Examining Coping Skills as a Mediating Factor in Perceived Stress and Life Satisfaction: A Comparison Between Minority and Nonminority Older Adults

Although stress due to racial and ethnic differences can negatively impact life satisfaction, there is a lack of focus on the differences between minority and nonminority older adults in how stress and coping skills impact life satisfaction. The objectives of this study are to explore (a) the differences between minority and nonminority older adults in their levels of life satisfaction, stress, and coping skills; and (b) the mediating effects of coping skills on the relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction among both groups. Cross-sectional data from the Well Elderly 2 study ( N = 460) were utilized in bivariate and mediation analyses. Minority older adults reported higher levels of stress and prioritized different coping skills. Mediation was not supported for either group. These findings enable practitioners to focus on the coping skills more frequently identified by clients’ racial/ethnic grouping, as well as to target the primary stressors identified.

ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF PATIENT SATISFACTION ON PUBLIC HEALTHCARE FACILITIES IN SOUTH AFRICAN

Purpose of study: The purpose of this study was to assess patient satisfaction levels within South African public healthcare facilities. The influence of gender and ethnic grouping (race) perceptions of satisfaction of healthcare services was investigated. Methodology: The study followed a cross-sectional research design and a quantitative research method. The data was collected as part of the General Household Survey in 2018 by Statistics South Africa (the national statistics service of South Africa). Descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation were performed to address the research objectives of the study. Main findings: The results show that the majority of the patients who participated in the survey are satisfied with the public healthcare service they received. The leading provinces that achieved very satisfied patients are Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng. Applications of the study: The study is important in many ways as it highlights the discrepancies of healthcare provision to the public health decision-makers. For example, the results show that generally, the male patients were slightly more satisfied with the healthcare services than their female counterparts. In terms of ethnic grouping, it appears that white patients are generally more satisfied with the public healthcare services they receive than other race groups. Novelty/originality of study: A study of this nature has not been conducted in South Africa apart from the anecdotal reports of the department of health and Statistics South Africa. The study delved to analyze the public healthcare service in all provinces of the republic and also provided insight into gender and racial perception of healthcare services in the country.

GENOLINGUISTIK: ANCANGAN ALTERNATIF DALAM PENGELOMPOKAN BAHASA (GENOLINGUISTICS: ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN LANGUAGE GROUPING)

Until recently, the results of language grouping in Indonesia conducted by some linguists still show differences one another. Take for example, the study on grouping of Malay and Javanese languages done by Dyen and Blust or that of Indonesian languages conducted by SIL group and by Dempwolff were proved to be dissimilar. This indicates that analysis focusing only on language aspects is not sufficient to provide a more accountable language grouping analysis. Therefore, it is importantto collaborate with other disciplines which are expected to be synergic with language aspect analysis. Plenty of studies which relate ethnic grouping genetically to the grouping of speakers of certain sublanguages have been conducted. Unfortunately, the studies of the two disciplines were not conducted integratedly, so that the results are less satisfying. This is due to the unavailability of established formulation about the concepts and collaborative method of the two disciplines. Therefore, this paperaims at describing in detail about how linguistics and genetics collaborate as a new subinterdisciplines called Genolinguistics to be applied in the study on grouping of related languages.AbstrakSetakat ini, hasil pengelompokan bahasa-bahasa di Indonesia yang dilakukan para linguis masih terdapat perbedaan satu dengan lainnya, misalnya perbedaan pengelompokan bahasa Melayu dengan Jawa yang dilakukan Dyen dan Blust atau pengelompokan bahasa-bahasa di Indonesia yang dilakukan kelompok SIL dengan pengelompokan bahasa yang dilakukan Dempwolff. Hal ini membuktikan bahwa analisis dari aspek kebahasaan belum cukup untuk menghasilkan analisis pengelompokkan bahasa yang lebih dapat dipertanggungjawabkan. Diperlukan dukungan kajian dari bidang lain yang diharapkan dapat bersinergi dengan analisisdari aspek kebahasaan. Kajian yang menghubungkan pengelompokkan etnis secara genetis dengan pengelompokkan penutur bahasa-bahasa tertentu sudah banyak dilakukan. Namun, sayangnya kajian kedua bidang itu berjalan sendiri-sendiri sehingga hasil yang diperoleh kurang memuaskan. Hal ini disebabkan belum terdapatnya rumusan yang jelas tentang konsep dan metode kolaboratif antarkedua bidang itu. Untuk itu, tulisan ini mencoba memaparkan secara jelas tentang bagaimana linguistik dan genetika dapat berkolaborasi sebagai satu subdisiplin antarbidang baru yang disebut genolinguistik dalam kajian pengelompokkan bahasabahasaberkerabat.

Executive turnovers in sub-Saharan Africa

We use competing risks duration analysis to examine the role of ethnicity and governance institutions in executive turnovers of power in 47 sub-Saharan African countries between 1960 and 2008. Using measures that capture the politically important aspects of countries’ ethnic divisions, we find that as compared to countries characterized by one, and only one, potential majority ethnic grouping, leaders’ tenures are shorter in countries with a majority ethnic group that comprises a majority subgroup and that these leaders are at risk of losing power through both coups and elections. In contrast, leaders of countries with no ethnic majority group are better positioned to stave off coups, perhaps by undercutting rivals’ efforts to coordinate among different ethnic groups. Our results, however, suggest that the effectiveness of this strategy wanes over time. Although the results also suggest that the type of regime matters, they do not indicate a monotonic relationship between democracy and elections and authoritarianism and coups.

Illegal Journey: The Indonesian Undocumented Migrant Workers to Malaysia

The objective of this study is threefold. First, it uses fieldwork to explore the illegal journey of the Indonesian undocumented migrant workers, including all processes and interactions. Secondly, it identifies the substantive factors behind illegal influx into Malaysia. Thirdly, it draws out the implications from the illegal journey undertaken by them to Malaysia. This qualitative study applies the grounded theory approach. The result of this study shows that social capital within their network expands through various channels, particularly friendship, brotherhood, neighborhood, community and ethnic grouping. It also permeates strongly beyond government authority and regulation. They have constructed social classes among themselves. However, they have also been less able to get the social access because the absence of official documents deprives their human rights, and they are also blamed for social ills. Therefore, the regulation for both countries must recognize the rights, improvement governance, strengthen the integrity and curb corruption.

The Tangsa in Arunachal

Chapter 7 takes us to the tribal majority state of Arunachal Pradesh, where I focus only on aspects of Tangsa life there which bring out the difference between the situation there and in Assam, both in terms of the greater diversity of religion and ethnic grouping as well as the differences in the political and administrative set-up. Besides describing a few Tangsa festivals that I attended there and the genesis of these festivals I also discuss the problems related to pan-Tangsa consolidation. The final section deals with some critical stages of my stay in the field and the culmination of my fieldwork.

A national survey of demographics composition of Kenyan journalists

This national survey conducted in 2012–2013 (N = 504) examines demographic characteristics of the Kenyan journalists. Findings indicate that the typical Kenyan journalist is male (66%), married (57%), and in his mid-30s (M = 34 years). He tends to have a Bachelor’s degree (46%) and has received college-level training in journalism or communication (91%). However, when it comes to majoring in journalism or communication, most of the journalists were trained at the level of associate degree (45%), followed by Bachelor’s degree (38.5%) and Master’s degree (13.6%). Thirty-three percent of the Kenyan journalists work in daily newspapers, with 73 percent of them employed on full-time basis. In ethnic grouping, about a quarter (24.9%) of Kenyan news people belong to the Kikuyu tribe, followed by Luhya tribe (20%). The results also indicate that the majority of the journalists are from the Rift Valley province (21.4%) – Kenya’s largest administrative unit – followed by Western (19.5%) and Central (15.5%). By religion affiliation, 62.3 percent of the journalists are Protestants and 22.5 percent Roman Catholic. While the majority of the Kenyan journalists (22%) fall in the monthly salary bracket of $375–$625, a significant number of them (17%) earn less than $375 a month.

Normal sexual function

Normal human sexual function can be characterized simply by its biological mechanisms which are of obvious importance, not least to reproduction. The mechanisms have changed little over the centuries, but their expression as behaviour, when moulded by historical time, social class, ethnic grouping, religion, and society, creates the changing complex concept of human sexuality. Indeed, it has been said that human sexuality is more about fertilizing relationships than eggs! While we have increased hugely our knowledge about many of the mechanisms involved in human sexuality, the impact of a highly successful oral therapy for erectile dysfunction being an obvious example, those of the brain and spinal cord are practically unexplored. What creates human sexual desire and sexual excitement and what causes them to fade away, where in the brain is the pleasure of orgasms created, why do men have a PERT but not women, are just a few of the fascinating questions that remain to be answered.

Apo(a) isoforms do not predict risk for coronary heart disease in a Gulf Arab population

It is well recognized that blood lipoprotein A [Lp(a)] levels constitute an important risk factor for atherosclerotic vascular disease. In some populations, mainly Caucasian, Lp(a) levels and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk are determined by the pattern of apolipoprotein a [apo(a)] polymorphism. It is currently unclear if these observations apply to other populations and ethnic groups. The aim of the current study is to determine to what extent known apo(a) polymorphisms associate with development of CHD in a Kuwaiti Arab population. Serum Lp(a) levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and apo(a) isoforms determined by a high-resolution sodium dodecyl sulphate/agarose gel electrophoresis with immunoblotting in two groups of Kuwaiti subjects: healthy controls ( n = 140) and subjects with CHD ( n=140). Blood lipids and anthropometric parameters were also determined in these subjects by standard methods. Serum Lp(a) levels were greater in those with CHD than in those in the healthy group ( P<0·001). There was no consistent trend in the pattern of serum Lp(a) levels found with specific apo(a) isoforms in either group of subjects. There was, therefore, no simple relationship between the isoform pattern (and number of kringle-IV repeats) and serum Lp(a) concentration, unlike in certain other populations. Additionally, almost identical proportions of subjects in either group had singlebanded (homozygous, ~ 70%), double-banded (heterozygous, ~ 23%) and no-band (null, ~ 7%) phenotypes. The distribution of the five identified isoforms (F, S1, S2, S3 and S4) also was almost identical for both groups of subjects, whether homozygous or heterozygous, and whether classified into fast-moving (F, S1 and S2) or slow-moving (S3 and S4) isoforms. We conclude that the frequency and pattern of distribution of apo(a) phenotypes did not differ significantly between healthy control Kuwaiti Arab subjects and those with CHD. It is thus unlikely that an individual's apo(a) phenotype can predict both serum Lp(a) level and risk for CHD, irrespective of race and/or ethnic grouping.