Variations in Student Mental Health and Treatment Utilization Across US Colleges and Universities

Abstract

Objective: On US college campuses, mental health problems are highly prevalent, appear to be increasing, and are often untreated. Concerns about student mental health are well documented, but little is known about potential variations across the diversity of institutions of higher education. Participants: Participants were 43,210 undergraduates at 72 campuses that participated in the Healthy Minds Study from 2007 to 2013. Methods: Multivariable logistic regressions focus on associations between institutional characteristics and student mental health and treatment utilization. Results: The following institutional characteristics are associated with worse mental health: doctoral-granting, public, large enrollment, nonresidential, less competitive, and lower graduation rates. Among students with apparent mental health problems, treatment utilization is higher at doctorate-granting institutions, baccalaureate colleges, institutions with small enrollments, and schools with strong residential systems. Conclusions: Although high rates of mental health problems and low treatment utilization are major concerns at all types of institutions of higher education, substantial variation occurs across campuses.     

Multiculturalism or Cosmopolitanism: How Can We Describe and Understand the Diversity of the World?

过去数十年来, 多元性的文化、社会和政治图景演变甚巨; 然而我们却仍未找到 一种话语来描述、界定、理解、解释和研究当代世界的超级多元性。关于多元性的社 会思想和政治行动大多受制于民族主义方法论和多元文化主义框架; 然而, 对此应该 提出质疑。和民族主义方法论相对的世界主义方法论, 是观察多元性问题富有前景的 视角。另外, 对规范的、哲学意义上的“世界主义”和作为一种结构现象及社会科学 研究项目的“世界化”进行区分是非常必要的。我们可以把哲学及规范意义上的世界 主义与世界性社会科学结合起来, 构建一种世界性的现实主义。

关键词: 超级多元性 民族主义方法论 多元文化主义 世界主义 世界化

Over the last decades the cultural, social and political landscapes of diversity are changing radically, but we do not even have the language through which contemporary superdiversity in the world can be described, conceptualized, understood, explained and researched. Many of the social thoughts and political actions on issues of diversity are now dominated by methodological nationalism and multiculturalism which, however, have to be called into question. As opposed to methodological nationalism, methodological cosmopolitanism is a promising lens through which to look at questions of diversity. And it is essential to draw an essential distinction between “cosmopolitanism” in a normative philosophical sense and “cosmopolitanization” as a structural phenomenon and as a social scientific research programme. Philosophical and normative cosmopolitanism can be combined with cosmopolitan social science to create a cosmopolitan realism.     

MOBILITY FROM PRERETIREMENT TO POSTRETIREMENT JOB

While the normative pattern of retirement is complete cessation of labor force activity, approximately one-third of men work during their retirement. This research focuses on such "working-retirees" by investigating the prevalence and patterns of occupational mobility from pre- to postretirement job, as well as the impact that institutional constraints on (re)employment in later life may have on the chances of occupational mobility. Using data from the older men's cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys, a sample of working-retirees was extracted from men who retired between 1967 and 1978. Results showed a substantial amount of occupational mobility among the working-retired. The structure of mobility was found to be similar to younger labor force participants in that most mobility consists of moves to adjacent occupational categories. Unlike career mobility of nonretired workers, however, the large majority of moves constituted downward mobility. Using the economic segmentation perspective, log-linear and logistic regression analyses indicated that working-retirees whose preretirement jobs were in the core sector were more likely to experience occupational mobility. As a more specific indicator of bureaucratic control of the labor force, industry-level pension coverage rates were used in the logistic regressions and higher rates of pension coverage were found to result in a greater likelihood of mobility. These results indicate that the considerable occupational mobility experienced by working-retirees is partially the result of structural constraints on the employment of older men.     

Second modernity as a research agenda: theoretical and empirical explorations in the 'meta-change' of modern society

In this article we are reformulating the theory of reflexive modernization as an empirical research programme and summarize some of the most recent findings which have been produced by a research consortium in Munich (integrating four universities, funded by the German Research Society (DFG)). On this basis we reject the idea that Western societies at the beginning of the twenty-first century move from the modern to the post-modern. We argue that there has been no clear break with the basic principles of modernity but rather a transformation of basic institutions of modernity such as the nation-state and the nuclear family. We would suggest, therefore, that what we are witnessing is a second modernity. Finally, we reform the theory of reflexive modernization in reaction to three uttered objections.     

The Effect of Absentee Ownership on Local Employment Change

Abstract

To determine whether absentee-owned firms destabilize local economies, we examine the relationship between absentee ownership of manufacturing companies and employment change in manufacturing for 109 Pennsylvania towns. This issue arises because some earlier studies find that corporate connections through absentee-owned firms are positively related to local employment growth, whereas other work claims that locally owned operations are more stable. We attempt to reconcile these findings by arguing that absentee ownership is destabilizing only in the case of non-conglomerate firms. Our results show that absentee ownership in fact increases the closure rate of firms, thereby negatively affecting manufacturing employment change. Yet, this relationship differs by the parent company's organizational structure. Employment in branches of non-conglomerate firms is more detrimental than employment in branches of conglomerates — an important qualification of the argument that the “conglomeratization” of advanced industrial societies negatively affects communities.