Tracking of sport and exercise types from midlife to old age: a 20-year cohort study of British men

Background

Previous physical activity (PA) tracking studies have examined the stability of overall PA and/or PA types, but few have investigated how specific types of sport/exercise track over the life course. The aim of this study was to determine how specific sports/exercises in midlife track and predict future sport/exercise and PA in men transitioning to old age.

Methods

Seven thousand seven hundred thirty-five men (aged 40–59?years) recruited in 1978–80 were followed up after 12, 16 and 20?years. At each wave men self-reported participation in sport/exercise. Frequent sport/exercise participants (>?1/month) reported the types of sport/exercise they engaged in. Men also reported total PA, health status, lifestyle behaviours and socio-demographic characteristics. Stability of each sport/exercise was assessed using kappa statistics and intraclass correlation coefficients. Logistic regression estimated the odds of participating in sport/exercise and being active at 20-year follow up according to specific types of sport/exercise in midlife.

Results

Three thousand three hundred eighty-four men with complete data at all waves were included in analyses. Tracking of specific sports/exercises ranged from fair to substantial, with golf being the most common and most stable. Bowls was the most frequently adopted. Odds of participating in sport/exercise and being active in old age varied according to sport/exercise types in midlife. Golf and bowls in midlife were the strongest predictors of sport/exercise participation in old age. Golf, cricket and running/jogging in midlife were among the strongest predictors of being active in old age. Compared to participating in just one sport/exercise in midlife, sampling multiple sports/exercises was more strongly associated with sport/exercise participation and being active in old age.

Conclusion

The stability of sport/exercise participation from midlife to old age varies by type. Specific sports/exercises in midlife may be more likely to predict future PA than others. However, participating in a range of sports/exercises may be optimal for preserving PA into old age.

     

The self and mental health: self-salience and the emergence of internalizing and externalizing problems

How do schemas about self-salience--the importance of the self versus the collective in social relations--affect mental health? We propose that self-salience shapes the likelihood of experiencing internalizing or externalizing problems. Schemas that privilege others over the self increase the risk of internalizing symptoms, including depressive symptoms and anxiety, whereas those that privilege the self over others predispose individuals to externalizing behaviors of antisocial behavior and substance abuse. Furthermore, we propose that these schemas contribute to the gender differences that exist in these problems. We test these predictions with data from adolescents, the stage at which these problems and the gender differences in them arise. Results show that self-salience underlies both internalizing and externalizing problems. In addition, schemas about self-salience help explain the gender differences found in mental health problems.     

Parental health and children's economic well-being

The life course perspective emphasizes that past economic experiences and stage in the life course influence a family's ability to cope with negative life events such as poor health. However, traditional analytic approaches are not well-suited to examine how the impact of negative life events differs based on a family's past economic experiences, nor do they typically account for the potentially spurious association between negative life events and family economic well-being. We use finite mixture modeling to examine how changes in parental health affect children's exposure to poverty. We find that for some children the association between family head's health and children's exposure to poverty is spurious, while for other children family head's poor health is associated with increased risk of economic deprivation. The extent to which a family head's poor health alters children's economic well-being depends on a child's family's underlying economic trajectory and past history of exposure to disadvantage.     

Stress,Coping, and Mood Among Latino Adolescents: A Daily Diary Study

The current study examines whether daily coping moderates the effects of daily stress on same‐day mood and next‐day mood among 58 Latino adolescents (M_age = 13.31; 53% male). The daily diary design capitalized on repeated measurements, boosting power to detect effects and allowing for a robust understanding of the day‐to‐day experiences of Latino adolescents. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that on days when youth reported higher levels of peer and academic stress, they also reported more negative moods. However, only poverty‐related stress predicted mood the following day. Engagement coping buffered the effect of poverty‐related stress on next‐day negative and positive mood, while disengagement exacerbated the effects of academic and peer stress. The need for interventions promoting balanced coping repertoires is discussed.     

Women and mental health: the interaction of job and family conditions.

Current research on the effects of wives' employment on their well-being focuses on the determinants of those effects. Most studies have used a gender model that concentrates on family conditions as mediators. In contrast, studies of the effects of employment on men typically use a job model and focus on work rather than family conditions as determinants. To understand fully the impact of employment on women, these models should be combined. We predict that certain work and family conditions interact, specifically, that the degree of control at work moderates the effects of demands in the family. Using two data sets on community mental health, we have found some support for this hypothesis.     

Mental Health Among Mexican-Origin Immigrant Families: The Roles of Cumulative Sociodemographic Risk and Immigrant-Related Stress

The current study examined the unique effects of cumulative sociodemographic risk and immigrant-related stress on mental health symptoms among Mexican-origin immigrant parents and their school-age children. Further, this study tested whether the effects of cumulative sociodemographic risk and immigrant-related stress on child mental health were mediated by parent mental health. Participants included 104 Mexican-origin immigrant families. Families in the study had a child between the ages of 6 and 10 (M_age = 8.39; 61% female). Data were collected across three time points spaced 6 months apart. Immigrant-related stress was found to predict parent mental health, which in turn predicted child mental health. Cumulative sociodemographic risk did not predict parent or child mental health. Mental health symptoms generally decreased over time, but for children, change in mental health symptoms depended on parent mental health symptoms. Given the high levels of mental health symptoms among Mexican-origin parents and children, reducing a context of stress and promoting mental health interventions for Mexican-origin immigrants is critical.     

In search of academic legitimacy: The current state of scholarship on graffiti and street art

Much has changed since the 1960s when the first scholarship on contemporary graffiti appeared. The current paper is an attempt to outline and contextualize a number of recurrent challenges facing researchers of graffiti and street art, as well as developments that have taken place in this scholarly field. The aim of creating this outline is to assist in increasing the amount, and improving the quality, of future scholarship on graffiti and street art. We recognize, however, that although many of the challenges have at one time seemed insurmountable, over time they have lessened as graffiti and street art have grown as art movements, and because a small cadre of tenacious scholars focusing on graffiti and street art has published and taught in this area. An increasing, though limited, number of academic venues focused on graffiti and street art scholarship has slowly emerged. We also recognize that with increased scholarship that has laid the foundation, new avenues to explore graffiti and street art have become apparent.     

Defining the lesbian/gay community? Market research and the lesbian/gay press

The development of marketing information on the readership of the lesbian/gay press attests to the press's success as a medium and its attraction to advertisers. Yet such marketing data, highly skewed towards affluent, urban, white-anglo gay males, raise some serious problems. Such data has been misused by opponents of lesbian/gay rights as representing the entire lesbian/gay community. They also reflect the change of the lesbian/gay press from a medium representing a minority community to one representing an important niche market. An examination of readership data from five major urban lesbian/gay newspapers illustrates these problems.