Order-picking in deep cold--physiological responses of younger and older females. Part 2: body core temperature and skin surface temperature

So far, it was unclear to what extent working in deep cold-storage depots has an influence on female order-pickers body core temperature and skin surface temperature considering different age groups. Physiological effects of order-picking in a chill room (+3°C) and cold store (-24°C) were examined on 30 female subjects (Ss), classified in two age groups (20- to 35- year-olds and 40- to 65-year-olds). The body core temperature was taken every 15 min at the tympanum and the skin surface temperature was recorded continuously at seven different positions. Working in the chill room induced a decrease of the body core temperature up to 0.5K in comparison to the value at the outset for both age groups which could be compensated by all Ss during the breaks. Working in the cold store caused a decline up to 1.1K for the younger Ss and 1.3K for the older Ss. A complete warming-up during the breaks was often not possible. Regarding the skin surface temperature, working in the chill room can be considered as unproblematic, whereas significantly lower temperatures at nose, fingers and toes, associated with substantial negative subjective sensations, were recorded while working in the cold store.     

The utilization of infrared imaging for occupational disease study in industrial work

Infrared imaging has been used to visualize superficial temperatures in industrial employers standing and working in an indoor environment at 22°C. Temperature distributions and changes have been recorded digitally and analyzed. Mean skin temperatures determined by this method have been compared with superficial temperatures obtained with a probe thermocouple. During working hours, surface temperatures were higher over extensor muscles than over other structures and their spatial distributions differed dramatically from those observed before working hours. The authors also analyzed the cold water immersion of the hands during work. This paper showed that working generates different thermal effects on human skin that reflect physiological and pathological occupational conditions and can be monitored by infrared imaging.     

Children’s Recognition and Discrimination of Fear and Disgust Facial Expressions

Facial expressions of fear and disgust have repeatedly been found to be less well recognized than those of other basic emotions by children. We undertook two studies in which we investigated the recognition and visual discrimination of these expressions in school-age children. In Study 1, children (5, 6, 9, and 10 years of age) were shown pairs of facial expressions, and asked to tell which one depicted a target emotion. The results indicated that accuracy in 9- and 10-year-olds was higher than in 5- and 6-year-olds for three contrasts: disgust–anger, fear–surprise, and fear–sadness. Younger children had more difficulty recognizing disgust when it was presented along with anger, and in recognizing fear when it was presented along with surprise. In Study 2, children (5, 6, 9, and 10 years of age) were shown a target expression along with two other expressions, and were asked to point to the expression that was the most similar to the target. Contrary to our expectations, even 5- and 6-year-olds were very accurate in discriminating fear and disgust from the other emotions, suggesting that visual perception was not the main limiting factor for the recognition of these emotions in school-age children.     

Age Variation in Performance Among Preschool Children in a Sexual Abuse Prevention Program

The purpose of this study was (a) to determine whether preschool age children could be taught sexual abuse prevention skills and concepts, and (b) to determine if any variation in performance exists as a function of the age of the child. Over 1300 preschool children ages 3-to-6-years were pretested and either participated in the prevention program or a control program. Children were posttested on knowledge and skill gains. Children who participated in the prevention program demonstrated greater knowledge of prevention skills and concepts compared to age matched controls. The benefits of participation in prevention program varied across age groups. Multiple comparison of posttest means indicated that trained 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds demonstrated significantly greater knowledge of prevention skills and concepts than 3-year-olds. Trained 6-year-olds demonstrated significantly greater knowledge than trained 4-year-olds. The results indicate that preschool age children can be taught prevention skills and concepts. However, benefit from participation in prevention programs varies with age.     

Parent–Child Positive Touch: Gender,Age, and Task Differences

This study examined gender, age, and task differences in positive touch and physical proximity during mother–child and father–child conversations. Sixty-five Spanish mothers and fathers and their 4- (M = 53.50 months, SD = 3.54) and 6-year-old (M = 77.07 months, SD = 3.94) children participated in this study. Positive touch was examined during a play-related storytelling task and a reminiscence task (conversation about past emotions). Fathers touched their children positively more frequently during the play-related storytelling task than did mothers. Both mothers and fathers were in closer proximity to their 6-year-olds than their 4-year-olds. Mothers and fathers touched their children positively more frequently when reminiscing than when playing. Finally, 6-year-olds remained closer to their parents than did 4-year-olds. Implications of these findings for future research on children’s socioemotional development are discussed.     

‘The Older I Get,the Colder I Get’—Older People’s Perspectives on Coping in Cold Homes

Abstract

An average of 26,560 UK excess winter deaths occur in people 65+ years old each winter, of which 30% are attributed to cold homes. Cold homes are known to exacerbate health problems prevalent in the 65+ demographic. Through conducting interviews in homes occupied by 65+-year-olds known to be achieving less than the World Health Organization (WHO) minimum recommended temperature (18ºC), this article highlights their struggles in maintaining health and managing their homes, with instances of extreme and potentially dangerous methods to achieve thermal comfort identified. Fairer energy provision, better targeted financial aid, and improved support networks are necessary to alleviate current problems.     

Health insurance coverage as people approach and pass age-eligibility for Medicare

This study uses six waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to measure dynamics of health insurance coverage as people approach and pass age-eligibility for Medicare. Thirteen percent of 59- to 64-year-olds were uninsured and 13% of 65- to 70-year-olds relied solely on Medicare. Those unmarried, in good health, and in poor health had an increased likelihood of being uninsured before age-eligibility for Medicare, while non-whites and those in good health had an increased likelihood of having Medicare-only coverage after age-eligibility for Medicare. Although only a small percentage was continually without coverage or with Medicare-only coverage, a substantial percentage had these coverage types at some point. Limitations and policy implications are included.     

Unsociable Work? Nonstandard Work Schedules,Family Relationships,and Children’s Well‐Being

Many children live in families where one or both parents work evenings, nights, or weekends. Do these work schedules affect family relationships or well‐being? Using cross‐sectional survey data from dual‐earner Canadian families (N= 4,306) with children aged 2 – 11 years (N= 6,156), we compared families where parents worked standard weekday times with those where parents worked nonstandard schedules. Parents working nonstandard schedules reported worse family functioning, more depressive symptoms, and less effective parenting. Their children were also more likely to have social and emotional difficulties, and these associations were partially mediated through family relationships and parent well‐being. For some families, work in the 24‐hour economy may strain the well‐being of parents and children.     

Estimating the Longitudinal Association Between Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Exposure to Sexual Media Content

The purpose of this study is to estimate the association between adolescent sexual behavior and exposure to sexual media content. A three-wave, longitudinal survey sample (N = 506) of 14- to 16-year-olds at baseline is analyzed using growth curves. Growth trajectories are linear for sexual behavior but not for exposure to sexual media content. The signs of the exposure slopes are not uniformly positive: Hispanic and African American respondents show declines of exposure to sexual media content over the age range investigated here. Although changes in exposure to sex content are highly associated with changes in sexual behavior among Whites, there is little or no association between changes in these variables among Blacks.     

GENDER AND PROSOCIAL VALUES DURING ADOLESCENCE: A Research Note

To date, relatively little is known about the prosocial values of adolescents. Research has shown that females attach more importance to certain prosocial values than males do in late adolescence but has not considered whether this gender difference is evident across stages of adolescence and whether it varies by race. We examine values that focus on doing things for others, using data from a nationwide survey of 12- to 17-year-olds. We find that girls place more importance on these prosocial values than boys at younger ages. However, we also find important patterns in this gender difference across racial groups as well as across age. White boys appear to attach less importance to prosocial values than other race and gender groups. Furthermore, the gender gap in prosocial values is larger at older ages, with older adolescent boys placing less importance on prosocial values than younger ones.     

Raising the legal gambling age in Finland: problem gambling prevalence rates in different age groups among past-year gamblers pre- and post-implementation

This article reports on the frequency of problem gambling, measured with the Lie/Bet instrument, in different age groups among Finnish past-year gamblers in 2011 (n = 2984) and 2014 (n = 2326). The data highlights the situation before, and three years after, the implementation of a raised minimum age limit for gambling from 15 to 18 years. The difference in problem gambling frequency when comparing all age groups was statistically significant in 2011, but not in 2014. A significantly lower frequency of problem gambling was found among 18–19-year-olds in 2014 (3.4%), compared to 2011 (16.3%). The results regarding problem gambling prevalence among 15–17-year-olds (8.0% in 2011, 0.0% in 2014) are somewhat inconclusive as the number of respondents fulfilling the criteria for problem gambling was zero in 2014, thus affecting the analysis. No statistically significant difference in problem gambling frequency was found among 20–21-year-olds (a group less affected by the policy implementation) – or other older age groups – between the survey years. While the findings should be viewed with caution, they do support recommendations regarding a minimum gambling age of 18 years or higher as an effective harm-minimization measure.     

Impact of Postdivorce Sibling Structure on Adolescent Adjustment to Divorce

A sample (N = 222) of middle school, high school, and college students were surveyed with regard to their adjustment to their parents’ divorces in specific domains, including coparenting, financial strain, and overall adjustment. With time since the divorce covaried, youth living with half-siblings, stepsiblings, or both (HSS) rated their experiences consistently more positively than youth living with full biological siblings only (FBS). HSS youth reported stronger perceptions that life has gotten better, parents are working together to raise them, and there are no lingering financial effects. There were no main effects for age, but an interaction of sibling structure and gender found male adolescents in the FBS group sometimes had more negative ratings than any of the other groups. Our findings contrast with prior studies suggesting that HSS youth do not adjust as well as FBS youth.     

Subjective Sexual Well-Being in a Web Sample of Heterosexual Norwegians

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze subjective sexual well-being in terms of emotional and cognitive evaluation of the individual's sexual function in adult Norwegians. The results from this study are based on 1,671 Web interviews among 18- to 67-year-olds randomly selected from Synovate's eBase. A total of 4,285 persons in the Web panel were asked to participate, yielding a response-rate of 39%. The results showed that sexual well-being decreased with increasing age and the number of years married or cohabiting. Young women were more satisfied than young men, and older men were more satisfied than older women. The presence of sexual problems heavily inflicted sexual well-being, as well as living with a partner or not. Subjective sexual well-being was also related to the person's habitualized negative or positive thinking about oneself. In a therapeutic context, restoring sexual function and increasing the client's self-esteem may be the way to increased sexual well-being.     

Developmental change in English-learning children's interpretations of salient pitch contours in word learning

To efficiently recognize words, children learning an intonational language like English should avoid interpreting pitch-contour variation as signaling lexical contrast, despite the relevance of pitch at other levels of structure. Thus far, the developmental time-course with which English-learning children rule out pitch as a contrastive feature has been incompletely characterized. Prior studies have tested diverse lexical contrasts and have not tested beyond 30 months. To specify the developmental trajectory over a broader age range, we extended a prior study (Quam & Swingley, 2010), in which 30-month-olds and adults disregarded pitch changes, but attended to vowel changes, in newly learned words. Using the same phonological contrasts, we tested 3- to 5-year-olds, 24-month-olds, and 18-month-olds. The older two groups were tested using the language-guided-looking method. The oldest group attended to vowels but not pitch. Surprisingly, 24-month-olds ignored not just pitch but sometimes vowels as well—conflicting with prior findings of phonological constraint at 24 months. The youngest group was tested using the Switch habituation method, half with additional phonetic variability in training. Eighteen-month-olds learned both pitch-contrasted and vowel-contrasted words, whether or not additional variability was present. Thus, native-language phonological constraint was not evidenced prior to 30 months (Quam & Swingley, 2010). We contextualize our findings within other recent work in this area.     

The gender gap in teenagers’ incomes. A 30-year trend in Finland 1983–2013

In this article, we examine the gender differences in disposable incomes of teenagers during a 30-year period 1983–2013, using large nationally representative survey data. Since the gender pay gap in working life has been rather persistent in Finland and the EU, it was necessary to see whether the gap persists in teenagers’ incomes as well. Although teenagers do not receive much income from work, they adapt to the structures of society during their teenage years and learn gender roles in consumption, education, and working life. Our results reveal that the gender pay gap has been rather persistent in Finland, particularly among 14- and 16-year-old teenagers. It is only among 18-year-olds that the gender difference in income has narrowed. There were interactions between gender and socio-economic indicators such as the father's education and family's place of residence. The persistent gender pay gap cannot be explained solely by wage differences in any age group, because full-time work of teenagers is nowadays very rare, and in Finland they do not work very much even part-time. Although it is rather obvious that boys get higher incomes than girls from external work, the allocation of money by parents seems to be unequal, too.     

Graduate Social Work Students' Interest in Working with Older Adults

This study examined Master's in Social Work students' (N = 304) interest in working with older adults following the use of case studies to infuse aging content into the foundation social work curriculum. Faculty members were provided with extensive materials to support their use of the cases with aging content in class. Compared to an earlier study, students were significantly more interested in working with older adults after they were exposed to the cases. Factors that predicted students' interest include age and attitude towards aging, specifically seeing older adults as having vitality. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of four Hong Kong antismoking cartoon posters with humor and threat elements

Although cartoons are widely used in health communication, their effectiveness has seldom been tested. In this study, the effects of four humor–threat antismoking cartoon posters are evaluated in a sample of 12- to 15-year-olds (n = 183) in Hong Kong. The five-group comparison (including the control group) revealed that these posters did not increase antismoking attitudes in the sample but did decrease antismoking behavioral intentions. The better liked, more humorous, and more frightening posters did not produce increased antismoking attitudes or behavioral intentions. These findings warrant the development of theories to clarify the role of humor in health communication. Although cartoons are well liked by adolescents, practitioners must be aware of the possible negative effects of humor in cartoon-based messages.     

Comparison of five approaches to keeping power line maintainers' hands warm during work in the cold

Electric utility workers in Canada must frequently work in the cold and must wear thick rubber gloves which can result in rapid fatigue and reduced performance. The purpose of the study was therefore to document the challenge of working in the cold wearing the standard five-finger rubber gloves and covers and compare them to two equipment options, mitten style gloves or a prototype wool liner, and two heating options, glove or torso heating. The dependent measures were grip force, temperature, dexterity (modified Purdue pegboard test and a simulated occupational task), finger sensitivity (Von Frey hair test), perceived effort and thermal sensation. The study population consisted of 10 experienced male utility workers. They worked in a controlled temperature walk-in chamber (-20 degrees Celsius) and performed simulated utility work for 45 minutes with interspersed test batteries. The mitten style glove and woolen liner in a standard glove reduced the effects of working in the cold compared to the standard five-fingered variety with a thin cotton liner. We found that the mitten style glove showed lesser drops in skin temperature for the 3rd and 5th digits than the other conditions (p < 0.05).     

Is “Sexual Competence” at First Heterosexual Intercourse Associated With Subsequent Sexual Health Status?

The timing of first sexual intercourse is often defined in terms of chronological age, with particular focus on “early” first sex. Arguments can be made for a more nuanced concept of readiness and appropriateness of timing of first intercourse. Using data from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3), conducted in 2010–2012, this study examined whether a context-based measure of first intercourse—termed sexual competence—was associated with subsequent sexual health in a population-based sample of 17-to 24-year-olds residing in Britain (n = 2,784). Participants were classified as “sexually competent” at first intercourse if they reported the following four criteria: contraceptive protection, autonomy of decision (not due to external influences), that both partners were “equally willing,” and that it happened at the “right time.” A lack of sexual competence at first intercourse was independently associated with testing positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) at interview; low sexual function in the past year; and among women only, reported sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis ever; unplanned pregnancy in the past year; and having ever experienced nonvolitional sex. These findings provide empirical support for defining the nature of first intercourse with reference to contextual aspects of the experience, as opposed to a sole focus on chronological age at occurrence.