Article

Risk taking profiles among college students: An examination of health-risk taking, anti-racism action, and college functioning

Taylor & Francis
Journal of American College Health
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Abstract

Objective: This study expands the literature on risk taking among college students by exploring anti-racism action as a form of positive risk taking. Participants: 346 Black (64%) and Latinx (36%) college students (85% female) ages 18-27 years (M = 18.75, SD = 1.31). Methods: Participants responded to questionnaires on anti-racism action, health-risk taking, and college functioning. Latent class analysis identified behavioral profiles of risk takers. Indicators of profile membership and associations with college functioning were examined. Results: Three profiles emerged: moderate overall risk taking, high health-risk taking, and high anti-racism action. Personal experience with discrimination was associated with a greater likelihood of health-risk taking. Students in the high anti-racism profile evinced greater educational functioning than those in the high-health risk taking profile. Conclusions: Risky behavior on college campuses is not homogeneous. Specific interventions and support networks are necessary to support students falling within specific risk profiles.

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... Developmentally, emerging adults may engage in heightened risk-taking, and engagement in antiracism action has been characterized as a form of positive risk-taking (Duell & Steinberg, 2019). Positive associations between antiracism action and other forms of risk-taking have been documented among minoritized college students (Duell et al., 2022), furthering the idea that at least some engagement in antiracism action may be developmentally normative for college students of color. ...
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This article discusses alternatives to single-step mixture modeling. A 3-step method for latent class predictor variables is studied in several different settings, including latent class analysis, latent transition analysis, and growth mixture modeling. It is explored under violations of its assumptions such as with direct effects from predictors to latent class indicators. The 3-step method is also considered for distal variables. The Lanza, Tan, and Bray (2013) method for distal variables is studied under several conditions including violations of its assumptions. Standard errors are also developed for the Lanza method because these were not given in Lanza et al. (2013).
Conference Paper
Introduction:Literature documents a relationship between youth civic engagement and positive youth development such as academic development, critical thinking, and life skills (Astin & Sax, 1998; Eyler & Giles, 1999; Batchelder & Root, 1994; Gray Feschwind, Ondaatje et al., 1996). Opportunities for civic engagement are also related to resisting anti-social behavior, substance abuse, and disengagement from school (Finn & Checkowy, 1998; Fogal, 2004; Kelly, 2009). Additionally, youth’s likelihood of effectively navigating critical life transitions and civic participation as adults increases when they have opportunities to engage in meaningful civic action (Kelly, 2009; Michelsen, Zaff, & Hair, 2002). This research suggests that civic engagement may serve as a means for developing positive youth development. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between civic activity and well-being among youth during the first year of college. Methods: The sample consisted of 225 first-year students at a private university located in the Rocky Mountain region who completed an online survey. The survey covered a series of measures including: college alcohol problems scale (Maddocka, Laforgeb, Rossib, & O'Harec, 2001), flourishing scale (Keyes 2006a, 2006b), college self-efficacy scale (Solberg, O’Brien, Villareal, Kennel, & Davis, 1993) and civic mindedness scale (Eyler & Giles 1999). Missing data was an issue, but the frequency did not rise above 2.2% in any one variable. In SPSS 22, the missing data procedure of linear trend at point was used to create a complete dataset. Path analysis using LISREL 9.0 was completed to assess if youth’s level of civic activity at start of college mediates their well-being at the end of the first year. Furthermore, a one-way ANOVA was completed to examine mean difference on measures of civic engagement and well-being across levels of students’ participation in campus activities. Results: Path analysis was run on three models each focused on one of the well-being indicators of student efficacy, flourishing, and college alcohol problems measured at end of the first year college. Findings were similar across all three well-being measures. A student’s faith and perception of parent’s civic acts predicted higher scores on civic acts, which in turn significantly improved student efficacy, flourishing, and alcohol problems. ANOVA found significant difference in only college alcohol problems, which was significantly higher amongst students who participated in no activities or only community service compared to students involved in community engagement. Conclusion and Implications: Our findings suggest that engaging in civic activities may serve to promote positive youth development among first year undergraduate students. However, the cross-sectional nature of our data is a limitation and therefore we cannot infer that civic activity serves as a prevention measure to promote positive youth development. None-the-less, our findings do support the need for further research on the efficacy of civic engagement as a preventative measure to promote well-being among youth.
Article
Researchers have suggested that experimentation may be a necessary, constructive component of identity formation. However, these researchers have also noted the paradox of risk taking; an individual may experience both positive and negative precursors and consequences of risk taking. The present investigation used qualitative methods to explore the personal meaning of experimentation behaviors and of this paradox to college students. A stratified sample of 12 community college students (6 female) and 20 university students (10 female) was interviewed. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methods. Students described a deliberate and functional process of experimenting with a variety of risk behaviors. This included articulating the ways in which the college culture promotes participation in risk behaviors as developmentally appropriate experimentation.
Article
The inclusion of minorities in the civic affairs of society is critical. Research indicates many of today's youth are less likely to engage in meaningful civic activities and more likely to experience social exclusion because of disparities in educational settings, economic disadvantages, and health disparities. This phenomenon is more likely to occur in communities overcome by crime, drug dealing, and other indicators of diminished quality of life, where there is greater anonymity and suspicion among neighbors and less trust. Social trust is a significant trait for adulthood because social trust promotes individuals' actively engaging in society and seeing themselves as valued members of their communities. Secondary data from the CIRCLE National Youth Survey, comprising 1,000 youths between ages 15 and 25 years, show that youth who trust in others and trust in government are more likely to participate in community service, voting, and political volunteerism, even among young minorities. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)
Article
The issue of how an activist identity develops is one of the core issues in social psychology and social movement research. Because of problems in the measurement of individuals’ propensities to engage in social action, however, findings in this area are often equivocal, and cross–study comparisons and conclusions are difficult to draw. Hence, the aim of these studies was to develop a measure to assess individuals’ propensities to engage in social action. This measure, the Activism Orientation Scale (AOS), demonstrates strong psychometric properties and allows assessment of activist propensity across a wide continuum of social action behaviors, ideological positions, and movement issues. Additionally, the broad applicability of the AOS allows for its use by researchers, activists, and policymakers.
Article
This paper provides a review and critique of empirical research on perceived discrimination and health. The patterns of racial disparities in health suggest that there are multiple ways by which racism can affect health. Perceived discrimination is one such pathway and the paper reviews the published research on discrimination and health that appeared in PubMed between 2005 and 2007. This recent research continues to document an inverse association between discrimination and health. This pattern is now evident in a wider range of contexts and for a broader array of outcomes. Advancing our understanding of the relationship between perceived discrimination and health will require more attention to situating discrimination within the context of other health-relevant aspects of racism, measuring it comprehensively and accurately, assessing its stressful dimensions, and identifying the mechanisms that link discrimination to health.
Article
We tested whether higher levels of social capital on college campuses protected against individual risks of binge drinking. We used a nationally representative survey of 17,592 young people enrolled at 140 4-year colleges. Social capital was operationalized as individuals' average time committed to volunteering in the past month aggregated to the campus level. In multivariate analyses controlling for individual volunteering, sociodemographics, and several college characteristics, individuals from campuses with higher-than-average levels of social capital had a 26% lower individual risk for binge drinking (P < .001) than their peers at other schools. Social capital may play an important role in preventing binge drinking in the college setting.
Article
This study investigated whether altruistic social interest behaviors such as engaging in helping others were associated with better physical and mental health in a stratified random sample of 2016 members of the Presbyterian Church throughout the United States. Mailed questionnaires evaluated giving and receiving help, prayer activities, positive and negative religious coping, and self-reported physical and mental health. Multivariate regression analysis revealed no association between giving or receiving help and physical functioning, although the sample was highly skewed toward high physical functioning. Both helping others and receiving help were significant predictors of mental health, after adjusting for age, gender, stressful life events, income, general health, positive and negative religious coping, and asking God for healing (R2 =.27). Giving help was a more important predictor of better reported mental health than receiving help, and feeling overwhelmed by others' demands was an independent predictor of worse mental health in the adjusted model. Significant predictors of giving help included endorsing more prayer activities, higher satisfaction with prayer life, engaging in positive religious coping, age, female gender, and being a church elder. Frequency of prayer and negative religious coping were not related to giving help. Helping others is associated with higher levels of mental health, above and beyond the benefits of receiving help and other known psychospiritual, stress, and demographic factors. The links between these findings and response shift theory are discussed, and implications for clinical interventions and future research are described.
Article
This study explored select psychometric properties of the Everyday Discrimination Scale in 120 Black adolescents (65 males and 55 females). Youth completed the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Child Behaviour Checklist-Youth Self-Report Form. A t-test analysis revealed that Everyday Discrimination Scale scores were not significantly different for males and females (p > 0.18). The alpha reliability coefficient was 0.87, with item-total correlations that ranged from 0.50 to 0.70 (mean=0.61). The split-half reliability was 0.83 (p < 0.0001). A principal component analysis yielded one factor, which accounted for approximately 49% of the standardized variance. Correlation analyses indicated that the Everyday Discrimination Scale score was significantly related to internalizing and externalizing symptoms (ps < 0.0002).
Article
Population health research on racial discrimination is hampered by a paucity of psychometrically validated instruments that can be feasibly used in large-scale studies. We therefore sought to investigate the validity and reliability of a short self-report instrument, the "Experiences of Discrimination" (EOD) measure, based on a prior instrument used in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Study participants were drawn from a cohort of working class adults, age 25-64, based in the Greater Boston area, Massachusetts (USA). The main study analytic sample included 159 black, 249 Latino, and 208 white participants; the validation study included 98 African American and 110 Latino participants who completed a re-test survey two to four weeks after the initial survey. The main and validation survey instruments included the EOD and several single-item discrimination questions; the validation survey also included the Williams Major and Everyday discrimination measures. Key findings indicated the EOD can be validly and reliably employed. Scale reliability was high, as demonstrated by confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha (0.74 or greater), and test-re-test reliability coefficients (0.70). Structural equation modeling demonstrated the EOD had the highest correlation (r=0.79) with an underlying discrimination construct compared to other self-report discrimination measures employed. It was significantly associated with psychological distress and tended to be associated with cigarette smoking among blacks and Latinos, and it was not associated with social desirability in either group. By contrast, single-item measures were notably less reliable and had low correlations with the multi-item measures. These results underscore the need for using validated, multi-item measures of experiences of racial discrimination and suggest the EOD may be one such measure that can be validly employed with working class African Americans and Latino Americans.
Version 8. Muthén & Muthén
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Mplus Discussion ≫ What is a good value of entropy
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Muthén BO, PhD. Mplus Discussion ≫ What is a good value of entropy. Available at: http://www.statmodel.com/discussion/ messages/13/2562.html?1237580237. Published November 21, 2008. Accessed August 24, 2020.
Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: Using the BCH method in Mplus to estimate a distal outcome model and an arbitrary secondary model
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Asparouhov T, Muthen B. Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: Using the BCH method in Mplus to estimate a distal outcome model and an arbitrary secondary model. Mplus Web Notes: No. 21|Version 11. Available at: https://www.statmodel. com/examples/webnotes/webnote21.pdf. Published February 4, 2021. Accessed August 24, 2020.
Mplus Discussion ≫ Latent class odds ratios and confidence intervals
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Muthén BO, PhD, Mplus Discussion ≫ Latent class odds ratios and confidence intervals. Available at: http://www.statmodel.com/ discussion/messages/13/18371.html?1584664200. Published March 19, 2020. Accessed August 24, 2020.
Mplus User's Guide. Version 8. Muthén & Muthén
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Muthén LK, Muthén BO. Mplus User's Guide. Version 8. Muthén & Muthén; 2017.