The Effect of Religiosity, Partisanship, and Identity-Seeking Behavior on Political Engagement

Is politics increasingly substituting for religion as a source of identity? As organized religion is on the decline in the United States and the nones (those who are Atheist, Agnostic, or claim no religion) continue to be some of the most politically active people in the country, it seems that there is a shift away from religion and towards politics. The present study explored this idea by testing the relationships among religiosity, identity-seeking behavior, and political engagement. I hypothesized that people seeking an identity would become more politically engaged after a partisan threat, especially if they were lower in religiosity. I recruited 197 participants from the survey platform Prolific, who completed a series of scales relating to religiosity, partisanship, and identity-seeking. Participants also were randomly assigned to read a paragraph that either threatened the partisan identity of Democrats or Republicans, followed by questions about their future political engagement intentions. Linear regression analyses (though not statistically significant) revealed a trend in the data consistent with predictions: People low in religiosity, yet high in identity seeking, were more likely to say they wanted to engage politically in the future compared to people low in identity seeking. These findings have implications for the future navigation of our political and religious landscape as organized religion continues to decline and partisanship continues to become heightened

Television in the bedroom and increased body weight: potential explanations for their relationship among European schoolchildren

AIMS: A television in the bedroom is associated with measures of adiposity. We aimed to test if this association is mediated by any of (i) time spent watching television, (ii) sleep duration, (iii) physical activity level or (iv) consumption of soft drinks. METHOD: Data were from 7234 boys and girls aged 10-12 years in European countries involved in the EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth project (Belgium, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Spain). Waist circumference, height and weight were measured. The presence of a bedroom television, television viewing time, sleep duration, physical activity time and soft drink consumption were assessed by standardized questionnaires. RESULTS: Almost 40% of schoolchildren had a bedroom television, with the highest percentage among Hungarian children (65%) and lowest for Belgian, Slovenian and Spanish children (all ≈28%). A television in the bedroom was positively associated with time spent watching television, soft drink consumption and overweight and obesity (all P < 0.001). The relationship between a television in the bedroom and measures of body size was partly mediated by total television viewing time (proportion mediated for waist circumference 8.9%; for body mass index 8.3%) but not sleep duration, physical activity time or soft drink consumption. CONCLUSION: The strong association between a television in the bedroom and adiposity was at least partially mediated by television viewing time. The large proportion of European schoolchildren with a television in their bedroom is of concern. Parents should be aware of the potential consequences when placing a television in a child's bedroom and children should limit viewing time

Theoretical foundations of the Study of Latino (SOL) Youth: implications for obesity and cardiometabolic risk

PURPOSE: This article describes the conceptual model developed for the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latino Youth, a multisite epidemiologic study of obesity and cardiometabolic risk among U.S. Hispanic/Latino children. METHODS: Public health, psychology, and sociology research were examined for relevant theories and paradigms. This research, in turn, led us to consider several study design features to best represent both risk and protective factors from multiple levels of influence, as well as the identification of culturally relevant scales to capture identified constructs. RESULTS: The Socio-Ecological Framework, Social Cognitive Theory, family systems theory, and acculturation research informed the specification of our conceptual model. Data are being collected from both children and parents in the household to examine the bidirectional influence of children and their parents, including the potential contribution of intergenerational differences in acculturation as a risk factor. Children and parents are reporting on individual, interpersonal, and perceived organizational and community influences on children's risk for obesity consistent with Socio-Ecological Framework. CONCLUSIONS: Much research has been conducted on obesity, yet conceptual models examining risk and protective factors lack specificity in several areas. Study of Latino Youth is designed to fill a gap in this research and inform future efforts