Professional Help-Seeking for Gambling Problems: Awareness,Barriers and Motivators for Treatment

Despite the negative consequences associated with gambling, few problem gamblers seek professional help. This study aimed to examine awareness of professional sources of help and help-seeking behaviour amongst regular and problem gamblers. Australian gamblers (N = 730) were recruited from the general population, multicultural gambling venues, and gambling helplines and treatment services. Surveys measured awareness of professional help services, help-seeking behaviour and motivators and barriers to seeking help. Gamblers demonstrated low awareness of professional help services. Problem gamblers born in Australia or who were divorced were more likely to seek help. Problem gamblers who were reluctant to seek help due to a desire solve the problem on their own and feeling ashamed for themselves or their family pride were more likely to have overcome these barriers to seek help. However, significant barriers related to denial of problem severity and concerns about the ability to access low cost services that cater for multicultural populations predicted a lower likelihood of having sought help. Public education should aim to de-mystify the treatment process and educate gamblers about symptoms of problem gambling to reduce shame, stigma, and denial and encourage help-seeking. Ongoing education and promotion of help services is required to increase awareness of the resources available, including targeted promotions to increase awareness of relevant services among specific populations.     

It's All About Power: Integrating Feminist Family Studies and Family Communication

Feminist family studies bring a framework of power and intersectional analysis to unpack the issue of gender in families. Moving beyond the concept of gender as either benign or simply one of difference between men and women, a feminist perspective offers a way of conceptualizing the multiple contexts in which families are situated and where conflict and care inevitably comingle. A feminist lens has challenged family scholars to investigate and understand individuals, relationships, family structures, communities, and society in more complex and contested ways. We argue that feminist family studies offers insights for the discipline of family communication in order to contextualize the ways in which family dynamics are theorized and studied.     

Electronic Psychosocial Assessment Tool: Concept Development and Identification of Barriers to Successful Implementation

Information Communication Technologies (ICT) have resulted in positive outcomes in a range of clinical studies, however, most have not had widespread subsequent uptake, partly because they were not developed with all stakeholder requirements in mind. In the current study, we engaged stakeholders in the concept development stage of a project to transform a psychosocial assessment into an ICT-enabled format. By engaging the stakeholders in this early process we were able to identify a range of software functionalities that are likely to improve the applicability for users, as well as identify possible barriers to implementation.     

Clients' relational conceptions of conjoint couple and family therapy quality: a grounded formal theory

Based upon a qualitative metasynthesis of 49 articles centered on clients' experiences of their conjoint couple and family therapy, the investigators constructed a grounded formal theory of Clients' Relational Conceptions of Conjoint Couple and Family Therapy Quality. The theory suggests from pretherapy conceptions to posttherapy reflections, clients' perceptions of conjoint couple and family therapy quality appear to consist of clients' constructed meanings regarding a series of interrelated relationships between clients and their therapists and therapy environments, between clients and themselves, between clients and other family members, and between process and outcome both inside and outside therapy. Within and across these relationships, clients appear to focus on expectations, connections, balance, and change when evaluating the quality of their clinical experiences. Based upon this theory, the investigators recommend that researchers continue to explore this clinical phenomenon and that therapists regularly seek clients' conceptions of quality in therapy.     

Parental Modeling and Deidentification in Romantic Relationships Among Mexican‐Origin Youth

This study investigated youth's modeling of and deidentification from parents in romantic relationships using two phases of data from adolescent siblings, mothers, and fathers in 246 Mexican‐origin families. Each parent reported his and her marital satisfaction and conflict, and youth reported on parent–adolescent warmth and conflict at Time 1. Youth's reports of modeling of and deidentification from their mothers and fathers and three romantic relationship outcomes were assessed at Time 2. Findings revealed that higher parental marital satisfaction, lower marital conflict, and higher warmth and lower conflict in parent–adolescent relationships were associated with more modeling and less deidentification from parents. Moreover, higher deidentification was linked to a greater likelihood of youth being involved in a romantic relationship and cohabitation, whereas more modeling was linked to a lower likelihood of cohabitation and older age of first sex. Discussion underscores the importance of assessing parental modeling and deidentification and understanding correlates of these processes.     

Gender differences in gambling preferences and problem gambling: a network-level analysis

Most gambling studies have a gender-blind research approach, although a large body of scientific evidence suggests that gambling in females is on the rise and that males and females have different gambling behaviours and experience specific gambling-related harm. This study addressed these gender differences using a network analysis, an innovative approach considering disorders/concepts as dynamic systems of interacting symptoms/items. Data on gambling activities, problem gambling, substance use and mental health were collected in a representative sample of French adult gamblers (n = 8805). The study capitalized on the network analysis directly to compare associations of specific gambling activities with gambling disorder symptoms separately for both genders. The network analysis revealed that problem gambling was strongly associated with gambling machines among females, whereas it was related to sports betting, poker and casino games among males. The networks that included substance use and mental health showed that substance use was related to specific gambling activities. These findings confirm the links between various gender-specific gambling patterns and problem gambling and suggest a need to consider these gender differences to improve prevention efforts. More broadly, the present study further supports the importance of gender differences for gambling research and policy.     

Identifying Off-Diagonal Communities Using the Australian Early Development Census Results

An individual’s, and indeed the nation’s, social and economic futures are highly dependent on early childhood development (ECD) outcomes, with poor ECD inhibiting future opportunities. Ecological ECD literature describes family, community and institutions as being key factors in children’s wellbeing, with suggestions that community factors may ameliorate impacts of poor ECD. It is therefore important to develop a greater understanding of those modifiable factors that positively, and negatively, affect ECD outcomes so as ECD policy and practice can be designed and implemented effectively. One approach to this analysis is through the identification and analysis of influencing factors identified within off-diagonal communities—that is those communities where children have either developed well in consideration of their high-levels of socio-economic disadvantage, or developed poorly in consideration of their low levels of socio-economic disadvantage. In this paper we describe a new method for the identification of off-diagonal communities. The method provides a clear and transparent approach to community selection, including a range of methods to further interrogate the community selection ensuring a rigorous and considered selection process. This new method, based on population Census and Australian Early Development Census data, provides the first step in identifying community factors likely to facilitate childhood wellbeing. These findings could inform policy making to reduce inequities by assisting in policy and service delivery design targeted to community needs.