The Relation of Negative Career Thoughts to Depression and Hopelessness

Although some research literature focuses on the integration of mental health and career counseling, there has been little that examines both areas in relation to depression and hopelessness. This study investigated the relationship among dysfunctional career thinking, depression, and hopelessness in a sample of 139 undergraduate and graduate students seeking drop‐in or individual career counseling services at a university career center. The authors found that two aspects of dysfunctional career thinking, decision‐making confusion and commitment anxiety, accounted for a significant amount of variance in depression. Decision‐making confusion also accounted for a significant amount of variance in hopelessness. Implications for counseling practice include the need for more careful screening of career clients who present with high levels of anxiety and negative thinking. Future research could involve more diverse client populations, such as unemployed adults, and explore the use of additional screening measures to assess the intersection of career and mental health issues.     

Sexual orientation differences in HIV testing motivation among college men

Objective: To investigate sexual orientation differences in college men's motivations for HIV testing. Participants: 665 male college students in the Southeastern United States from 2006 to 2014. Methods: Students completed a survey on HIV risk factors and testing motivations. Logistic regressions were conducted to determine the differences between heterosexual men (HM) and sexual minority men (SMM). Results: SMM were more motivated to get tested by concern over past condomless sex, while HM were more often cited supporting the testing program “on principle” and wanting a free t-shirt. SMM and HM differed in behaviors that impact HIV risk and other demographics. However, differences in testing motivation by concern over past condomless sex or wanting a free t-shirt persisted when controlling for these demographic and behavioral differences. Conclusions: Appropriately designed HIV prevention interventions on college campuses should target SMM's distinct concern over past condomless sex as a testing motivation.     

Urban habitats can affect body size and body condition but not immune response in amphibians

Does urbanization affect key life-history traits in native organisms? Some studies show that urban areas reduce diversity in certain taxa, but there is little insight into how these environments affect physiological and ecological traits. Urban areas have distinct physical structure and ecological processes compared to original habitats. The environmental changes associated with urban areas can influence the costs and benefits of different traits and behaviors of local organisms. Some of these effects have been explored in groups such as birds, but we might expect stronger effects in animals with reduced mobility, such as amphibians. Importantly, the effects of urban habitats on amphibians have not been explored, in spite that these are the most threatened vertebrate group in the world. Here, we compared three main traits related to the fitness of amphibians in urban and natural habitats: body size, body condition and immune response. To test the generality of our results, we assessed adult males of four amphibian species. We found that the body size was larger in urban environment populations in three of four studied species, while the body condition was better in the urban populations of two aquatic newt species. Finally, we found no effect of urbanization on the immune response of individuals of any species. In conclusion, we show that different species of amphibians may be affected differently by anthropogenic habitat alteration depending on their specific ecology.     

Usability and Feasibility Study of a Remote Cognitive Behavioral Therapy System with Long-Term Unemployed Women

We present the results of the use of a cognitive behavioral therapeutic intervention tool to improve the mental, physical, and social health of a group of long-term unemployed women in Spain. Method: We sent automated text messages (SMS) to the mobile phones of long-term unemployed women selected at random from public social services. During a 28-day intervention period, women received four daily automated text messages on her mobile phone on a predetermined hourly schedule. We measured depression symptoms at the start and end of the intervention and we analyzed qualitative data to determine the acceptability of a remote SMS program. Results: Depression symptoms using the Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), went from an average of 13.8 at baseline to 4.9 at the end of 28 days (p?=?0.89). One hundred percent of the women reported that they liked receiving the text messages and most found them helpful.     

Ignorability conditions for frequentist non parametric analysis of conditional distributions with incomplete data

Rubin (1976 Rubin, D.B. (1976). Inference and missing data. Biometrika 63(3):581–592.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) derived general conditions under which inferences that ignore missing data are valid. These conditions are sufficient but not generally necessary, and therefore may be relaxed in some special cases. We consider here the case of frequentist estimation of a conditional cdf subject to missing outcomes. We partition a set of data into outcome, conditioning, and latent variables, all of which potentially affect the probability of a missing response. We describe sufficient conditions under which a complete-case estimate of the conditional cdf of the outcome given the conditioning variable is unbiased. We use simulations on a renal transplant data set (Dienemann et al.) to illustrate the implications of these results.     

Toward a multi‐ethnic public sphere? Media consumption in highly diverse districts in Spain

This article examines media consumption in highly diverse districts in Spain as representative of recent changes in this field due to new immigration to countries in Southern Europe in times of crisis. Drawing on findings from two surveys, we observed a decrease in access to media specifically aimed at audiences of minority cultures between 2010 and 2012. It is suggested that this decline is not due to a modification in media consumption habits by minority groups, but rather the economic crisis of 2008. Furthermore, we study the consumption of minority media by natives: we observe that youth and more educated individuals consume other cultures’ minority media to a greater extent, particularly the press, radio, and Internet news sources. We suggest that elements are present that public administrations could utilize to further develop a multi‐ethnic public sphere. Finally, we explore the emergence of a new transnational dimension to the multi‐ethnic public sphere.     

Performance Pay,the Gender Gap,and Specialization within Marriage

We show that the large gender earnings gap at the top of the distribution (the glass ceiling) and the motherhood penalty are associated with each other and that both are uniquely associated with performance pay. These patterns appear consistent with specialization by gender. We show that among married couples with children, the hours worked by wives are strongly and persistently negatively correlated with earnings of the husbands only when those husbands work in performance pay jobs. There is no correlation between husbands’ hours and wives’ earnings.     

The Astonishing Population Averted by China’s Birth Restrictions: Estimates,Nightmares, and Reprogrammed Ambitions

China launched an unprecedented program to control its population in 1971. Experts have dismissed the official estimate of 400 million births averted by this program as greatly exaggerated yet neglect to provide their own estimates. Counterfactual projections based on fertility declines in other countries suggest that China’s program-averted population numbered 360–520 million as of 2015. The low end of this range is based on Vietnam—China’s best national comparator, with a two-child program of its own—and the high end is based on a 16-country comparator selected, ironically, by critics of the official estimate. The latter comparator further implies that China’s one-child program itself averted a population of 400 million by 2015, three-quarters of the total averted population. All such estimates are projected to double by 2060, due mostly to counterfactual population momentum. These and other findings presented herein affirm the astonishing impact of China’s draconian policy choices and challenge the current consensus that rapid socioeconomic progress drove China’s fertility well below two children per family. International comparisons of fertility and income suggest instead that China’s very low fertility arrived two or three decades too soon. If China had not harshly enforced a norm of 1.5-children during the last quarter century, most mothers would have had two children, one-half birth higher than observed.     

Stymied ambition: does a lack of economic freedom lead to migration?

We investigate the relationship between economic freedom and international migration for the 1980–2010 period using a dataset on migration from 91 emerging countries to the 20 most attractive OECD destination countries. We find that more economic freedom at home discourages high-skilled migration, but not low-skilled migration. The negative association between economic freedom and high-skilled emigration also holds when we estimate (dynamic) panel models that allow for endogeneity in the economic freedom-migration nexus. In sum, our findings suggest that high-skilled migration is especially responsive to the economic incentives resulting from economic freedom.