Raymond F. Currie

Public attitudes and intentions regarding tenants of community mental health residences who are neighbours

A mail survey was conducted on a representative sample of 345 households in Winnipeg to examine public attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding tenants of community mental health residences who are neighbours. Vignette methodology was used to investigate the effects of mental illness labels (living in a community mental health residence vs. a normal residence), behavioural presentation (reflecting mild vs. severe disability), and sex of neighbours. Results showed behavioural presentation superseding labelling associated with tenancy in community mental health facilities in determining public attitudes toward and behavioural intentions regarding neighbouring. The study extends previous research by suggesting high levels of receptiveness on the part of community residents to having tenants as neighbours. Implications of the findings for improving the neighbourhood integration of tenants in community mental health residences are discussed.

Symptoms of depression in a canadian urban sample

The prevalence and correlates of symptoms of depression in a Canadian urban sample were examined. A random sample of 524 respondents completed the CES-D scale and a variety of socio demographic questions. In this Sample, 15% of the males and 19% of the females had scores above the depression cut-point of 16 on the CES-D scale. These rates were very similar to results reported in various U.S. centres. Symptoms of depression were most common among the younger, less educated, and those employed in trades and farming. Depression was lowest in the older, more educated, the married and those employed in professional and management roles. Taken as a whole the set of sociodemographic predictors explained 11%) of the variance in symptoms of depression.

Maybe on my Street The Politics of Community Placement of the Mentally Disabled

The increasing deinstitutionalization of the mentally disabled has instigated research on neighborhood receptivity to this group. Using a random household sample from a midwestern Canadian city, we investigate the contribution of neighborhood types and individual characteristics in predicting the likelihood of supportive or opposing political responses from residents. Overall, twice as many respondents consider the placement of community mental health facilities in their neighborhood as desirable compared to those considering such facilities undesirable. Neighborhood types, however, are not particularly good predictors of attitudes or intended political actions. Supporters of such facilities consistently are more likely than those opposed to report a willingness to take political action consistent with their viewpoint.

Mixed motivations for migration in the urban prairies: A comparative approach

Two Canadian Prairie cities, with populations of about 600 000 each, have experienced dramatically different growth patterns in the last twenty years because of quite different economic bases. Edmonton has been a fast growth city based on the gas and oil boom. Winnipeg has experienced very slow growth with a very diversified economy. Through the vehicles of the Edmonton and Winnipeg Area Studies, an analysis of migration to the two cities is possible. It is a study of mixed motivation. Not only are single motives rarely expressed by respondents, but the relative strength of economic and family motives in particular is somewhat unexpected in the two cities. Finally, while return migration accounts for 50 percent of migrants to the slow growth city, it is not as detached from economic motives as appears to be the case in other Canadian research on return migration.

Quality of the urban environment as perceived by residents of slow and fast growth cities

Through the vehicle of the Winnipeg and Edmonton Area Surveys of 1981 this paper compares perceptions of the city by its residents in two cities of dramatically different growth rates, holding constant the region of the country, the size of the city, the time of the analysis and the methodology used.The growth rate did influence the evaluations of the attributes of the city by its residents. However, this evaluation of growth was not a significant contributer to overall satisfaction with the city. While levels of satisfaction with the city were similar in the two cities, the contributing variables differed somewhat.

Where do you turn for help? A community survey of the use of professionals, reading materials, and group programs for three problems in living

This paper reports the results of a community survey on the use of professional help, reading materials, and group programs for three common problems in living: coping with stress and anxiety, dealing with problems in child-rearing, and coping with problems with alcohol or drugs. Respondents were 581 residents of a city in the Canadian midwest. Reading material was the most commonly used source of help for child-rearing and stress and anxiety problems, followed by professional help and group programs. The three sources of help were used with approximately equal frequency for alcohol and drug problems. The results suggest that the self-help reading materials and group programs have a high degree of public acceptance and that the optimal utilization of these services should be studied in more depth.

Dualistic and Wholistic Views of God and the World: Consequences for Social Action

The authors pose dualist and wholist types of orientation to social action and propose that these types represent distinctly different views of God and the World. which should result in very different forms of social attitudes. They identify respondents on the dualist end of the continuum as fundamentalist theologically who come more often from ethnic rural communities. Wholists are more liberal theologically and operate within a social system that is more urban and more open culturally. They found that Dualists who show more other-worldly tendencies are less involved in this-worldly processes and are also more supportive of traditional personal morality and the ethnic community. Wholists, on the other hand, are more this-worldly and more liberal with regard to traditional personal morality, community control, and minority rights. Wuthnows dualist and wholist perspectives seem to apply to religious Mennonite adherents, and the two views of God and the world result in very different social attitudes.

Properties of Norms as Predictors of Alcohol Use among Mennonites

In spite of the traditionally important role that the concept of “norms” has played in sociology, there is little agreement on how it should be defined or measured. This paper uses the framework suggested by Gibbs (1965, 1972, 1978) who proposes that we focus on normative properties whose presence or absence is a matter of degree. The set of normative properties analyzed in this paper relate to collective evaluations about alcohol use among Mennonites in Canada. Variation in degree of group agreement, evaluative intensity, saliency of the issue, permissible variation in situations and actors are measured. Regression procedures are used to test the relationship between these normative properties about alcohol use and self-reported alcohol consumption in five independently selected samples of Mennonites. Since the groups vary in their evaluation of alcohol use, the usefulness of the normative properties as predictors of behavior can be tested. While the percent of the variance explained is high and quite consistent across the groups, the relative importance of the normative properties within and between the groups varies substantially.