The Temporal Rhythm of Alcohol Consumption: On the Development of Young People’s Weekly Drinking Patterns

This article investigates young people’s weekly drinking patterns during late adolescence and young adulthood. The article builds a disaggregated and temporal framework to explain how young people drink on certain days. Using sequence analysis techniques on longitudinal data from a representative Danish survey, the article identifies four drinking patterns (the majority, the weekend drinkers, the weekend bingers and the heavy drinkers). Analyses of the transitions between the drinking patterns reveal non-linear developments where heavy drinking at an early age does not necessarily lead to heavy drinking later in life. Although parental income and education are important factors to explain whether young people begin to drink at an early age, high levels of alcohol consumption during youth is more associated with influenced from peers and partners.

A nationwide Danish survey on the use of green spaces by people with mobility disabilities

Background: There is increasing awareness of the importance and health benefits of living near green spaces. Research usually focuses on the general population’s use of green spaces and there has been little focus on the use of green spaces by specific groups, such as people with mobility disabilities. This represents a significant knowledge gap with regard to facilitating access to healthy green environments by all population groups. This study aims to provide knowledge of the use of green spaces by people with mobility disabilities. Methods: The study was based on data from the Danish Health and Morbidity Survey in 2005. The study participants consisted of 11,238 adult Danes, 383 of whom reported mobility disabilities, meaning that they were dependent on assistive devices for walking or moving around. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between mobility disability and use of green spaces. Results: The results show that respondents who reported mobility disabilities visited green spaces less often than respondents without mobility disabilities. The severity of the mobility disability was associated with the frequency of visits. Frequency of visits was also related to the respondents’ health-related quality of life status. Conclusions: These results highlight the need for further research into the constraints faced by people with mobility disabilities with regard to visiting green spaces.

Do you love me? An empirical analysis of the feeling of love amongst children in out-of-home care

Questions about whether love can be offered in residential child care units, whether combining child protection and safeguarding in social work with loving care or care with love is possible, and whether children and young people feel loved by someone who is paid to care for them, have raised long-standing issues. Social pedagogy puts such questions at the core of its philosophy and practice, and has been a fundamental part of care in Denmark for many years. Drawing on a Danish survey of 1,400 children in out-of-home care, this paper analyses the subjective feeling of love amongst children living in out-of-home care. The main moderating factors for feeling loved are the feeling of security and the feeling of social support, the tangible counterpart of Honneth’s concept of recognition.