The Temporal Relationship Between Faulty Gambling Cognitions and Gambling Severity in Young Adults

Disordered gambling in young adults is hypothesized as being related to mistaken gambling-related cognitions. Few studies have examined the temporal order of this relationship using longitudinal data. The purpose of this study is to understand the directionality of the relationship between gambling cognitions and gambling severity in a longitudinal sample of young adults. Young adults (N = 578), initially aged 18–21 years, completed the Manitoba Longitudinal Survey of Young Adults at two time points approximately 2–3 years apart. Measures of beliefs about randomness related to gambling and gambling severity, as measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index, were utilized. A cross-sectional relationship between gambling severity and gambling-related cognitions was observed with greater gambling severity being associated with increased endorsement of mistaken cognitions. Evidence for a bidirectional longitudinal relationship was observed with faulty gambling cognitions leading to later problematic gambling behaviors and vice versa when examining a total beliefs scale. When examining specific beliefs about randomness, initial gambling group membership predicted later endorsement of certain beliefs about randomness while initial belief ratings did not impact later gambling group membership. The results of this study suggest a bidirectional relationship between gambling severity and erroneous gambling-related cognitions. However, when examining specific beliefs about randomness, evidence was found for problem gambling behaviors leading to erroneous gambling beliefs. These findings suggest that prevention efforts targeting cognitions may not be as effective in impacting those not yet demonstrating disordered gambling behaviors.     

“I Found God in The Glory Hole”: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian

This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Christian church and a synthesis of research into LGBT Christian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emotionalizing early religious experience, (3) spiritualizing coming out of the closet and religion, and (4) sexualizing coming back to religious participation. In so doing, Gay Christian men interpreted the stages of their lives as an ongoing sexual–religious process wherein they became the spiritual and sexual beings they believed God always wanted them to be. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the moral career of a Gay Christian, (2) the usefulness of conceptualizing religious and sexual transitions as elements of a moral career, and (3) the reproduction of religious privilege.     

An Interactionist Approach to the Social Construction of Deities

This paper examines the ways people construct and signify deities. Utilizing responses from an ethnographic study as well as analyses of existing studies of religion, we elaborate ways people construct the existence and characteristics of deities by engaging in “deity work,” which we define as the work people do to give meaning to deities as well as to themselves, others, or social phenomena related to deities. In so doing, we demonstrate how people may accomplish this in many settings by engaging in strategies of identity work including (1) defining, (2) coding, and (3) affirming the meanings of a given deity in social interaction. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the importance of examining deity work, and (2) some ways a focus on deity work processes may expand existing religious and interactionist studies.     

Path independent choice and the ranking of opportunity sets

The indirect utility principle provides an instrumentalist basis for ranking opportunity sets, given an underlying preference ranking on alternatives. Opportunity set A is weakly preferred to B if A includes at least one preference-maximising element from $A\cup B$ . We introduce the Plott consistency principle as a natural extension of this logic to decision-makers who choose amongst alternatives according to a path independent choice function. Such choice functions need not be rationalisable by a preference order. Plott consistency requires that A is an acceptable choice from $\left\{ A, B\right\} $ if A includes at least one element from the set of acceptable choices from $A\cup B$ . We explore necessary and sufficient conditions (imposed on a choice function defined on collections of opportunity sets) for Plott consistency.     

“Why Would Our Heavenly Father Do that to Anyone”: Oppressive Othering through Sexual Classification Schemes in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐Day Saints

In this article, we examine how leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐Day Saints (LDS or LDS Church) responded to the emergence of homosexuality as a prominent social issue by engaging in “oppressive othering” (Schwalbe et al. 2000 ), which refers to the process whereby elites classify members of other groups as morally inferior. On the basis of LDS archival materials, we analyze how LDS elites accomplished “oppressive othering” by constructing sexual classification schemes defining homosexuality as the result of (1) familial, (2) gendered, and (3) sexual dysfunctions. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) how elites, religious, or otherwise, construct sexual classification schemes that facilitate the ongoing subordination of sexual minorities, (2) the importance of taking an intersectional approach to oppressive othering, and (3) the ways elites revise institutional doctrines in response to shifting societal issues and concerns.     

Factors Impacting Counselor Competency with Sexual Minority Intimate Partner Violence Victims

Grounded theory procedures were combined with a queer theory perspective to examine what factors promote counselor competency with sexual minority intimate partner violence victims. Ten counselors participated in two rounds of individual interviews. Results indicated that counselor competency building for work with this population occurred during and after graduate counseling programs. Analysis of the data identified specific desirable counselor traits, and useful training activities were identified to assist with developing counselor competency. The authors also discuss implications for clinical practice, counseling supervision, professional associations, service seminars, and counselor educators.     

Disordered gambling and co-morbidity of psychiatric disorders among college students: An examination of problem drinking,anxiety and depression

We assessed the occurrence of co-morbid psychiatric disorders (i.e., problem drinking, anxiety, and depression) among college students who met the threshold for disordered gambling. The participants included a large sample of undergraduate students (n = 1,430) who were enrolled in an introductory health course at a large, southeastern university in Spring 2011 and completed an online assessment that included scales to assess disordered gambling, problem drinking, anxiety, and depression. We calculated screening scores, computed prevalence rates for each disorder, and calculated Pearson correlations and Chi square tests to examine correlations and co-morbid relationships between the four disorders. Analyses indicated that all disorders were significantly associated (p < .01) except for disordered gambling and anxiety. Because college students who experience disordered gambling (and other psychiatric disorders) are at increased risk of experiencing co-occurring disorders, it might be useful for college health professionals to concurrently screen and intervene for co-occurring disorders.     

Planning and analysis of measurement reliability studies

In the traditional plan for assessing the reliability of a measurement system, a number of raters each measure the same group of subjects. If the system has a large number of raters, we recommend a new set of plans that has two advantages over the traditional plan. First, the proposed plans provide greater precision for estimating the intraclass correlation coefficient with the same total number of measurements. Second, the plans are flexible and can be adapted to constraints on the number of times any subject can be assessed or the number of times any rater can make an assessment. We provide a simple tool for planning a reliability study, access to the software for the planning in the case where there are constraints and an example to demonstrate the analysis of data from the proposed plans. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 39: 344–355; 2011 © 2011 Statistical Society of Canada