“We Gon’ Be Alright”: How resiliency & africultural coping behaviors factor into African American college students’ intentions to seek mental health services

Background: African Americans, apprehension toward utilizing mental health services (MHS) has a long history in the United States. The low rates of utilizing MHS can result in detrimental health consequences, both mental and physical, despite there being a developing literature base on how evidence-based treatments are effective in therapy with African Americans. Objective: There is expansive literature on several factors (e.g., stigma, cultural mistrust) that contribute to African Americans’ hesitancy concerning seeking MHS. The current study aimed to add to this literature base. Specifically, this study sought to acknowledge both African American college students’ choices to use alternative coping strategies (i.e., resilience and Africultural-based coping) and explore if actively utilizing those strategies might predict feelings of apprehension toward utilizing MHS, despite the need for them. Methods: The current study is a secondary data analysis of the responses of 360 African American college students. The Hayes’s PROCESS 3.5 macro for SPSS 27 was used to test the simple mediation models explored in this study. Results: As hypothesized, resilience mediated the relationship between both Africultural coping strategies (i.e., collective- and spiritual-centered coping) and students’ help-seeking propensity endorsement. However, resilience did not mediate the relationship between students’ psychological openness and their help-seeking propensity. Conclusion: Per the findings gleaned from this study, it appears that for many African American college students, the use of Africultural coping (an external coping strategy) predicted higher levels of resilience (internal coping strategy), and the increased endorsement of resilience tended to increase participants’ willingness to seek MHS. The findings from this study have implications for relevant professional stakeholders (e.g., researchers, mental health professionals, teachers) to inform ways to advance future research related to this topic and refine current health policies and clinical teachings/practice used to promote help-seeking and the care of African American college student

The role of bicultural identity integration in the relationship between discrimination and well-being

Previous research indicates that experiencing discrimination from dominant group members and having a less integrated bicultural identity are associated with negative psychological outcomes for bicultural individuals. Further, bicultural identity integration (BII) has also been found to mediate the relationship between discrimination from dominant group members and well-being. However, there is insufficient research exploring the impact of discrimination from one’s heritage group members. Thus, this study aimed to explore the impact of in-group discrimination on psychological adjustment and self-concept clarity. This study also aimed to explore BII as a mediator between in-group or out-group discrimination and psychological outcomes. Correlational analyses supported the hypothesized associations. The mediation models with BII as a mediator between in-group and out-group discrimination and psychological adjustment were not significant. The mediation models with BII as a mediator between both in-group and outgroup discrimination and self-concept clarity were significant. Implications, limitations, and future research direction are discussed

Coming around: A cost-benefit analysis of the Vegas Loop

An ex-ante cost benefit analysis of the Vegas Loop was executed, where the possible costs and benefits of implementing the entirety of the project were quantified in monetary terms to measure the consequences of it on all members of society. The Boring Company’s Vegas Loop is a tunnel system which utilizes human-controlled Tesla Model X and Y vehicles to move passengers around the city of Las Vegas, directly to their destination without additional stops. For this analysis, the considered benefits were: fares, reduced travel times, reduced emissions, and bolstering of tourism. Conversely, the considered costs included: the implementation cost, the maintenance costs, and construction costs. The current functioning portion of the Loop, meaning the 5 stations and 1.7 miles, were used to project results for the entire Loop, including the currently in-progress and unbuilt portions

Communication and Cultural Strategies Impacting Ukrainian Refugees and Others Involved

The Russian armed forces moved into Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Immediately and in the months following, millions of Ukrainians left their homes to seek a safe haven elsewhere. The dimensions of the Ukrainian refugee crisis are, in the words of Germany’s representative to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) Katherina Lumpp, “unprecedented… the refugee movement we are now seeing in Ukraine is unique. It is currently the second largest refugee[1] situation in the world. No situation has developed this rapidly since the Second World War” (Bauer, 2022). As of October 2023, the UN Refugee Agency has officially recorded 6,204,600 Ukrainian refugees (Ukraine Refugee Portal, UN Refugee Agency). In short, the Ukrainian refugee situation presents a dramatic need to accommodate millions of Ukrainians into host or transit countries. Among the many concerns are the cross-cultural differences Ukrainians face as they flee abroad to countries with which they are unfamiliar and whose people may be unacquainted with Ukrainian culture. To that end, the purpose of the current study is to focus on the cross-cultural communication challenges confronted by Ukrainian refugees and those in destination and transit countries interacting with them, such as hosts, paid and volunteer agency staff, school and learning personnel, potential and current employers, and co-workers. The key points covered by this research are cultural complexities; language and language dynamics; managing change; and, loss and grief. Key Words: Ukraine, refugee, communication, culture, hosts, employers, crisis communication, multiculturalism, cross-cultural, emergency, Ukrainian-Russian conflict [1] After the Syrian refugee crisis, although the Syrian war has gone on since 2012, growing over more than a decade, while the Ukrainian refugees have reached this size within a matter of months

The effect of body size on mate choice by Ambystoma laterale breeding with unisexual salamanders

Within the genus Ambystoma exists a complex of unisexual (all female) polyploid salamanders, which can breed with males of five sexual species of salamander. Unisexuals face intense sexual selection from diploid males, who prefer to mate with females of their own species. At the Edwin S. George Reserve (ESGR), it has been observed that LLJ unisexuals with large body sizes migrate to breeding ponds earlier than small unisexuals. A possible explanation for this behavior is that large LLJ unisexuals are sexually selected against, when compared to small unisexuals. We hypothesized that A. laterale males would prefer smaller LLJ unisexuals, when compared to larger LLJ unisexuals. To test this hypothesis, male A. laterale salamanders were placed in a breeding box with unisexuals differing in size; offspring were then genotyped to see which unisexual reproduced. Little to no correlation was found between unisexual size and A. laterale males mate choice. Our results were unable to explain the phenomenon behind large unisexuals arriving to breeding ponds early. However, there were several instances of unisexuals reproducing without access to spermatophores in the breeding boxes, which could indicate that the unisexuals acquired spermatophores before being collected in the wild and were able to store sperm or fertilized eggs within their cloaca for an extended period. This behavior has only been observed in a single unisexual specimen prior to this study

Centering the needs of language learners within educators’ professional learning and development: An investigation of teachers’ perceptions and experiences in meeting the needs of language learners

This qualitative study explores K-12 classroom teachers\u27 perceptions and experiences in meeting the needs of language learners, specifically English language learners (ELLs) and dual-language learners (DLLs). Addressing two main research questions, it investigated how teachers\u27 preservice learning and development prepared them for instructing language learners and identified preparatory experiences and professional learning considered beneficial and critical to their development in this area. Through surveys, teacher interviews, and classroom observations, the study highlighted challenges faced by teachers in settings with diverse language populations, including native Japanese, Spanish, and Arabic speakers, as well as native English speakers learning a second language. It exposed gaps in teacher preparation programs, emphasizing deficiencies in coursework, experiences, and fieldwork related to methods and strategies for language learners. The study highlighted the importance of creating supportive and collaborative classroom and school environments for mainstream teachers and ELLs, and advocating for increased professional development opportunities tailored to mainstream teachers\u27 instructional knowledge. Recommendations included revising teacher education programs to ensure comprehensive preparation for working with language learners and implementing induction or mentoring programs to guide inexperienced teachers in meeting these students\u27 needs. Ongoing professional development aligned with teachers\u27 needs and the school\u27s student population is deemed essential for effectively catering to the needs of language learners

A Case Study of Backward Design in a Customized Business English Course for Global Supply Chain Vendors in Francophone Africa

The present article describes a case study in which the author used domain analysis to create a backward-designed remedial listening comprehension course for global supply chain vendors employed with logistics-focused multinational corporations operating in Francophone Africa. The course is designed to address weaknesses in listening comprehension skills as exhibited by global supply chain vendors in Francophone Africa who work daily with South Asian customers. The weaknesses emanate, in large part, from the existence of World Englishes due to the rise of English as a lingua franca by multinational corporations. World Englishes refers to the existence of “emerging localized or indigenized varieties of English” worldwide (Oxford English Dictionary, 2023). In this case study, the author describes the struggles between two groups of nonnative speakers of English (NNSEs): supply chain vendors from Francophone Africa and their customers from Asian countries such as China and India. Both groups struggle with heavily accented utterances and indigenized syntactic structures while attempting to complete business transactions. To enhance comprehension or “intelligibility” (Nelson, 2011), the author will describe a customized course designed to acclimate Francophone African supply chain vendors to the World English spoken by their Asian customers. The course will feature 25 subtitled YouTube videos involving global supply chain presentations offered by accented English- speaking Asian experts. The YouTube presentations will be accompanied by comprehension checks, language-building activities, and phonetic tutorials with their American instructor. Keywords: International and cross-cultural business communication and negotiations, Language and business communicatio

Correlation of alcohol use, depression, and social roles in young adults

Past research suggests that the presence of depression is related to an increase in risky alcohol use. Additionally, existing studies have also found that social roles may increase or decrease an individual’s alcohol use. In this research, the intent is to develop a better understanding of the connection between alcohol use, depression, and social roles. It is hypothesized that elevated alcohol use is positively correlated with depression and negatively correlated to social roles. Fifty-two participants (healthy graduate and undergraduate students) were recruited from the EMU campus through the SONA system. Using data from the self-report questionnaire where participants reported on alcohol use along with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) depression short survey and PROMIS social roles survey, correlation analyses were conducted. A significant negative correlation between depression scores and social roles (r=-.644,