Experiences of depression, anxiety, and peer victimization have each been found to predict one another, and to predict negative outcomes in the domains of school connectedness, social functioning, ...quality of life, and physical health. However, the common co-occurrence of depression, anxiety, and peer victimization experiences has made it difficult to disentangle their unique roles in these associations. The present study thus sought to characterize the precise nature of the bidirectional relationships between depressive symptoms, anxiety, and victimization over time, and to examine their unique sequelae during the transition from childhood to early adolescence. Longitudinal multi-informant (child-reported, parent-reported, and teacher-reported) data from a nationally representative sample were analyzed using path analysis when the study child was aged 10–11 (
n
=
4169;
M
age
= 10.3; 48.8% female) and aged 12–13 (
n
=
3956;
M
age
= 12.4; 48.2% female). Depressive symptoms, anxiety, and peer victimization had small but significant unique bidirectional relationships. All three constructs also uniquely and prospectively predicted poorer life functioning across all domains examined. These results demonstrate that current interventions should broaden their scope to simultaneously target depression, anxiety, and peer victimization, as each of these experiences independently act as additive risk factors for subsequent negative outcomes.
Sexual/gender minority (Sexual/gender minority people are also referred to as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) youth are more likely than cisgender heterosexual youth to exhibit depressive ...symptoms and be victimized. School climate research indicates that the presence of a Gay–Straight Alliance (a Gay–Straight Alliance or Gender-Sexuality Alliance is also referred to as a GSA and is a youth group to support sexual/gender minority youth), a supportive school climate, and seeking help from teachers are associated with more positive mental health outcomes; however, they are not typically measured together. This study uses a survey that measures all four measures of school environment with a national sample of 240 sexual/gender minority high school students ages 14–18 (mean age 15.77) where 53% of participants had a Gay–Straight Alliance in their school. The sample is 53% cisgender, 100% sexual minority and 62% white. Adjusting for demographics and presence of a Gay–Straight Alliance, fewer depressive symptoms were associated with lower help-seeking intentions for suicidal thoughts. The presence of Gay–Straight Alliance was not statistically associated with past-month help-seeking intentions or behaviors. Additionally, a more supportive school climate was associated with lower anxiety and depressive symptoms. However, the presence of a Gay–Straight Alliance was not statistically associated with anxiety or depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that a supportive school climate and supportive school personnel may be important for supporting the mental health of sexual/gender minority students.
Discrimination is commonly experienced among adolescents. However, little is known about the intersection of multiple attributes of discrimination and bullying. We used a latent class analysis (LCA) ...to illustrate the intersections of discrimination attributes and bullying, and to assess the associations of LCA membership to depressive symptoms, deliberate self harm and suicidal ideation among a sample of ethnically diverse adolescents. The data come from the 2006 Boston Youth Survey where students were asked whether they had experienced discrimination based on four attributes: race/ethnicity, immigration status, perceived sexual orientation and weight. They were also asked whether they had been bullied or assaulted for these attributes. A total of 965 (78 %) students contributed to the LCA analytic sample (45 % Non-Hispanic Black, 29 % Hispanic, 58 % Female). The LCA revealed that a 4-class solution had adequate relative and absolute fit. The 4-classes were characterized as: low discrimination (51 %); racial discrimination (33 %); sexual orientation discrimination (7 %); racial and weight discrimination with high bullying (intersectional class) (7 %). In multivariate models, compared to the low discrimination class, individuals in the sexual orientation discrimination class and the intersectional class had higher odds of engaging in deliberate self-harm. Students in the intersectional class also had higher odds of suicidal ideation. All three discrimination latent classes had significantly higher depressive symptoms compared to the low discrimination class. Multiple attributes of discrimination and bullying co-occur among adolescents. Research should consider the co-occurrence of bullying and discrimination.
This innovative book considers the cost of cognitive overload and psychological distress on human sustainability, and suggests ways to prevent employees from becoming a psychologically depleted ...workforce. Employee attentional processing capacity is maxed out, and psychological distress is at an all-time high. Alexander D. Stajkovic and Kayla S. Stajkovic explain how human cognitive ‘broadband’ is at the hunter-gatherer level and changes at an evolutionary snail’s pace. Yet the amount of information necessary to make a living now is incomparable to then, and the current relationship between workers and organizations is unsustainable. The authors discuss causes, processes, and consequences of human unsustainability at work, as well as suggesting remedies for personal change, leadership practice, and policy development. They frame efforts toward furthering human sustainability as a grand challenge that tackles a chronic problem at a societal level with consequences that have ripple effects into other spheres of life. Drawing from multiple disciplines and data sources, the book offers a theory-driven, evidence-based, and meaningful way to better understanding employee cognitive overload and psychological distress in organizations across the globe, and improve work lives going forward. Human Sustainability and Cognitive Overload at Work is a useful resource for students and scholars of business, management, leadership, organizational and work psychology, and organizational studies. The practical insights will also help managers, policy makers, policy analysists, consultants, and all those with an interest in the psychological cost of working. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Sexual minority (lesbian and gay, bisexual, mostly heterosexual) individuals are at an increased risk for hazardous drinking than heterosexual individuals, but little is known about the nature of the ...disparities as adolescents reach adulthood. We used four waves of a nationally representative data set, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), to examine disparities of hazardous drinking outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual men and women from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants were 14–18 years old at the first assessment (N = 12,379; 53 % female) and 27–31 years old at the fourth assessment. At the fourth assessment, 13 % self-identified as sexual minority individuals, 16 % were Hispanic, and 36 % were of minority race, including primarily African Americans (60 %) and Asian Americans (18 %). There were clear hazardous drinking disparities between sexual minority individuals and heterosexual individuals over time. During adolescence, sexual minority individuals, particularly females, reported higher levels of hazardous drinking. As study participants reached adulthood, the magnitude of the hazardous drinking disparities increased among sexual minorities, sexual minority men in particular. Additional research is needed to better understand the developmental mechanisms that underlie the emerging sexual orientation related disparities of hazardous drinking in young adulthood.
Background: Parenting and children’s adjustment were examined in 30 surrogacy families, 31 egg donation families, 35 donor insemination families, and 53 natural conception families.
Methods: ...Parenting was assessed at age 3 by a standardized interview designed to assess quality of parenting and by questionnaire measures of anxiety, depression, and marital quality. Children’s adjustment was assessed at ages 3, 7, and 10 using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).
Results: Although children born through reproductive donation obtained SDQ scores within the normal range, surrogacy children showed higher levels of adjustment difficulties at age 7 than children conceived by gamete donation. Mothers who had kept their child’s origins secret showed elevated levels of distress. However, maternal distress had a more negative impact on children who were aware of their origins.
Conclusions: The absence of a gestational connection to the mother may be more problematic for children than the absence of a genetic link.
Recent scholarly and media accounts paint a portrait of unhappy parents who find remarkably little joy in taking care of their children, but the scientific basis for these claims remains ...inconclusive. In the three studies reported here, we used a strategy of converging evidence to test whether parents evaluate their lives more positively than do nonparents (Study 1), feel relatively better than do nonparents on a day-to-day basis (Study 2), and derive more positive feelings from caring for their children than from other daily activities (Study 3). The results indicate that, contrary to previous reports, parents (and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do nonparents.
This meta-analysis summarizes 113 research reports worldwide (121 cross-sectional and 7 longitudinal studies) on age differences in ethnic, racial, or national prejudice among children and ...adolescents. Overall, results indicated a peak in prejudice in middle childhood (5-7 years) followed by a slight decrease until late childhood (8-10 years). In addition to differences for the various operationalizations of prejudice, detailed findings revealed different age-related changes in prejudice toward higher versus lower status out-groups and positive effects of contact opportunities with the out-group on prejudice development. Results confirm that prejudice changes systematically with age during childhood but that no developmental trend is found in adolescence, indicating the stronger influence of the social context on prejudice with increasing age.
Objective: The current study used path analysis to examine potential mechanisms through which experiences of discrimination influence depressive and social anxiety symptoms. Method: The sample ...included 218 lesbians and 249 gay men (total N = 467) who participated in an online survey about minority stress and mental health. The proposed model included 2 potential mediators-internalized homonegativity and rejection sensitivity-as well as a culturally relevant antecedent to experiences of discrimination-childhood gender nonconformity. Results: Results indicated that the data fit the model well, supporting the mediating roles of internalized homonegativity and rejection sensitivity in the associations between experiences of discrimination and symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Results also supported the role of childhood gender nonconformity as an antecedent to experiences of discrimination. Although there were not significant gender differences in the overall model fit, some of the associations within the model were significantly stronger for gay men than lesbians. Conclusions: These findings suggest potential mechanisms through which experiences of discrimination influence well-being among sexual minorities, which has important implications for research and clinical practice with these populations.
Abstract Purpose To report the prevalence of students according to four gender groups (i.e., those who reported being non-transgender, transgender, or not sure about their gender, and those who did ...not understand the transgender question), and to describe their health and well-being. Methods Logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between gender groups and selected outcomes in a nationally representative high school health and well-being survey, undertaken in 2012. Results Of the students (n = 8,166), 94.7% reported being non-transgender, 1.2% reported being transgender, 2.5% reported being not sure about their gender, and 1.7% did not understand the question. Students who reported being transgender or not sure about their gender or did not understand the question had compromised health and well-being relative to their non-transgender peers; in particular, for transgender students perceiving that a parent cared about them (odds ratio OR, .3; 95% confidence interval CI, .2–.4), depressive symptoms (OR, 5.7; 95% CI, 3.6–9.2), suicide attempts (OR, 5.0; 95% CI, 2.9–8.8), and school bullying (OR, 4.5; 95% CI, 2.4–8.2). Conclusions This is the first nationally representative survey to report the health and well-being of students who report being transgender. We found that transgender students and those reporting not being sure are a numerically small but important group. Transgender students are diverse and are represented across demographic variables, including their sexual attractions. Transgender youth face considerable health and well-being disparities. It is important to address the challenging environments these students face and to increase access to responsive services for transgender youth.
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