Prevalence of Psychological Symptoms Among Undergraduate Students in an Ethnically Diverse Urban Public College

Abstract

The levels of psychological symptoms (anger, anxiety, and depression) among 595 college students in an ethnically diverse urban public college were surveyed. The students reported a wide range of symptoms that were quite similar to those reported by a representative sample of adults in the United States in the 1990s. Among these Asian, Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic, White, and other ethnic minority students, women's levels of symptoms were higher than men's (although the differences were small). Older students reported lower levels of anger and depression (the differences were even smaller), and ethnic groups did not differ in manifestations of psychological symptoms. Some of these students, however, reported problematic levels of psychological symptoms that were similar to those reported by more traditional college and university students.     

Real-World Personal Conversations Using a Hands-Free Embedded Wireless Device While Driving: Effect on Airbag-Deployment Crash Rates

A wireless device embedded in the vehicle allowed the user to engage in a personal hands-free conversation (HFC), and automatically placed an emergency notification call to an OnStar call center if the vehicle was involved in a crash in which its airbag deployed. A database stored the exact counts, start timestamps, and billed durations of all HFC and airbag notification calls. In 30 months of naturalistic driving, there were 91 million HFC calls from an average of 323,994 drivers per month who made calls. There were 14 airbag deployments in 276 million driver-minutes of HFC conversation for an exposed incidence rate of 5.08 airbag crashes per 100 million driver-minutes. There were 2,023 airbag deployments in an estimated 24.7 billion driver-minutes of no HFC conversation for a not-exposed incidence rate of 8.18 airbag crashes per 100 million driver-minutes. The crash incidence rate ratio (IRR) is the ratio of these two rates or 0.62 (95% C.I. 0.37 to 1.05). Sensitivity analyses controlled for the impact on the crash IRR of estimated time spent driving per day and calls by passengers. Counting all crashes as much as 20 minutes later than a call as related to that call gave similar results. We conclude that for personal conversations using a hands-free embedded device the risk of an airbag crash is somewhere in a range from a moderately lower risk to a risk near that of driving without a recent personal conversation. These results are not consistent with the large increase in crash risk reported in epidemiological studies using the case-crossover method.     

Prevalence of psychological symptoms among undergraduate students in an ethnically diverse urban public college

The levels of psychological symptoms (anger, anxiety, and depression) among 595 college students in an ethnically diverse urban public college were surveyed. The students reported a wide range of symptoms that were quite similar to those reported by a representative sample of adults in the United States in the 1990s. Among these Asian, Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic, White, and other ethnic minority students, women's levels of symptoms were higher than men's (although the differences were small). Older students reported lower levels of anger and depression (the differences were even smaller), and ethnic groups did not differ in manifestations of psychological symptoms. Some of these students, however, reported problematic levels of psychological symptoms that were similar to those reported by more traditional college and university students.     

A Cost‐Effectiveness Analysis of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh

Reports of the success of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh have led to rapid growth in funding for microfinance. But has the Grameen Bank been cost‐effective? This article compares output with subsidy for the bank in a present‐value framework. For the timeframe 1983–97, subsidy per person‐year of membership in Grameen was about $20, and subsidy per dollar‐year borrowed was about $0.22. Although the article does not measure consumer surplus for Grameen users, the evidence in the literature suggests that surplus probably exceeds subsidy. The Grameen Bank — if not necessarily other microlenders — was probably a worthwhile social investment.     

‘It’s who we are’: eco-nationalism and place in contesting deep-sea oil in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Given near consensus among the scientific community about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there is pressing concern about how to mobilise enough people to care and demand wider socio-political change. In this article we explore this urgent issue, drawing on recent conflicts over deep-sea oil exploration and drilling in Aotearoa New Zealand. We explore how some activist groups are attempting to mobilise care and concern around deep-sea oil drilling and climate change through the use of narratives that entwine aspects of national identity with the non-human world. We suggest that these activist groups are not concerned about a retreat of the state, but rather, are in direct conflict with the state, and state interventionism, over fossil fuel development trajectories in Aotearoa New Zealand. In drawing upon eco-nationalism, and particularly a way of life related to place, activists have called into question the common sense of business as usual and thereby sought to expand space for ‘ordinary’ Aotearoa New Zealanders to care about climate change.     

The Impacts of Individual Development Accounts,Assets, and Debt on Future Orientation and Psychological Depression

Individual development accounts (IDAs) have been adopted in communities across the country as a way of helping lower-income individuals accrue financial assets. These programs match the savings of program participants if they invest them in the purchase of a home, the creation or expansion of a business, or additional education. Beyond the financial benefits of holding assets, scholars have argued that they should also result in psychological benefits such as enhanced future orientations and decreased depression. This study tests this argument with data from a randomized controlled experiment involving 1,103 applicants to an IDA program. The findings show that assignment to the IDA program was not associated with either future orientation or depression 10 years later. The value of assets held at that time, however, was found to be negatively associated with depression. In addition, self-reported financial stress was found to be negatively associated with future orientation and positively associated with depression.     

Early Word Segmentation in Naturalistic Environments: Limited Effects of Speech Register

We examined 7.5‐month‐old infants' ability to segment words from infant‐ and adult‐directed speech (IDS and ADS). In particular, we extended the standard design of most segmentation studies by including a phase where infants were repeatedly exposed to target word recordings at their own home (extended exposure) in addition to a laboratory‐based familiarization. This enabled us to examine infants' segmentation of words from speech input in their naturalistic environment, extending current findings to learning outside the laboratory. Results of a modified preferential‐listening task show that infants listened longer to isolated tokens of familiarized words from home relative to novel control words regardless of register. However, infants showed no recognition of words exposed to during purely laboratory‐based familiarization. This indicates that infants succeed in retaining words in long‐term memory following extended exposure and recognizing them later on with considerable flexibility. In addition, infants segmented words from both IDS and ADS, suggesting limited effects of speech register on learning from extended exposure in naturalistic environments. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between segmentation success and infants' attention to ADS, but not to IDS, during the extended exposure phase. This finding speaks to current language acquisition models assuming that infants' individual attention to language stimuli drives successful learning.