Classification of Gamblers According to the NODS and a Clinical Interview1

Since the social and personal implications of excessive gambling are important, it becomes necessary to assess the extent of the problem within the population. Accordingly, the use of an instrument that evaluates gamblers accurately is essential. This study, carried out with 200 adults, investigates the potential differences in classification of gamblers when using the NORC DSM-IV Screen for gambling problems (NODS) versus a clinical interview. The results show that 50 of the 200 participants were not categorised in the same way with the NODS as with the clinical interview; 47 participants were identified as having a more severe gambling problem according to the NODS than with the clinical interview, providing a 23.5% difference in the concordance rate. This result is discussed in terms of measurement problems in assessing gambling behaviours.     

The Impact of 9/11 on the Noncitizen Welfare Caseload: A Time-Series Analysis

ABSTRACT

The tragedy of 9/11 had more far-reaching social and economic consequences for the nation than those found for many individuals on that day. Between October 2001 and May 2002, Nevada witnessed a 25% increase in the total number of households on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, commonly referred to as welfare. During the same time, households headed by a noncitizen increased their participation in the TANF program by 40%. This study examines the differential impact of 9/11, as well as of the economy and other external developments, on noncitizen and citizen welfare caseloads in a single state. Two monthly time series models are specified that explain and compare trends in the noncitizen and citizen welfare caseloads from April 1998 to June 2002. The findings suggest that, all else constant, 9/11 had a differential impact on the noncitizen and the citizen caseloads. All else constant, 9/11 events increased the noncitizen welfare caseload whereas a similar impact for the citizen caseload was not found. The findings also strongly suggest that the business cycle shapes noncitizens' participation in public assistance programs more closely than citizens' participation. Future research should investigate the extent to which 9/11 affected the behaviors of families on welfare over the long run.     

Effectively Maintaining Inequality in Toronto: Predicting Student Destinations in Ontario Universities

L'accès aux universités prestigieuses, les mieux classées et dotées de ressources, quoique peu étudié, représente une dimension additionnelle des inégalités en éducation au Canada. La théorie de l'inégalité maintenue efficacement (IME) soutient que les groupes favorisés vont dominer l'accès aux institutions les mieux classées peu importe le palier scolaire. Cet article teste cette hypothèse en utilisant les données uniques de milliers d’élèves du Conseil Scolaire Public de Toronto (TDSB) qui ont été suivis à partir de la neuvième année jusqu’à leur entrée dans un établissement postsecondaire. Ces données ont ensuite été associées aux données de classement des universités, de leur revenu, de leurs dépenses et de leurs fonds de dotation. Une série de modèles statistiques à niveaux multiples indique que l'entrée dans la hiérarchie universitaire ontarienne tend à refléter les inégalités dans l'accès général aux universités. Les femmes, les étudiants d'origine asiatique, et les étudiants issus des quartiers ayant des statuts socio‐économiques élevés sont plus susceptibles d'entrer dans les universités les mieux classées et dotées de ressources; tandis que les étudiants qui s'identifient comme Noirs et hommes, sont moins susceptibles d'entrer dans ces institutions. Les avantages du statut socio‐économique élevé et de l'origine asiatique sont seulement partiellement expliqués par les variables académiques comme variables médiatrices. Ceci suggère que le statut culturel joue un rôle dans l’élaboration du choix universitaire, alors que le sexe ainsi que les autres inégalités raciales sont dus en grande partie aux processus du parcours académique. Access to highly ranked, prestigious, and well‐resourced universities represents an additional yet understudied dimension of educational inequality in Canada. The theory of effectively maintained inequality contends that advantaged groups will dominate access to the best‐positioned institutions within any credential tier. This paper tests this hypothesis using unique data on thousands of Toronto District School Board students that were tracked from Grade 9 to their entry in Ontario postsecondary institutions, and then linked to data on university rankings, incomes, expenditures, and endowments. A series of multilevel models shows that entry into Ontario's university hierarchy tends to mirror inequalities in general access to universities. Female, Asian‐origin, and students from higher socioeconomic neighborhoods are more likely to enter higher ranked and better resourced institutions, while students who self‐identify as black and male are less likely to enter such institutions. High socioeconomic status and Asian‐origin advantages are mediated only partly by academic variables, suggesting that status cultures play a role in shaping their university choices, while gender and other racial inequalities emerge largely through academic processes.     

Electroencephalographic Evidence of Abnormal Anticipatory Uncertainty Processing in Gambling Disorder Patients

Putting money at stake produces anticipatory uncertainty, a process that has been linked to key features of gambling. Here we examined how learning and individual differences modulate the stimulus preceding negativity (SPN, an electroencephalographic signature of perceived uncertainty of valued outcomes) in gambling disorder patients (GDPs) and healthy controls (HCs), during a non-gambling contingency learning task. Twenty-four GDPs and 26 HCs performed a causal learning task under conditions of high and medium uncertainty (HU, MU; null and positive cue-outcome contingency, respectively). Participants were asked to predict the outcome trial-by-trial, and to regularly judge the strength of the cue-outcome contingency. A pre-outcome SPN was extracted from simultaneous electroencephalographic recordings for each participant, uncertainty level, and task block. The two groups similarly learnt to predict the occurrence of the outcome in the presence/absence of the cue. In HCs, SPN amplitude decreased as the outcome became predictable in the MU condition, a decrement that was absent in the HU condition, where the outcome remained unpredictable during the task. Most importantly, GDPs’ SPN remained high and insensitive to task type and block. In GDPs, the SPN amplitude was linked to gambling preferences. When both groups were considered together, SPN amplitude was also related to impulsivity. GDPs thus showed an abnormal electrophysiological response to outcome uncertainty, not attributable to faulty contingency learning. Differences with controls were larger in frequent players of passive games, and smaller in players of more active games. Potential psychological mechanisms underlying this set of effects are discussed.     

The “Feminization” of British Television and the Re-Traditionalization of Gender

This article explores shifts that have taken place in British television and British forms of feminine-gendered fiction from the late 1990s. These shifts will be discussed with reference to discourses of the “feminization of television” circulating in British culture during this period. This article contests the suggestion that discourses of the “feminization of television” and texts such as the female ensemble drama produced in this postfeminist period represent unproblematic “narratives of progress” for women (Georgina Harris 2006, Beyond Representation: Television Drama and the Politics of Identity, Manchester University Press, Manchester, p. 1). Rather, this article will suggest that accounts of the “feminization of television” found in the popular press along with contemporary examples of the female ensemble drama re-traditionalize women in relation to the spaces and discourses associated with twentieth-century femininity.     

Hong Kong Parents’ Perceptions and Experiences of Involvement in Homework: A Family Capital and Resource Management Perspective

This qualitative study examines Hong Kong Chinese parents’ perceptions and experiences of involving in their primary school children’s homework process. It draws upon the theoretical frameworks of family capital theory and family resource management perspective to explicate the role of parents in enhancing children’s homework outcomes. Information was collected through individual and focus-group interviews with 52 parents who had at least one child attending primary school. Findings of this study provide a glimpse into the range of homework-involvement strategies used by Chinese parents, and reveal parental goals and cultural values embedded in the generation of family capital. Such understanding on parental involvement is helpful for schools and policy-makers in cultivating parents’ participation in home-based learning processes for children.     

A family ecological analysis of child care use in Hong Kong

This study examines the views on and use of day care for young children among white‐collar working women from a family ecological perspective. Discrepancies between perceived ideal and actual choice of child care were observed. Care provided by family kin was an ideal used with reservation, the employment of foreign domestic helpers was a reluctant choice, while the use of formal care was largely unexplored. The findings of this study demonstrate how individual families' child‐rearing goals are supported and constrained by contextual factors within the ecology. Implications for policies on child care in Hong Kong are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Looking for Their Dick Vermeil: How Prior Performance Influences the Selection Decision

When replacing an executive, an organization is faced with the choice of either promoting someone internally or hiring an outsider. Prior research in the private sector supports the contention that poor performing organizations will be adaptive and seek an outsider in hopes of initiating change that will improve performance. Do public organizations behave similarly? We address this question in the context of public education and examine the superintendent hiring decisions in 491 school districts. We find that school boards make sophisticated assessments of the district’s performance and these assessments influence their selection decisions.     

Commitment to Work Among Welfare‐Reliant Women

The purpose of this article is to describe the work of welfare‐reliant women and to reveal commitment to work in the experiences of 84 welfare‐reliant, rural women interviewed for this study. Understanding the domains where welfare‐reliant women exhibit commitment to work may help policy makers, trainers, and employers design and implement interventions that enhance chances of success for these women in the formal, paid workforce. Discussion focuses on the women's formal labor force participation in the past and desire for wage work in the future; barriers to labor force participation, both personal and in the rural job market; informal work and the work of care; support networks; survival strategies for making ends meet while receiving welfare; and the stigma of welfare receipt.     

Coping with parental loss because of termination of parental rights

This article addresses the process by which children and adolescents cope with severe acute stress of parental loss from causes other than divorce or death. Participants were 60 children and adolescents from a residential treatment facility. Most had experienced neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, and their parents had their parential rights terminated. Measures of symptomatology indicated that children reported low levels of depressive symptoms, whereas caregivers reported the children were experiencing significant psychological problems. Children used avoidant coping strategies more often than emotion-focused coping strategies, which, in turn, were used more than problem-focused coping strategies. Results are discussed in terms of helping children cope with parental loss.