The Moderating Role of Spirituality in the Association between Stress and Substance Use among Adolescents: Differences by Gender

Adolescents are exposed to various stressors that may increase the risk for substance use. Due to the detrimental, and potentially long-lasting, effects related to substance use, it is necessary to explore more optimal coping strategies. This study explored the association between substance use and stress among male and female high school students in relation to spirituality as a moderator. To examine these relationships, the study used cross-sectional data collected from 27,874 high school students (Male?=?50.7%, Female?=?49.3%) across 58 high schools in Maryland that included an ethnically diverse sample (49% Caucasian, 30% African American) with an average age of 16 years old. Bivariate results showed differences in substance use, stress, and spirituality between male and female students. Higher rates of substance use were generally found among male students compared to female students; rates tended to be higher among female students for stress and spirituality compared to their male counterparts. Multilevel analyses indicated a positive association between stress and substance use among male and female students after adjusting for demographic and school-level factors. Both male and female students who reported turning to spiritual beliefs when experiencing problems were less likely to use substances. However, the interaction between stress and spirituality was significant for males only. These findings suggest that stress may increase the propensity for substance use and that spirituality might be a viable coping mechanism useful for helping high school students adapt to stressful circumstances and situations.     

Are savings groups a livelihoods game changer for young people in Africa?

The triad of entrepreneurship, self-employment, and financial inclusion underpins policy and development interventions meant to address the youth employment challenge in Africa. Youth savings groups are being widely promoted as a first step toward financial inclusion and economic empowerment. This article reports on the links between income-generating activities of 57 members of youth savings groups in Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Ghana, and their membership in savings groups. It concludes that while savings groups can help to facilitate operational expenses and cash flow – and thus support members’ micro-enterprises – in opportunity starved contexts their transformational potential is probably being oversold.     

Economic Interests and Threat Assessment in the US Congress, 1890–1914

Why do some domestic actors see the international environment as a threatening place populated by untrustworthy powers, when others find opportunities for peaceful cooperation in the same conditions? Because these actors confront the same international environment, the reasons for their divergent evaluations must rest on differences in their own beliefs and interests. In this article, we consider the impact of societal interests in trade and trade protection on elite assessments of the international environment. We examine evaluations of the international environment in speeches given in the US Congress during naval appropriations debates between 1890 and 1914. The manufacturing sector’s interest in trade protection led political leaders who represented manufacturing regions to offer more negative assessments of the international environment, while those representing export-oriented agricultural areas of the country gave more positive evaluations. These effects were roughly comparable to those associated with party, as well as individual-level characteristics, such as having served as a military officer.     

Feminist Studies of Globalisation: Beyond Gender,Beyond Economism?

This article offers a distinctive mapping of the feminist literature on globalisation. Part I sets the “new wave” of debate in the context of long-standing feminist theorising and organisation around global power and politics, drawing attention to a growing focus on economic processes. Part II explores the marginalisation of feminist arguments within globalisation studies, pointing to the dominance of an economistic model of globalisation as a key factor. It also identifies a parallel feminist tendency to neglect non-feminist efforts to develop non-economistic analyses of globalisation. Part III seeks to pinpoint the originality of the contribution of feminism. Although the most obvious starting point for such an evaluation is an emphasis upon gender, the feminist contribution is not reducible to this. Feminists have integrated gender analyses into accounts of multiple, intersecting relations of global power. They also offer distinctive analyses of the relation between the local and the global and the character of agency and resistance. The article indicates that the feminist response to economism still remains incomplete. Nonetheless, it demonstrates that feminist insights pose a significant challenge to non-feminist accounts of globalisation and to those organising within and against global power relations.