The Benefits of Dispositional Mindfulness in Physical Health: A Longitudinal Study of Female College Students

Abstract

Objective: This article examines the relationship between dispositional mindfulness, health behaviors (eg, sleep, eating, and exercise), and physical health. Participants: Participants included 441 college women. Methods: Women completed self-report surveys at the beginning and end of a 10-week academic quarter. The study was conducted over 5 academic quarters from fall 2008 to fall 2010. Results: Findings indicated that higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were related to healthier eating practices, better quality of sleep, and better physical health. Dispositional mindfulness contributed to better physical health even after controlling for traditional health habits. Finally, bidirectional mediational relationships were found between healthy eating and dispositional mindfulness as well as between sleep quality and dispositional mindfulness when physical health was the outcome variable. Conclusions: Findings suggest that incorporating mindfulness training into programming on college campuses may be beneficial, as results indicate that dispositional mindfulness is related to positive physical health among college students.     

Effects of Parents' Migration on the Education of Children Left Behind in Rural China

This essay draws on an original cross‐sectional survey of 1,010 children and their guardians in highly migratory regions of Anhui and Jiangxi provinces located in China's interior. It uses propensity score matching, a technique that mitigates endogenity, to examine the impact of parental migration and post‐migration guardianship arrangements on the children's educational performance as measured by test scores for Chinese and mathematics. One core finding is that the educational performance of children is adversely affected by parental migration only when both parents migrate or when a non‐parent guardian is the principal carer. Additionally, longer durations of parental absence are associated with poorer educational performance. The migration of two parents only significantly adversely affects the educational performance of boys. There is no significant effect on the educational performance of girls. On the basis of our findings we argue that rather than support left‐behind children within the countryside, the long‐term policy response should be to remove the institutional obstacles that prevent family resettlement in the cities.     

A Note on Derived Means of Scaled Data

Details are given of the procedures for calculating derived means of square-root and log transformed variables from un-subdivided and layered samples. A method for determining approximate confidence limits of the derived means is also described. The temporal distribution of nematodes in grass herbage is given as an example to illustrate the procedures used.     

Demographic change and the supply of potential family supporters in Britain, Finland and France in the period 1911–2050/Changements démographiques et disponibilité des soutiens familiaux en Grande-Bretagne, en Finlande et en France entre 1911 et 2050

We consider the contribution of changes in mortality and fertility to availability of living mothers and living children among older people in Britain, Finland and France. The proportion of people aged around 60 with a mother alive will more than double between those born in 1911 and 1970 before starting to decline slightly. Conversely, a higher proportion of elderly people are likely to have a surviving child than for any generation ever born in all three countries in the next quarter century or so, with about 85% of 80-year-old women having at least one surviving child, and about two-thirds having two or more.     

Symmetry, contingency, complexity: Accommodating uncertainty in public relations theory

This article explores the potential of complexity theory as a unifying theory in public relations, where scholars have recently raised problems involving flux, uncertainty, adaptiveness, and loss of control. Complexity theory refers to the study of many individual actors who interact locally in an effort to adapt to their immediate situation, thereby forming large-scale patterns that affect an entire society, often unpredictably and uncontrollably.Five characteristics of complexity theory render it particularly useful to explore central questions in public relations, such as power and accommodation, shifting perceptions and images, and problems with public relations models’ predictiveness. These five characteristics are adaptivity, nonlinearity, coevolution, punctuated equilibrium, and self-organization. The article describes specific complexity-based methodologies and their potential for public relations studies, focusing on data- and agent-based modeling.Priscilla Murphy is associate dean for Research and Graduate Programs at the School of Communications and Theater, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.     

An Integrative Examination of Peer Conflict: Children's Reported Goals, Emotions, and Behaviors

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the interrelations among children's typical emotions, goals, and behavior during peer conflict and to examine emotions and goals as joint predictors of behavior. Children (7 to 11 years old) described recent conflicts with peers and were questioned about their emotions, goals, and behaviors. The friendliness of children's reported goals during conflict was associated with low anger intensity and with high intensity of sadness. Children who tended to report nonconstructive behavior also tended to report relatively intense anger and relatively unfriendly goals. Furthermore, in regression analyses, the friendliness of goals uniquely predicted the constructiveness of children's behavior after controlling for the effects of anger intensity, age, gender, provoking event, and friendship with the peer. Although boys and girls reported similar levels of anger and sadness, girls reported friendlier goals and more constructive behavior than did boys. The use of self‐reports of actual events to examine peer conflict during middle childhood is also discussed.     

Demographic event history analysis: a selective review

This is a selective review of the literature concerning demographic event history analysis. "We have attempted to emphasize work that we consider to be particularly important or innovative, to note some of the difficulties that may arise with the use of event history analysis, and to point to several substantive areas where research is still poorly developed."     

Clinical reengineering. Integrating medical and operational management

In the continuing push for cost containment in health care, many organizations have turned to cost reduction methods that fundamentally change the way care is delivered. As health care organizations continue to make financially-driven staffing changes that impact patient care, medical leadership must take on greater responsibility for operational management. Physician executives are uniquely qualified to take on leadership roles in work redesign, and must do so to ensure excellent and fiscally-responsible patient care. This article presents a proven methodology for work redesign that helps physician executives apply their clinical skills to operational management in designing new health care delivery models.     

The Relationship between Bullying Roles and Children's Everyday Dyadic Interactions

This study investigated the behaviour and communication of seven‐ to eight‐year‐old children during a dyadic computer task. The children participating were identified by peers as: (1) initiators of bullying (‘bullies’); (2) defenders of those victimised (‘defenders’); and (3) those who generally do not take on a consistent role in relation to bullying (‘non‐role’ children). Children were videotaped during the task and the interaction was coded, 34 dyads participated. Defenders used significantly higher levels of supportive communication such as explanation and guidance than bullies. The task performance of dyads consisting of defenders with non‐role children was significantly superior to that of dyads comprising bullies plus non‐role children. The behaviour of the non‐role children was influenced according to whether they were working with a bully, a defender or another non‐role child. The study suggests that the roles that children adopt in relation to bullying influence their behaviour in other, non‐bullying contexts.