=?2235) of secondary school students, aims to investigate the effectiveness of a counseling service as part of a multifaceted school-based prevention program. The counseling service is assessed by comparing students who asked for help with their peers in terms of their psychosocial characteristics, risk profiles and perceptions of the strategies that professionals adopt in order to reduce the barriers to individual counseling. Our findings reveal the capacity of individual counseling to serve the most vulnerable adolescents, with the exception of students who might be at risk of school drop-out. The effectiveness of the program implementation theory and the strength of particular strategies used to reduce barriers are discussed.     

Perceptions of Physical Sexual Health Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men with a Previous History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has been reported to be disproportionately higher among young men who have sex with men (YMSM) than among heterosexual men. Most research and public health programs among YMSM CSA survivors have been mainly infectious disease-based, and research on the physical sexual health among this group is limited. This study sought to further understand components of physical sexual health among YMSM with CSA histories. Sixteen participants were recruited, and through a phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Four themes were found, participants (1) reported a one-dimensional definition of sexual health; (2) had limitations in health insurance hindering preventative care; (3) described reoccurring anal pain during sexual intercourse; and (4) conveyed a positive perception of sexual satisfaction. These findings indicate a need for healthcare providers, health educators, and researchers to increase awareness about the comprehensive needs of YMSM with CSA histories.