Gambling-related problems across life domains: an exploratory study of non-treatment-seeking weekly gamblers

This study uses content analysis to provide a qualitative exploration of how life roles are affected by frequent (i.e. at least weekly) gambling, based on in-depth interviews with a community sample of 161 non-treatment-seeking frequent gamblers. Over half (51.6%) of the participants indicated problems associated with gambling and 131 examples were identified. The majority of problems were relational (50.4%), followed by financial (19.8%), work (13.7%), and school related (8.4%). Slightly less than half of participants (41.7%) reported losses due to gambling and 92 examples were provided. The most frequently reported loss was identity related (54.3%), which included self-esteem/shame (38.0%), estrangement from family (34.0%), estrangement from friends (16.0%), and estrangement from work colleagues (6.0%). Additional losses included health (29.3%) and financial (8.7%). Almost two-thirds of participants (64.6%) reported difficulty concentrating in family (18.4%), work (16.8%), and school (9.6%) activities, whereas general concentration problems comprised an additional 48.8% of the examples provided. Half of participants (49.1%) discussed behavioral withdrawal due to gambling, which included withdrawal from work (44.3%), relationships (24.5%), school (15.1%), and personal (6.6%) activities. These findings paint a complex picture of how gambling interferes with different life roles for some frequent gamblers, identifying important areas for future research and practice.     

Strengths-Based Approach and Coping Strategies used by Parents Whose Young Children Exhibit Violent Behaviour: Collaboration Between Schools and Parents

This research study explores the strategies adopted by 60 parents of children between 3 and 9 years of age considered to have engaged in violent behaviour, within the meaning of the Safe Schools Act (Ontario Ministry of Education, Canada, 2000). This legal framework requires parents to be involved in the decisions concerning their children. Parents’ perceptions of their involvement lead them to develop coping strategies enabling them to play a more active role in such decision making. This article analyzes their perceptions according to a strengths-based approach and seeks to provide a mediation perspective to social work practice with families.

It is risky business: can social capital reduce risk-taking behaviours among disadvantaged youth?

This study addresses the gap in the research for sound multidimensional assessment of social capital and its relationship with risk-taking behaviour among youths living in disadvantaged communities. Social capital and adolescent risk-taking outcomes were studied cross-sectionally in 1371 secondary students living in two disadvantaged communities within Australia. First, a multidimensional measure of social capital was developed and tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Then, the associations between social capital and a range of youth risk-taking behaviours were examined using structural equation modelling across five-year groups (Grades 7–12). With a few exceptions, higher levels of social capital and belongingness within the school and community were generally associated with decreases in smoking, alcohol and drug consumption, and physical violence. Some outcomes were more strongly associated with family and peer social capital, while others associated more with neighbour and community social capital, indicating that attempts to build social capital need to be targeted across the whole community. This study supports the notion that social capital can be measured empirically and is beneficial in alleviating many of the detrimental health outcomes commonly associated with risk-taking behaviours during adolescence.     

对虚假广告行为侵权问题的探讨

目前虚假广告充斥市场 ,屡禁不止 ,已成为一大社会公害。在虚假广告行为中 ,侵权责任人理应承担民事侵权责任     

“城市开发”名义下的业主维权障碍解析

本文在经营城市和城市开发的背景下阐释房地产市场利益主体的博弈关系,认为在房地产市场上,政府是土地的供给方,也是规划和配套、监管和规则的组合供给者,作为具有谋利化倾向的市场多元供应主体,政府与开发商理所当然结成合法性利益关系,这使得房地产市场上业主群体的维权行为遭遇来自地方利益群体的自我保护机制的阻碍,如信息不对称、媒体失语和政府部门的不作为等,从而导致现阶段房地产市场业主维权困难。     

高校贫困生的社会支持与亲社会行为的关系研究——基于湖南、贵州两所高校贫困生的调查

社会支持是高校贫困生顺利完成学业的重要保障。从来源上说,社会支持包括非正式社会支持和正式社会支持。通过调查研究发现,非正式社会支持中的情感支持、经济支持、陪伴支持和信息支持对高校贫困生的亲社会行为影响较大;正式支持中的助学贷款支持对高校贫困生的亲社会行为影响较为显著。     

The relationship between explicit and implicit learning processes and probable pathological gambling

This paper reports the findings of a study of explicit and implicit learning and gambling with non-problem (n = 107), sub-clinical problem gamblers (n = 13), and probable pathological gamblers (n = 46). Two probability learning tasks modeled after gambling games and an artificial grammar task were used to explore how people learn patterns. In each of the two probability learning tasks, the outcome of the game was biased during the first part (learning phase) of the task. The results showed that many of the participants in the experimental conditions learned the bias and gradually unlearned the bias during the extinction phase of the study. Probable pathological gamblers showed less retention of the bias during two probability tasks and repeated the same errors during the artificial grammar task suggesting that they emphasize explicit learning strategies rather than implicit learning strategies. The results are consistent with the idea that pathological gamblers are more likely to utilize explicit rules than implicit rules.     

Screening for college problem gambling in Chinese societies: psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (C-SOGS)

A total of 979 Chinese college students were recruited in order to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (C-SOGS). The C-SOGS was internally consistent and correlated with gambling-related problems and negative mental health status. Results of likelihood ratios (LRs) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve supported the C-SOGS as a valid screening instrument for probable pathological gambling. Using the DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling, the conventional cut score of 5 on the C-SOGS showed satisfactory sensitivity, specificity and false negative rates. This cut score identified 85% of the true positives and 95% of the true negatives. In general, the C-SOGS overestimated the number of pathological gamblers relative to DSM-IV criteria. Future research on Chinese gambling should build on current empirical work on the SOGS to refine the C-SOGS for use with Chinese populations.     

Book Review

Affective forecasting refers to the process of predicting emotional reactions to future events. It plays an important role in decision making, but is also prone to errors, such as the ‘impact bias’: a tendency to overestimate the intensity of future reactions. The impact bias has been considered evolutionarily adaptive, as it performs a protective function in motivating people to avoid risky behaviour. Affective forecasting may be qualitatively different in a risk-taking population such as problem gamblers (PGs). In particular, PGs may fail to show the impact bias. This study was the first to examine affective forecasting in PGs. PGs (N = 25) and controls (N = 29) were asked to predict how they would feel after completing a guessing task. As hypothesized, controls exaggerated how bad they would feel after losing at the task, whereas PGs accurately predicted their reactions. Encouraging PGs to focus on anticipated emotions may be a novel target for treatment interventions.     

Promoting AIDS-preventive behaviours: The role of message fear appeal and audience's characteristics

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the effects, in terms of cognitive elaboration and behavioural intentions, of television anti-AIDS public service announcements adopting different levels of fear appeal. At the same time, the influence of audience's characteristics, such as general orientation toward risk, perceived risk of contracting AIDS, and past sexual behaviours was analyzed. 114 Italian undergraduate non-psychology students participated in a pretest-treatment-posttest experiment on voluntary basis. Subjects were randomly allocated to the exposure of three messages adopting increasing levels of fear appeal. Results both from analyses of covariance and from structural equation modelling show that: a) extreme levels of fear appeal induce negative evaluations and reduced compliance with the message; b) future preventive intentions are much more affected by past preventive behaviours than by anti-AIDS messages; c) general orientation toward risk significantly affects both past and future preventive behaviours.