Forms of gambling,gambling involvement and problem gambling: evidence from a Swedish population survey

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between problem gambling (PG) and participation in different forms of gambling in order to elucidate relationships between PG, gambling involvement and gambling intensity. Using data from the first wave of the Swedish Longitudinal Gambling Study (Swelogs) (n = 4,991), the study tested four hypotheses, namely that (1) some forms of gambling are more closely associated with PG than other forms; (2) high gambling involvement is associated with PG; (3) gambling involvement is positively associated with the intensity of gambling; and (4) the relationship between gambling involvement and PG is influenced by the specific forms of gambling in which individuals participate. All four hypotheses were supported. More specifically, the study found that while many PGs regularly participate in multiple forms of gambling, half of PGs participate regularly in only one or two forms of gambling. The study concluded that some forms of gambling are more closely associated with problem gambling than other forms, and that gambling policy and regulation, as well as the development of responsible gambling initiatives, should focus on these forms.     

Dual-earner families in Finland: Differences between and within families in relation to work and family experiences

The aims of the study were to create a typology of dual-earner families, based on mothers' and fathers' reports on vocational education, job involvement, and job exhaustion, and to investigate differences between the groups in family functioning, and work-family interface experiences. The study was carried out by means of questionnaires among 133 dual-earner couples with children under 18 years of age living at home. In creating the typology cluster analysis was used as a statistical procedure. In the analysis five groups emerged that were distinguished by both between-group and within-parent differences in the clustering variables: (1) low-status dual-earner families, (2) low-job-exhausted and low-job-involved dual-earner families, (3) dual-earner families with high-status and highly job-exhausted mothers, (4) dual-earner families with highly job-exhausted fathers, and (5) dual-earner families with high-status and highly job-involved fathers. Group membership was related to the characteristics of family life, and to the evaluations of work-family interaction as well as other job characteristics, thus indicating ecological validity for the family typology created. It seemed that a high level of job exhaustion, in particular, was linked to problems in family functioning. Les objectifs poursuivis dans l'analyse qui suit ont été de créer une typologie des familles à double revenu, typologie basée sur les rapports des mères et des pères concernant la formation professionnelle, l'importance accordée au métier et le degré d'épuisement causé par ce dernier, et d'enquêter sur les différences entre les groupes dans les expériences vécues du fonctionnement familial et de l'interaction emploi-famille. L'étude a été menée à l'aide de questionnaires distribués à 133 couples appartenant à cette classe de double revenu et dont les enfants de moins de 18 ans vivaient àla maison. Pour rassembler la typologie, une analyse agglomérée a été employée en tant que procédure de statistique. Au cours de cette analyse, les cinq groupes qui ont émergé se distinguaient par des différences qui touchaient à la fois les domaines inter-groupes et interparentaux selon ces variables d'agglomération: (1) les familles à double revenu à bas statut, (2) les familles àdouble revenu dans des emplois peu épuisants et peu motivants, (3) les familles à double revenu au statut élevé avec des mères épuisées par un emploi de niveau élevé, (4) les familles à double revenu avec des pères épuisés par un emploi de niveau élevé, et (5) les familles à double revenu au statut élevé avec des pères motivés par un emploi de niveau élevé. L'appartenance aux groupes était en rapport avec les caracteéristiques de la vie familiale et avec les évaluations concernant l'interaction emploi-famille ainsi que diverses caractéristiques de l'emploi, afin d'indiquer la validité écologique pour la typologie familiale créée. Il semblait ainsi qu'un important niveau d'épuisement au travail en particulier soit liéaux problèmes du fonctionnement familial.     

Unemployment and mental health among white‐collar workers – a question of work involvement and financial situation?

We examine whether it is a psychosocial or an economic need for employment that affects mental health among the unemployed. The relevance of both aspects are examined, concentrating on two measures of each dimension. Two perspectives of work involvement – the degree of connection to working life and the perceived employment commitment – and two perspectives on financial situation – economic security and perceived economic concern – have been analysed, using empirical data collected by means of a cross-sectional survey of 1297 unemployed white-collar workers from the public sector in Sweden. The degree of connection to working life was not significantly linked to the mental health of the unemployed, although there was a strong link between the perceived employment commitment and mental health among this group. The stronger the perceived employment commitment, the poorer the state of the person's mental health. Perceived economic concern was also tightly linked to mental health: the greater the economic concern, the poorer the mental health. Economic security also played – at least, partly – a moderate but significant role. The results provide strong support for the existence of both a psychosocial need and an economic need for employment. The analysis demonstrates that it is the perceived assessed measures of work involvement and financial situation that are linked to mental health.     

Local Understanding of Fish Consumption Advisory Risks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula: The Role of Structure,Culture, and Agency*

Abstract Fish consumption advisories fail to adequately help communities address the benefits and risks of eating potentially contaminated fish. We engaged community members and relevant institutions in identifying and implementing more effective risk communication in Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula. In 2004–2005, we collected data in four Michigan counties through focus groups, community dinners, public meetings and angler interviews. Residents express a strong affinity toward eating Great Lakes fish, though a minority of participants have read the official fish advisory. Participants lack an understanding of how bioaccumulation affects consumption risk depending on the type of contaminant. We attribute the situation to conditions of post‐normal risk that emerge through interaction of the structural dimensions of science and bureaucracy with a strong natural resource‐based culture that affects the agency of residents. The implications loom large as Michigan's Department of Community Health no longer distributes hard copies of the Michigan Fish Advisory.     

Accounts of professional and institutional tension in the context of Swedish elderly care

This article describes need assessment dialogues, the circumstances surrounding care, and the provision of residential care and in-home support for the elderly in Sweden, as seen from a communicative perspective. The purpose was to systematically describe and analyse the accounts of welfare officers concerning elderly care. The research questions were: How is the internal care context perceived and constituted through discourse? How do welfare officers manage the daily demands, expectations, tasks, and dilemmas in the encounter with the individual citizen? What significance do the welfare officers give their work and their professional tasks?Eleven interviews with welfare officers from elderly and handicapped care organisation of three municipalities were held, and a discursive analysis was made from the collected data. Four characteristic discursive phenomena in the welfare officers' accounts were observed: (I) the rights of the elderly, (II) living at home, (III) good relations, and (IV) the complaisance. The study shows that the dialogues with elderly contain communicative dilemmas and mixed loyalties. The welfare officers navigate between different perspectives and double approaches. She/he uses the navigating as a strategy and proficiency in their work. However, these proficiencies remain largely unnoticed and unreflected as techniques, strategies, or tools for attaining favourable care.     

The impact of childhood sexual abuse and intimate partner violence on sexually transmitted infections

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adult intimate partner violence (IPV) have both been found to be associated with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) independently, but studies of STIs have rarely looked at victimization during both childhood and adulthood. This paper examines the relationship between CSA, IPV and STIs using data from a nested case-control study of 309 women recruited from multiple health care settings. Overall, 37.3% of women experienced no violence, 10.3% experienced CSA only, 27.3% experienced IPV only, and 25.0% experienced both CSA and IPV. Having ever been diagnosed with an STI was associated with violence (CSA only, odds ratios [OR] = 2.8, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.0-7.5; IPV only, OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.0-4.9; CSA and IPV: OR = 4.0, 95% CI = 1.7-9.4), controlling for demographic characteristics. Women who experienced CSA were younger when they were first diagnosed. Understanding how both childhood and adult victimization are associated with diagnosis of STIs is important to reducing the incidence and prevalence of STIs, as well as the associated consequences of STIs.     

Ending aging in the Shteyngart of Eden: Biogerontological discourse in a Super Sad True Love Story

This article broaches the topic of biogerontology as presented in Gary Shteyngart's dystopic novel Super Sad True Love Story (2010) from the perspective of cultural and literary gerontology and examines how the novel manages to challenge predominant discourses in the field of scientific anti-aging studies, especially the notion that old age is a disease that can be cured. It compares the novel's presentation of biogerontological knowledge to current developments in the field, using Cambridge biogerontologist and immortality prophet Aubrey de Grey's book Ending Aging (2007) as an example. Based on the assumption that cultural criticism can and should impact scientific and medical research on aging, this paper asks whether (the analysis of) fictional texts can be seen as a cultural critical intervention into the ageism so often openly displayed in scientific discourses.     

Motherhood status and union formation in Moshi,Tanzania 2002–2003

Age at first union is increasing throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa at the same time that not all couples are waiting for marriage before their first sexual intercourse. We assessed the effect of a premarital first birth on entrance into a first union in an urban area in East Africa—Moshi, Tanzania. The data come from the Moshi Infertility Survey of 2002–2003. Women who spent less than a year in single motherhood were significantly more likely than childless women to enter into a first union, although the magnitude of this relationship was weaker for more recent cohorts. Women who had been single mothers for 5 or more years (about two-thirds of women with a premarital birth) were significantly less likely than women without children to enter into a first union.     

Does female circumcision affect infertility and fertility? A study of the central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Tanzania

This study explores the association between female circumcision and infertility and fertility, using information from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). In Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania, circumcised women had lower childlessness, lower infertility by age, and higher total fertility rates than women who were not circumcised; the reverse pattern prevailed in the Central African Republic. In all three countries, however, circumcised women grouped by age at circumcision did not have significantly different odds of infertility nor of having a child than did uncircumcised women, when the effects of covariates were controlled. Thus we find evidence suggesting that the practice of female circumcision does not have a statistically discernible effect on women’s ability to reproduce.