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Female farmers play an important role in rural economies, although they are not always statistically recorded. The aim of this article is to look beyond macro statistics and official figures provided for female farming at European Union level and try to provide a clearer picture of social and economic efficacy and transformation of the situation for women in agriculture at local level. In Greece, one-third of the agricultural holdings belong to female farmers according to the official statistics. However, the official national statistics which monitor women in agriculture give a macro description of the situation, prone to mistakes and obscure readings of the reality. For this purpose, a concerted effort is made to elaborate on the main characteristics of female farms and their transformations at local level through the past years reading beyond the official statistical data and delving into the field research. The above is accomplished by means of local key-informants and qualitative techniques in one of the most dynamic agricultural areas in Greece, and one that holds a percentage of female farms above the national figure. Research shows that the situation for female farmers has improved during the last decade, but they still face a constellation of problems along with social exclusion, especially in villages of the study area with particular cultural characteristics. All in all, it seems that local cultural standards and values affect the overall integration of women in agriculture despite all incentives and contemporary policies.

Social characteristics are prominent factors in mate selection, but they can be risk factors for intimate partner violence. Yet this prior work is limited, as it largely focuses on demographic differences (or asymmetries) between intimate partners. In addition to demographic asymmetries, we explored how differences in relational and risk behaviors were associated with intimate partner violence. Examining data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n=828), we found that either partner's unemployment is associated with greater frequency of relationship violence; and, compared to same-race relationships, interracial relationships reported higher frequency of partner violence. Additionally, relationships in which men compared to their partners were more invested, were characterized by lower frequency of violence. Relationships characterized by any asymmetry in power, compared to those in which both partners held equal power, were also characterized by higher frequency of partner violence. Relationships in which the female partner was more successful at school or work compared to the male partner were associated with more frequent partner violence. Lastly, compared to relationships in which neither partner engaged in antisocial/criminal activity, those in which the male, but not female partner was antisocial/criminal and those in which both partners engaged in antisocial/criminal activity reported greater frequency of partner violence. These findings highlighted the importance of considering different types of asymmetries for understanding intimate partner violence in young adult relationships.

Probation offices are organizational units that provide the structure necessary to develop shared meaning systems that influence individual level attitudes, values, and beliefs. We analyze survey responses (n = 252) from county-level probation departments (n = 19) in a single state. The dependent variables are three-factor scales combining items to measure enforcement, reentry, and protection scales. Our central goal is to determine if the authoritarian (i.e. law enforcement) and assistance (i.e. social worker) typologies predict supervision goals. The robust regression analyses show that department (e.g. caseload size, number of officers) and county-level measures of poverty and percent black in the population are significant factors for enforcement and reentry. The article concludes with policy implications.

Aim: To determine the association of sociodemographic characteristics and type of alcoholic beverage consumed during binge drinking in Serbia. Method: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the 2014 national survey on Serbian lifestyles focusing on substance abuse and gambling. The sample consisted of 5385 individuals. The respondents were divided into non-binge drinkers and binge drinkers, according to the quantity of alcohol consumed during one occasion. Binge drinkers reported consuming more than 60 g of pure alcohol (7.5 units of alcohol) during one occasion at least once during the previous year. Results: The prevalence of binge drinking in the past year among 2676 female and 2709 male participants aged 18–64 years was 28.4%. The multivariate logistic regression model showed that binge drinkers were more likely to be male (95% CI 3.58–4.94), single (95% CI 1.01–1.53), to be former (95% CI 1.06–1.62) or current smokers (95% CI 1.57–2.19), and to consume more than one type of alcoholic beverage (95% CI 2.04–3.44). There was a negative association of binge drinking with age (95% CI 0.98–0.99), living outside Northern Serbia-Vojvodina region, and drinking only spirits (95% CI 0.39–0.93). Conclusion: Focusing on the positive association of sociodemographic factors and binge drinking could help policy makers create public health interventions against alcohol misuse. These interventions should be directed to males, smokers, and those who consume more than one type of alcoholic beverage.

The current study expands recidivism research by developing a risk of crime (ROC) measure rooted in environmental criminology, reflecting the risk of criminal opportunities, and lending itself to environmental corrections. Data were collected from a city in the Northeast region of the United States. The ROC measure was constructed through risk terrain modeling and reflected a parolee-specific neighborhood ROC. Conjunctive analysis of case configurations was utilized to explore how individual characteristics interacted with the ROC measure. Results indicated a relationship between parolees residing in an elevated ROC neighborhood and the likelihood of recidivism. The results were discussed in relation to how environmental criminology could be further integrated into environmental corrections, accounting for physical and social characteristics of the backcloth.

Studies that have examined absconding have pointed to the relevance of factors related to demographics, situational, and social characteristics, as well as criminal history variables as predictive of offenders’ decision to abscond. This study contributes to this literature by extending factors that have been explored for criminal justice outcomes such as recidivism to predict the likelihood of absconding. In particular, this study incorporates the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) risk assessment instrument and types of violations to examine their impact on the likelihood of absconding. Using a large sample of parolees from Colorado ( n = 30,181), the findings in this study indicate that the largest predictors of absconding were substance abuse problems and education. In addition, variables measuring the components of the LSI-R and specific nonabsconding parole violations moderately predict absconding. The implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Athletes are cited as common perpetrators of sexual victimization and are at greater risk of becoming offenders compared with nonathletes. Demographic, lifestyle, and social characteristics of 624 nonathletes and 101 athletes from 21 U.S. Division I postsecondary educational institutions were assessed, with the updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance scale gauging endorsement of rape myths. Results indicate that athletes and nonathletes were similar in the degree of rape myth acceptance, with athletes reporting stronger agreement with rape myths than nonathletes did. Predictors of rape myth acceptance among nonathletes are multidimensional. In contrast, nondemographic characteristics like Greek membership, the number of alcoholic beverages consumed, and knowing a sexual assault victim predict rape myth acceptance for athletes, with gender not predicting rape myth acceptance nor different between genders of athletes. Policy implications and future research are discussed.

L’anorexie mentale prepubere peut entrainer de multiples consequences physiques. Lorsque le trouble debute avant la puberte, il serait lie a un plus mauvais pronostic ainsi qu’a une plus grande res...

This study compares the group-specific evaluations of (t) in Greater Manchester, England, with those of (ing) published in a previous study. The comparison is based on a set of perception surveys, in which study participants listened to manipulated audio stimuli and rated them on a series of scales. In contrast to findings for (ing), the social characteristics of listeners are not pertinent to the evaluation of (t): most social meanings associated with (t) are shared across the Greater Manchester population. It is argued that this is due to the pronounced attitude strength of T-glottalling in this particular region.

Humans are social beings. Every day-to-day decision as well as life-building processes are often influenced by the peer group of an individual. In this context, it may be interesting to study the actual effects of one\textquoteright s peer group on one\textquoteright s mentality. In this article, we have done a survey on an undergraduate batch of students studying in Kolkata to recognize and understand the factors that influence lifestyle, decision-making processes and major psychological characters. We observe that the social characteristics of a student significantly influence his/her psychological set-up and also vice versa. Thus, it is worth while to study a person's social surroundings and linkages to understand her psychological health.

Although originally considered to be a disorder of childhood, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasingly being diagnosed for the first time in adulthood. Yet we know little about the social characteristics (race, gender, and social class) of those first labeled in adulthood, how these differ from those first labeled in childhood/adolescence, and whether the ADHD label is applied proportionately across social groups given ADHD symptomology. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, the current research considers how typifications of ADHD affect application of the ADHD label in childhood/adolescence and in adulthood. Results indicate that even after controlling for ADHD symptoms, social characteristics are important predictors of the ADHD label in childhood/adolescence but are less influential in predicting ADHD labeling in adulthood. Additionally, results indicate the importance of race in moderating the association between childhood ADHD symptoms and application of the ADHD label throughout the life course.

Studies of past emergency events have revealed that occupants’ behaviors, local geometry, and environmental constraints affect crowd movement and evacuation. Design of egress systems should take into consideration the social characteristics of the occupants and the unique layout of the buildings. This paper describes an agent-based egress simulation tool, SAFEgress, which is designed to incorporate human and social behaviors during evacuations. The unique feature of SAFEgress is its flexibility to model different individual, group, and crowd behavior. Simulations are conducted to examine egress performance of a museum floor plan for three scenarios: (1) expected occupancy load during peak hours; (2) group behaviors among museum visitors; and (3) measures to reduce pre-evacuation delay. By assuming different occupants’ behaviors in the simulations, engineers, designers, and facility managers can study the important human and social factors on an egress situation and, thereby, improve the design of safe egress systems and procedures.

This article presents findings from a pilot study of postgraduate journalism students in Dublin and Amman. The study compared professional outlooks and social characteristics of students in both contexts and examined institutional settings. The study finds that journalism students in Dublin and Amman have very similar views on the profession, although the students in Amman have a somewhat more activist outlook and less of a commitment to neutral or objective reporting; they also appear modestly more interested in effecting political and social change. We believe this has significant implications for journalism education across the region and for cross-cultural exchanges.

Rates of functional limitations are consistently higher for women than for men, but it is not clear why. While some studies have examined individual risk factors, others have turned to broader social characteristics. We examined the effects of both individual and neighborhood characteristics associated with the functional limitations of older men and women. Multilevel structural equation models were developed using data from a random digit dial sample of 5,688 adults aged 50 to 74 years living in New Jersey. We found that greater numbers of fast-food restaurants, storefronts, and supermarkets was associated with more functional limitations of women, while greater numbers of fast-food restaurants was the only neighborhood characteristic associated with more functional limitations of men. Functional limitations of women, but not men, are affected by multiple neighborhood characteristics. This research reveals that specific neighborhood contextual characteristics, not just poverty, are associated with the health of community-dwelling adults.

This study compared selected musical, educational, and social characteristics of high schools ranked highest in Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. Questions addressed were (a) How are the top-ranked schools similar or different in educational, musical, and social characteristics? (b) What music courses are offered at each high school? (c) What types of performances do the music classes present each year? (d) What (if any) are the qualifications for students to be enrolled in music classes at each school? (e) How many students are enrolled in each school and in the corresponding music classes? (f) How do the music programs reflect each school in general? Results of questionnaires indicated music programs were a viable curricular component of each school, including the International Baccalaureate and science, technology, engineering, and math campuses. Most schools and their music programs were educationally and culturally diverse. Music curricula were varied and considered important to the total school environment.

This article borrows from the intersectionality literature to investigate how legal status, labor market position, and family characteristics structure the labor supply of immigrant Latinas in Durham, North Carolina, a new immigrant destination. The analysis takes a broad view of labor force participation, analyzing the predictors of whether or not women work, whether and how the barriers to work vary across occupations, and variation in hours and weeks worked among the employed. I also explicitly investigate the extent to which family constraints interact with other social characteristics, especially legal status, in shaping women’s labor market position. Results highlight that immigrant Latinas experience multiple, interrelated constraints on employment owing to their position as low-skill workers in a labor market highly segregated by gender and nativity, as members of a largely undocumented population, and as wives and mothers in an environment characterized by significant work–family conflict.

This article investigates the effect of the rural–urban divide on mean response styles (RSs) and their relationships with the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents. It uses the Representative Indicator Response Style Means and Covariance Structure (RIRSMACS) method and data from Guyana—a developing country in the Caribbean. The rural–urban divide affects substantial mean RSs differentials, and it moderates both their relationships with and the explanatory power of the respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics. Within-country research is therefore subject to substantial rural–urban RSs bias, and it is hence imperative that researchers control RSs in such studies. Previous research findings should also be reexamined with RSs controlled. In addition, joint modeling of culture, RSs, and their sociodemographic predictors may clarify some of the conflicting results about their effects in the cross-cultural research literature.

This article assesses which factors underpin public attitudes towards two recent and controversial foreign policy issues: Britain's involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using data from the 2005 and 2010 British Election Studies, it undertakes a statistical examination of which sociological and political factors are related to support for and opposition to British involvement in these conflicts. It shows that attitudes are structured both by social characteristics and by beliefs and evaluations rooted in domestic politics. The former include gender, age and ethnic group, while the latter include partisanship and newspaper readership. It demonstrates the need for further investigation of foreign policy attitudes among the British public.

Important differences have recently become apparent in the forms of governance being implemented in different metropolitan regions, even among those within the same country. A number of theoretical debates attempt to explain the nature of these differences, emphasizing the importance of structural factors as well as embedded economic and social characteristics. This article aims to show that existing theoretical debates are linked by three issues that act as interfaces among them: institutions, flows in the form of material resources and regulatory power, and governance capacity and coalitions. This article explores the emerging forms of governance within the two largest metropolitan regions of Turkey, Izmir and Antalya, taking into consideration these three issues.

The emergentist position that R. Keith Sawyer has formulated, nonreductive individualism, contains three propositions. First, that social characteristics must always be realized in individuals; second, that it is nevertheless possible to understand social properties as irreducible; and third, that therefore it is possible to demonstrate how social properties are able to exercise independent causal influences on individuals and their properties. It is demonstrated that Sawyer is not able to meet an objection that Kim has formulated against the analogous position in the philosophy of mind. In his defense of the claim of irreducibility Sawyer refers to Fodor’s argument about multiple realizability, but this line of argument cannot preserve the claim for downward causation because Fodor’s claim for irreducibility rests on assumptions that are not compatible with a systematic formulation of downward causation. The article proposes a reading of Fodor’s argument that is consistent with individualism but not with nonreductive individualism.

Ernesto Laclau’s perspective on populism allows for a more accurate understanding of the current political scene in Bolivia than a focus on the concept of “social movements.” In Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s economically strongest department, certain historical and social characteristics have produced strong regionalist sentiment against the central government and a militant and absolutist identity discourse. The Cruceño opposition movement revolves around a civic institutionalism allied with the region’s economic and cultural powers represented by the Comité Pro Santa Cruz (Pro—Santa Cruz Committee). Since the October 2003 crisis, without being a political party, it has managed to position itself as a conservative actor with tremendous power of assembly in challenging the policies of the Morales government.

This paper aims to improve knowledge of urban transportation in China by analyzing the spatial characteristics of urban transportation in Beijing, China's capital. Neighborhood-level indicators—such as automobile ownership per household, commuting time, commuting mode percentages, and household income—were all extracted from a household survey conducted in 2006. Urban transportation was then analyzed spatially with a reference to Beijing's geometric center, job centers, and urban rail stations. The analysis led to several findings. First, the variation in commuting time by gender and household composition was similar to what has been observed in American cities. Second, automobile ownership and commuting modes exhibited no systematic, spatial variation, unlike their American counterparts. These differences might be explained by a third finding: in China, relatively high-income households preferred centrally located housing.

To date, research testing the community characteristics associated with methamphetamine production and use has found that the community-level sociodemographic predictors of methamphetamine production and use vary from those of drug use in general. In this study, the authors furthered the research in this area using data from all 102 counties in Illinois. These data included measures of sociodemographic characteristics taken from the U.S. census, measures of methamphetamine production and use, and a measure of arrests for controlled-substance violations. Negative binomial regression models showed that poverty and the racial and ethnic compositions of communities were the strongest and most consistent predictors of the authors’ methamphetamine measures. The results also showed that the sociodemographic characteristics associated with methamphetamine measures were different in important ways from those associated with arrests for controlled-substance violations.

There is robust evidence, spanning more than 30 years, that people who are married turn out to vote in greater proportions than do those who are single, separated, divorced or live with a partner. The difference generally persists even when age and other social characteristics are taken into account. Previous explanations for this phenomenon have focused on differential access to local and national networks that encourage voting but it appears that this approach no longer fits the facts. Arguably, married people (and the widowed) are more attuned to traditional values, including a sense of civic duty, than are those with other domestic arrangements.

Interviews of 147 juveniles in postadjudication residential facilities revealed that the juveniles generally did not believe their parents were responsible for the illegal activities of the juvenile. A vast majority of juveniles said that their parents were not responsible at all and also said that if they had known that their parents would also be punished for their crimes, they would have been less likely to commit the crimes. No patterns emerged for these questions based on the demographic or social characteristics of the juveniles. Implications of the juveniles' perspective are considered, focusing particularly on the juveniles' lack of willingness to place accountability on their parents.

How do people judge nanotechnology risks that are completely unfamiliar to them? Drawing on results of previous studies on framing and risk perception, two hypotheses about potential influences on nanotechnology risk perception were examined in an experimental study: 1) Risk perception of nanotechnology is influenced by its benefit perception. 2) Risk perception of nanotechnology is influenced by the context in which nanotechnology is embedded, specifically by the characteristics of the enterprises that profit from nanotechnology: large multinational enterprises versus small and medium-sized enterprises. In contrast to findings for other new technologies, e.g. biotechnology, the different types of benefit did not affect risk perceptions in our study. However, we found that characterizing the enterprises as large multinational versus small or medium-sized leads to differences in risk perception. One can speculate that when personal knowledge about a technology is lacking, people use more familiar aspects from the social context as cues for their risk evaluation.

The housing market is an important sector in the economy of any country. Residential demand (also referred to as `housing consumption') depends on many demographic and social characteristics of the country's population and is also related to economic factors. The aim of the present paper was to evaluate the joint effects of economic, demographic and social factors on household behaviour with respect to housing choices. In addition, an attempt was made to determine the impact of recent economic and structural changes in Spanish society (in 1990 and 2000) on residential demand. It was found that the consequences of these structural changes will have medium- and long-term effects on housing demand and that the current economic situation has significantly affected the short-term changes in this demand.

Objectives. We compared health and social needs by gender, age, and race/ethnicity of people leaving New York City jails and assessed the implication of these differences for the development of jail reentry programs. Methods. Surveys were completed with 1,946 individuals (536 men, 704 women, and 706 adolescent males) between 1997 and 2004. Structured questionnaires captured data on demographic, criminal justice, substance use, and health characteristics. Bivariate comparisons were performed to determine variations between men and women, men and male adolescents, and non-Latino black and Hispanic/Latino respondents. Results. The majority of participants were black and Hispanic/Latino, reported high levels of substance use, had high rates of recidivism, and experienced difficult living circumstances. Compared with men, women were more likely to be homeless, use illicit drugs, report drug charges at index arrest, have health problems, and be parents. Adolescent males were more likely than men to rely on illegal activities for income and to have used marijuana and alcohol recently, and were less likely to report homelessness or health problems. Ethnic/racial differences between black and Hispanic/Latino respondents within gender and age groups were smaller than differences among these groups. Conclusions. Jails concentrate individuals with multifaceted health and social problems, providing opportunities to engage at-risk populations in comprehensive reentry programs. Gender, age, and ethnic/racial differences among incarcerated populations require that interventions be tailored to the specific needs of these different groups.

In 1961, John L. Fischer employed a cross-cultural analysis to demonstrate that art styles correlated with social hierarchy and postmarital residence patterns. He suggested that with further work, these correlations might be developed into useful predictors of variation in social hierarchy and postmarital residence in archaeologically known societies. This article is a step in that direction. It replicates Fischer's original study using ceramic data, and proposes several ways archaeological ceramics might be used to predict social characteristics of extinct societies.

This article illustrates the importance of exact repetitions in Japanese conversation while emphasizing the relevance of sociolinguistic analysis. The frequency and functions of exact repetitions in Japanese conversation are different from those in English conversation. English people and Japanese people sometimes understand using frequent exact repetitions differently, suggesting that people culturally use conversational features differently and speech interaction might differ among societies. In addition, no studies have been carried out regarding repetitions in relation to speakers' social characteristics in Japanese conversation, although speakers' characteristics of social background sometimes influences the way people interact with each other in conversation. The results in this article show that speakers' social characteristics, especially their age group, strongly affects the way in which Japanese people use exact repetitions. Speakers' social characteristics need to be carefully considered when analysing Japanese conversation, and in general, more sociolinguistic studies need to be carried out in Japanese speech interaction.

Using a sample of adjudicated French Canadian males from the Montreal Two Samples Longitudinal Study, this article investigates individual and social characteristics associated with differential cost avoidance. The main objective of this study is to determine whether such traits are randomly distributed across differential degrees of cost avoidance or whether they reflect some degree of rationality. Differential cost avoidance is a composite measure that includes the ratio of self-reported career length to officially recorded career length, the ratio of self-reported offending gravity to officially recorded gravity, and the ratio of time “free” to periods of incarceration. Findings reveal that it is particularly difficult to predict differential cost avoidance at early ages. The main predictors of the residual degree of differential cost avoidance in the early 30s include substance use (especially drugs), the accumulation of debts, and the use of violence in the perpetration of crime. Implications for desistance research are discussed.

Despite their central role in the electoral process, constituency agents have been largely overlooked by political scientists and this article seeks to rectify the omission. It sketches the origins and development of the role of agent from the late 19th century and suggests that a serious rethink of the role took place in the 1990s. Survey-based evidence about the social characteristics of agents is presented confirming that they are largely middle-aged, middle-class, well-educated men. They are also becoming more experienced, offer realistic assessments of the impact of constituency campaigning and, arguably, many take a long-term view of how their party's support can be maximised.

This study of a statewide, stratified random sample of 3,335 public high school students is designed to examine the robustness of self-control in predicting alcohol consumption, other drug use, crimes against persons, and property offenses. Comparisons in prediction of these forms of delinquency are made between two measures of self-control, social characteristics, and elements of other theories. An examination also is made of whether self-control accounts for commensurate amounts of variance within categories of social characteristics. A behavioral measure of self-control generally is a stronger predictor of delinquency than a cognitive measure. Inconsistent findings are observed in analyses of whether self-control accounts for commensurate variation in delinquency between and within categories of these social characteristics. Both measures are significant predictors of delinquency when they are simultaneously analyzed with many factors extrapolated from other theories. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of future theory and research.

This research examined links among adolescents’ maturity status, their biological, social, and psychological characteristics, and parents’ perceptions of their adolescents’ maturity. The participants were 430 Canadian adolescents in the sixth and ninth grades, and a subsample of their parents. Pattern-centred analyses confirmed the existence of three clusters of adolescents differing in maturity status: pseudomature (25%), immature (30%), and mature (44%). Further analyses found differences among the clusters in adolescents’ pubertal status, the social context (presence of older siblings and friends), and their desired age, involvement in pop culture, school and peer involvement, and close friendships. Analysis of mother and father reports revealed some differences in how parents of pseudomature, immature, and mature adolescents perceived their adolescents’ maturity, and in how they felt about their adolescents’ maturity. There were few grade differences in the findings. The results suggest that pseudomature adolescents, and to a smaller extent, immature adolescents, are caught in a maturity gap, which could have longer-term implications for their transition to adulthood.

Seeking to redress the lack of inmate-centered research, the authors examine inmate attitudes towards capital punishment to determine whether individual and social characteristics predict death penalty support for a sample of 309 midwestern inmates. The authors’ results indicate that while a slight majority of inmates opposed capital punishment (53%), opposition softened considerably for crimes such as serial killing, child molestation, and child abuse. Factors that significantly predicted inmate death penalty support included the belief that capital punishment deters violent crime, family members’ capital punishment advocacy, and a high score on the Alpha scale (a measure assessing inmate identification with violent and aggressive aspects of hegemonic masculinity). In addition, a significant inverse relationship emerged between the belief that a person can be rehabilitated and death penalty support. The findings strongly suggest that inmate death penalty opinions are complex and nuanced and can offer considerable insights regarding the efficacy of current social control practices.

After developing a longitudinal data-base of civil divisions within 27 large metropolitan areas (MSAs) from the 1970-1990 US censuses, this study examines changes in the spatial concentration of income and poverty within these MSAs. A series of cross-sectional analyses of geographical and social determinants of poverty rates and median household income are used to analyse whether the determinants are changing over time. Large, older central cities in the north-east and mid-west have experienced increasing poverty and decreases in income relative to their own history and relative to their own suburbs. There is some evidence of economic decline in the inner suburbs of these central cities relative to other suburbs, but not relative to the central cities. The geographical shifts in MSA population among suburbs by income between 1970 and 1990 are analysed relative to initial social characteristics of civil divisions. The study concludes that the filtering of older residential buildings to, and the lower marginal preference for land of, lower-income groups contributes to the rising poverty rates and decreases in median household income for all central cities and for the inner suburbs of the north-eastern and mid-western MSAs. The study finds little evidence that either 'white flight' or the non-poor's avoidance of taxes to support the poor are important factors in the shifts of population among suburbs.

The motivation for concern about the environment beyond one’s neighborhood is still relatively poorly understood. This article examines the determinants of feelings of responsibility at a regional watershed level. Using demographic, attitudinal, self-reported behavior and neighborhood mapping measures from four cities in Australia, five hypotheses were derived. These were that wider environmental concerns would depend on (a) the physical and social characteristics of the respondents’ neighborhoods, (b) the size of their perceived neighborhoods, (c) the length of residence at their localities, (d) educational level and attitudes toward environmental moral responsibility (and the interaction between them), and (e) the level of reported environmentally friendly behavior. Support was gained for all hypotheses except length of residence and the role of general moral attitudes toward the environment. It is concluded that to explain community action at the regional level, it is important to include both spatial and psychological insights and methodologies in research.

Although many have examined care work within families, few have assessed caregiving among adult brothers and sisters. Based on original data, this article lends a multifaceted view of sibling care work by examining the amount and kind of help adults provide to all siblings in their family and the manner in which the social characteristics of sibling care providers, recipients, their shared relationship, and the family of origin shapes caregiving. The authors found that the vast majority of adults provide a wide range of care to their siblings on a yearly, even monthly basis. Gender, age, and social class shape sibling help, whereas race exerts little effect. Unmarried parents receive significantly less help than do their married and childless counterparts. Finally, sibling care work depends on family context: Having a living parent facilitates caregiving among siblings, whereas greater family size forces adults to act judiciously about what and to whom they give.

The purpose of this multiple case study was to investigate the emotional and social characteristics of boys who had co-occurring giftedness and AD/HD as compared with boys with only 1 of the 2 exceptionalities. The participants were 3 boys with AD/HD and giftedness and 6 comparison boys with only 1 of the 2 exceptionalities. Data sources included the participating boys, their parents, and their teachers. Data were collected by a team of researchers using parallel forms of a semistructured interview protocol and several rating scales and were analyzed by the team in 4 stages using a variety of qualitative analysis techniques. Findings suggested that participants with co-occurring giftedness and AD/HD had difficulties regulating their emotions, problems with peer relationships, and stressed families. Giftedness appeared to exacerbate the social/emotional difficulties associated with AD/HD rather than serve a protective function. The findings suggested that AD/HD is a risk factor for psychosocial adjustment difficulties in young boys who are intellectually gifted. Implications of the findings for the field of gifted education are discussed.

This article reports on a study of 77 older adults, 35 of them patients of family physicians and the other 42 patients of alternative practitioners. We compare the two groups along a number of dimensions and identify differences in health problems, social characteristics, practitioners consulted, reasons for choice of therapy and practitioner, pathways taken to care, and length and frequency of practitioner visits. The data show that few older adults sought care fromalternative practitioners and that those who did so had distinctive social and health characteristics. All the older adults began their search for care with conventional medical doctors. Most remain within the medical system. Those who moved beyond it had not found relief from their chronic problems and also had access to wider sources of information about alternatives, provided mainly by family and friends. The pathways followed by patients of alternative practitioners were complex and varied, but these patients did not forsake medical care.

In various earlier studies focusing on support for the welfare state, attitudinal differences have been explained by factors linked to individual social characteristics of respondents. This study focuses mainly on how macro-sociological variables influence attitudes towards the public service system in Finland. An attempt is made to investigate whether differences between municipalities in public-policy measures, political climate and the economic situation have effects on ordinary citizens' support for the service system or whether such support is only related to the individual-level factors, such as socio-economic position and gender, that are traditionally used in studies of attitudes. A focus on attitudes towards economy measures makes it possible simultaneously to investigate the kinds of municipal-level circumstances that affect the acceptance of a retrenchment of the 'service state'. The analyses are based on individual-level data (n = 1,024) and municipal-level Finnish data. The results show that different indicators of macro-sociological factors do have an impact on people's attitudes towards public services. Individuals in municipalities where economic conditions are relatively poor, where the level of social and health expenditure is low and, on some issues, where bourgeois parties are the dominating political bloc, show a lower level of support for the welfare services. However, the impact of tax policies is not that significant on any of the questions studied. The interpretation of the results includes a discussion of specific problems associated with this type of analysis.

This article questions the widely accepted idea that the history of Anglicanism in Australia has been dominated by warfare between three church parties: Anglo-Catholic (high), evangelical (low) and liberal (broad). In fact, among lay Anglicans and at the parish level party strife was much less important than is often assumed. Until recently Australian Anglicans shared a number of common institutions, attitudes and social characteristics, and there was a large body of “moderate” Anglicans — exemplified in this article by the Rev R. P. Hewgill of Adelaide — who did not identify with any particular party.

This paper discusses the nature of industrial districts as effective organization modes and some of their claimed distinctive features, such as 'extended division of labour' and 'co-operation' as a rule governing inter-firm relationships. Over a period of 40 years, 24 local productive systems of SMEs in Italy are compared with respect to both economic and social characteristics. The 'canonical' features of the industrial district were only found in a few local systems and at certain periods of time. The model of the industrial district is not always associated with superior performance, and other typologies of local systems may show even better results. The comparison also highlights different models of labour organization combined with different sets of socio-economic factors and apparently conflicting rules governing inter-firm relationships. Trust, 'confidence', co-operation, price, power and conflict as well as deceit may co-exist in the same typology of local system. These rules flow into one another as contingencies evolve in what appears to be a sort of biological pattern of evolution.

Census data can be represented both as lists and as tabulations of household/individual attributes. List representation of Census data offers greater flexibility, as the exploration of interrelationships between population characteristics is limited only by the quality and scope of the data collected. Unfortunately, the released lists of household/individual attributes (Samples of Anonymised Records, SARs) are spatially referenced only to areas (single or merged districts) with populations of 120 000 or more, whereas released tabulations are available for units as small as single enumeration districts (Small Area Statistics, SAS). Intuitively, it should be possible to derive list-based estimates of enumeration district populations by combining information contained in the SAR and the SAS. In this paper we explore the range of solutions that could be adapted to this problem which, ultimately, is presented as a complex combinatorial optimisation problem. Various techniques of combinatorial optimisation are tested, and preliminary results from the best performing algorithm are evaluated. Through this process, the lack of suitable test statistics for the comparison of observed and expected tabulations of population data is highlighted.

This study reports the demographic and social characteristics and level of psychological dysfunction in regular khat users compared with matched non-users. The results indicate that khat users resemble non-users on a number of psychosocial variables and GHQ scores, with no evidence to suggest higher morbidity amongst users. The two groups appear to differ only in the level of their use of nicotine and also in their perception of the harmful effects associated with khat use.

The central issues of this article are the development and persistence of alcohol-related problems. In a nine-year follow-up study, data were analyzed on the association of chronicity and incidence of alcohol-related problems with several aspects of drinking behavior and some social conditions. The main purpose of the study was to assess which aspects of drinking behavior, other than the level of consumption or heavy drinking, and which social factors contribute to (1) the chronicity and the remission of alcohol-related problems and (2) the incidence of alcohol-related problems. The development and the persistence of alcohol-related problems refer to processes that should be assessed by longitudinal data, as in fact do the concepts of incidence and chronicity. Therefore measurements at Ti and changes at T2 of level of consumption, frequency of heavy drinking, drinking contexts and social conditions were analyzed to find indicators of chronicity and incidence of drinking problems. The longitudinal data of this study offer the opportunity to assess which aspects of drinking patterns, including contexts of drinking, and which social characteristics or changes in social conditions are associated with: 1. The chronicity of alcohol-related problems among drinkers who reported alcohol-related problems at first measurement. 2. The incidence of alcohol-related problems among drinkers free of alcohol-related problems at first measurement. By definition, alcohol-related problems are likely to emerge, to persist, or to go into remission in association with the consumption of alcohol. No general theory is required to understand that a higher level of consumption means a greater probability of experiencing alcohol-related problems. In alcohol research the two most important aspects of drinking behavior related to drinking problems are the level of consumption and heavy drinking (e.g., Makela & Simpura, 1985; Room, Bondy & Ferris, 1995; Hilton, 1987). Recently Room et al. (1995) found that alcohol-related harm started at less than one drink per day and increased roughly linearly with higher levels of consumption. In the same study, however, heavy drinking was found to be a stronger predictor of alcohol-related harm than average daily consumption. Only a few studies have examined the influence of aspects of drinking behavior other than volume and heavy drinking (e.g., Gruenewald, Treno, Millar & Mitchell, 1995; Single & Wortley, 1993; Casswell, Zhang & Wyllie, 1993; Stockwell, Lang & Rydon, 1993; Fitzgerald & Mulford, 1983). These studies suggest that besides volume and frequency of heavy drinking, other aspects of drinking behavior, such as contexts of drinking, might also play a significant role in the development of alcohol-related problems. For example, Fitzgerald & Mulford (1984) found that the frequencies of drinking in bars, at others homes, at one's own home, and at sports events contributed to the explanation of drinking problems, even when controlling for volume and heavy drinking. In addition, Harford (1994) found an effect of the frequency of drinking in bars on drinking problems. As an explanation, Harford suggested that drinking in bars might be related to lifestyles at a higher risk for alcohol-related problems. Gruenewald et al. (1995) investigated the influence on alcoholrelated injuries of quantity and frequency of drinking and also of the variation in quantities consumed over time. Among drinking pattern data, the variance in drinking quantities consumed over time was found to be the strongest predictor of alcohol-related injuries. There are at least two reasons why in research on alcoholrelated problems the study of the effects of social conditions is important. First, social conditions are predictors of the level of consumption, of heavy drinking, and of other aspects of drinking behavior; these variations in drinking behavior produce differences in the amount and development of alcohol-related problems. …

Group cohesion is an important construct in understanding the behavior of groups. However, there has been ongoing controversy on how to define and measure this construct. Central to this debate is the structure of cohesion. The authors critically review the literature on unidimensional and multidimensional models of cohesion and describe cohesion as a multidimensional construct with primary and secondary dimensions. Primary dimensions are applicable to describing the cohesiveness of all or most types of groups, whereas secondary dimensions are applicable to describing the cohesiveness of specific types of groups. Viewing group cohesion as consisting of primary and secondary dimensions is discussed.

To date, Greece has faced considerable difficulties in coming up to the demands of the new telecommunications era of liberalization and less governmental interference. This article examines the historical evolution of the policy and argues that it is the political, economic and social characteristics of Greece that affect decisively all attempts to adapt in the radically transformed telecommunications environment. As a result, both the EU's telecommunications policy and the integration process itself are redefined and undermined. However, the formulation of a clear and long-term telecommunications policy is vital not only for the telecommunications sector as such but also for the overall economic and social development of the country.

Those who attempt to increase cultural diversity in social organizations need to consider perceptions of access or opportunity for prestigious and visible positions. This research investigated career option viability for the positions of college athletic director and football coach through the examination of social characteristics of persons holding these positions at a sample of NCAA Division I-A institutions. Eighty-eight of the 105 institutions contacted supplied a copy of their 1990 football media guide. From these media guides, data were compiled for athletic directors, head football coaches, and full time assistant football coaches. Results clearly show that blacks were underrepresented at the athletic director, head coach, coordinator, and assistant coach positions. Additional results examining centrality ofposition played and position coached suggest that racial discrimi nation is institutionalized. Consequently, the pattern is likely to continue in the absence Of meaningful interventions. These data indicate that career opportunity is restricted for blacks by institutionalized discrimination in intercollegiate sport.