Internet Gambling: An Overview of Psychosocial Impacts

Technological innovation has always played a role in the development of gambling behaviour, primarily through providing new market opportunities. Early prevalence studies of Internet gambling in the UK, Canada and the US have shown that Internet gambling is not a cause for concern at present However, this seems likely to change as more people start to use the Internet for leisure activities. After a brief overview of gambling technologies and deregulation issues, this paper examines the impact of technology on gambling by highlighting salient factors in the rise of Internet gambling (i.e., accessibility, affordability, anonymity, convenience, escape immersion/dissociation, disinhibition, event frequency, asociability, interactivity, and simulation). The paper also overviews some of the main social impacts surrounding Internet gambling, such as protection of the vulnerable, Internet gambling in the workplace, electronic cash, and unscrupulous operators. Recommendations for Internet gambling operators are also provided

Angular reduction in multiparticle matrix elements

A general method for the reduction of coupled spherical harmonic products is presented. When the total angular coupling is zero, the reduction leads to an explicitly real expression in the scalar products within the unit vector arguments of the spherical harmonics. For non-scalar couplings, the reduction gives Cartesian tensor forms for the spherical harmonic products, with tensors built from the physical vectors in the original expression. The reduction for arbitrary couplings is given in closed form, making it amenable to symbolic manipulation on a computer. The final expressions do not depend on a special choice of coordinate axes, nor do they contain azimuthal quantum number summations, nor do they have complex tensor terms for couplings to a scalar. Consequently, they are easily interpretable from the properties of the physical vectors they contain.Comment: This version contains added comments and typographical corrections to the original article. Now 27 pages, 0 figure

Fathers, Families, and the Future: A Plethora of Plausible Predictions

This commentary focuses on new directions in the study of fathers and families. Several topics that are ripe for more theoretical and empirical scrutiny are outlined. These include the biological determinants of fathering, cultural constraints on fathers, the impact of becoming a father on men’s development as adults, and an intergenerational perspective on fathering. The implications of the recent advances in our understanding of gay and lesbian parents for the critical nature of the father’s role in the family are examined. Finally, a wider range of methodological approaches—including qualitative as well as quantitative, experimental as well as correlational—is advocated in order to advance our appreciation of fathers in children’s lives

Negative experiences of non-drinking college students in Great Britain: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Research relating to alcohol use amongst university students primarily examines the effects of binge drinking. Researchers rarely focus on a range of drinking styles including light or non-drinking. This study was designed to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of female, first year UK undergraduates, who do not drink alcohol. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants. Narratives were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; by Smith and Osborn (Sage 51-80, 2003). Three superordinate themes were identified: managing the feeling that you don’t belong^ highlights the importance of managing social interactions as a non-drinker; experiencing social exclusion recognises the impact on social bonding as a result of insufficient socialising opportunities; and experiencing peer pressure and social stigma highlights the scrutiny and labelling participants endured. These findings provide an understanding of some of the difficulties experienced by these undergraduates as a result of their non-drinking status. Implications of this research are discussed and areas for future research are outlined

Peer-to-peer phone calls as a method of providing proactive and personalised support to enhance student engagement

Disruptive changes to the lives of students and running of universities, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has forced institutions to adapt their approaches to supporting students (Crawford et al., 2020; Frampton & Smithies, 2021). Student engagement has long been regarded by universities as an important indicator for other aspects of student success (Kahu, 2013), but with many varying approaches and definitions (Ashwin & Mcvitty, 2015). Furthermore, the potential involvement of current students to provide peer-to-peer support has received much attention in previous research (Stigmar, 2016; Raisanen et al., 2020; Ala et al., 2021). What has not been thoroughly investigated is how different communications channels, such as phone calls, can be utilised as methods to provide supportive interventions to students. This article provides insights into how supportive peer-to-peer phone interventions within a context of blended learning can have an impact on both students’ levels of engagement and their confidence levels. This was achieved through a mixed-methods approach utilising results of a student questionnaire, targeted at those who had received such supportive interventions, and a detailed analysis of student engagement and progression data. The results show that phone call interventions by peers can lead to increased short-term levels of student engagement, especially when targeted nearer the start of an academic year. Meanwhile, multiple phone call interventions throughout the year leads to a cumulative effect where students continue to see an increase in engagement beyond the months of individual interventions. It is only when students received multiple phone call interventions that they had a significantly higher likelihood to progress in their studies. The process of attempting to call, but not reaching, students also helps to identify students who are then likely to exhibit lower levels of engagement throughout the rest of the academic year. Students who received a phone call intervention reported increases in confidence levels and awareness of support. Almost nine in ten students reported taking at least one proactive action following their supportive call with a peer

The Relations between Parental Friendships and Children's Friendships: Self-Report and Observational Analysis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65697/1/1467-8624.00297.pd