Remarried Couples in Premarital Education: Does the Content Match Participant Needs?

Although premarital education has been found to reduce risk factors of divorce, the use of premarital education has primarily been examined in first marriages, or in groups combining both first and later marriages. In this qualitative study, 8 remarried couples’ perceptions of the premarital education they received were explored. The coexisting core categories of the desire to create a loving relationship yet fear of repeated marital failure emerged. The results implied that remarried couples carried an additional fear of marital dissolution, which in conjunction with the complex tasks associated with stepfamily formation, promoted attachment insecurities. Clinical applications are included.     

Analysing the Gendered Insecurities of Migration

This article examines the experiences of female migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa aiming to reach Europe via Morocco. The article argues that European immigration policies and policies of co-operation with neighbouring countries on the other side of the Mediterranean, have increased the sources of insecurity for migrants attempting to reach Europe, and shows how these insecurities are gendered.     

Colonial legacies,post-colonial (in)securities,and gender(ed) representations in South Asia's nuclear policies

Through a comparative study of India and Pakistan's national security discourses, this article explores the linkages between post-colonial India and Pakistan's nationalist/communalist identities, configurations of masculinities, and gendered representations underpinning their nuclear (in)securities. This paper contends that the colonial politics of place-making in the sub-continent has not only inscribed a process of ‘othering’ between these states but has also facilitated the rise of divergent visions of post-colonial nationalisms, which, at each of their phases and with particular configurations of masculinities, have used women's bodies to re-map India-Pakistan's borders and national (in)securities. This article particularly draws attention to a new form of gendered manipulation in South Asian politics in the late 1990s, whereby both states, embedded in colonial notions of religious/cultural masculinities, have relied on discourses of Hindu/Indian and Muslim/Pakistani women's violence and protection from the ‘other’ to pursue aggressive policies of nuclearization. It is at this conjectural moment of a Hinduicized and Islamicized nationalism (flamed by the contestations of a Hindu versus an Islamic masculinity) that one needs to provide a feminist re-interpretation of India-Pakistan's nationalist identities, gendered imaginaries, and their re-articulation of national (in)securities – that represents a religious/gendered ‘otherness’ in South Asia's nuclear policies.     

Identifying Factors that Influence State-specific Hunger Rates in the U.S.: A Simple Analytic Method for Understanding a Persistent Problem

An existing measure of food insecurity with hunger in the United States may serve as an effective indicator of quality of life. State level differences in that measure can reveal important differences in quality of life across places. In this study, we advocate and demonstrate two simple methods by which analysts can explore state-specific contributions to state-specific hunger rates. Using existing survey data and the U.S. Department of Agriculture measure of household food insecurity with hunger, we illustrate how comparing group-specific hunger rates within states and how the demographic method of standardization can both be used to assess how a state’s population and local characteristics influence hunger rates and other quality of life indicators associated with hunger.     

不安、厌世与自我退隐:南来文人的香港书写——从1950年代出发

1950年代前后,为数众多的文人开始启程离开大陆南向香港,架构了史上另一波的流动轴线。这一波南来文人力匡、贝娜苔、赵滋蕃、易文、徐訏等建构故乡─香港─异国─香港移动踪迹与书写墨痕,透过文人们生就具有的创作冲动交出可观的在地书写。这些作品字里行间所流露的不安、厌倦、自我退缩现象,在在指向了西美尔(Georg Simmel)"麻木"厌倦的心理保护机制论点,这为我们提供了重新思考南来文人重生或再生、归去或归来的刻画过程。在处境上这些南来文人并非一般认知的强者主体,反而是孤独、无助者。以此为视角,证成他们如何以书写呈现较少被视见的自保机制成为外显传媒的中介,进而铭刻异变时空下文人独特的心事与命运。     

Severe and Moderate Forms of Food Insecurity in Australia: Are They Distinguishable?

Food insecurity, the inability to access an adequate food supply, is often considered an issue confronting developing countries only. Yet, conservative estimates show that about 5 per cent of the Australian population are food insecure at any point in time. This paper uses newly released data from the 2004/05 ABS National Health Survey to examine the prevalence and correlates of the severity of food insecurity, and to uncover potential health and nutrition outcomes. Consistent with previous studies, results show that just over 5 per cent of Australians are food insecure due to financial constraints. Of this figure, about 40 per cent are considered to be ‘severely’ food insecure. That is, the person ran out of money to purchase food, and as a result went without food. A range of economic and socio‐demographic factors were found to be associated with food insecurity, indicating differential access to food supply throughout the Australian population. Results also show significant differences in the self‐reported measures of health, wellbeing and dietary behaviours of the severely insecure, moderatel insecure and food secure Australians.     

Comparing three alternative types of employment with permanent full-time work: How do employment contract and perceived job conditions relate to health complaints?

Previous research has found that alternative employment arrangements are associated with both impaired and improved well-being. Since such inconsistencies are likely to derive from the type of employment contract as well as the characteristics of the job, this paper compares permanent full-time work with forms of alternative employment (permanent part-time, fixed-term and on-call work) in order to investigate how different employment contracts and perceptions of job conditions relate to individual well-being. This study contributes to the literature by addressing several questions. Different forms of alternative employment are distinguished and individual background characteristics that might be intertwined with the employment contract are controlled for. Moreover, the scope of this study extends to the effects of perceived job conditions, and possible interactive effects with type of employment are tested. Analyses of questionnaire data from 954 Swedish healthcare workers show that perceptions of the job (job insecurity, job control and demands), but not the type of employment contract, predicted health complaints. However, type of employment interacted with perceptions of job insecurity, in that insecurity was associated with impaired well-being among permanent full-time workers, while no relationship was found for on-call or core part-time employees. Despite the absence of interactions between employment contract and job demands or job control, it can be concluded that knowledge about the relationship between alternative employment arrangements and the well-being of workers can be enhanced when the combined effects of employment contract and job conditions are studied.     

African school of thought: The missing ideology in finding a solution to sub‐Saharan African insecurity

Post‐colonial sub‐Saharan Africa continually experiences a collapse of consensual democracy as an ideology and system of governance. Poverty, greed and corruption have bred political instability, conflicts and dependence on exporting primary products. For post‐colonial Africa to feel truly independent, its adoption of consensual democracy needs to be sincere. Ideological theories, the epistemological origins of development programmes, and the philosophy of choice cherished in consensual democracy have been overlooked in current African political cultures, which habitually disregard grassroots voices. Using the Department for International Development's Research Strategy (2008–2013), the article explores how ideological functions transcend the political cultures, underdevelopment and insecurities of sub‐Saharan Africa. It is hoped that the possibility of sustainable development may be enhanced by the inclusion of an African school of thought.     

Families Across the Income Spectrum: A Decade in Review

During the past decade, scholars continued to focus on how larger economic trends impacted families across the income spectrum. From income and wealth inequality to economic insecurity, the gaps between the haves and the have nots remained, and some widened during this period. The authors' comprehensive review found the following three major takeaways: first, the biggest economic divides run through families with children; second, low-income families face concentrated disadvantage marked by insecurity and precarity; and third, inequality and insecurity shaped the “dynamism” of family life, including how families respond culturally and emotionally to economic changes, and how these responses unfold over time. They examine active areas of research, including parenting trends and the transition to adulthood. They also document a new scholarly emphasis on uncertainty and instability along with the forces that exacerbate or mitigate them, such as job quality, economic volatility, wealth, and incarceration. Research during the past decade focused on the experience and consequences of dynamism, reflecting not only the reality that families evolve but also that they face continual change in their economic, social, and political contexts. The authors highlight research investigating how families “do dynamism,” work that looks over time or offers in-depth examinations of how families adapt to and cope with dynamism every day. This research reveals that inequality and insecurity are not only matters of levels and gaps but also ongoing matters of meaning-making, identity, and feeling. The authors conclude by highlighting some strengths and weaknesses of these research streams and pointing out new avenues for future scholarship.     

Ontological Insecurity,Racial Tension,and Confidence in the Police in the Shadow of Urban Unrest

According to the theory of “ontological insecurity,” people who worry that society is in a state of decline or upheaval will also support punitive social control of deviants. I test the relationship between several measures of people's anxiety about the state of society, their perception of racial tension, and their confidence in the police (as enforcers of social control) during the period of social unrest following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. I use ordinary least squares regression to analyze data from a nationally representative public opinion poll gathered for the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press during August, 2014. I find that pessimism about the state of the economy, pessimism about race relations, and the experience of personal hardship are related to decreased confidence in the police, while pessimism about the state of morals in society is related to increased confidence. I conclude that public confidence in the police is intertwined with public confidence in the stability of the country, more generally. This study supports a “neo‐Durkheimian” model of policing. The opposite findings of economic versus moral insecurity also call for refinement of the ontological insecurity theory.