Factor analysis of finger ridge-counts in Blacks and Whites

Finger ridge-counts of an American White, American Black and an African Black sample were subjected to factor analysis. The analysis was carried out using correlation matrices computed from 10-ridge counts, each finger being represented by its largest count, and from 20 ridge-counts, using both radial and ulnar counts for each finger. The 20 count analysis was much more informative, demonstrating the relative independence of the radial and ulnar sides of the fingers. Moreover, the radial and ulnar counts themselves generally resulted in two factors reflecting counts on the ulnar digits and the median digits. The independence of the thumb was also demonstrated. There was considerable intersample consistency, although some evidence of sex and race variation was observed.     

Staying afloat: Within-group swimming proficiency for Whites and Blacks.

Generally, Blacks are less likely than Whites to be proficient at swimming. Blacks also have higher rates of drowning and are underrepresented in competitive swimming and in occupations requiring swimming or water safety skill. In this study, physiological, demographic, and biodata measures were used with military academy cadets to determine the individual factors contributing to within-group swimming proficiency among Blacks as well as Whites. The best predictor of swimming skill was the age at which the cadets had learned to swim. Other items pointed to fitness, sociocultural, and learned or dispositional differences between better and poorer swimmers. Implications for increasing swimming proficiency among Blacks and for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strength in adversity: Blacks bear burden better than Whites.

Family studies in the area of severe mental illness have focused primarily on the problems of White parents caring for a psychiatrically disabled child. In response to such neglect of the unique experiences of Black families, this study compared the coping mastery ability and self-esteem scores of 24 Black and 185 White parents of severely mentally ill offspring to determine the different effects of caregiving on these 2 groups of parents. T-test analyses revealed that Black parents had higher feelings of self-worth and lower levels of depression. Parents' social support resources, achievement expectations, ill offspring characteristics and context, and issues relevant to conducting research with ethnic minority Ss are explored in regard to study findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactions to two versions of affirmative action action among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics.

Houston-area Whites (n?=?414), Blacks (n?=? 392), American-born Hispanics (n?=?162), and Hispanic immigrants (n?=?177) evaluated a self-defined "typical" affirmative action plan (AAP) and a tiebreak AAP that applies under conditions of equal qualifications and underrepresentation. Whites preferred Tiebreak; Blacks and Hispanics preferred the typical AAP. The groups differed in beliefs about the procedures and fairness of affirmative action (AA), perceptions of workplace discrimination, and political orientations. Perceived fairness predicted support for both AAPs in all American-born groups, but the impact of other predictors varied greatly across AAPs and ethnic groups. The results clarify the bases for Whites' opposition to AA as they construe it. The results also underscore the importance of specifying the AAP procedures, of uncovering the predictors of AA attitudes among target-group members, and of conducting separate analyses in each ethnic community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of experience in liking "read-to-drink" alcoholic beverages.

Ready-to-drinks (RTDs) are composed of an alcoholic component and a soft-drink base and are primarily consumed by a youth market. The authors explored whether liking and experience with an RTD soft-drink base predicts liking for the RTD. Participants (N=350) from ages 12 to 30 years sampled 3 RTDs and their respective soft-drink and alcoholic components. For milk- and fruit-based RTDs, liking for and familiarity with their soft-drink base was the best predictor of liking for and familiarity with the RTD itself. For the Coke-based RTD, familiarity with and liking for bourbon best predicted familiarity with and liking for the RTD. All of these effects were consistent across blind and nonblind testing. The authors' results suggest that where there is perceptual similarity between the RTD and its soft-drink base, these beverages may provide an easy transition into alcohol consumption for novice drinkers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Excess mortality among blacks and whites in the United States

BACKGROUND: Although the general relations between race, socioeconomic status, and mortality in the United States are well known, specific patterns of excess mortality are not well understood. METHODS: Using standard demographic techniques, we analyzed death certificates and census data and made sex-specific population-level estimates of the 1990 death rates for people 15 to 64 years of age. We studied mortality among blacks in selected areas of New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Alabama (in one area of persistent poverty and one higher-income area each) and among whites in areas of New York City, metropolitan Detroit, Kentucky, and Alabama (one area of poverty and one higher-income area each). Sixteen areas were studied in all. RESULTS: When they were compared with the nationwide age-standardized annual death rate for whites, the death rates for both sexes in each of the poverty areas were excessive, especially among blacks (standardized mortality ratios for men and women in Harlem, 4.11 and 3.38; in Watts, 2.92 and 2.60; in central Detroit, 2.79 and 2.58; and in the Black Belt area of Alabama, 1.81 and 1.89). Boys in Harlem who reached the age of 15 had a 37 percent chance of surviving to the age of 65; for girls, the likelihood was 65 percent. Of the higher-income black areas studied, Queens--Bronx had the income level most similar to that of whites and the lowest standardized mortality ratio (men, 1.18; women, 1.08). Of the areas where poor whites were studied, Detroit had the highest standardized mortality ratios (men, 2.01; women, 1.90). On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in Appalachia, and in Northeast Alabama, the ratios for whites were below the national average for blacks (men, 1.90; women, 1.95). CONCLUSIONS: Although differences in mortality rates before the age of 65 between advantaged and disadvantaged groups in the United States are sometimes vast, there are important differences among impoverished communities in patterns of excess mortality.     

Depression among Latinos in the United States: A meta-analytic review.

The authors conducted a meta-analytic review to assess the prevalence of major depressive disorder and depressive symptoms among Latinos compared with non-Latino Whites in the United States using community-based data. Random-effects estimates were calculated for 8 studies meeting inclusion criteria that reported lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder (combined N = 76,270) and for 23 studies meeting inclusion criteria that reported current prevalence of depressive symptoms (combined N = 38,997). Findings did not indicate a group difference in lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder (odds ratio = 0.89, 95% confidence interval = 0.72, 1.10). Latinos reported more depressive symptoms than non-Latino Whites (standardized mean difference = 0.19, 95% confidence interval = 0.12, 0.25); however, this effect was small and does not appear to suggest a clinically meaningful preponderance of depressive symptoms among Latinos. Findings are examined in the context of theories on vulnerability and resilience, and recommendations for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnicity and body dissatisfaction among women in the United States: A meta-analysis.

The prevailing view in popular culture and the psychological literature is that White women have greater body dissatisfaction than women of color. In this meta-analysis, 6 main effect sizes were obtained for differences among Asian American, Black, Hispanic, and White women with a sample of 98 studies, yielding 222 effect sizes. The average d for the White-Black comparison was 0.29, indicating that White women are more dissatisfied, but the difference is small. All other comparisons were smaller, and many were close to zero. The findings directly challenge the belief that there are large differences in dissatisfaction between White and all non-White women and suggest that body dissatisfaction may not be the golden girl problem promoted in the literature. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prejudice matters: Understanding the reactions of Whites to affirmative action programs targeted to benefit Blacks.

The authors examined, in 2 studies, the effects of equal employment opportunity/affirmative action (EEO/AA) policies on Whites' job-related attitudes. First, in an experiment, White prospective job recruits, as expected, rated a potential employer whose EEO/AA policies were framed as targeted to benefit Blacks as less attractive than a potential employer whose EEO/AA policies were framed more generally. Second, the results of a field study showed that prejudice against Blacks moderated the relationship between Whites' perceptions that their organization's EEO/AA policies were targeted to benefit Blacks and their satisfaction with promotion opportunities. Specifically, among prejudiced Whites, this relationship was negative and considerable in size (r = -.39, p r = -.04, ns). The implications of our findings for the study of prejudice in organizations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

WISC-R subscale patterns of abilities of Blacks and Whites matched on Full Scale IQ.

270 Black and 270 White children (ages 6–16.5 yrs) drawn from the national stratified random sample used in the standardization of the WISC-R were matched on age, sex, and WISC-R Full-Scale IQ to facilitate investigation of the patterns of specific cognitive abilities, as measured by the 12 subtests of the WISC-R, between the 2 racial groups. Multivariate analysis of the patterns of subtest differences between Whites and Blacks and group comparisons on 3 orthogonalized factor scores (Verbal, Performance, Memory) showed small but reliable average White–Black differences in patterns of ability. The IQ-matched racial groups showed no significant difference on the Verbal factor; Whites exceeded Blacks on the Performance (largely spatial visualization) factor; Blacks exceeded Whites on the Memory factor. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suicidal ideation among college students in the United States.

This study analyzed data from the 1995 National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (NCHRBS) to assess the prevalence of suicidal ideation among college students in the United States and to examine the association between suicidal ideation and substance use in this population. The NCHRBS used a mail questionnaire to assess health-risk behaviors in a nationally representative sample of undergraduate students. During the 12 months preceding the survey, 10% of the students had seriously considered attempting suicide. When controlling for demographic characteristics, the analysis showed that students who had considered suicide were at increased odds of using tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs. These results suggest that colleges and universities should establish suicide prevention programs that also address the related problem of substance use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trends in HIV incidence among young adults in the United States

CONTEXT: Behaviors that result in potential exposure to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) usually begin in adolescence or young adulthood, but trends in HIV incidence in young people remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: To estimate trends in HIV incidence in teenagers and young adults. DESIGN AND SETTING: Back-calculation of past HIV incidence in persons born between 1960 and 1974 using US national acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) incidence data and estimates of the distribution of times between HIV infection and AIDS. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incidence and prevalence of HIV in 1988 and 1993 in persons aged 20 and 25 years, respectively, in each of those years. RESULTS: As of January 1993, about 22000 men and 11000 women aged 18 to 22 years were living with HIV infection in the United States. Homosexual contact was the leading route of infection among young men. Heterosexual contact was the leading route of infection among young women. The HIV incidence attributed to homosexual contact or injection drug use decreased among persons aged 20 and 25 years between 1988 and 1993, but HIV incidence attributed to heterosexual contact was stable or increasing. Notably, in men aged 20 and 25 years, HIV prevalence declined by about 50% in white men but was relatively stable in black and Hispanic men. In contrast, HIV prevalence in women aged 20 and 25 years rose by 36% and 45%, respectively, because of increasing heterosexual transmission. Overall, HIV prevalence in persons aged 20 and 25 years declined by only 14% between 1988 and 1993. CONCLUSIONS: In young persons, HIV incidence in homosexual men and injection drug users was slowing by 1993; this favorable trend was offset by increasing heterosexual transmission, especially in minorities.     

Clonal relationships among high-level penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae in the United States

Emu antibody responses to avian influenza virus (AIV) infection were evaluated by the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (C-ELISA), agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests. All birds infected with AIV H5N1, H5N3, or H7N7 developed antinucleoprotein (NP) antibodies as early as 7 days postinfection as detected by the C-ELISA. The responses lasted 49 days for the emus receiving H5N3 and at least 56 days for emus receiving the other two viruses. By evaluating 50 emu field serum samples, the C-ELISA was found more sensitive than the AGID test for the detection of anti-NP antibodies. This study indicates that emus experimentally infected with AIV developed antibody responses that can be detected by C-ELISA, AGID, and HI tests. The results from this and our previous studies demonstrate the use of the C-ELISA as a substitute for the AGID test in a routine serodiagnostic screening for detection of antibodies to AIV infection in multiple avian species.     

Depression and anxiety among Cambodian refugee women in France and the United States

This study reports on Cambodian refugee data related to signs symptomatic of depression and anxiety, the tendency to worry or ruminate over past events (a culture-bound syndrome called "Khoucherang"), and differences that might be influenced by social system and cultural practice. A sample consisting of 155 women of Cambodian national origin were interviewed in their homes in the USA and France. Answers to the research questions were collected by a focused interview to elicit demographic information, and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) in the Cambodian language to elicit depression and anxiety scores. Women residing in France (87%) were significantly more likely to show signs symptomatic of depression than women residing in the USA (65%). Women in the study reported about three times as much depression as the average American woman. Large numbers of women residing in both countries were symptomatic of anxiety (82% on average). Both groups experienced extreme symptoms of the culture-bound syndrome, "Khoucherang," and appeared to be strongly influenced by the different social systems of the two countries.     

Vascular access survival among incident hemodialysis patients in the United States

OBJECTIVES: To investigate: (i) if early psychosocial intervention after cystectomy for bladder cancer can assist psychosocial rehabilitation; (ii) if the outcome of such intervention correlates with the patient's psychological defensive strategies as revealed with the meta-contrast technique (MCT); and (iii) if the patient's general philosophical outlook is important in this context. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Of 50 patients who had undergone radical cystectomy for bladder cancer, 17 received an ileal conduit, 17 a continent urinary reservoir with abdominal stoma and 16 an orthotopic neobladder. Twenty-four of the patients were randomized to psychosocial intervention, comprising weekly counselling 4-9 weeks after surgery. All patients were then evaluated with the Sickness-Impact Profile (SIP) standard questionnaire and the MCT (a projective test of percept-genetic model) was used to reflect individual defensive strategies at the subconscious or unconscious level. The patient's general philosophical outlook was recorded before and after surgery. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the results of the SIP between the intervention and the non-intervention group, as a whole or in its psychosocial dimension. However, intervention benefited patients with continent cutaneous diversion, whose scores on the psychosocial SIP dimension were lower than in the groups with ileal conduit diversion or orthotopic bladder replacement (P < 0.05). The MCT analysis of defensive strategies identified three clusters of patients characterized mainly by isolation and repression, repression and stereotypy or sensitivity and stereotypy. Analysis for cluster identification showed no significant SIP score differences between intervention and non-intervention groups. In an analysis of single defensive strategies, stereotypy was associated with higher total SIP score, but not significantly. Three clusters of philosophical outlook were identified; in one cluster, characterized by a belief in a supernatural power and philosophical interest, the psychosocial SIP scores were lower in the patients who obtained emotional support and the reverse in a cluster with contrary attitudes, although neither differences were significant. CONCLUSION: Psychosocial intervention assisted the psychosocial rehabilitation of patients with continent cutaneous urinary diversion. Defensive strategies and philosophical outlook generally did not influence the outcome of intervention. However, such programmes may be helpful for some patients, mainly those with a basically pessimistic disposition, a general interest in philosophical questions and often using defensive strategies of stereotypy and repression.