			Home About us Contact

Community Attitudes (community + attitude)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	33%
Medical Sciences	25%

Selected Abstracts

Adoption, Family Ideology, and Social Stigma: Bias in Community Attitudes, Adoption Research, and Practice

FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2000
Katarina Wegar
This article explores the impact of the dominant North American genetic family ideal on community attitudes toward adoption, on adoption research, and on the beliefs and attitudes of adoption case workers. It examines how the failure to recognize the stigmatized social position of adoptive families has shaped not only current public opinion about adoption, but adoption research and practice as well. In conclusion, the article offers suggestions for erasing negative bias from adoption research and practice. [source]

SPECIAL SECTION: EVALUATION OF THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN CANNABIS INFRINGEMENT NOTICE SCHEME,PHASE 1: Community attitudes towards cannabis law and the proposed Cannabis Infringement Notice scheme in Western Australia

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 4 2005
JAMES FETHERSTON
Abstract Western Australia (WA) became the fourth Australian jurisdiction to adopt a prohibition with civil penalties scheme for minor cannabis offences when its Cannabis Infringement Notice (CIN) scheme became law on 22 March 2004. Previous criminological research has demonstrated the importance of public attitudes towards the law in determining the effectiveness of legislation. This survey represents the first phase of a pre-post study that attempted to gauge public attitudes towards the legal status of cannabis, the proposed legislative reforms surrounding the drug and their likely effects. A random telephone survey of 809 members of the WA population was conducted prior to the implementation of the new laws with a view to exploring contemporary views of the existing legal status of cannabis, attitudes to the proposed legislative model and respondent perceptions of its likely effects. Despite cannabis being viewed negatively by large numbers of the sample, criminal penalties for minor cannabis offences were viewed as inappropriate and ineffective. Once explained, the proposed civil penalty scheme was viewed as ,a good idea' by 79% of the sample, despite significant differences due to personal experience of cannabis use, political affiliation, religiosity and age of offspring. Most believed that the legislative change would not result in changes to levels of cannabis use (70%) or ease of obtaining cannabis (59%). These data suggest that prior to its implementation the new legislation was highly acceptable to the majority of the community. These baseline data will be compared with data to be collected at the post-change phase of the study to allow empirical observations of attitudinal and behavioural changes occurring in the community. [source]

Public opinion on needle and syringe programmes: avoiding assumptions for policy and practice

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 4 2007
CARLA TRELOAR
Abstract Despite evidence for their effectiveness, harm reduction services such as needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) are highly vulnerable to perceptions of community disapproval. This paper reviews Australian research on community attitudes to harm reduction services and its impact on research, policy and practice. The literature on community attitudes to NSPs in Australia comprises a small number of representative national samples and surveys of local communities affected by specific services. Despite these extremely limited data, negative community attitudes are often cited by policy-makers and health professionals as a primary constraint on policy-making. The main finding of this literature review is that community perceptions of NSPs are largely positive. Also, support for NSPs was not synonymous with condoning drug use. The failure of policy-makers and politicians to recognise positive community attitudes to NSPs has led in some instances to hasty political responses to adverse media reports, including the closure of services. This literature review showing positive community attitudes to harm reduction services should embolden researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to challenge such reactionary responses. Further, this evidence should be used in countering negative publicity surrounding these services. [Treloar C, Fraser S. Public opinion on needle and syringe programmes: avoiding assumptions for policy and practice. Drug Alcohol Rev 2007;26:355,361] [source]

Adoption, Family Ideology, and Social Stigma: Bias in Community Attitudes, Adoption Research, and Practice

Host community attitudes toward tourism and cultural tourism development: the case of the Lewes District, southern England

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 1 2006
Brent W. Ritchie
Abstract Increasingly research is being conducted on host community attitudes toward tourism. However, few studies have been conducted at a regional level and none have examined the attitudes of the host community towards both tourism and cultural tourism development. This paper outlines a study conducted in the Lewes District of southern England and notes that although residents are generally supportive of tourism development and cultural tourism development, there are differences in opinion concerning the perceived economic and social benefits. In particular, levels of income and proximity to the tourist centre were major influencing factors. Conclusions and recommendations are made concerning the need for tourism planners to distribute the benefits more widely and to engage residents from different socio-economic groups and localities in tourism planning and development activities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Welfare, Premarital Childbearing, and the Role of Normative Climate: 1968,1994

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 2 2002
Amy C. Butler
Nationally representative, longitudinal survey data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were used to examine the conditions under which welfare benefit levels affected the likelihood that low-income women age 15,24 bore their first child prior to marriage. Benefit levels had a positive effect on premarital childbearing during the 1980s and early 1990s but not during the 1970s or late 1960s. The effect of benefit levels was also stronger where community attitudes toward premarital sex were more tolerant than where attitudes were less tolerant, but this did not account for the varying effect of benefit levels over time. The study introduces a new way of measuring normative climate using attitudinal data from the General Social Surveys. [source]

Alcohol Use Among Rural Middle School Students: Adolescents, Parents, Teachers, and Community Leaders' Perceptions*

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 2 2009
Laura DeHaan PhD
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND:, Although rural adolescents use of alcohol is at some of the highest rates nationally, rural adolescent alcohol use has not been studied extensively. This study examines how community attitudes and behaviors are related to adolescent drinking in rural environments. METHODS:, Data were gathered in 22 rural communities in the Upper Midwest (North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming). Surveys were collected from 1424 rural sixth- to eighth-grade adolescents and 790 adults, including parents, teachers, and community leaders. Census data were also collected. RESULTS:, Drinkers differed from nondrinkers by the following factors: higher perceptions of peer, parental, and overall community drinking, as well as lower levels of parental closeness and religiosity. Factors distinguishing binge and nonbinge drinkers were increased drinking to reduce stress, drinking to fit in, perceptions of peer drinking, and perceived lack of alternatives to drinking. Parents were significantly less likely to perceive adolescent alcohol use as a problem than other community adults; school officials were most likely to perceive it as a problem. Parental perceptions were also the least correlated to actual adolescent use, while adolescent perceptions were the most highly correlated. CONCLUSIONS:, Community fac tors such as overall prevalence of drinking, community support, and controls against drinking are important predictors of reported use in early adolescence. School officials were more likely to view adolescent alcohol use as a problem than were parents. School officials' perceptions of adolescent use were also more related to actual adolescent use than were parental perceptions of adolescent use. [source]

Urban-Rural Differences in Motivation to Control Prejudice Toward People With HIV/AIDS: The Impact of Perceived Identifiability in the Community

THE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2008
Janice Yanushka Bunn PhD
ABSTRACT:,Context:HIV/AIDS is occurring with increasing frequency in rural areas of the United States, and people living with HIV/AIDS in rural communities report higher levels of perceived stigma than their more urban counterparts. The extent to which stigmatized individuals perceive stigma could be influenced, in part, by prevailing community attitudes. Differences between rural and more metropolitan community members' attitudes toward people with HIV/AIDS, however, have rarely been examined. Purpose: This study investigated motivation to control prejudice toward people with HIV/AIDS among non-infected residents of metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural areas of rural New England. Methods: A total of 2,444 individuals were identified through a random digit dialing sampling scheme, and completed a telephone interview to determine attitudes and concerns about a variety of health issues. Internal or external motivation to control prejudice was examined using a general linear mixed model approach, with independent variables including age, gender, community size, and perceived indentifiability within one's community. Findings: Results showed that community size, by itself, was not related to motivation to control prejudice. However, there was a significant interaction between community size and community residents' perceptions about the extent to which people in their communities know who they are. Conclusion: Our results indicate that residents of rural areas, in general, may not show a higher level of bias toward people with HIV/AIDS. The interaction between community size and perceived identifiability, however, suggests that motivation to control prejudice, and potentially the subsequent expression of that prejudice, is more complex than originally thought. [source]

Community cooperation with natural flood management: a case study in the Scottish Borders

AREA, Issue 3 2009
Olivia Ruth Howgate
The cooperation of communities and landowners in the upper catchment is vital for the successful implementation of natural flood management (NFM) projects as few incentives are in place to reward them to host such projects. The aim of this paper is to initiate an exploration of the issues that affect a community's decision to cooperate. The results of a case study in Scotland show that willingness to cooperate is affected by concern about alternative flood management techniques, a sense of responsibility to help connected communities at risk of flooding and the expectation of beneficial impacts from the project. Indeed, these issues appeared to over-ride the hostility generated towards the project as a result of poor communication and engagement with the community from organisations associated with the proposed project. The results of the research suggest that if NFM projects are to proliferate, close attention must be paid to community attitudes towards flood management and related communities at risk, and that NFM projects must be developed and implemented according to well-established principles of public participation. [source]

Environmental tobacco smoke in homes, motor vehicles and licensed premises: community attitudes and practices

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 6 2002
Raoul A. Walsh
Objective: To assess community knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) especially in homes, private motor vehicles and licensed premises, and to document levels of support for further government legislation. Methods: 656 persons aged 18 years and over, a sub-sample in a computer-assisted telephone survey of 2,087 randomly selected respondents across NSW, answered 12 ETS-specific questions The whole sample was asked demographic, smoking status and household membership questions. The overall response rate was 61.4% (consent rate 75.4%). Results: Overall, 32.8% (95% CI 27.8,37.8) of children aged 0,4 years in the households surveyed were reported to live with at least one smoker. Agreement about ETS hazards was lowest in relation to child ear problems (31.2%) and sudden infant death syndrome (50.6%). Complete bans on smoking were reported in 69.9% of homes and 77.1% of private motor vehicles The percentages favouring total bans in homes (p<0.001) and private motor vehicles (p<0.001) were significantly lower among smokers than non-smokers. Overall, 55.8% supported legislation to ban smoking in private vehicles carrying children. The majority support restrictions on smoking in non-eating areas of licensed clubs (88.7%) and hotels (84.8%). Overall, the data indicate a ban on smoking in licensed premises is likely to increase business. Conclusion: Smoking is banned in most NSW homes and private motor vehicles Acceptance of ETS risks is high but there are important knowledge gaps. Considerable support exists for further government regulation of ETS. Media campaigns are likely to reinforce a public environment already receptive of the need for more government ETS restrictions. [source]