Venus and Serena Williams’ dominance of professional women’s tennis at the dawn of the 21st century may well signify progress in a sport that typically privileges Whiteness. What happened at Indian Wells, California, in the spring of 2001 suggests otherwise. After advancing to the semifinals where they were scheduled to meet, Venus defaulted to Serena and thus incurred the wrath of fans at Indian Wells. Two days later, when Venus and her father Richard entered the stadium to watch Serena play, they encountered boos and racist epithets. Similar to other “racialized incidents” that occurred in the United States during the 1990s, the episode at Indian Wells signals the continuance of racism in the new millennium. Although contemporary terms have shifted from “scientific racism” to “cultural racism” and “commodity racism,” the underlying dynamics of White racism persist.

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The study described in this article aimed to identify issues relating to incontinence and assess the impact of referral to a continence adviser on the lives of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The study design used an in-depth, two-phase anonymous mail survey within a general community as nominated by the participants. Fifty-six people participated in phase 1 and eleven people completed phase 2. The results indicated that incontinence is a problem for the vast majority of participants--people with MS. One-third of the eligible participants took up the option of a consultation, assessment and treatment from a continence nurse. Reasons for not taking up the visit from the continence nurse included 'managing OK', 'didn't think it would help', 'embarrassed' and 'too busy'. Increasing awareness of urinary incontinence in the community is important and education needs to focus on at-risk groups in presenting the range of options available to assist people experiencing incontinence.

Objective:The research investigated whether a stronger predictive model of volunteering behaviour prevails when the functions of the volunteer functions inventory are combined with the constructs of the theory of planned behaviour. The study advances on prior research which either examined the predictive capacity of each model or compared their explanatory values. Method: The survey was completed by 186 individuals (Male = 56.10%; Mean Age = 63.7 years) who were retired or approaching retirement and within the context of episodic, skilled volunteering. Results: Multiple regression analyses found that the functions of the volunteer functions inventory explained a further 7% of variability in individuals' willingness to volunteer, over and above that accounted for by the theory of planned behaviour. Within the final model, which explained 62% of variability in willingness to volunteer, significant predictors included attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (from the theory of planned behaviour) and the understanding function from the volunteer functions inventory. Items representing the understanding function are proposed to represent a deeper psychological construct (e.g., self-actualisation) not accounted for by the theory of planned behaviour. Conclusions: The findings highlight the potential benefit to be gained from the amalgamation of these two prominent models in terms of improving understanding of volunteerism and providing a single parsimonious model for use in research and practice. Extending the research to include a broader range of volunteering contexts and populations will validate the benefit of combining the models.Key words: episodic volunteering, older people, self-actualisation, theory of planned behaviour, volunteer functions inventoryThe study of volunteerism has taken a variety of paths in an attempt to strengthen the understanding of the behaviour and to establish the most effective means of influencing its occurrence across diverse populations and settings. Indeed, the understanding of volunteering has been enhanced in recent times by examining the behaviour from a broader range of theoretical perspectives (see Wilson, 2012). The volunteer functions inventory (VFI; Clary et al., 1998), a prominently applied theory within volunteering research (Hustinx, Cnaan, & Handy, 2010), has played an instrumental role in advancing knowledge of intrinsic motivation to volunteer across many contexts. Acknowledging that volunteering is an act influenced by factors both intrinsic and external to the individual, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) also provides researchers with a framework for assessing individual and contextual determinants of the behaviour. In addition to examining the respective explanatory value of these two models in isolation, previous volunteering studies have also compared the predictive capacity of the two frameworks (e.g., Greenslade & White, 2005), at times positioning the theories in opposition to one another. To date, however, the explanatory...

This study explored changes in quality of life (QOL) and psychosocial variables in a large cohort of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). A total of 1287 Australians with MS were administered self-report questionnaires at baseline and 24 months later to examine the impact of disease severity and duration, perceived stress, self-efficacy, depression, and social support on QOL and self-care. Over the 2-year survey period, MS remained stable for 70% of respondents. Disease severity correlated with social support at baseline but not at 24 months, when the only significant correlation with disease severity was that of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-100 instrument (WHOQOL-100) domain of Level of Independence. Although QOL improved across the WHOQOL-100 domains Physical, Psychological, Level of Independence, Social Relationships, and Environment, decreases were found in the WHOQOL-100 facet overall QOL and well-being as well as self-efficacy over the same time period. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the utility of four control measures. MS disease severity and MS disease duration were entered at Step 1, explaining 16.1% of the variance in QOL. After entry of perceived stress, self-efficacy, social support, and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) at Step 2, the total variance explained by the model as a whole was 55.8% (F6,1028 = 216.495, P < .001). Thus, even in the presence of stable disease and improvement in some WHOQOL-100 domains, overall QOL and self-efficacy had decreased at 2 years after the collection of baseline data. Loss of self-efficacy, increased stress, and depression are key factors in reduced QOL in people with MS.