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Social Circumstances (social + circumstance)
Selected AbstractsEquality of Opportunity and Differences in Social CircumstancesTHE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 216 2004Andrew Mason It is often supposed that the point of equality of opportunity is to create a level playing-field. This is understood in different ways, however. A common proposal is what I call the neutralization view: that people's social circumstances should not differentially affect their life chances in any serious way. I raise problems with this view, before developing an alternative conception of equal opportunity which allows some variations in social circumstances to create differences in life prospects. The meritocratic conception which I defend is grounded in the idea of respect for persons, and provides a less demanding interpretation of fair access to qualifications; it nevertheless places constraints on the behaviour of parents, and has implications for educational provision in schools. [source] A survey of female patients in high security psychiatric care in ScotlandCRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2001Dr Lindsay D.G. Thomson MD MPhil MRCPsych Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychiatry Honorary Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Background The State Hospital, Carstairs, is the sole high security psychiatric facility for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Method This study compares the female (n = 28) and male (n = 213) patients resident there between 1992 and 1993 using data derived from case-note reviews and interviews with patients and staff. Results Nearly three-quarters of both the male and female populations had a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia, and secondary diagnoses of substance abuse and antisocial personality disorder were common. Female patients were more frequently admitted from other psychiatric hospitals, had less serious index offences and more minor previous convictions, and were less likely to be subject to a restriction order. They had more often experienced depressive symptoms and had significantly greater histories of self-harm, physical and sexual abuse. At interview, nearly three-quarters had active delusions and over half had recently behaved in an aggressive manner. Almost 90% were said not to require the security of the State Hospital. Conclusions It was concluded that mental illness and adverse social circumstances had combined to create a very disadvantaged group of women in high security psychiatric care in Scotland. As a group these women were inappropriately placed and their requirement was for intensive, rather than high security psychiatric care. Copyright © 2001 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] GLOBAL BIOETHICS: UTOPIA OR REALITY?DEVELOPING WORLD BIOETHICS, Issue 2 2008SIRKKU K. HELLSTEN ABSTRACT This article discusses what ,global bioethics' means today and what features make bioethical research ,global'. The article provides a historical view of the development of the field of ,bioethics', from medical ethics to the wider study of bioethics in a global context. It critically examines the particular problems that ,global bioethics' research faces across cultural and political borders and suggests some solutions on how to move towards a more balanced and culturally less biased dialogue in the issues of bioethics. The main thesis is that we need to bring global and local aspects closer together, when looking for international guidelines, by paying more attention to particular cultures and local economic and social circumstances in reaching a shared understanding of the main values and principles of bioethics, and in building ,biodemocracy'. [source] Social functioning and communication in children with cerebral palsy: association with disease characteristics and personal and environmental factorsDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 5 2010JEANINE M VOORMAN Aim, The objective of this longitudinal study was to describe the course of social functioning and communication in children with cerebral palsy (CP) over a 3-year period, its difference with the normative course, and its relationship with disease characteristics and personal and environmental factors. Method, Participants in this study were 110 children with CP (70 males, 40 females) with a mean age of 11 years and 3 months (SD 1y 8mo). Social functioning and communication were measured with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Comparisons were made with normative data; data were analysed with generalized estimating equations. According to the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), 50 of the 110 children were categorized as GMFCS level I, 16 as level II, 13 as level III, 13 as level IV, and 18 as level V. Results, The course of social functioning over a 3-year period showed an increase in restrictions in children with CP (p<0.001). Restrictions in communication increased more in children with the most severe forms of CP (p<0.001). In addition to disease characteristics (GMFCS category, presence of epilepsy, and speech problems), personal factors (externalizing behaviour problems) and environmental factors (having no siblings, low parental level of education, and parental stress) were associated with greater restrictions in social functioning and communication. Interpretation, The results indicate that it is important to focus not only on the medical treatment of children with CP, but also on their behavioural problems and social circumstances, and to support the parents so that social functioning and communication in these children may be improved. [source] The oral health of street-recruited injecting drug users: prevalence and correlates of problemsADDICTION, Issue 11 2008Anne-Marie Laslett ABSTRACT Aims To examine the effects of a series of injecting drug users' (IDU) characteristics and drug use behaviours upon the self-reported oral health of a sample of IDU. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Melbourne, Australia. Participants A total of 285 IDU recruited through needle and syringe programmes, snowballing and outreach across six sites. Measurements Structured survey that collected information on current drug use patterns, self-reported blood-borne virus status and general health factors, including open-ended questions on past-year dental health problems. Findings Sixty-eight per cent of the sample reported dental problems that were commonly severe and caused dental pain. Despite these reported problems, almost half the sample had not visited the dentist in the 12 months prior to the survey. Participants who were older, and reported homelessness, not eating every day and more common injection of amphetamines rather than heroin in the previous month, were more likely to report having a past-year dental problem. Conclusions Dental problems in IDUs are common but few receive treatment. Further, those using amphetamines, with poor housing, hygiene and poor nutrition, are most at risk. Programmes designed to improve the oral health of IDU need to be developed and implemented in a manner amenable to the varying social circumstances of this marginalized group in the community. [source] Competences for Learning to Learn and Active Citizenship: different currencies or two sides of the same coin?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 1 2010BRYONY HOSKINS In the context of the European Union Framework of Key Competences and the need to develop indicators for European Union member states to measure progress made towards the ,knowledge economy' and ,greater social cohesion' both the learning to learn and the active citizenship competences have been highlighted. However, what have yet to be discussed are the links and the overlaps between these two competences. Based on the development of research projects on these two fields, this article will compare the two sets of competences, both qualitatively and quantitatively. It will describe how the values and dispositions that motivate and inform active citizenship and learning to learn are related to each other, both empirically and theoretically. Both these competences are tools for empowering individuals and giving them the motivation and autonomy to control their own lives beyond the social circumstances in which they find themselves. In the case of active citizenship, the ability to be able to participate in society and voice their concerns, ensure their rights and the rights of others. In the case of learning to learn to be able to participate in work and everyday life by being empowered to learn and update the constantly changing competences required to successfully manage your life plans. When measuring both these competences then certain values relating positively towards democracy and human rights are common in their development. [source] The introduction of social adaptation within evacuation modellingFIRE AND MATERIALS, Issue 4 2006S. Gwynne Abstract In recent history, a number of tragic events have borne a consistent message; the social structures that existed prior to and during the evacuation significantly affected the decisions made and the actions adopted by the evacuating population in response to the emergency. This type of influence over behaviour has long been neglected in the modelling community. This paper is an attempt to introduce some of these considerations into evacuation models and to demonstrate their impact. To represent this type of behaviour within evacuation models a mechanism to represent the membership and position within social hierarchies is established. In addition, individuals within the social groupings are given the capacity to communicate relevant pieces of data such as the need to evacuate,impacting the response time,and the location of viable exits,impacting route selection. Furthermore, the perception and response to this information is also affected by the social circumstances in which individuals find themselves. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Rainforests, Agriculture and Aboriginal Fire-Regimes in Wet Tropical Queensland, AustraliaGEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2000Rosemary Hill This paper challenges the hypothesis that Aboriginal fire-regimes in the coastal wet tropics of north Queensland have been responsible for significant rainforest decline in the past, and rejects the narrative that recent rainforest expansion is the result of the disappearance of Aboriginal people and their fire practices from the area. Mapping of vegetation in the Mossman district in c. 1890 from surveyors' plans, and in 1945 and 1991 from aerial photography demonstrates that the expansion of rainforest since 1945 represents a recovery following extensive rainforest destruction associated with sugar cane cultivation in the first 70 years of European occupation. Kuku-Yalanji Aboriginal people continued to occupy their traditional lands, and participated in the sugar industry, throughout this period. They adapted their fire management practices to the changed economic and social circumstances. Management of fire by the Kuku-Yalanji people prior to European occupation ensured the presence of extensive rainforest cover, whilst also providing access to fire-prone forests and their cultural resources. [source] Markers of ,Authentic Place'?HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2001Awards, Qualifications in the Analysis of Higher Education Systems, The Significance of Degrees Although the power to award degrees lies at the heart of the concept of a university, neither it nor degrees themselves have attracted much scholarly attention. The paper contends that award-conferment provides an interface of major importance between higher education and its environment; and that the awards themselves can serve as rich and informative (yet often coded) indicators of the relationship between the two. For awards to be seen in this way, the paper argues, two conditions are required: the conceptual independence of awards in their own right has to be recognised as entities distinct from courses of study; and instrumentalist views have to be sufficiently prevalent to make it meaningful to treat an award as specifying a set of purposes and intended outcomes (that is to say, as an ,end'potentially achievable by various ,means'). These conditions, it is suggested, only tend to arise in particular social circumstances, specifically those of mass higher education. Having illustrated these points by considering certain changes of usage in the terms used for higher education awards (degree, qualification, etc), the paper concludes with a tentative sketch of a framework by which to analyse the various ways in which awards might contribute to the workings of HE as a system. [source] The attitudes to ageing questionnaire (AAQ): development and psychometric propertiesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 4 2007K. Laidlaw Abstract Objective This paper describes the development of the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ) which is a self-report measure with which older people themselves can express their attitudes to the process of ageing. Method The development of the AAQ followed a coherent, logical and empirical process taking full account of relevant gerontological knowledge and modern and classical psychometric analytical methods. Pilot testing with 1,356 participants from 15 centres worldwide refined the scale and provided the basis for a field test. A total of 5,566 participants from 20 centres worldwide contributed to the further development of this new scale with the derivation involving both classical and modern psychometric methods. Results The result is a 24-item cross-cultural attitudes to ageing questionnaire consisting of a three-factor model encompassing psychological growth, psychosocial loss, and physical change. The three-factor model suggests a way of conceptualizing and measuring successful ageing in individuals. Conclusions The AAQ provides researchers, clinicians and policy makers with a unique scale to measure the impact of successful ageing interventions. It also provides a vehicle for the measurement of how individuals age across cultures and under different economic, political and social circumstances. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Writing About Defoe: What is a Critical Biography?LITERATURE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2006John Richetti This essay considers traditional biographical approaches to literary figures and examines the validity of the connections that literary biography claims to make between life events and an author's writings. Proposing several exemplary instances of critical biographies of Samuel Johnson by Lipking and De Maria that focus instead on an author's writing, the essay compares their approaches to the assumptions that guide two biographies of Daniel Defoe by Novak and Backscheider. The essay examines Defoe's life and writings to explore just how his personal life can be clearly related to the writing, concluding that not enough is known about his life to warrant a purely biographical approach. Instead, the essay outlines a critical-biographical method that focuses on Defoe's writing and its political and social circumstances. [source] Pain rate and social circumstances rather than cumulative organ damage determine the quality of life in adults with sickle cell disease,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEMATOLOGY, Issue 7 2010Charlotte F.J. van Tuijn First page of article [source] A Quest for Justice in Cuzco, Peru:Race and Evidence in the Case of Mercedes Ccorimanya LavillaPOLAR: POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Laura A. Bunt The life of Mercedes Ccorimanya Lavilla renders a telling portrait of the pursuit of justice in Cuzco, Peru, revealing how courts of law can be key sites in the production and negotiation of racial and gender taxonomies. Mercedes (who was gang-raped as a young woman) illustrates the near-heroic efforts necessary to mount and pursue rape charges in Peruvian courts, where rape victims largely manage the construction of evidence in lieu of the state. In the following article, I reconstruct the social circumstances and legal institutional setting surrounding the rape trial of Mercedes Ccorimanya Lavilla through the use of historical and ethnographic materials. In arguing that race mutually defines women's sexuality in rural Peru, I show how (in order to achieve a conviction) Mercedes had to develop a strategy in which she instrumentally employed the languages of race to distance herself from her own indigeneity, as well as that of her alleged attackers. [source] Nontherapeutic Male Circumcision: Tackling the Difficult IssuesTHE JOURNAL OF SEXUAL MEDICINE, Issue 8 2009Caryn L. Perera BA (Lib & Info Mgt), Grad Cert EBP ABSTRACT Introduction., Male circumcision is the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the world. Circumcision may be performed to treat an underlying pathological process ("therapeutic circumcision"). However there may be religious, cultural, and social indications. Aim., This article addresses the religious, cultural, social, and ethical issues surrounding nontherapeutic male circumcision (NTMC). Main Outcome Measures., Any religious, social, cultural, or ethical issues relating to NTMC. Methods., Because of the absence of high level evidence, a concise literature review was undertaken to identify articles published between January 1990 and February 2009 summarizing current knowledge on NTMC. Results., There are complex religious, cultural, social, and prophylactic incentives for NTMC. The procedure may have associated clinical and psychosocial adverse events and raises such ethical issues as bodily integrity and consent. Because of the strength of the incentives for NTMC, there may be important implications in denying patients the procedure. Several important issues must be considered when introducing mass circumcision as a preventative strategy for HIV/AIDS. Conclusion., When assessing whether NTMC will benefit or harm a patient, clinicians must take his religious, cultural, and social circumstances into account. Males requiring mandatory religious or cultural NTMC are likely to suffer significant harm if they do not receive circumcision and should be considered separately to males in general. Perera CL, Bridgewater FHG, Thavaneswaran P, and Maddern GJ. Nontherapeutic male circumcision: Tackling the difficult issues. J Sex Med 2009;6:2237,2243. [source] Equality of Opportunity and Differences in Social CircumstancesTHE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 216 2004Andrew Mason It is often supposed that the point of equality of opportunity is to create a level playing-field. This is understood in different ways, however. A common proposal is what I call the neutralization view: that people's social circumstances should not differentially affect their life chances in any serious way. I raise problems with this view, before developing an alternative conception of equal opportunity which allows some variations in social circumstances to create differences in life prospects. The meritocratic conception which I defend is grounded in the idea of respect for persons, and provides a less demanding interpretation of fair access to qualifications; it nevertheless places constraints on the behaviour of parents, and has implications for educational provision in schools. [source] Premature death among teenage mothersBJOG : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 8 2004Petra Otterblad Olausson Objective Some data suggest an association between teenage childbearing and premature death. Whether this possible increase in risk is associated with social circumstances before or after childbirth is not known. We studied premature death in relation to age at first birth, social background and social situation after first birth. Design Population-based cohort study. Setting Women born in Sweden registered in the 1985 Swedish Population Census. Population Swedish women born 1950,1964 who had their first infant before the age of 30 years (N= 460,434). Methods Information on the women's social background and social situation after first birth was obtained from Population Censuses. The women were followed up with regard to cause of death from December 1, 1990 to December 31, 1995. Mortality rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Main outcome measures Mortality rates by cause of death. Results Independent of socio-economic background, teenage mothers faced an increased risk of premature death later in life compared with older mothers (rate ratio 1.6, 95% CI 1.4,1.9). The increased risk was most evident for deaths from cervical cancer, lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease, suicide, inflicted violence and alcohol-related diseases. Some, but not all, of these increases in risk were associated with the poorer social position of teenagers mothers. Conclusions Teenage mothers, independent of socio-economic background, face an increased risk of premature death. Strategies to reduce teenage childbearing are likely to contribute to improved maternal and infant health. [source] School breakfast clubs, children and family support,CHILDREN & SOCIETY, Issue 2 2003Ian Shemilt School breakfast clubs are a form of before school provision serving breakfast to children who arrive early. This paper explores their potential to provide support for families at risk of social exclusion. A national evaluation of a Department of Health pilot initiative suggests that their provision can afford valued support to families coping with varying degrees of difficulty in their material, environmental, relational and social circumstances. Many parents regarded clubs as successful in encouraging children to eat breakfast, reducing pressures in the morning and providing an additional source of affordable, trusted child care to those in work, studying or seeking employment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||