Causes Of Participation Research Articles

The discovery of a data-driven causal diagram of sport participation in children and adolescents with heart disease: a pilot study

The interventions aimed at improving the levels of physical activity (PA) in children and adolescents diagnosed with heart disease did not produce the expected outcomes. Safe participation in sport activities proposed based on actual recommendations could be a solution to promote PA in this population. The aims of this study were to discover a causal diagram of sport participation in children and youth with heart disease and establish the factors that affect and are affected thereof through the use of questionnaires. Furthermore, the study aims to qualitatively assess the reliability of the constructed diagram in comparison with existing medical knowledge. The Greedy Fast Causal Inference method was employed to conduct a data-driven search of the directed acyclic graph that represents the causal relationships within the provided observational data. This causal discovery was performed using the Tetrad software. The analysis involved a cohort of 121 Caucasian patients (50 females) diagnosed with heart disease. The age range of the patients included in the study was 8–17 years. The study findings indicate that the participants engaged in sports presented significantly higher values of health-related quality of life (QoL) and motives for participating in physical and leisure activities. Age appears to be a cause of sport participation. Sport participation appears to be a cause of participation in physical education classes, which in turn appears to be a cause of higher enjoyment. Higher enjoyment appears to be a cause of other motives for participating in physical and leisure activities, as well as a higher score in terms of physical health. The causal diagram provided a graphical representation of the causal relationship between sport participation and better QoL with potential confounders for children and adolescents with heart disease that nearly coincided with the existing literature. Clinical trials should be designed to validate clinical utility of the presented causal diagram.

Proxy Variables and the Generalizability of Study Results.

When individuals self-select (or are selected) into a study based on factors that influence the outcome, conclusions may not generalize to the full population. To compensate for this, results may be adjusted, for example, by standardization on the set of common causes of participation and outcome. Although such standardization is useful in some contexts, the common causes of participation and outcome may in practice not be fully observed. Instead, the researcher may have access to one or several variables related to the common causes, that is, to proxies for the common causes. This article defines and examines different types of proxy variables and shows how these can be used to obtain generalizable study results. First of all, the researcher may exploit proxies that influence only participation or outcome but which still allow for perfect generalizability by rendering participation and outcome conditionally independent. Further, generalizability can be achieved by leveraging 2 proxies, one of which is allowed to influence participation and one of which is allowed to influence the outcome, even if participation and outcome do not become independent conditional on these. Finally, approximate generalizability may be obtained by exploiting a single proxy that does not itself influence participation or outcome.

Political Activism: Post-communist Challenges and Opportunities in East Central Europe

Contrary to standard narratives on the declining function of parties in fostering political participation, this article argues that far from abandoning the cause of participation, post-communist political parties diversified the understanding of the party as a mobilizing agency by adapting their internal organizations. On the basis of a mid-range number of cases (e.g. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia) the study identified different patterns of evolution within a complex interaction effect between participation and organizational development. The peculiarity of the parties’ organization and functions has shaped political participation both as an opportunity structure (legitimizing the political system and increasing citizens’ involvement in politics) and as a democratic challenge (increasing the pro-pensity of parties towards populism, ‘seasonal’ membership, corruption and clientelism).

Information Shocks and the Take-Up of Social Programs

The causes of participation in social programs have been studied extensively, with prominent roles found for program rules and benefits. A lack of information about these programs has been suggested as a cause of low participation rates among certain groups, but it is often difficult to distinguish between the role of information sharing and other features of a neighborhood, such as factors that are common to people of the same ethnicities or socioeconomic opportunities, or uniquely local methods of program implementation. We seek to gain new insight into the potential role of information flows by investigating what happens when information is disrupted. We exploit rich microdata from Florida vital records and program participation files to explore declines in Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participation during pregnancy among foreign-born Hispanics in the “information shock” period surrounding welfare reform. We identify how the size of these reductions is affected by having a high density of neighbors from the same place of origin. Specifically, we compare changes in WIC participation among Hispanic immigrants living in neighborhoods with a larger concentration of own-origin immigrants to those with a smaller concentration of own-origin immigrants, holding constant the size of the immigrant population and the share of immigrants in the neighborhood who are Hispanic. We find strong evidence that having a denser network of own-origin immigrants mediated the information shock faced by immigrant women in the wake of welfare reform.

Volunteerism and international sport organisations: XVII. Mediterranean Games

After the recent candidacy process and while the Olympic Games are going on to be a dream, very important and large-scale organizations are continuing to be done in our Country. The head of them is XVII. Mediterranean Games which can not be placed in Greece because of economical reasons. One of the most important activities as such large and the successful execution of the multi-level voluntary organization of sporting events lead voluntary organization. The aim of this study; is to determinate the demographics and causes of participation of volunteers who are employed in the Games of which Mersin is the host, and to determinate the volunteers at the individual and activity level during the Games. In this study, the method of qualitative research approach is applied on 29 employed volunteers in Games. At the end of the interviews face to face with volunteers; the assessments on individual and activity level during the organisation and demographic characteristics and causes of participation are revealed.

Gender and Motivations for Street Racing in Malaysia

The purpose of this study was to identify social, economic, and psychological factors in street racing in Malaysia. The study also assessed gender differences in terms of the causes of participation in street racing, and the street racers’ personality in terms of spiritual well-being, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. A snowball sample of 122 street racers (males, n= 99 , Mean age = 21.52 , SD= 4.25; females, n= 23 , Mean age = 19.22 , SD= 2.47) responded to self-tailored questionnaires and existing scales. For female racers, ‘family violence’, ‘parental conflict’, and ‘parenting style’ were the major familial factors leading to street racing. In case of male racers, ‘parenting style’ and ‘relationship with family members’ were the main causes of street racing. A sizeable percentage of male racers and female racers identified ‘social contact with the street racers’, ‘learned attitudes which encourage street racing’, ‘mass media and peer influences’ as causes of street racing. Both groups of respondents cited ‘social pressure’, ‘social labelling’, ‘social isolation’, ‘opportunities for joining street racing’, ‘limited surveillance of authority’, and ‘limited recreational and sports facilities’ as reasons for involvement in street racing. In terms of psychological factors, considerable percentage of male racers and female racers reported ‘self-image’, ‘desire for recognition and attention’, ‘escape from social-psychological stress’, and ‘self-actualisation’ as important factors leading to street racing. Unemployment was found to be one important reason for street racing almost equally by both the groups. Significant differences in mean spiritual well-being and self-efficacy scores of male racers and female racers did not exist. However, male racers obtained significantly higher mean self-esteem score than female racers. Keywords: street racing, psycho-social, economic, spiritual well-being, self-esteem, self-efficacy

Radical Campus? Student Participation in the SFU Left Alternative Club

A faint memory of the school’s turbulent past, Simon Fraser University is home to the club Left Alternative. Although explicitly oriented towards socialist concerns, ethnographic inquiry reveals that member’s motivations for participation transcend any simple affinity for socialism. Rather, their involvement in the club speaks to a number of factors that are multifaceted and without overt intent. Through interviews and participant observation, balanced with material analysis and autoethnography, the causes of participation in Left Alternative appear threefold. Member’s involvement presupposes an interest in education, both of oneself and others, a desire to correct social ills, and an implicit need to affirm struggling notions of self.

Participation in Transition: Mobilizing Ugandans in Constitution Making

Can participatory programs in transitioning countries increase the involvement of citizens beyond the level expected from individual-level characteristics, such as demographic traits, socioeconomic resources, and civic orientations? To answer this question, I examine the causes of participation in the Ugandan constitution-making process. Statistical analysis of a random sample survey of 820 citizens demonstrates that although individual-level factors play a role, many Ugandans participated because mobilizing agents pulled them into the process. I argue that programs to encourage active and equal participation will be most successful if they supplement weak indigenous institutions of mobilization and help all types of citizens to participate early on in the transition to democracy.

Who Ratifies Environmental Treaties and Why? Institutionalism, Structuralism and Participation by 192 Nations in 22 Treaties

International environmental accords have become important mechanisms by which nations make promises to administer natural resources and manage the global environment. Previous studies, relying mainly on single cases or small-n data sets, have shed light on the proximate political causes of participation in these agreements. However, no study has yet systematically explained the deeper social determinants of why nations sign, ignore or resist environmental treaties. We offer a theoretically-sequenced model that exploits complementarities between rational choice institutionalism and world-systems theory. Key variables posited by realists and constructivists are also examined, using a new environmental treaty participation index based on ratifications of 22 major environmental agreements by 192 nations. Cross-sectional OLS regression and path analysis strongly supports the institutionalist claim that credibility—the willingness and ability to honor one's international environmental commit-ments—“matters.” But these measures also lend considerable support to the world-systems hypothesis that state credibility is strongly influenced by a legacy of colonial incorporation into the world economy. Narrow export base—our proxy for disadvantaged position in the world-economy—directly and indirectly (through institutions and civil society strength) explains nearly six-tenths of national propensity to sign environmental treaties. A nation's natural capital, its ecological vulnerability, and international environmental NGO memberships had no explanatory power in the path analysis. Our results indicate that new theoretical, methodological and policy approaches are needed to address structural barriers to international cooperation.

Assessing Public Participation in U.S. Cities

P ublic participation is advocated to reduce citizen cynicism toward government, build stakeholder consensus in government, and enhance administrative decision making (Creighton, 1981; King & Stivers, 1998; Langton, 1978a; Sanoff, 2000). Participation theories have been presented and examined in research. Case descriptions or stories in individual governmental agencies are often used to support theoretical assertions. Empirical evidence is needed about participation in government as a whole. Studies involving larger samples of governments can generate more holistic and systematic evidence. Using survey data, this study focused on three research questions: How much public participation occurs in U.S. municipal governments? What are the possible causes of participation? What are the possible impacts of participation on governmental agencies? This research provides useful information about potential obstacles to participation and ways to enhance participation and performance in government. The Framework section presents relevant definitions and theories.

The physicians' anti-abortion campaign and the social bases of moral reform participation.

The and micromobilization approaches to participation in social movements lead to contrasting expectations about predictors of participation. The former position leads one to expect that attitudes, community memberships, and previous community memberships will predict participation. The latter leads one to expect effects of present community memberships, but calls into question role of values and previous community memberships. In this paper, I study physician participation in a local anti-abortion campaign to trace bases of such activity. While present community memberships appear to play a role, premedical college community plays no role. Further, while attitude variables appear to play some role, anti-abortion participants in survey actually reject Right-to-Life movement leadership's position on most of a series of movement-relevant issues. I interpret this finding in terms of Noelle-Neumann's concept of the spiral of silence, which holds that desire to avoid isolation leads to attitude incongruent activity, when such activity appears to have community sponsorship. Nothing would seem more self-evident than proposition that values play a key role in decision to participate in moral reform movements, yet issue is not at all settled. Positions on this point range from assertion that basis of moral reform is culture and socialization (Wood & Hughes 1984, p. 88), to assertions by resource mobilization theorists that values are secondary to structural/network conditions as causes of participation (Jenkins 1983), to position of once-popular discontents school that participation serves primarily status maintenance ends (see review in Lo 1982).

Becoming a Zen Practitioner

to the case of the person beginning Zen meditation and a striking similarity is found. Some observations on the differences between the processes of conversion-commitment in Zen meditation and other cases found in the literature are made. One of the major concerns of sociologists with the new religions is understanding who joins them and how or why they come to do it. What are the actual processes or conditions involved in converting to a new religious form and increasing one's commitment to it? One influential model for thinking along these lines is Lofland and Stark (1965) which treats conversion and commitment as a process of becoming deviant. Lofland (1966) used this in his study of the early Unification Church. Other groups that use a similarly skeptical approach to new religions are those who are interested in the potentially dangerous and coercive aspects of cult-like groups. While there is a growing literature using a coercive persuasion perspective (Robbins et al, 1978), perhaps the most extreme is Conway and Siegelman (1978), who argue that in joining nearly all new religious groups, even quasi-religious groups such as est (Erhard's Seminar Training), there is a drastic psychological transformation made under conditions similar to brainwashing. Conceptualizing new religious activity as deviance or as a form of brainwashing is criticized by Balch and Taylor (1977) and Balch (1980), who see this perspective as not adequate to their experience with members of a UFO cult. Instead they find a cultic milieu or metaphysical sub-culture that allows us to see the joining of these groups as a desirable, commendable and as a supported activity by others within that subculture. Rather than deviant, they argue conversion and commitment can be studied as a normal process of role learning. Among the various approaches to the study of conversion, structural studies attempt to specify the conditions that predispose persons to become seekers and joiners of new religious forms. These studies typically assume the joiner is passive in the face of conditions that cause one to take up the new behavior and lock one into the new group. Conditions such as marginality and stress are seen as predisposing one to new religious activity. Another group of sociologists emphasize situational factors (Gerlack and Hine, 1970). Here emphasis is put upon the causes of participation, but upon how the person actually goes

Individual Political Participation: The Effects of Social Structure and Communication Behavior

Although researchers attempting to quantify theories of individual political participation have assumed that mass media use is a recursive cause of such participation, an argument could be made for a return effect of political activity on media use. The “uses and gratifications” tradition in communication research, for example, views media use as purposive behavior that is influenced by the users' social situation. In this paper the possibilty of a bidirectional relationship between mass media use and political participation is examined using the Two-Stage Least Squares technique. The data used to estimate model parameters are from a 1971 statewide survey of North Carolina. Separate analyses were conducted for male and female respondents to explore sex differences in the processes leading to individual political participation. Mass media use is shown to have an effect on participation in both the male and female subsamples. Political activity has a positive return effect on media use in the female subsample, but there is no significant return effect in the male subsample. Generally, the results indicate that models which specify media use as a unidirectional cause of participation behavior may be incorrect and wider use of techniques which allow the investigation of non-recursive relationships is recommended.