Metabolic Syndrome,Obesity, and Related Risk Factors Among College Men and Women

Abstract

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to characterize the prevalence of overweight/obesity, metabolic syndrome (MbS) and its criteria, and nutrient intakes of college-age men and women via a large-scale screening. Participants and Methods: From August 2005 to July 2008, 2,722 subjects were recruited for the ongoing, cross-sectional Young Adult Health Risk Screening Initiative project. Anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, and dietary data were collected. Results: Approximately one-half of men and more than one-quarter of women were overweight or obese. MbS was identified in 9.9% of men and 3.0% of women; 77% of men and 54% of women had at least 1 MbS criterion. Intakes of saturated fat, magnesium, and fiber, as well as body mass index and reported physical activity levels were related to MbS. Conclusions: Because of high rates of overweight/obesity and MbS, college-age adults are at risk for developing chronic diseases including diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease     

Disability welfare reform and the chav threat: a reflection on social class and ‘contested disabilities’

The recent UK media clash between Katie Hopkins and Katie Price in the reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother 2015 regarding Price’s receipt of welfare benefits for her son, Harvey, has reopened old debates about welfare support for the so-called deserving and undeserving poor. Nowhere is this more evident than in the classed moralities of motherhood with the harshest criticisms aimed at the ‘chav’ poor and working-class families and their children whose lifestyles and moral respectability may be called into question for causing or even fabricating particular disabilities in the first place. Alongside these characterisations of parental deficits and immorality associated with working-class and poor parents, connections between ‘invisible’ disability, poverty and poor parenting continue.     

Braving Human Suffering: Death Education and its Relationship to Empathy and Mindfulness

Social workers are likely to encounter clients dealing with traumatic grief and death in their practice. Though death education has gained in popularity and acceptance, few social work students receive coursework in this area and many are unprepared to deal with their clients' and their own emotions regarding death and grief. Though death-related content may evoke provider avoidance, mindfulness and empathy may help regulate provider emotions and responses. This United States-based study evaluates the effectiveness of experiential death education on mindfulness and empathy. Measures in three separate cohorts were given at the beginning and end of the course. Results show statistically significant increases on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy, indicating that such a course may be effective in increasing both mindfulness and empathy in social work students and those in related fields.     

‘Our own Hurricane Katrina’: Aboriginal disadvantage and Australian national identity

Since Prime Minister Howard's declaration in 2007 that child sex abuse in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities was Australia's ‘own Hurricane Katrina’, the trope of natural disaster has been a regular feature of print and television media coverage of Indigenous affairs in Australia. The effect of this rhetorical strategy is to separate what happens to Aboriginal people from the fabric of ‘mainstream’ Australian cultural and political life; to render it alien and unconnected to the relative privilege enjoyed by other Australians. This strategy also produces peculiar temporal effects by erecting a cordon sanitaire around Australian history and the national identity that it supports. Howard's comparison of Aboriginal disadvantage with Katrina, if read alongside his politicization of the teaching of Australian history, demonstrates an unwillingness to incorporate systemic injustice toward Indigenous people within the composition of that history. This article interrogates the relationships between the manifold understandings of Aboriginal disadvantage and attempts to commemorate its violent history, as these aspects of Australian life are both integrated and refused by national identity narratives. Specifically, the paper reinterprets the trope of natural disaster as a means of comprehending Indigenous disadvantage and Australian identity by drawing on Walter Benjamin's philosophy of history. Benjamin's understanding of activism as a constructive retrieval of the past will be developed to reconnect catastrophe to history, and to enable an exploration of responsibility for that history as an integral condition of contemporary Australian identity.     

The ‘Feminization’ of Management? Issues of ‘Sameness’ and ‘Difference’ in the Roles and Experiences of Female and Male Retail Managers

Explanations of women’s poor representation in senior management usually emphasize differences between women and men managers’ experiences, circumstances and aspirations, and the gendered character of organizational structures and processes. Whilst these may all disadvantage women, some writers have suggested recently that women managers may differ in style and orientation in ways particularly appropriate for today’s developing organizations. This paper explores issues of ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ between women and men managers in retailing. Whilst both male and female store managers wanted to downplay gender differences and adopt a ‘gender neutral’ approach, they also associated a number of advantages and disadvantages with being a woman manager in certain contexts. Rapid sectoral change had caused companies to reassess the desired attributes and competences of managers; associated both with an enhanced valuing of ‘feminine’ qualities and with a more ‘objective’ and ‘clinical’ approach to assessment. Despite their equal numbers at entry points women remained poorly represented at senior levels, suggesting that subjective and informal processes were important determinants of women and men’s progress. Given management is inherently a process enacted by individual managers within a social context the extent to which it can be conceived in gender neutral terms is questioned since individuals are inevitably discussed and identified in terms of their gender.     

Problematic emotions and maternal grief

The study was an empirical examination of the relation of personality proneness to "problematic social emotions"--envy (Dispositional Envy Scale), jealousy (Interpersonal Jealousy Scale), and shame and guilt (Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2)--to maternal grief (Perinatal Grief Scale-33) following miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, or infant/child death. The 441 women who participated in the study were enrolled from the Website, e-mail contact lists, and parent support groups of an organization that offers information and support to bereaved parents. All four problematic emotions were positively correlated with maternal grief. Envy, jealousy, and guilt made significant unique contributions to the variance in maternal grief. Overall, time lapse since the loss and the four problematic emotion predispositions explained 43% of the variance in maternal grief following child bereavement.     

Effects of support groups on post traumatic stress responses in women experiencing stillbirth

This research study explores the effects of support groups on traumatic stress responses of women experiencing stillbirth. Women (N = 47) responded to a mixed method questionnaire. Quantitative results utilizing the Impact of Event Scale Revised demonstrate that women who attend support group, when controlling for time, had fewer post traumatic stress symptoms than did the women who did not attend support group. Qualitative results elucidate the role of support groups in managing grief, suggesting that connectivity with other like women may be a useful strategy in reducing problematic psychological outcomes.     

A Review of Current Ambulatory Assessment Studies in Adolescent Samples and Practical Recommendations

The use of ambulatory assessment (AA) and related methods (experience sampling, ecological momentary assessment) has greatly increased within the field of adolescent psychology. In this guide, we describe important practices for conducting AA studies in adolescent samples. To better understand how researchers have been implementing AA study designs, we present a review of 23 AA studies that were conducted in adolescent samples from 2017. Results suggest that there is heterogeneity in how AA studies in youth are conducted and reported. Based on these insights, we provide recommendations with regard to participant recruitment, sampling scheme, item selection, power analysis, and software choice. Further, we provide a checklist for reporting on AA studies in adolescent samples that can be used as a guideline for future studies.