Predicting 1-year change in body mass index among college students

OBJECTIVE: Despite beliefs about weight gain in college, few researchers have evaluated this phenomenon. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 18- to 31-year-old students at a midwestern university. The dependent variable was body mass index (BMI) change. METHODS: The authors extracted predictor variables from a Health Risk Appraisal. These included clinical, medical history, medical usage, medications, pain or chronic conditions, perceptual measures, and behavioral factors. The authors performed an ordinal regression technique separately by gender. RESULTS: No predictors were significant for men. Women in the BMI gain group were (1) more likely to consume alcohol, use maladaptive coping behaviors, eat foods low in fiber, and consume caffeine; and (2) less likely to be stress-free, to eat cruciferous vegetables, and to refrain from eating high-cholesterol foods. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of research on predictors of and interventions for reducing BMI gain among college students warrants more research.     

Parents of Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Meta-Synthesis,Part II

In 2011 6.4 million children in the United States ages four to 17 years had a diagnosis of ADHD. Quantitative studies have indicated that parenting stress for parents of children diagnosed with ADHD is high. The purpose of the current meta-synthesis was to conduct a comprehensive review of both the published and unpublished qualitative studies involving the experience of parents raising children diagnosed with ADHD. Searches in online scholarly databases yielded an initial 1217 hits, which were narrowed down to eighty studies that met the criteria. A “meta-ethnography” framework was used for the synthesis. Results of the first part of the analysis were reported in Corcoran et al. (2016) and had to do with the personal impact on parents. The themes in Part II have to do with the processes parents go through in accepting the diagnosis of ADHD and in deciding whether their children should take medication. Parents struggled to make sense of their child’s problems and came to terms with the diagnosis in a series of stages. Regarding medication use, parental attitudes varied greatly, with both costs and benefits noted. Though there was considerable ambivalence towards medication use, some parents reported relief after their child began using medication. Implications from this study are that providers should recognize the processes involved in making decisions about an ADHD diagnosis and the use of medication. Social workers should allow sensitive exploration of parents’ attributions and understanding of their children’s behavior and level of acceptance of the diagnosis. Keeping an ethical and critical stance toward the use of medication, social workers should also have full exploration with parents around the potential benefits and risks associated with the treatment of their children’s ADHD, taking into account parents’ preferences.     

Culture Wars in State Education Policy: A Look at the Relative Treatment of Evolutionary Theory in State Science Standards*

Objectives. Students of public policy have recognized that not all policies are completely or mostly shaped by socioeconomic factors. Some policies, known as morality policies, derive from the deeply held values and beliefs of effective participants in the policy‐making process. To better understand this distinct policy category and where it exists, policy analysts must test for the impact of both socioeconomic forces and explanatory factors developed in morality politics theory (particularly religious contexts). This study attempts to explain differences in state science education standards with regard to stipulated instruction in evolutionary theory as morality policy. Methods. A cross‐sectional study of the American states employing ordinary least squares and logistic regression analysis assesses the impact of popular evangelical adherence over the presence of evolution‐friendly state science standards, ceteris paribus. Results. Socioeconomic factors inadequately explain the variation in state science standards. Furthermore, these standards are morality policies with clearly defined religious implications and are better explained by state religious divisions than by other cultural forces such as state ideological context. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that some policies have clear implications for religious beliefs and may represent a subcategory of morality policy. These kinds of policies are better explained by religious contexts than other political and cultural determinants of morality policies.     

An examination of the relationship between child sexual offending and psychopathy

The participants in this study were adult males (N = 111) who were accused of various sexual crimes against children 16 years of age or younger, and who were evaluated at a state forensic facility in a large Midwestern state. This study examined the relationship of Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) scores to type of child sexual offender (same sex extrafamilial, opposite sex extrafamilial, and incest offenders), the presence of violence during the most recent child sexual offense, and criminal versatility. Results indicated that those sexual offenders who employed physical violence against the children they abused were significantly more psychopathic than those who did not. No significant differences were found between types of child sexual offenders or with general criminal versatility.     

Male Entry into the Labor Force: Estimates of Occupational Rewards and Labor Market Discrimination*

Causal models of initial occupational rewards for black and white males are developed from the responses of first-year workers in the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience. A comparison of the black and white models shows that while blacks have experienced considerable upward mobility, their income and prestige remain far behind their white counterparts. Two explanations for this racial gap are indicated by the data: (1) blacks begin work with lower levels of key background variables, and (2) racial discrimination in the labor market. Our measurement of racial discrimination in labor market entry accounts for only a small proportion of the gap between black and white levels of rewards; and when compared with earlier research, the data indicate a national trend of decreasing racial discrimination in the labor market.     

“They Always Ask What I'm Doing and Who I'm Talking to”: Parental Mediation of Adolescent Interactive Technology Use

Burgeoning technology provides instant access to information and communication. Responsible adults are concerned about the material accessed by adolescent technology users. From an ecological system's lens, using a mixed-methods design, the current study identified adolescent and parent perceptions of parental mediation of adolescent interactive technology use (i.e., cell phones, Internet). Eighty adolescents (16–18 years of age) and their parents (n = 113) participated in the study that identified generational differences in perceptions of parental mediation, techniques for mediating interactive technology (i.e., monitoring data and usage, active mediation, rules, restriction), and adolescent perceptions of the process of parental mediation. We used the results to propose principles for parental mediation of adolescent interactive technology use and provide directions for future research.     

Weight loss practices and body weight perceptions among US college students

OBJECTIVE: The authors assessed associations between body weight perception and weight loss strategies. PARTICIPANTS: They randomly selected male and female college students (N = 38,204). METHODS: The authors conducted a secondary data analysis of the rates of weight loss strategies and body weight perception among students who completed the National College Health Assessment survey. RESULTS: Half of respondents (50%) were trying to lose weight, although only 28% of students were overweight or obese. Also, 12% of respondents had inaccurate body weight perception. Women and men with inaccurate body weight perception were significantly more likely to engage in inappropriate weight loss strategies than were those with accurate body weight perception. Of all students attempting to lose weight, 38% used both diet and exercise. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that college students are interested in weight loss and that body weight perception plays an important role in the desire to lose weight.     

Infants’ abilities to respond to cues for joint attention vary by family socioeconomic status

The influence of socioeconomic variability on language and cognitive development is present from toddlerhood to adolescence and calls for investigating its earliest manifestation. Response to joint attention (RJA) abilities constitute a foundational developmental milestone that are associated with future language, cognitive, and social skills. How aspects of the family home environment shape RJA skills is relatively unknown. We investigated associations between family socioeconomic status (SES) —both parent education and family percentage of the federal poverty level (FPL)— parent depressive and anxiety symptoms and infant RJA performance in a cross-sectional sample of 173 infants aged 8–18 months and their parents from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Results suggest that, correcting for age and receptive language, infants in families with greater economic resources respond to relatively less redundant, more sophisticated cues for joint attention. Although parent depressive and anxiety symptoms are negatively correlated with SES, parent depressive and anxiety symptoms were not associated with infant RJA. These findings provide evidence of SES-related differences in social cognitive development as early as infancy, calling on policymakers to address the inequities in the current socioeconomic landscape of the United States.