Increased smoking by attractive celebrities in films may be one source of influence on young people's increased smoking behavior. Theories of observational learning and cognitive scripting suggest that actions and perceptions may be influenced by viewing behaviors of attractive models and that observers may be more likely to imitate the observed behaviors when they are in specific contexts similar to the ones viewed. We investigated the effects of viewing characters either smoking or not smoking while having either positive or negative experiences on participants' perceptions of the characters, smoking urge, and intentions to smoke. We found that viewing characters smoking in negative scenes decreased likelihood of smoking for participants. Females were more likely than males to report a likelihood to smoke after viewing negative scenes, regardless of whether characters smoked. Female regular smokers were more likely to smoke in negative scenarios than in positive scenarios, and male occasional smokers and nonsmokers were more likely to smoke in positive scenarios than negative scenarios. / Department of Psychological Science

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The decline thesis proposes that political participation among young people has declined steadily and alarmingly since the 1960s. New research proposes that young people have not been simply abstaining from political participation but that they have been engaging in new or alternative forms of participation like demonstrating, signing petitions and expressing themselves politically in the market. This paper asks two questions---who are these alternative participators and what explains why they have turned to these new forms? The results indicate that young people engage with alternative forms of political participation more than they engage with more traditional forms like joining political parties and lobbying Congress. Furthermore, the results show that the theory of postmaterialism does explain in part what leads some young people to participate in these alternative forms more than others.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors which promote and/or dissuade America’s youth (thirteen to nineteen) from becoming civically engaged. This is particularly important because currently these young people are one of the fastest growing demographics in America. Like generations before it, this demographic stands to inherit the social and political tasks of the current day as well as those that will unfold over their lifetime. But, because research suggests a large proportion of this group are apathetic to this process we need to know what can be done to cultivate civic mindedness among this demographic so that stakeholders can effectively appeal to this demographic’s sense of civic duty. There are many ways to figure out the communication processes which promote engagement among youth. Yet, probably the best way to accomplish this task is to actually talk with young people about their own experiences and ask them to identify factors, which have promoted and/or dissuaded them from becoming civically engaged. Therefore, this thesis does exactly that. It asks the questions and explores the answers that the youth themselves give regarding their own experiences with civic engagement and the factors that promoted or dissuaded them from becoming engaged. It is also important to note that civic engagement is defined in many ways, but rather than having a priori definition, this study allows the definition to emerge from the data. Finally, the following is a review of the literature pertaining to the factors which tend to promote civic engagement among youth as well as what is absent in promoting or fostering civic mindedness among this demographic.

Recent research found insomnia is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders in adults. To see if the same would be true in adolescents, the current study re-analyzed data from a national longitudinal study collected by ADDHealth that evaluated health behaviors in 4552 adolescents (mean age 14.9 years [SD 1.7]) at baseline and again 7-8 years later (n = 3489) during young adulthood. Insomnia was reported by 9.2% of the adolescents. Cross-sectionally, adolescent insomnia was associated with alcohol, cannabis, non-cannabis drugs, and tobacco use, and depression after controlling for gender and ethnicity. Prospectively, adolescent insomnia was a significant risk factor for depression diagnosis, suicidal ideation, and the use of depression and stress prescription medications in young adulthood after controlling for gender, ethnicity, and significant baseline variable. In addition, a trend was noted for suicidal attempts.

This study surveyed working young adults to explore their food choice influences. Focus group data determined which food choice influences were important for young adults and were used to develop a pilot survey. Analysis of the pilot survey assisted in revising the survey which was again pilot tested; minor revisions were made before data collection. The sample included 18-24 year old young adults who were taking nine or fewer credit hours and were not living with a parent or child. Of the 111 subjects, 42 percent were male, 64 percent female; 77 percent Caucasian, 16 percent Hispanic; and 68 percent were taking no classes. The food choice influences which appear to be the strongest for working young adults are, in order of strength: Appearance of food, Taste, What was eaten as a child, Convenience, What friends eat, Health, Calorie content, Advertising, and Price. Appearance of food and taste were much stronger than the rest. Cluster analysis identified three groups of working young adults: Socially-oriented, health-oriented, and time-oriented. The socially-oriented group viewed what friends ate and convenience as significantly more important. This group tended to be less educated. Health-oriented working young adults rated eating healthy and low-calorie foods as significantly more important while they were significantly less concerned about price and advertising. Time-oriented working young adults were significantly less concerned about eating healthy foods and thought their time for food preparation was significantly less adequate. Taste and appearance of food were significantly less important for this group. Time-oriented working young adults tended to be the most educated. The proportion of males and females in each cluster was approximately equal to the sample distribution. Nutrition educators should focus less on health, calories, and price and more on taste and appearance in their nutrition messages; cooking demonstrations and food samples are suggested approaches. Nutrition education messages also need to recognize that an effective message to one young adult may be ineffective with another. Targeting nutrition messages to various types of young adults may result in realizing greater success in promoting adoption of healthier eating patterns.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

This study examined the levels of collective and personal self-esteem as well as the relationships between parental communications and self-esteem in college students in Japan (N= 260) and the U.S. (N= 286). The results showed that the U.S. students reported significantly higher collective self-esteem and higher personal self-esteem than did the Japanese students. Parental communications related to self-esteem differently among Japanese and the U.S. students. Japanese students who had more open communications with their mothers had higher collective and personal self-esteem, whereas those who had more open communications with their fathers had higher personal self-esteem. In contrast, for the U.S. students, more open communications with either their mothers or fathers was associated with both higher personal and collective self-esteem. / Department of Psychological Science