A Good Night Out: An Investigation into Alcohol Related Consumption and Behaviour Cultures in Young Adults

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate drinking patterns; attitudes towards alcohol consumption and alcohol related behaviours amongst differing groups of young adults. A further aim is to investigate whether the drinking behaviours of undergraduate populations can be considered to be representative of young adult behaviours in general. Design/methodology/ approach – Four groups of young adult alcohol consumers were identified. The participants in the first two groups were aged between 18 and 23, one group being undergraduates and the second non-graduates in work. Participants in the second two groups were aged between 24 and 29, one group comprising graduates in work, the second non-graduates in work. 120 questionnaires were completed; thirty in each sample group, with an even gender distribution. Follow up one-to-one interviews were carried out with representatives from each group. Findings – Although a small study it is evident that whilst there are some similarities in behaviours between the differing sample groups significant differences in alcohol related behaviours dominate. Practical Implications – The results suggest that utilising the results of research carried out amongst student populations to inform government policies with regard to the behaviour of young adults in general is unlikely to be successful in changing drinking behaviours. Originality value – This paper produces new insights into current drinking cultures and attitudes towards drinking in differing groups of young adults. Specifically it compares behavioural norms between graduate and non-graduate populations challenging much current research which is based upon student samples as being representative of the young adult population as a whole

The legal capacity of child-headed households

Article by Graham Ritchie setting out thoughts for a discussion topic for a multi-disciplinary group, aiming not at legal theory but at a signpost for the direction of work to be undertaken by the IALS; the Child Rights Unit of the Department of Law, Free State University, South Africa; and the National University of Lesotho. The article was published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Parents: Discipline, punishment and child abuse. A four decade study of child rearing attitudes and practices

Child abuse has been very much in the news recently. Each time a child dies because of it, there is much publicity, much media soul-searching, numerous pronouncements from spokespeople but there is little change. Parental use of physical punishment and child abuse are inextricably linked, and the only sure and certain way to save children from abuse is to prevent parents from striking their children (Straus 2000)

Dads: Delights, desires and difficulties: A discussion of changes over the last 40 years in fathers' roles, attitudes and practices

In this paper I discuss changes over the last forty years in fathers' roles, attitudes and practices. In general, fathers are more positive about their role and spend more time with their infants and four year olds. They now talk more with their mates about being a father, and are more likely to give equal importance to their partner's job. However, job pressures mean that they have difficulty balancing their priorities between work and home. Clearly, fathering is being taken seriously by the nineties fathers who feel a conflict between earning a living and spending more time with their children

Trident: What is it For? Challenging the Relevance of British Nuclear Weapons

YesThis briefing paper is the second in a series to be published during 2007 and 2008 as part of the Bradford Disarmament Research Centre¿s programme on Nuclear-Armed Britain: A Critical Examination of Trident Modernisation, Implications and Accountability

Logic and reasoning in jokes

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Commentary: Women’s violence to children

Feminists often feel uncomfortable about talking about, or even acknowledging, women's violence, whether it be women's violence to men, women's violence to other women, or women's violence to children. It is now generally recognised that women can be violent to their male partners, but that women's violence is often in self-defence, and does not usually result in the same degree of hurt and injury as does men's violence to women. As someone who, for many years, has been concerned about parental use of physical punishment, I have long been aware that women can also be violent towards their children

New Zealand families: Child-rearing practices and attitudes

Traditionally, the study of families has been the domain of sociology rather than of psychology. For sociologists the family is an important ‘institution’ because it is a key social structure that shapes the way society is organised. More recently psychology has been developing an interest in families

Leading the transformation of learning and praxis in science classrooms

Individual science teachers who have inspired colleagues to transform their classroom praxis have been labelled transformational leaders. As the notion of distributed leadership became more accepted in the educational literature, the focus on the individual teacher-leader shifted to the study of leadership praxis both by individuals (whoever they might be) and by collectives within schools and science classrooms. This review traces the trajectory of leadership research, in the context of learning and teaching science, from an individual focus to a dialectical relationship between individual and collective praxis. The implications of applying an individual-collective perspective to praxis for teachers, students and their designated leaders are discussed