Christine Dallaire

Public Perception of Population Health Risks in Canada: Health Hazards and Sources of Information

ABSTRACT A national survey of health risk perception among 1,503 Canadians was conducted in 2004. The current survey follows-up a previous national survey conducted in 1992 and documents changes in risk perception since that time and investigates new risk issues not previously examined. This article presents a description of the ratings of perceived risk of thirty specific hazards to the Canadian population, sources of information about health issues and risk, and confidence in these information sources. Of the specific hazards considered, behavioral risks such as cigarette smoking, obesity, and unprotected sex were seen to present the greatest risk to the health of Canadians. Hazards related to the social environment (e.g., homelessness, street crime, unemployment) were seen as posing moderately high health risks. Medical devices or therapies (e.g., prescription drugs, vaccines, laser eye surgery) tended to rank the lowest in terms of health risk. Women, older respondents, and those with less education reported risks as being higher than men, younger respondents, and those with more education respectively. Large geographical differences in risk perception were also observed. Participants described receiving “a lot” of information from the news media, medical doctors, and the Internet but reported the greatest amount of confidence in medical doctors, university scientists/scientific journals, and health brochures/pamphlets.

Skirtboarder net-a-narratives: Young women creating their own skateboarding (re)presentations

By creating and posting their own stories on the Internet, sportswomen are able to challenge the persistent, sexist, mainstream and alternative (skateboarding) media (re)presentations of female athletes. A Foucauldian discourse analysis of 262 posts of the Skirtboarders’ blog – a Montreal-based, Canadian female skateboarding crew’s Internet project – explores the ways in which a group of sportswomen circulate alternative discourses of femininity. In these (re)presentations, the Skirtboarders embrace various femininities and, at the same time, reject binaries (male/female) without explicitly claiming a feminist agenda or attaching themselves to other oppositional discourses. This indicates a third-wave feminist sensibility. The Skirtboarders reproduce some normative discursive fragments commonly found in media (re)presentations. Furthermore, they post links to mainstream and alternative media coverage of their crew, which at times reflects the ‘problems’ of historical media coverage (sexualization, marginalization and trivialization). However, most of their online productions portray them as polygendered skaters (action shots, skating activities and lifestyle) and are thus radically different. The Skirtboarders’ discursive portrayals of female skateboarders are therefore uniquely alternative to other media (re)presentations but at the same time, paradoxical.

Qualitative analysis of cognitive and contextual determinants of Canadians’ individual response to terrorism

The objective of the present study was to explore different aspects of individual response to terrorism in Canada and develop a descriptive model of the processes involved. A qualitative analysis was performed on transcripts of individual and group interviews held across Canada (N = 73) wherein concerns and decisions surrounding terrorism were discussed. This analysis revealed 16 emerging concepts, which were organised into six overarching themes (Threat, Uncertainty, Control, Context Issues, Psychological Response, and Behavioural Response). Psychological and behavioural responses appeared to be related, in that they shared a number of cognitive determinants. Results also pointed to the involvement of contextual factors such as timing relative to an event, type of terrorism scenario, and opinions regarding the regulation of terrorism. Behavioural responses to terrorism were discussed less frequently than psychological responses. These primarily entailed actions aimed at avoiding terrorist events, although more positive responses such as individual preparedness were also mentioned. Implications of findings for research on individual preparedness for terrorism are discussed.

Public perception of population health risks in Canada: Health hazards and health outcomes

The focus of this article is a descriptive account of the perceptions of five health hazards (motor vehicles, climate change, recreational physical activity, cellular phones, and terrorism) and five health outcomes (cancer, long-term disabilities, asthma, heart disease, and depression) from a recent survey of 1503 Canadians. In an attempt to shed light on factors that influence risk perception in Canada, the extent to which these exemplars are perceived as high in risk and controllability, as well as the extent to which knowledge and uncertainty surrounding them is high, was examined. The degree to which these exemplars are deemed acceptable and generate worry among Canadians was also examined. Variation was observed in the extent to which different health hazards and outcomes are perceived on the various dimensions. Perceptions of health hazards and outcomes also vary significantly by gender, age, and education. Findings are compared to existing research on risk perception.

Public perception of population health risks in Canada: Risk perception beliefs

A national survey of health risk perception among 1,503 adult Canadians was conducted in 2004 as a follow-up to a previous survey in 1992. Respondents were asked to indicate their personal opinion regarding a range of risk perception belief statements reflecting environmental concern, social concern, genetic concern, dependence on regulators, locus of health risk control (internal, powerful others, chance), risk acceptability and technological enthusiasm. The results indicated considerable concern over the state of the environment in general, however, less concern existed for the environment nearest to the individual. A high degree of concern was expressed over stress in the workplace, and poverty was perceived to represent an important health risk for Canadians. A strong sense of the importance of personal lifestyle factors and personal control over ones health was also observed as were notable increases in trust and dependence on the ability of government and experts to make decisions and regulate health risks in Canada as compared to the previous survey. Belief statements reflecting environmental and social concern correlated with the level of risk perceived for a variety of health hazards and outcomes.

Skateboarding Women Building Collective Identity in Cyberspace

This article reconsiders the Skirtboarders’ blog, produced by a crew of female skateboarders, as a space where crew members attempt to reflexively start a movement and, in doing so, construct and circulate a wider collective identity (Taylor & Whittier, 1992). Through a discourse analysis of blog comments and user interviews, we attempt to understand how young women who visit the blog interpret (re)presentations of female skateboarders and whether they become engaged in the movement to promote skateboarding among women. Do they adopt this collective subjectivity? While the analysis suggests that they do feel part of the movement, it raises the issue of blog user access to the more specific “Skirtboarder” identity.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Access, Quality and Satisfaction with Care Among Women Living in Rural and Remote Communities in Canada

This chapter examines the relationship between health service restructuring and the health care experiences of women from rural and remote areas of Canada. Data were collected from 34 focus groups (237 women), 15 telephone interviews and 346 responses from an online survey. Access to services, care quality and satisfaction are salient themes in these data. Problems include: travel, shortage of providers, turnover in personnel, delays associated in accessing care, lack of knowledge of womens health issues and patronizing attitudes of some health care providers. Health care service restructuring has led to deterioration in service availability and quality. Key areas for policy development need to address health care access and quality improvement issues, including increasing access to more (particularly female) providers who are sensitive to womens health issues.

‘It’s not how you look; it’s what you do.’ Western Canadian Barrel Racers, Rodeo Legitimacy and Femininity

Abstract Rodeo’s historical links to rural settler communities, ranching and cow herding traditions permeate the embodiment of the ‘legitimate’ barrel racing sportswoman in Western Canada. Ladies’ barrel racing is the only competition exclusive to women within Western Canada’s professional rodeos. Barrel racers’ gender performances are thus on display within a sex-integrated context where women continually defend their athletic legitimacy while maintaining a certain brand of femininity that distinguishes them from rodeo cowboys, but also from other rodeo cowgirls. Showcasing the results of in-depth qualitative interviews with fourteen barrel racers from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, our discourse analysis shows that ‘legitimate’ barrel racers claimed to be disciplined in ways that set them apart from other cowgirls, whether groupies, other barrel racers or rodeo queens, through dividing practices such as upholding moral expectations at rodeo parties, wearing plain rodeo attire and dedication to horse care and skilled riding.

‘I can choose’: the reflected prominence of personal control in representations of health risk in Canada

Multidisciplinary research has contributed to a better understanding of the personal and societal correlates of risk perception. However, representations of ‘health risk’ remain to be characterised more fully. Drawing on a Canadian study conducted in 2004, an analysis was conducted to develop better characterisations of individual representations of health risk. The study involved a national telephone survey (N = 1503) and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with individuals across Canada (N = 73) in which participants’ representations of health, risk and health risk were elicited using a word association technique. In the telephone survey, it was found that representations of health risk were most frequently negative, with many participants referring to disease and illness. The concept of health risk was also associated with lifestyle, individual control and personal agency, suggesting that individual health behaviour and personal responsibility for health were prominent features of public discourse on health risk in Canada. However, subtle variations in representations of health risk were observed in analyses of semi-structured interviews, pointing to important differences according to age and gender in this specific discourse. There was agreement among participants that health risks were associated with individual vulnerability and menace to life or health, and that such vulnerability increased with age. However, women were less likely to focus on the idea of actively making choices to control health risks and less frequently made references to the positive aspects of health risks.

Sending a Message through Captain Canada's Punishment: News Media Coverage of the Patrice Cormier Hockey Violence Incident

In January 2010, Canadian Major Junior hockey player, Patrice Cormier, elbowed and injured an opposing player during a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game. A discourse analysis of one hundred-two texts from five Canadian media sources highlights how the widespread media coverage of this incident constructed Cormier as a star player whose actions crossed the line of acceptable behavior and whose lengthy suspension and guilty plea to assault charges illustrated the unacceptability of his actions.