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This paper uses practice theory to explore a poorly understood phenomenon with important health implications: How and why an increasing number of young Americans regularly use multiple tobacco products. Practice theory is a promising alternative to traditional public health frameworks for understanding everyday activities related to health. It broadens the analytic focus from characteristics of individuals to viewing practices as having lives of their own in competing for, winning, and losing practitioners. We drew from in-depth interviews with 21 young adults (ages 18–29; California) who regularly use cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), and/or smokeless tobacco. Participants described their everyday routines. We examined the characterizing elements of each tobacco product use practice and the roles of each within participants' routines. We found that each product comprises a distinct substance use practice with different roles to play in different situations and contexts. Notably, many participants rotated between or modulated use of different products as a strategy for reducing perceived tobacco-related harms. Cigarettes are uniquely capable of aiding in the space-time organization of everyday activities and coping with crisis, while ENDS and smokeless tobacco open up times and spaces for nicotine consumption. This kind of approach aids our understanding and anticipation of the evolution of tobacco use practices as new products and regulations are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present study examined perceived social support as a mediator of the longitudinal link between ambivalence over emotional expression (AEE) and quality of life among a sample of Chinese breast cancer survivors.Methods: Ninety-six Chinese breast cancer survivors recruited from Southern California completed four surveys in total: (1) a baseline survey (T1), 1-month follow-up (T2), 3-month follow-up (T3), and 6-month follow-up (T4). Participants filled out a paper-pen questionnaire containing the Ambivalence over Emotional Expression Questionnaire (AEQ), the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G), and the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Scale (MOS-SSS).Results: Higher T1 AEE was associated with lower T1 social support (B = −0.01, SE = 0.004, p < 0.01) which in turn was associated with lower quality of life at T2 (B = 2.98, SE = 0.64, p < 0.01), T3 (B = 2.14, SE = 0.54, p < 0.01), and T4 (B = 2.08, SE = 0.68, p < 0.01).Conclusions: These results suggest that the harmful effect of AEE on quality of life is explained by reduced social support. Given the detrimental effects of AEE on social support and quality of life, future research on interventions that facilitate emotional disclosure is needed. Implications for the effects of Chinese culture on AEE are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the way in which psychologists classified immigrant children as feebleminded through the use of intelligence testing and how state organisations consequently segregated them from public schools based on the scientific evidence. First, I show the way in which the psychologist Lewis Terman utilised intelligence testing to identify immigrant children deemed feebleminded. I focus closely on a survey and on his methodology and analysis. I then discuss the possibilities of education for the feebleminded and the segregation of immigrant children from regular classroom of public schools. Through his survey, Terman concluded that the exceptionally high ratio of feebleminded children in the tested region was caused by the large population of immigrant children, although the selection of the sample was often subjective, leading to “miscalculation” in his analysis. Terman’s survey was influential in terms of segregating feebleminded children by stating their incurability; possibilities of education for the feebleminded were thus denied. At his suggestion, special classes and schools, along with a home for the feebleminded, were established. Terman’s psychological survey was a cue for psychologists to enter the school system. The State Board of Education was not only attempting to discover the percentage of feebleminded children but also trying to apply psychology to school training. With the cooperation of the Board, the training of teachers for the feebleminded proceeded. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The cyclical pattern of violence in the lives of homeless female ex-offenders may precipitate ongoing substance use and recidivism; all of which have shown to be mounting public health issues affecting successful reentry. This paper, which analyzed baseline data from a longitudinal study of 126 female ex-offenders in Los Angeles and Pomona, California, highlighted the factors found to be associated with violent crime among homeless female ex-offenders. A multiple logistic regression model for whether or not the last conviction was for a violent offense indicated that poor housing (p= .011) and self-reported anger or hostility (p< .001) were significant correlates. An ordinal regression model for the number of violent offenses also indicated that affectionate support was associated with committing fewer number of violent crimes (p= .001), while positive social interactions (p= .007), and anger/hostility (p= .015) were associated with greater number of violent crimes. Implications for developing a comprehensive array of strategies that can mitigate the pattern of violence often seen in the lives of homeless female who have recently exited jails and prisons is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research has shown that people often need assistance from an established person who injects drugs (PWID) in order to initiate their own injection drug use. Yet, there is scant research on the injection initiation process from the perspective of established PWID who assists with initiation. In this paper, we examine the injection initiation process from the perspective of established PWID.Methods: From 2011 to 2013, we conducted qualitative life history interviews with 113 PWID in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. Qualitative data were coded using an inductive analysis approach. Emergent themes are presented in a series of emblematic case studies that elucidate the injection initiation process from the point of view of the PWID who help people with their first injection.Results: Most participants (70%) said that they had never initiated another person into drug injection, citing negative health and social consequences of drug injection as their primary reasons. Among those PWID who had ever facilitated initiation (30%), most expressed moral ambivalence about the behaviour. Using case studies, we show how PWID engage in a complicated calculation that weighs the pros and cons of assisting someone with their first injection. Concerns about long term harms associated with injection drug use sometimes give way to short-term altruistic concerns related to self-initiation or instrumental needs on the part of the established PWID.Conclusions: Objections to facilitating initiation of injection naïve persons appear to be common among established PWID but are sometimes overridden by a need to reduce harms that can be associated with self-initiation and one's structural vulnerability. For established PWID, helping to initiate another person becomes a complex moral question with nuanced motivations. While further substantiation of this observation will require more research, it is worth considering how existing disinclination to initiating injection naïve persons can be integrated into new or existing approaches to preventing injection initiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cities are encouraging bicycling as mode of transportation as a way to improve air quality and health. Evidence suggests a strong influence of attitudes on bicycling, but few studies have examined the formation of attitudes toward bicycling. This paper explores the potential effect of crashes and other incidents on attitudes towards bicycling. Several themes emerge from 54 in-depth interviews on experiences with bicycling over the life course for a sample of adults living in Davis, California. The greater the severity of injuries associated with a crash, the greater the likelihood of declines in comfort with and desire for bicycling. Crashes in youth had very little effect on desire for or comfort with bicycling, but the opposite was true of crashes in adulthood. Incidents involving motorists particularly exacerbated discomfort with bicycling, while solo crashes were commonly perceived as unlucky or careless mishaps. Crashes experienced by others, as opposed to those experienced personally, were especially damaging to attitude, particularly for those who did not bicycle regularly. These findings have important implications for the design of bicycle facilities and programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]