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AimGambling harm is a serious public health issue affecting the health, financial security, and social well-being of millions of people and their close relations around the world. Despite its population health implications, gambling harm is not typically viewed and treated as a public health policy issue. This paper critically reviews the evolution of the public health perspective on gambling harm. It also considers how gambling harm can be operationalized within a public health model.MethodsA critical historical review of the emerging public health perspective on gambling harm was conducted. Key documents covering three decades of development were reviewed and appraised through a process of deliberation and debate over source impact in the fields of research, policy, and programming internationally.ResultsThe first decade mainly focused on identifying gambling harm and framing the public health issue. The second decade featured the expansion of health assessment and emerging areas of policy and program development. The third decade saw an increased focus on public health frameworks that advanced understanding of harm mechanics and impact. As reflected by theessential functionsof a general public health model, gambling harm prevention efforts emphasize health promotion over other key functions like health assessment and surveillance.ConclusionGambling harm is a public health issue requiring greater attention to health assessment and surveillance data development.

Background and aimsThe Conceptual Framework of Harmful Gambling moves beyond a symptoms-based view of harm and addresses a broad set of factors related to the risks and effects of gambling harmfully at the individual, family, and community levels. Coauthored by international research experts and informed by multiple stakeholders, Gambling Research Exchange (GREO) facilitated the framework development in 2013 and retains responsibility for regular updates and mobilization. This review article presents information about the revised version of the Conceptual Framework of Harmful Gambling completed in late 2018.MethodsWe describe eight interrelated factors depicted in the framework that represent major themes in gambling ranging from the specific (gambling environment, exposure, gambling types, and treatment resources) to the general (cultural, social, psychological, and biological influences). After outlining the framework development and collaborative process, we highlight new topics for the recent update that reflect changes in the gambling landscape and prominent discourses in the scientific community. Some of these topics include social and economic impacts of gambling, and a new model of understanding gambling related harm.Discussion and conclusionsWe address the relevance of the CFHG to the gambling and behavioral addictions research community. Harm-based frameworks have been undertaken in other areas of addiction that can both inform and be informed by a model dedicated to harmful gambling. Further, the framework brings a multi-disciplinary perspective to bear on antecedents and factors that co-occur with harmful gambling.

The article examines well-being and social implications of “enforced leisure” resulting from unemployment and underemployment. The first part of the article reviews statistical and research evidence about social and well-being implications of unemployment and underemployment in the context of “technological unemployment” and globalization. The second part examines well-being implications of enforced leisure (due to being unemployed or working part time because the respondent “could not find a full-time job”) based on time use and well-being data collected as part of 2005, 2008, 2009, and 2010 Canadian General Social Surveys. Indicators used in the analyses of social and well-being correlates of “enforced leisure” include respondents’ time use, levels of perceived happiness, life satisfaction, satisfaction with work–family balance, satisfaction with the use of time, self-assessed health, perceived stress, and indices of social integration such as sense of belonging to the community, trusting people, or exposure to socially destabilizing behavior.

Vacations provide an opportunity to relax, recover from the demands of work, and spend time with family and friends. Recently, however, concerns have been expressed regarding the low uptake of paid vacation time among Canadian workers and its potential impact on their quality of life. Guided by the conservation of resources theory, we examined the extent to which Canadian employees use their paid vacation allotment and how the amount of paid vacation time is related to feelings of wellbeing. A subsample of 3,451 people who worked full-time at a paid job or business was drawn from Statistics Canada’s 2010 General Social Survey. More than one-third of Canadian employees reported taking less than the minimum amount of federally mandated paid vacation time (10 days) during the previous year. This included 19.3% who reported taking no paid vacation days at all. Factors significantly associated with uptake of vacation days were age, socio-economic status, having younger children in the household, flexib...

Leisure research on adolescent females’ holiday experiences, and how these experiences may contribute to their happiness is scarce. Recent work in the area of positive psychology has suggested that novelty within an experience may enhance positive emotions and life satisfaction which together comprise subjective well-being (SWB), a common conceptualization of happiness. The purpose of this paper was to test the direct influence of activity novelty and the mediating influence of emotion balance (the balance between positive and negative emotions) on life satisfaction for a group of adolescent females on a winter holiday. As part of a larger study, participants (n = 74) were German girls aged 12–17 years who completed a diary-based questionnaire for 21 consecutive days (before, during, and after their holiday). A conditional process analysis indicated that activity novelty may have a positive or negative influence on emotion balance depending on pre-vacation activity novelty patterns. Furthermore, while novelty does not have a direct influence on life satisfaction, it has a positive indirect influence through emotion balance. This study provides evidence that holiday experiences can contribute to young women’s SWB and highlights the important role of emotions during such experiences. In addition, results support the use of a positive psychology framework to understand adolescent vacationers’ experiences.

Using a life course lens with a focus on linked lives, this study explores experiences and perceptions of support through in-depth interviews with 22 self-employed men and women with children. Experiences of informal support were varied and complex, with multiple layers of support often operating simultaneously. With few exceptions, gender differences in perceived support reflected traditional role expectations. While men and women both spoke of the importance of emotional support, women more often identified spouses' financial support as essential to operating a business, whereas men valued instrumental support in the form of childcare and domestic activities. Informal communities of support comprised of other self-employed people were valued for mentoring, assistance, and friendship, and were less emotionally intense compared to experiences of support from family members. Parents generally misunderstood or were unaware of the potential for formal government support through the Canadian government's Empl...

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) measures stability and change in the well-being of Canadians over time. Developed through a collaborative process and drawing upon valid and reliable data sources, the CIW monitors trends in well-being that allows citizens to advocate for change and for policy shapers to make informed, evidence-based decisions. Although originally intended to measure well-being at the national level, many communities have expressed considerable interest in assessing well-being locally. This chapter describes collaborative work with community partners to measure quality of life by using a Community Survey based on the CIW conceptual framework. We begin by describing the development of the CIW conceptual framework and measurement process. Then, we outline how the CIW framework has guided the development of a community well-being survey that provides timely, relevant, and locally accessible data where few such sources exist. Examples from survey results in three communities demonstrate how citizens’ well-being is affected by selected perceptual and situational factors identified by community partners. A discussion follows on how the survey has been used to initiate social change to promote well-being locally. The chapter concludes with some considerations of the limitations and possibilities of the community well-being survey approach along with future avenues for promoting policy change.

With a population-based sample of dual-earner parents (951 women and 1059 men), we examined the association of paid work hours and perceived time-stress with two forms of leisure participation and the ways gender may shape the social context of that participation. We expected that although work hours and time-stress would be associated with a lower likelihood of leisure participation, the typically gendered nature of childcare would mean women would be unlikely to reduce time spent with children, but men would. The two forms of leisure, watching TV and walking or jogging, were selected based on the nature and frequency of participation in these activities and the opportunity to do so in a variety of social contexts, namely alone, with another adult or with a child present. In bivariate and multivariate analyses, results showed greater paid work hours were associated with a lower likelihood of leisure participation, but the association of time-stress with likelihood of leisure participation was less consis...

This study explores the experience of time flexibility and its relationship to work–life balance among married female teleworkers with school-aged children. Drawing from a larger study of teleworkers from a Canadian financial corporation, 18 mothers employed in professional positions discussed work, leisure and their perceptions of work–life balance in in-depth interviews. Telework was viewed positively because flexible scheduling facilitated optimal time management. A key factor was the pervasiveness of caregiving, which could result in ongoing tensions and contradictions between the ethic of care and their employment responsibilities. The ideology of ‘intensive mothering’ meant that work schedules were closely tied to the rhythms of children's school and leisure activities. The different temporal demands of motherhood and employment resulted in little opportunity for personal leisure. Time ‘saved’ from not having to commute to an office was reallocated to caregiving, housework or paid employment rather than to time for their self. The women also experienced a traditional gendered division of household labour and viewed telework as a helpful tool for combining their dual roles. Time flexibility enhanced their sense of balancing work and life and their perceived quality of life. At the same time, they did not question whether having the primary responsibility for caregiving while engaged in paid employment at home was fair or whether it was a form of exploitation.

Using a stratified sample of Canadian adolescents residing in Ontario (n = 2,154) time use patterns and perceptions of time pressure are explored to determine gender differences among younger (12–14 years) and older adolescents (15–19 years). For both age groups, girls report a higher total workload of schoolwork, domestic activities and paid employment and spend more time on personal care while boys have more free time, especially during early adolescence. Feelings of time pressure for teens increase with age and are significantly higher for girls in both age categories. Gender differences are less pronounced on school days when time is fairly structured, but become more consistent with traditional gender schema on the weekend when time use is more discretionary.