Accounting for Gender in a Study of the Motivation-Involvement Relationship

ABSTRACT

The effects of gender on involvement in high-risk recreation have received limited research attention despite mounting evidence suggesting the learned interactions between people and places likely vary for men and women. The purpose of this study was to provide insights into how gender influenced the motivation-involvement relationship among whitewater recreationists on a Wild and Scenic River in California. Our results revealed the motivations of Risk, Escape, Learning, and Achievement/Stimulation positively influenced involvement in rafting activities. Although gender did not influence all dimensions of involvement, we found that identity expression varied between subgroups. Specifically, men were more likely to ascribe meaning to rafting than women because this activity allowed them to affirm and express their individual character. The implications emanating from this study advance theoretical understanding of the factors that influence enduring involvement and inform natural resource management decisions about maintaining the desired benefits of activities sought by nature-based recreationists.     

Body image as a leisure constraint: Examining the experience of aerobic exercise classes for young women

Abstract

Previous research has shown that women, and especially young women, in this culture experience pressure to be thin. Although considerable research has been directed toward the investigation of body image and its relationship to psychological health and self‐image, the impact of body image on leisure behavior has not been adequately addressed, nor has body image received much attention as a potential leisure constraint. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways in which body image might function as a constraint to young women's participation in aerobic exercise classes. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods, including a survey of 190 women undergraduate students and in‐depth interviews with a sub‐sample of 11 students. The qualitative data are the main focus of this analysis. The data indicated that body image did not seem to prevent participation or constrain levels of participation in aerobics. Nevertheless, body image concerns were shown to constrain the enjoyment of aerobics as a leisure activity, and this reduction of enjoyment was related to the clothing worn for aerobics and to competition over appearance and body weight among participants. The findings also showed that body image functioned as a constraint into participation in that body‐image‐related concerns were a major motivating factor exerting pressure on young women to participate in aerobics. In sum, the study suggested that body image can constrain leisure in some situations, although it is not a constraint in the traditional sense of preventing participation. The implications of these findings for the conceptualization of leisure constraints were discussed. Furthermore, some practical implications for the provision of aerobics classes were provided.     

What Do Rental Contracts Reveal About Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard in Rental Housing Markets?

This article examines the pricing of rental contracts for two types of renter households: those who are able to amass a large, up-front security deposit and those with little, or no, security to offer. Empirical tests are presented to suggest that, in dealing with renter households who have little, or no, security to offer, landlords earn at a similar rate of return as lenders who make riskier loans at a high interest rate to borrowers of dubious credit. The analysis suggests that this situation occurs in large part because of the problem of asymmetric information and moral hazard between landlords and renter households regarding the latter's use of the premises.     

“Skewness and Stock Option Prices”, Hans Gerber and Bruno Landry,July 1997

We determine the optimal amount of life insurance for a household of two wage earners. We consider the simple case of exponential utility, thereby removing wealth as a factor in buying life insurance, while retaining the relationship among life insurance, income, and the probability of dying and thus losing that income. For insurance purchased via a single premium or premium payable continuously, we explicitly determine the optimal death benefit. We show that if the premium is determined to target a specific probability of loss per policy, then the rates of consumption are identical under single premium or continuously payable premium. Thus, not only is equivalence of consumption achieved for the households under the two premium schemes, it is also obtained for the insurance company in the sense of equivalence of loss probabilities.     

Reasonableness and Section 4 of the Employment Act 1980

This article explains the origins of s.4 of the Employment Act 1980 and assesses the place of this provision in the corpus of labour legislation enacted by the Conservative government since 1980. Its principal aim is to concentrate upon the concept of reasonableness which is central to the operation of the provision and to evaluate critically the role of the EAT and the industrial tribunals in interpreting it. Finally, the article seeks to assess the impact of the tribunaľs interpretation of s.4 on union admission and expulsion procedures.     

Banks’ deferred tax assets during the financial crisis

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Prior studies have demonstrated that the net deferred tax liabilities of industrial firms are valued by market participants in a manner consistent...     

Intra-LATA toll elasticities

Regulatory commission hearings on intra-LATA toll competition have focused, for the purpose of revenue rebalancing, on the market elasticity of demand for intra-LATA toll service. This paper presents estimates of the intra-LATA toll elasticity based on a detailed model of residential customers' demand for short-haul service. The results are compared with those from other studies. The consensus of the studies indicates a residential elasticity of around -0.4.     

A Theory of Mutable and Immutable Characteristics: Their Impact on Allocation and Structural Positions

This article presents the global-mutable-immutable scheme. Globals are purely macro properties of societies, while immutables are purely micro properties of individuals. Mutables are the micro-macro bridging elements, having both an aggregated macro (distributional) form, as well as a micro form. The importance of this distinction for the analysis of norm, status and role is shown. The article concludes by showing how the configuration of globals, mutables and immutables affect the allocation of an individual into the five-dimensional mutable structure of his or her society at a given point in time.