BackgroundWith the proliferation of social casino games (SCGs) online, which offer the opportunity to gamble without monetary gains and losses, comes a growing concern regarding the effects of these unregulated games on public health, particularly among adolescents. However, given the limited research pertaining to SCG use, little is currently known about the manner in which adolescents engage with this new gambling medium. The present study aims to identify the factors that characterize adolescent social casino gamers, and to determine whether these factors differ by SCG type. Moreover, the study examines the extent to which social casino gaming is associated with monetary gambling and problem gambling in this cohort.MethodData were obtained from students in Grades 9 to 12 (n = 10,035) residing in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Participants completed the Youth Gambling Survey (YGS), which is a supplementary instrument administered alongside the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CSTADS). Logistic regression was used to assess the factors associated with SCG play.ResultsOverall, 12.4% of respondents reported having participated in SCGs in the past three months. Compared to adolescents who did not report playing SCGs, SCG players were typically more likely to participate in monetary gambling activities, and were more prevalently classified as problem gamblers of low-to-moderate severity or high severity. Although profiles of SCG players differed across SCG game types, factors significantly associated with the playing of SCGs were gender, weekly spending money, having friends and parents who gamble, and screen time. It was also shown that current smokers were significantly more likely to participate in simulated slots online relative to adolescents who did not play SCGs.ConclusionSignificant associations exist between SCG play, monetary gambling, and problem gambling among adolescents. Gambling intervention efforts directed at this population should aim to identify personal and environmental factors associated with social casino gaming, and should be tailored to different types of SCGs.

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Achieving tenure and promotion are significant milestones in the career of a university faculty member. However, research often indicates that racialized and female faculty do not achieve tenure and promotion at the same rate as their non-racialized and male counterparts. Using new original survey data on faculty in eight Canadian universities, this paper examines differences in tenure and promotion among racialized and female faculty  and investigates the extent to which explanations of human capital theory and cultural or identity taxation account for these disparities. Logistic regression confirms that controlling for human capital and cultural or identity taxation washes away the differences between male and female faculty for achieving both tenure and promotion. However, differences for racialized faculty remain, thereby offering evidence of discrimination in the academic system.

The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, language, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, and disability on the self-rated health of male and female immigrants. Our data source is the Canadian General Social Survey (2004). Results show that immigrants report more discrimination than nonimmigrants and female immigrants are more likely to report discrimination than male immigrants. Moreover, all types of perceived discrimination are inversely related to selfrated health for all groups, and the effect of perceived discrimination on poor health is stronger particularly for female than male immigrants. For most types of discrimination, female immigrants reported 1.1 to 2.5 times more health problems due to perceived discrimination than male immigrants. These ratios increased to 1.5 to 3.8 times in multivariate analyses that take into account the socio-demographic and socio-economic variables.

Older adults represent the highest proportion of gamblers (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation [OLG], 2012). Unpartnered older adults may be more socially isolated and lonely (Dykstra & de Jong Gierveld, 2004), thus more likely to be at risk for problem gambling (McQuade & Gill, 2012). We examined whether gambling to socialize or from loneliness and going to the casino with friends/family mediate the relation between marital status and problem gambling. Data from a random sample of older adults at gambling venues across Southwestern Ontario indicated that gambling with family/friends and gambling due to loneliness mediated the relationship between marital status and problem gambling. Relative to those married, unpartnered older adults were less likely to gamble with family/friends, more likely to gamble due to loneliness, and had higher problem gambling. Prevention and treatment initiatives should examine ways to decrease loneliness and social isolation among older adults and offer alternative social activities.

Achieving tenure and promotion are significant milestones in the career of a university faculty member. However, research often indicates that racialized and female faculty do not achieve tenure and promotion at the same rate as their non-racialized and male counterparts. Using new original survey data on faculty in eight Canadian universities, this paper examines differences in tenure and promotion among racialized and female faculty  and investigates the extent to which explanations of human capital theory and cultural or identity taxation account for these disparities. Logistic regression confirms that controlling for human capital and cultural or identity taxation washes away the differences between male and female faculty for achieving both tenure and promotion. However, differences for racialized faculty remain, thereby offering evidence of discrimination in the academic system.

This paper examined knowledge about the health effects of smoking among health equity groups following the 2012 introduction of refreshed pictorial health warning labels (HWLs) in Canada. Data are from the 2012/2013 Youth Smoking Survey a representative school-based survey of 47,203 adolescents in Grades 6-12 in nine provinces. Regression models examined overall knowledge about eight health effects of smoking included in the HWLs. Less than one-third of adolescents (32.2%) knew that smoking causes vision loss/blindness and 33.7% knew that smoking causes bladder cancer. Whereas knowledge was high for lung cancer (93.9%), knowledge about other health effects ranged from 52.9% for chronic bronchitis/emphysema to 77.6% for gum or mouth disease. Non-smoking adolescents who were: susceptible to future smoking, male, ethnic minorities, and who had less spending money were significantly less likely to be knowledgeable of the health effects of smoking. There were fewer disparities in knowledge about the health effects of smoking among smokers. Smokers who bought loose or bagged cigarettes rather than cigarettes in packages or cartons were significantly less likely to be knowledgeable about the health effects of smoking. There are significant disparities in knowledge about the health effects of smoking by health equity groups particularly among non-smoking adolescents. Warning labels have the potential to reduce disparities in knowledge about the health effects of smoking when exposure to the warning labels is universal. Complementary strategies such as mass media campaigns are needed to address disparities in knowledge.

Research on American secondary cities has largely focused on so‐called “rust belt” cities and has found that they tend to have economic stagnation, racialization, and urban decay in their urban cores occurring after economic crises. Most urban research on Canadian cities has, by contrast, focused on the country's largest cities, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, and has found that urban cores are getting richer, less diverse, and undergoing infrastructural improvements. We examine each model by looking at four secondary Atlantic Canadian cities (Halifax, Moncton, St. John's, and Charlottetown) that all faced major economic crisis in the 1990s to see whether these models can explain the sociospatial changes occurring in them. Analysis of 1996 and 2006 Canadian Census data finds unlike “rust belt” cities or changes seen in larger Canadian cities, there is no clear sociospatial concentration of change. Rather, change is seen through “hot spots” of economic and physical characteristics of neighborhoods.