Meditation in Prison

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine M. Auty
Keyword(s):  
Substance Misuse ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Wellbeing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Vipassana Meditation ◽  
Prison Studies

In recent years interest in the use of meditation programs in prison has grown considerably, yet empirical research evidence for their effectiveness has been slower to accumulate. This chapter explores the application of meditation programs that take place within prison walls and evaluates their effectiveness in three key areas: (i) mental health and psychological wellbeing; (ii) substance misuse; (iii) and reoffending behavior. Evidence from prison studies, most of them conducted in the USA, is reviewed with a focus on their effectiveness. The philosophical and historical context of meditation is taken into account, and key concepts and definitions are critiqued. The chapter explores the meditation practices that are most often found in prison, such as Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness, and Vipassana meditation. It examines meditation’s role as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of substance misuse disorders and more general applications that aim to enhance well-being. The limitations of current studies together with directions for future research are also discussed.

scholarly journals Defining a research agenda for youth sport specialisation in the USA: the AMSSM Youth Early Sport Specialization Summit

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Stephanie A Kliethermes ◽  
Stephen W Marshall ◽  
Cynthia R LaBella ◽  
Andrew M Watson ◽  
Joel S Brenner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Youth Sport ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Medical Society ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Usa

Sport specialisation is becoming increasingly common among youth and adolescent athletes in the USA and many have raised concern about this trend. Although research on sport specialisation has grown significantly, numerous pressing questions remain pertaining to short-term and long-term effects of specialisation on the health and well-being of youth, including the increased risk of overuse injury and burnout. Many current elite athletes did not specialise at an early age. Methodological and study design limitations impact the quality of current literature, and researchers need to prioritise pressing research questions to promote safe and healthy youth sport participation. The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine hosted a Youth Early Sport Specialization Summit in April 2019 with the goal of synthesising and reviewing current scientific knowledge and developing a research agenda to guide future research in the field based on the identified gaps in knowledge. This statement provides a broad summary of the existing literature, gaps and limitations in current evidence and identifies key research priorities to help guide researchers conducting research on youth sport specialisation. Our goals are to help improve the quality and relevance of research on youth sport specialisation and to ultimately assure that opportunities for healthy and safe sport participation continue for all youth.

scholarly journals Resilience and disaster research

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-547
Author(s):  
Helena Bakić
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Mental Health Disorder ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
The Individual

Disasters pose a significant threat to the long-term well-being of individuals, communities and societies. Therefore, studying resilience, defined as the process of maintaining and recovering psychological well-being after adversity, is crucial for disaster preparedness and mitigation. The aims of this paper are to summarize the historical context of resilience research, present the key concepts, discuss current measurement approaches and propose future research directions. Key determinants of resilience - risk, positive adaptation and resources - are discussed with the focus on studies of adults affected by disasters. This narrative review demonstrates that research up to date has focused mostly on finding the individual characteristics that predict the absence of psychopathology or mental health disorder symptoms, while other types of resources or dynamic relations between key aspects of resilience have been neglected. Future studies should aim to include multiple measurement points, high- and low-risk groups, long-term follow-up and broader perspectives on both psychological well-being and potential resources.

Online networking and employee engagement: what current leaders do?

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 582-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawel Korzynski
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Online Social Networking ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Usa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine the role of online networks in employee engagement and to analyze the factors influencing leaders’ involvement in online social networking. Design/methodology/approach – The study’s participants included team leaders, managers and directors working in Fortune 500 companies in the USA. Data were collected through structured surveys delivered through LinkedIn, professional online networking platform to randomly selected users with leadership roles. Totally, 194 matched questionnaires were returned. Findings – The results indicate that employee engagement is positively associated with the time leaders spend on internal online networking platforms, the code of online networking conduct, and the presence of an open-organizational culture. Furthermore, the study shows that organizations can influence leaders’ use of online social networking platforms through an open culture and training. Finally, the findings also indicate that leaders, who communicate with a higher percentages of employees through internal and external platforms, also spend more time on online social networking platforms than those who do not. Surprisingly, a hierarchical structure and the code of conduct are not an indicator of the number of hours that leaders spend on online networking platforms. Research limitations/implications – The study has three main limitations. First, it was conducted among leaders working in companies from the Fortune 500 list, because the majority of these companies have already implemented internal networking platforms, which are not yet popular in small and medium enterprises (SME). In the future, companies from the SME sector are also worth studying. Second, the study was undertaken among leaders from the USA, because most of the online networking platforms were developed there and then adopted in other countries. Online networking trends in other countries are also very interesting topics for study in future research projects. Third, the quality of the time leaders spend on online platforms should also be examined in future studies. Practical implications – The next generation of leaders should pay increasing attention to online social networking platforms so as to be more effective in fostering employees’ social and emotional well-being. Organizations that seek ways to facilitate involvement among their leaders in internal online networking, need to organize training and support leaders and employees in the use of online networking platforms. Social implications – The use of online social networking platforms change the way people communicate with others and how companies can use online social networking for the social well-being of their employees. Originality/value – This research provides a new look at employee engagement in the current working environment as well as organizational features fostering leaders’ involvement in online networking.

scholarly journals PREPARATION FOR FUTURE IN OLD AGE: WHY AND WHY NOT?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S749-S749
Author(s):  
Helene H Fung
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Older Chinese ◽  
Using Data

Abstract With population aging, many people can expect to spend 30 or more years in old age. The five papers included in this symposium aim at shedding light on whether and how to make plans for old age, using data from the “Aging as Future” Project. First, Park and Hess used data spanning across adulthood from Germany, Hong Kong and the USA to examine how changes experienced in domains of functioning and the importance attached to these domains influenced preparations for old age. Next, de Paula Couto and Rothermund, examining Germans aged 40-90 years, pointed out that prescriptive age stereotypes might be the main drive for why people make preparations for age-related changes. The remaining three papers use qualitative data to qualify the above quantitative findings. Adamson and Ekerdt interviewed older Midwest US residents. They observed that SES greatly impacted how older adults perceived and made plans for their future. The final two papers examined how rural vs. urban contexts might affect preparations for future. Liou interviewed older adults in rural Tainan and found that their ideal old age was one about no future preparation, at least not about making plans for themselves (called “tranquil life”). Ho and colleagues, in contrast, found that for older Chinese residing in urban Hong Kong, not preparing for the future (called “time freeze”) was negatively related to physical and psychological well-being. The symposium will end with an overall discussion on future research directions on whether and how to make plans for old age.

scholarly journals A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of Mindfulness and Meditation Research from 1900 to 2021

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 13150
Author(s):  
Yuzheng Wang ◽  
Lingqiu Liao ◽  
Xiaoxiao Lin ◽  
Yabin Sun ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
Citation Index ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Knowledge Map ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
The Usa

This study comprehensively summarizes research in the field of meditation, especially mindfulness meditation from 1900 to 2021, by analyzing the knowledge map through CiteSpace and VOSviewer software. Using “mindfulness *” or “meditation *” as the topic, articles included in the Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index were searched in the web of science core database, resulting in the selection of 19,752 articles. Over half a century ago, Deikman published the field’s first article in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease in 1963, and publications have soared in subsequent decades. The USA is in the core position in terms of global collaboration, total publication numbers, and total citations. The Mindfulness journal ranked first for the most published articles and citations. “The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being,” written by Brown and Ryan, was the most cited article. Mindfulness, meditation, depression, intervention, stress reduction, stress, and anxiety are the top co-occurrence keywords. The timeline of cluster analysis discloses that before 2010, hypertension, cancer, mindfulness, generalized anxiety disorder, and other topics received great attention. In the decade since 2010, scholars have shown interest in meta-analysis, attention, and self-assessment, and keen attention to mindfulness-based interventions. These findings provide an important foundation to direct future research.

scholarly journals Managing Volunteer Retirement among Older Adults: Perspectives of Volunteer Administrators

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Allison R. Russell ◽  
Melissa A. Heinlein Storti ◽  
Femida Handy
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Succession Planning ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Volunteer Management ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Older Volunteers ◽  
New Challenges

A large body of quantitative evidence demonstrates a link between volunteering and improved well-being, especially among older adults. Yet the research evidence pointing to the purported benefits of volunteering does not adequately address the unique experiences of older volunteers, nor does it address the ways in which working with them impacts the work of volunteer administrators. As the proportion of those aged 65 and older increases, older adults are poised to play an even greater role as volunteers than ever before, representing both unparalleled opportunity and potential new challenges for volunteer administrators. One such challenge includes how to manage older adults’ decisions to withdraw or retire from volunteering, which has an impact on the succession planning of the volunteer workforce. This article presents the results of a recent survey of volunteer administrators who share current policies and perspectives about volunteer retirement. These practitioner viewpoints provide important insights for both volunteer management and future research.

Measuring Meaning in Life in South Africa: Validation of an Instrument Developed in the USA

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremias J. de Klerk ◽  
Adré B. Boshoff ◽  
René van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Covariance Structure ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The South ◽  
Psychometric Instruments ◽  
The Usa ◽  
African Sample

Investigations into the construct of meaning in life is an important focus area of psychological research. Research has consistently shown a sense of meaning in life to be a significant correlate of mental health and well-being. Most of this research on meaning in life is conducted worldwide with instruments developed in North America. However, inter-cultural measurement of psychological constructs is a concern, as psychometric instruments in one culture are not necessarily transferable to different cultures. In this case study, we examine whether the Life Regard Index (LRI), developed in the USA and a popular scale for measuring meaning in life, is transferable to a sample from South Africa. The results confirm the construct validity of the LRI, but indicate that the LRI's factor structure has changed and two of the original 28 items were not part of the covariance structure. From these results, we conclude that the LRI is transferable to the South African sample, but not irrespectively and without adjustments. It should be used as a one-dimensional instrument with only 26 items before applying it to the South African sample. The study provides evidence that LRI, which was developed in the USA and became a popular instrument for measuring meaning in life, cannot be transferred indiscriminately to a South African sample. This insight contributes to the quality of future research studies in South Africa, not only on the important aspect of life meaning, but also when applying other psychometric instruments developed elsewhere.

Sport for women in later life.

2021 ◽  
pp. 36-46
Author(s):  
Toni Liechty ◽  
Stephanie West ◽  
Jill Juris ◽  
Julie Son ◽  
Jen D. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Women's Sport ◽  
The Usa ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Historically, older women have faced constraints to participation in organized sport due, in part, to age and gender stereotypes, and a social discourse that later life is characterized by decline and frailty. Recent years have seen a small but growing increase in sport participation and interest among older women, which provides opportunities to foster health and well-being for this group. This chapter provides historical context for understanding women's sport in the USA and synthesizes the literature related to older women's participation in sport to include benefits, motivations, and societal implications. It discusses relevant theories and models that can aid scholars in understanding and studying women's sport in later life. Finally, it discusses implications for practice including the importance of facilitating sport participation for older women (in terms of public health and social justice), as well as recommendations for professionals who are seeking to facilitate effective and efficient programmes.

scholarly journals Acculturation, economics and food insecurity among refugees resettled in the USA: a case study of West African refugees

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Hadley ◽  
Ariel Zodhiates ◽  
Daniel W Sellen
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
West African ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
African Refugees ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Health And Well Being

AbstractObjectivesTo assess the occurrence and severity of food insecurity, and examine associations between food insecurity and measures of socio-economic status and indicators of acculturation.DesignStructured interviews among a non-probability sample of West African refugees at baseline and 6 months' follow-up.SettingMid-sized city in north-eastern USA.SubjectsOne hundred and one caregivers with children under the age of 5 years and who have been living the USA for fewer than 4 years.ResultsFood insecurity was indicated in approximately half of households (53%). The occurrence of food insecurity was associated with measures of socio-economic status such as income, employment status and participation in the Food Stamp Program (P < 0.05). Measures of acculturation such as difficulty in the shopping environment and language difficulty were also associated with the occurrence and severity of food insecurity, as was time lived in the USA (P < 0.05). Among households who had been in the USA for 1 year or less, food insecurity was indicated in 73%, whereas among households who had been in the USA for at least 3 years food insecurity was indicted in 33%.ConclusionsRefugees are a potentially vulnerable group and our results echo others in suggesting a need for more thorough monitoring of the health and well-being of recently resettled refugees. These results also suggest that reliance on employment as the sole indicator of success in the resettlement process may be too narrow an indicator. Future research should focus on a wider range of measures of health and well-being.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document