University students are increasingly recognized as a vulnerable population, suffering from higher levels of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and disordered eating compared to the general ...population. Therefore, when the nature of their educational experience radically changes-such as sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic-the burden on the mental health of this vulnerable population is amplified. The objectives of this study are to 1) identify the array of psychological impacts COVID-19 has on students, 2) develop profiles to characterize students' anticipated levels of psychological impact during the pandemic, and 3) evaluate potential sociodemographic, lifestyle-related, and awareness of people infected with COVID-19 risk factors that could make students more likely to experience these impacts.
Cross-sectional data were collected through web-based questionnaires from seven U.S. universities. Representative and convenience sampling was used to invite students to complete the questionnaires in mid-March to early-May 2020, when most coronavirus-related sheltering in place orders were in effect. We received 2,534 completed responses, of which 61% were from women, 79% from non-Hispanic Whites, and 20% from graduate students.
Exploratory factor analysis on close-ended responses resulted in two latent constructs, which we used to identify profiles of students with latent profile analysis, including high (45% of sample), moderate (40%), and low (14%) levels of psychological impact. Bivariate associations showed students who were women, were non-Hispanic Asian, in fair/poor health, of below-average relative family income, or who knew someone infected with COVID-19 experienced higher levels of psychological impact. Students who were non-Hispanic White, above-average social class, spent at least two hours outside, or less than eight hours on electronic screens were likely to experience lower levels of psychological impact. Multivariate modeling (mixed-effects logistic regression) showed that being a woman, having fair/poor general health status, being 18 to 24 years old, spending 8 or more hours on screens daily, and knowing someone infected predicted higher levels of psychological impact when risk factors were considered simultaneously.
Inadequate efforts to recognize and address college students' mental health challenges, especially during a pandemic, could have long-term consequences on their health and education.
A decades‐long decline in hunting participation jeopardizes state wildlife agency funding amid growing conservation and management challenges. College students are being recognized by states and ...non‐governmental organizations as an important population for hunter recruitment and retention, fueling a proliferation of learn‐to‐hunt programs on college campuses. Nearly 3,000,000 students attend college in a state where they are not a resident and may face constraints to hunting. We analyzed hunting license residency statutes in each state to determine whether non‐resident college students were addressed in statutes or policies, catalog statutory provisions that may exclude populations of students from hunting, and document how students' residency status affects the price of a deer and small game license. Nationwide, 29 states have statutes allowing non‐resident college students to hunt at a resident rate. Among these states, we identified a patchwork of statutory requirements for non‐resident students to be eligible for resident‐rate licenses, including waiting periods, age restrictions, credit restrictions, and unclear or onerous purchasing procedures. Non‐resident college students fell into a gray area of licensing policy in the 21 states without statutes addressing this group. In these states, students often needed to pay non‐resident hunting license rates. Hunting licenses were substantially more expensive for non‐resident college students in states without statutes addressing students, and license sales data from Montana, USA, indicated that high license prices are a constraint for student hunters. With college students becoming a focal point for hunter recruitment efforts, we identify statutory constraints to recruiting and retaining hunters on college campuses and help improve the effectiveness of learn‐to‐hunt programs on college campuses.
College students are becoming a focal point in hunter recruitment efforts. Millions of college students are not residents of the state where they attend school, resulting in cost‐prohibitive license prices for students. States can mitigate license price as a barrier to student participation in hunting by allowing non‐resident college students to hunt at a resident rate.
The social dimensions of river restoration are not well understood especially in the context of large‐scale restoration projects embedded in a complex social‐ecological system. This study used ...in‐depth interviews with diverse stakeholders to examine perceptions of restoration success on the Clark Fork River Superfund project in Western Montana. Trust emerged as critical to restoration success and was influenced by public engagement, and by spatial and temporal scale. At this large scale, multiple relationships between agencies, NGOs, businesses, landowners, and other stakeholders meant that building trust was a complicated endeavor. The large spatial scale and long time frame made public engagement challenging, and landowners in particular were critical of the project, expressing mistrust in both agencies and the project as a whole. However, projects focused on smaller spatial scales, such as particular stream reaches, appeared to inspire more effective collaboration. Relationships between organizations were important at this large scale, but inter‐organizational conflict affected trust across the project. Further, because trust requires accepting vulnerability, recognizing the differential vulnerability that particular groups and communities experience, based on the risks and benefits they accrue relative to the project, is important.
While most wildlife researchers and managers agree that human tolerance is critical in determining the success and persistence of wildlife populations, the concept of tolerance has lacked ...definitional precision and operational consistency in the literature. This inconsistency has opened the door to a multiplicity of human-wildlife tolerance studies that present tolerance as either an attitude, a normative belief, or a behavioral intention, making it difficult to compare results across study systems. We drew upon foundational human dimensions of wildlife, sociology, and animal behavior studies to propose an integrated framework of human-wildlife tolerance, defined here as "accepting wildlife and/or wildlife behaviors that one dislikes." This definition clarifies the term "tolerance" by incorporating attitudes and acceptability (antecedents of behavior) as two distinct but interrelated axes. We also develop a typology framework that will provide insight into changing responses to human-wildlife conflict, and help evaluate future tolerance-boosting policy or educational interventions.
Conserving large carnivores while keeping people safe depends on finding means for peaceful coexistence. Although large carnivore populations are generally declining globally, some populations are ...increasing, causing greater overlap with humans and increasing potential for conflict. One method of reducing conflict with large carnivores is to secure attractants like garbage and livestock. This method is effective when implemented; however, implementation requires a change in human behavior. Human-wildlife interaction is a public good collective action problem where solutions require contributions from many and individual actions have effects on others. We used the collective interest model to investigate how individual and collective factors work in concert to influence landowner attractant securing behavior in Montana, USA, in black (Ursus americanus) and grizzly bear (U. arctos) range. We used data from a mail-back survey to develop logistic regression models testing the relative effects of collective and individual factors on landowners– attractant securing behaviors. The most important factor was whether individuals had spoken to a wildlife professional, a reflection of social coordination and pressure. Other collective factors (e.g., social norms i.e., expectations and behaviors of peers and the existence of discussion networks i.e., how much social influence an individual has) were equally important as individual factors (e.g., beliefs, age, gender) for influencing attractant securing behavior among Montana landowners. This research suggests pathways for wildlife managers and outreach coordinators to increase attractant securing behavior by emphasizing collective factors, such as social norms, rather than appealing exclusively to individual factors, such as risk perception of large carnivores. Furthermore, wildlife agencies would be justified in increasing their efforts to connect with landowners in person and to connect with members of the public who play an important role in discussion networks. This research demonstrates that, even on private lands, collective interests may be a missing and important piece of the puzzle for encouraging voluntary attractant securing behavior and improving wildlife-human coexistence.
This research empirically merges together two related theories: the elaboration likelihood model and the theory of planned behavior. A structural equation modeling approach is used to evaluate the ...relationship between the two theories and their collective impacts on behavioral intentions. The results suggest elaboration predicts the components of the theory of planned behavior (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control), which in turn all predicted behavior intentions. Furthermore, results showed that the components of the theory of planned behavior partially meditated the relationship between elaboration and behavioral intentions, indicating that elaboration works mostly through the components of the theory of planned behavior to impact behavioral intentions. This study represents an improved understanding of the influence of communication techniques on visitor behaviors in sustainable tourism settings. Additionally, the discussion exemplifies how these techniques can be used to improve communications and evaluate communication strategies.
Innovation in ecological restoration is necessary to achieve the ambitious targets established in United Nations conventions and other global restoration initiatives. Innovation is also crucial for ...navigating uncertainties in repairing and restoring ecosystems, and thus practitioners often develop innovations at project design and implementation stages. However, innovation in ecological restoration can be hindered by many factors (e.g., time and budget constraints, and project complexity). Theory and research on innovation has been formally applied in many fields, yet explicit study of innovation in ecological restoration remains nascent. To assess the use of innovation in restoration projects, including its drivers and inhibitors, we conducted a social survey of restoration practitioners in the United States. Specifically, we assessed relationships between project-based innovation and traits of the individual practitioner (including, for example, age, gender, experience); company (including, for example, company size and company's inclusion of social goals); project (including, for example, complexity and uncertainty); and project outcomes (such as completing the project on time/on budget and personal satisfaction with the work). We found positive relationships between project-based innovation and practitioner traits (age, gender, experience, engagement with research scientists), one company trait (company's inclusion of social goals in their portfolio), and project traits (project complexity and length). In contrast, two practitioner traits, risk aversion and the use of industry-specific information, were negatively related to project-based innovation. Satisfaction with project outcomes was positively correlated with project-based innovation. Collectively, the results provide insights into the drivers and inhibitors of innovation in restoration and suggest opportunities for research and application.
Over the last decade, there has been a remarkable increase in scientific literature addressing human–wildlife interactions (HWI) and associated concepts, such as coexistence, tolerance, and ...acceptance. Despite increased attention, these terms are rarely defined or consistently applied across publications. Indeed, the meaning of these concepts, especially coexistence, is frequently assumed and left for the reader to interpret, making it hard to compare studies, test metrics, and build upon previous HWI research. To work toward a better understanding of these terms, we conducted two World Café sessions at international conferences in Namibia, Africa and Ontario, Canada. Here, we present the array of perspectives revealed in the workshops and build upon these results to describe the meaning of coexistence as currently applied by conservation scientists and practitioners. Although we focus on coexistence, it is imperative to understand the term in relation to tolerance and acceptance, as in many cases these latter terms are used to express, measure, or define coexistence. Drawing on these findings, we discuss whether a common definition of these terms is possible and how the conservation field might move toward clarifying and operationalizing the concept of human-wildlife coexistence.
This paper presents the perspectives of data, informatics, and information scientists and practitioners regarding how data solutions can be developed for place-based community resilience. Data were ...collected from participants at an Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) meeting in 2015. Results show that to develop such data solutions, terminology related to community resilience must be further clarified to coordinate better with data and informatics systems, and institutional support of place-based community resilience must be prioritized. In addition, accessibility and usability of developed data solutions are crucial, and gaps along the information pathway must be filled to better connect data practitioners and community resilience practitioners.
Given the dominance of the COVID-19 pandemic in the news, it could have been expected that younger "always-on" students were exposed to greater amounts of risk-elevating messages, which could have ...led to anxiety and poor mental health 16,75. Since our data suggest the opposite, further investigation into social media use and reactions among younger and older students is called upon to understand why older students were at greater risk of psychological impacts. Results of mixed-effects binary logistic regression modelling likelihood of risk factors predicting assignment to high COVID-19 psychological impact profile for students in seven United States universities (N = 2,140) a. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273938.t001 Supporting information S3 Table. Results of binomial logistic regression modelling likelihood of risk factors predicting high versus low/moderate levels of COVID-19 psychological impact for students at North Carolina State University, where a representative sample was collected (N = 1,312). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273938.s001 (DOCX) Acknowledgments The authors apologize for the unintentional mischaracterization of younger adults being at higher risk of psychological impacts from COVID-19.
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