Gambling and Problem Gambling Among Recently Sentenced Women in New Zealand Prisons

Ninety-four recently sentenced women prisoners were interviewed to assess aspects of their gambling involvement, problem gambling and relationships between gambling and criminal offending. A third of the women, on the basis of their SOGS-R scores, were assessed as lifetime probable pathological gamblers and just under a quarter were assessed as probable pathological gamblers during the 6 months prior to imprisonment. For women prisoners, a preference for non-casino gaming machines and housie were predictive of problem gambling. Relative to non-problem gamblers, problem gamblers experienced higher rates of childhood conduct disorder and current non-psychotic mental disorder. Just over a quarter of prisoners and a half of the problem gamblers had committed a crime to obtain money to gamble. Few women said their early offending or convictions related to gambling. It was concluded that most women were “criminals first and problem gamblers second” rather than people whose offending careers commenced as a consequence of problem gambling. However, the extent of problem gambling-related offending among the women prisoners highlights the potential for comprehensive assessment and treatment programs in prison to reduce recidivism and other adverse impacts of problem gambling and gambling-related offending.     

Gamblers Anonymous and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies for Pathological Gamblers

Numerous types of treatments for pathological gambling have been described, but two of the most common are Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and cognitive-behavioral therapy. This paper describes some outcome data associated with the two approaches. It also reviews evidence suggesting that a combined intervention may enhance therapy engagement and reduce relapse rates.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on ‘‘Relations Between Gambling and Alcohol Use’‘

It has long been recognized that gambling is an activity that is often combined with alcohol intake. Not only do the behaviors of drinking and gambling frequently co-occur, alcohol use disorders and pathological gambling are also commonly co-morbid conditions in both clinical and non-clinical samples. This article introduces a special issue of the Journal of Gambling Studies focusing on cutting edge findings on the relations between gambling and alcohol use behaviors and their associated disorders. We set the stage for the following series of six novel empirical papers and integrative commentary by reviewing the theoretical pathways through which alcohol use and gambling disorders may be linked. We conclude by describing some of the novel contributions of each of the empirical studies from within the context of these theoretical models.     

Genetic Studies of Pathological Gambling: A Review of Methodology and Analyses of Data from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry

Twin studies represent an important and powerful approach to estimating the relative contributions of environmental and genetic factors to the expression of psychiatric illnesses. In this article, we first explain the rationale for using large populations of monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to a disorder and the statistical modeling associated with this approach. We then review results from studies of the Vietnam Era Twin Registry that use this methodology to examine the etiology of pathological gambling (PG) behaviors. The results provide strong evidence for genetic contributions to the development of PG in men and set the foundation for future studies aimed at identifying the manner in which specific genes and environmental factors individually and in conjunction contribute to PG.     

Farm Business-Owning Couples: Interrelationships among Business Tensions,Relationship Conflict Quality,and Spousal Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among business tensions, relationship conflict quality, and satisfaction with spouse for 206 farm business-owning couples. The Sustainable Family Business Model and the Family FIRO (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation) model guided the path analysis. For both husbands and wives, locus of control was negatively related to business tensions; decision involvement discrepancy was positively related to relationship conflict quality; and business tensions were negatively related to relationship conflict quality. For husbands, relationship conflict quality was positively related to satisfaction with spouse; for wives, business tensions were negatively related to satisfaction with business-owning spouse. This material is based on work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture under Agreement No. 95-37401-1820. Any opinion, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the US Department of Agriculture.     

Detection of biotic responses to urbanization using fish assemblages from small streams of western Georgia,USA

We examined relationships between stream fish assemblages and land use alteration associated with urbanization in 15 lower Piedmont watersheds along an urbanization gradient north of Columbus, western Georgia. Based on land cover data from 2002 Landsat 7 TM imagery aerial photos, streams drained watersheds that were largely urban, developing (suburban), agricultural (pasture), managed pine forest, and unmanaged mixed-forest. We quantified fish seasonally from 3 run-pool segments in each stream, and used a variety of metrics as response variables in analyses of relationships between fish assemblage structure and land use and natural basin variation. In general, Georgia-Index of Biotic Integrity (GA-IBI) values, Bray-Curtis faunal similarity of streams to mean conditions within reference streams, proportions of fish as lithophilic spawners, and fish lacking eroded fins, lesions, tumors decreased with increasing urbanization. Multiple regression indicated that assemblages were explained by a combination of land use and natural basin variables (basin size, average discharge, nearest distance to a larger downstream tributary [colonization source]), with land use variables being important predictors of summer assemblages and natural basin variables being more important in winter and spring assemblages. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordinations revealed strong separation between assemblages in urban watersheds and forested watersheds, whereas assemblages in agricultural and developing watersheds were intermediate between those in urban and forested watersheds. Our data suggest that fish are reliable indicators of anthropogenic disturbance at the landscape scale, at least seasonally, and may be used to forecast the magnitude of landscape-level changes in stream structure and function associated with the conversion of forests to urban/suburban land in the Southeast.     

American Young Adults’ Rural-to-Urban Migration and Timing of Exits from Poverty Spells

This study examined the timing of exit from poverty among rural young adults who migrated to urban areas in the United States, using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, with a focus on gender and marital status. Poverty spells that involved relocation to urban areas lasted longer than those that did not. Poverty exit rates upon relocation to urban areas declined each year the young adults remained in poverty, but the impact remaining in urban areas had on reduced poverty exit rates diminished when family characteristics, human capital, and labor market factors were controlled.This research was supported by the United States Department of Agricultural through the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station and also by the Jagdish N. Sheth Foundations Association for Consumer Research Public-Purpose Dissertation Award. An earlier version of this paper was prepared for a presentation at the Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2001, Washington DC. We thank Deborah Godwin and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and Karen Braxley for editorial assistance and insightful comments.     

Transportation Hardship: Are You Better off with a Car?

Growing evidence demonstrates the importance of transportation in improving family economic well being. This article sheds light on the hardship that one important transportation asset, private vehicles, may exert on families. Data from the Iowa Transportation and Employment Survey provided a unique opportunity to understand how vehicle access enables households to meet their basic needs, but may exacerbate their problems through the creation of additional demands on resources. Approximately 26% of the sample reported having experienced transportation hardship. The strongest predictors of transportation hardship were the presence of children in the household, low income, driving less reliable vehicles, and the unavailability of transportation assistance from someone outside the household. How to help families meet their transportation needs in light of this evidence remains open to debate.