Use of concurrent mixed methods combining concept mapping and focus groups to adapt a health equity tool in Canada

The aim of this project was to identify and prioritize a set of conditions to be considered for incorporating a health equity tool into public health practice. Concept mapping and focus groups were implemented as complementary methods to investigate the conditions of use of a health equity tool by public health organizations in Quebec. Using a hybrid integrated research design is a richer way to address the complexity of questions emerging from intervention and planning settings. This approach provides a deeper, operational, and contextualized understanding of research results involving different professional and organizational cultures, and thereby supports the decision-making process. Concept mapping served to identify and prioritize in a limited timeframe the conditions to be considered for incorporation into a health equity tool into public health practices. Focus groups then provided a more refined understanding of the barriers, issues, and facilitating factors surrounding the tools adoption, helped distinguish among participants’ perspectives based on functional roles and organizational contexts, and clarified some apparently contradictory results from the concept map. The combined use of these two techniques brought the strengths of each approach to bear, thereby overcoming some of the respective limitations of concept mapping and focus groups. This design is appropriate for investigating targets with multiple levels of complexity.     

The European delay in transition to parenthood: the Italian case

A delay in the transition to parenthood is common to all European countries, but Mediterranean and North European young people follow different pathways of transition to adulthood, which are described in the article. Since 2003, we have conducted four social inquiries in Italian urban contexts involving male and female young people with and without children and the article is therefore focused on Italy. The principal purpose of this research programme is to interpret the determinants of the Italian phenomenon of delaying the birth of the first child. The interpretative axes for conceptualizing the problem are intergender and intergenerational comparisons. In particular, the results of these inquiries indicate that in Italy the delay of the parenthood transition is linked to the policy-makers' ‘delay’ in realizing that the decision to postpone having children is not strongly linked to any ‘crisis of family values’. The real problem is that since the beginning of the twentieth century, the present younger generation is the first to suffer from a general decrease in social opportunities as compared with the previous one. The mechanism is illustrated by Bourdieu: the new generation's members continue to form their life expectations on the basis of their parents' situations without considering the changes in conditions (e.g. inflation of study titles) that restrict their access to social resources. According to our results, the delay in the assumption of the parental role is an unintentional effect of a set of intentional actions aimed at creating and consolidating life conditions supporting self-realization. ‘Delayers’ continually try to resist the distressing sensations of precariousness, instability, vulnerability and uncertainty recognized by influential sociologists as distinctive features of contemporary life. Consequently, the delay in the family-building process takes on an active connotation: the attempt is to fill the gap in life chances related to gender and generational memberships. The last part of the article is dedicated to a comparison of European countries' social policies in support of parenthood.     

Intergenerational-Multigenerational Relationships

Abstract

Multigenerational and intergenerational relations are used interchangeably by the United Nations in official documents. However, the terms are not universally considered synonymous. This article explores the origin of terminology usage and how these terms are used differentially in the literature on intergenerational relationships. It also places the discussion within a global framework by linking it to the United Nations Second World Assembly on Ageing and the International Plan of Action on Ageing Madrid 2002.     

Unfair to Me or Unfair to My Spouse: Men's and Women's Perceptions of Domestic Equity and How They Relate to Mental and Physical Health

Research examining the relationship between household labor and health has not sufficiently considered perceptions of domestic equity, physical health, or potential gender differences in these relationships. Using survey data from 1,234 lawyers, we examine how perceptions of domestic equity are related to mental and physical health and whether these relationships differ by gender. The results indicate that perceiving the division of household labor as unfair to oneself is related to poorer mental health, whereas perceiving the division as unfair to one's spouse is related to poorer physical health, regardless of gender. This article demonstrates the importance of treating perceptions of unfairness to oneself and one's spouse as distinct experiences, while also considering the wider context wherein these relationships exist.     

Grandmothers', Mothers' and Granddaughters' Perceptions of Grandparenthood

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to assess the meaning of grandparenthood in grandparent-parent-grandchild triads, and to examine its congruence between generations.

Three types of relations were found: (1) the congruent-strongly connected relationship, characterized by a reciprocal and nurturing relation; (2) the congruentnon-connected relationship, characterized by an agreement among all members regarding the problematic and dissociated relations; (3) the non-congruent relationship, characterized by a lack of agreement regarding the nature of the relation.     

Gender, Race, and Perception of Environmental Health Risks

This paper reports the results of a national survey in which perceptions of environmental health risks were measured for 1275 white and 214 nonwhite persons. The results showed that white women perceived risks to be much higher than did white men, a result that is consistent with previous studies. However, this gender difference was not true of nonwhite women and men, whose perceptions of risk were quite similar. Most striking was the finding that white males tended to differ from everyone else in their attitudes and perceptions–on average, they perceived risks as much smaller and much more acceptable than did other people. These results suggest that sociopolitical factors such as power, status, alienation, and trust are strong determiners of people's perception and acceptance of risks.     

Intergenerational and International Discounting

A discount rate for the consumption of future generations is typically composed of two parts. One is a "pure" time preference for immediate over postponed consumption, the other a declining marginal utility as consumption increases. The costs of greenhouse abatement, however, for at least the first 50 years, will be borne by the developed countries; the benefits will accrue to the presently undeveloped. Pure time preference always relates to one's own consumption; it has no relevance here. Consumption transfers over time will be from richer to poorer, from lower to higher marginal utility. It is a foreign aid program and it ought to have to compete with more direct foreign aid, which can benefit the very poor rather than their much-better-off descendants.     

Families and Inheritance Decisions: Examining Non-Titled Property Transfers

This study examines the transfer of personal possessions, which is a dimension of inheritance decision making from which few families are exempt but which largely has been ignored by researchers and educators. The qualitative analysis of a purposeful sample of individual family members who had experienced a transfer of non-titled personal possessions suggested the influence of six key themes. These included: (a) a sensitivity of the issue, (b) lack of goal discussion, (c) different perceptions of fairness, (d) different meanings of objects, (e) lack of awareness of distribution options and consequences, and (f) potential for conflict. The themes identified reinforced that inheritance is not simply an economic or legal issue but one with complex emotional and family relationship dimensions. The findings provide the foundation for further research agendas and for developing educational resources to help family members communicate about and make more informed decisions regarding the transfer of non-titled property.     

矿产资源代际配置的若干问题研究

本文阐述了矿产资源代际公平配置理念 ,探讨了公正储蓄率与真正储蓄内涵、提出了真正储蓄为非负的两个必要条件 ,分析研究了贴现率与矿产资源可持续利用的关系及调节资源利用贴现率的途径。