Ethnolinguistic Identity and Youth Activity Involvement in a Sample of Minority Canadian Francophone Youth

Problem Gambling Risk Among Older Francophones in Ontario Canada: Surprising Results that Contradict Previous Findings of Gambling in Minority Groups

Gambling is a popular activity among older adults. Despite this increase in popularity little research has examined gambling among this group. This is especially true for minority older adults, like Francophones in Ontario. The purpose of this study was to better understand gambling in a sample of older Francophones from North-Eastern Ontario, the first study to do so. A sample of 181 older (over 55 years) Francophones from Northeastern Ontario (M age = 68.7, SD 7.6) was recruited. This sample was compared to a sample of older adults with English as their native language that had been previously collected (Norris and Tindale in The meaning of gambling among Ontario seniors in small and rural communities, Final report to the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre, 2006; Tindale and Norris in Gambling among intergenerational and multi-ethnic families, Final report to the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre, 2012). In addition to demographic measures the participants filled out a questionnaire that included measures of gambling behaviours and attitudes the Windsor Screen, The Problem Gambling Severity Index of the Canadian Problem Gambling Inventory, The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the CAGE Alcohol Screen. Contrary to expectations, the Francophone sample had lower scores on the problem gambling measures with a smaller proportion of the sample in the categories indicating a high risk for problem gambling. This surprising result might be due to the protective effect of a positive ethnolinguistic identity. However, more research will need to be done to better understand these unanticipated results. The findings of this study help us better understand gambling among older adults in a minority group.

Breadth and intensity: salient, separable, and developmentally significant dimensions of structured youth activity involvement

In recent years, an impressive volume of evidence has accumulated demonstrating that youth involvement in structured, organized activities (e.g. school sports, community clubs) may facilitate positive youth development. We present a theory-based framework for studying structured activity involvement (SAI) as a context for positive youth development based on two key dimensions: breadth and intensity of involvement. Our main goal is to demonstrate the separability, salience, and developmental significance of these two dimensions. We review three developmental theoretical approaches (identity development, life-span selection-optimization-compensation theory, and affordances) that support our conceptualization of breadth and intensity as salient and significant dimensions of SAI. We also summarize our recent program of research on SAI demonstrating the separability of breadth and intensity dimensions, which shows links between these dimensions and indicators of positive development. Finally, we discuss how the proposed breadth-intensity approach could be used to extend research on the linkage between youth SAI and successful development.