Being With Friends and the Potential for Binge Drinking During the First College Semester

In this prospective study, we assess the relationship between being with high school friends during the college transition and binge drinking. Across analyses (n = 489), the presence of high school friends during the college transition was associated with reduced binge drinking at the end of the first college semester among individuals at risk for this behavior because they drank in high school, associated alcohol use with the student role, or engaged in binge drinking at the beginning of the fall term. This is consistent with research linking social integration to behavioral regulation and suggests the presence of high school friends during the college transition serves as a source of social control at a juncture characterized by a reduction in normative constraint. Implications for practitioners seeking to assess new students\u27 risks for binge drinking and to more effectively meet the needs of vulnerable groups are discussed in relation to the study results

Individual and Society: Sociological Social Psychology

Unlike the few other texts for undergraduate sociological social psychology courses that present 3 distinct traditions (or faces ) ... Symbolic Interactionist (SI), Social Structure and Personality (SSP), and Group Processes and Structure (GPS) by topic alone, this text initially discusses these faces by research tradition, and emphasizes the different theoretical frameworks within which social psychological analyses are conducted. With this approach, the authors make clear the link between face of sociological social psychology, theory, and methodology. And students gain an appreciably better understanding of the field of sociological social psychology; how and why social psychologists trained in sociology ask particular kinds of questions; the types of research they are involved in; and how their findings have been, or can be, applied to contemporary societal patterns and problems. Great writing makes this approach successful and interesting for students, resulting in a richer, more powerful course experience. A website offers instructors high quality support material, written by the authors, which you will appreciate and value -- Provided by publisher

Can Diet Affect Coloration in Tiger Salamanders?

Amphibians are the fastest known declining taxonomic group in the world with 48% of populations in decline (Stuart et. al. 2004). These declines in amphibian populations are partially due to the lack of basic life history data (Semlitsch 2003). For example, amphibians are known for their bright coloration and ability to rapidly change color. Coloration is key to amphibian survival in terms of defense (as camouflage or a warning sign to predators), thermoregulation (darker skin warms faster), and communication (primarily mating displays) (Rudh and Qvanstrom 2013). One aspect of amphibian coloration that is poorly understood is how much the environment influences amphibian pigmentation. Amphibian coloration is dictated by three main types of chromatophores underneath the skin. Chromatophores are cells that contain pigments which reflect light. Iridophores contain pigments that reflect light that contribute to bluish coloration. Melanophores are the cells that control expression of melanin that can be expanded and contracted to darken or lighten the skin. Xanthophores are the cells responsible for the red and yellow coloration (Bagnara et. al. 1968) and contain pteridine organelles and dietary carotenoid pigments (Bagnara et. al. 1968 and Kraemer et. al. 2012). There are 600 different derivatives of carotenoids that have two major uses. They can be metabolized into Vitamin A and other antioxidants or used to physiologically change pigmentation. In particular, they are well known for being in orange and yellow vegetables like carrots and causing the bright pink coloration of the skin of some gulls. This coloration of gulls is due to their highcarotenoid diet of shrimp and algae (McGraw and Hardy 2006). Allocating carotenoids toward pigmentation rather than toward Vitamin A is a potential sign of health since that organism is able to use these nutrients for coloration instead of as antioxidants (Hill and Johnson 2012). This suggests that increasing access to carotenoids through diet can affect pigmentation which can reflect health in some organisms. We want to know whether carotenoids consumed through diet will affect pigmentation of amphibians as well. Professor Heather Waye conducted research studying whether spot patterns in Eastern Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum) changed during maturation (Waye 2013). She made the observation that some of the salamanders’ yellow coloration faded during their time in captivity. This may have been caused due to differences in abiotic factors (e.g. lighting, temperature) or diet. Captive salamanders have been fed a diet limited to domestic crickets, fish, and earthworms. Adult salamanders in the wild have been found to eat earthworms, crickets, grasshoppers, small mice, other amphibians (including their own larvae), mollusks, and other small insects (Reese 1969 and Moriarity and Hall 2014). Mollusks have been found to contain carotenoids (Vershinin 1996). I hypothesized that adding carotenoidrich food to their diet will result in an increase in intensity of the yellow in their skin.https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/urs_2018/1009/thumbnail.jp

Building a prescribed fire program on the Colorado Front Range: the role of landowner engagement

2020 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Despite recognition of the value of prescribed fire in scientific literature and policy, a number of factors impede its widespread implementation in the United States. Social acceptance of prescribed fire is a key factor, making consistent and effective outreach an important part of efforts to increase prescribed fire implementation. The Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, located in northern Colorado, has set a goal to increase the level of prescribed burning, on its land and at a larger landscape level when possible. As part of this effort it has been working to improve active stakeholder involvement and education about forest restoration planning and implementation, with special attention paid to those who might be most directly impacted by future prescribed fires. Through a case study on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, this thesis analyzes: strategies the USFS and its partners have used to communicate to landowners and meet their goals; challenges and benefits associated with outreach; and how outreach has been perceived by its recipients. To address each of these questions, I interviewed 23 individuals from the US Forest Service, its governmental and non-governmental partners, and community members in the study area. This thesis consists of four chapters: a brief introduction, a report of my findings developed for practitioners, an article intended for submission to a journal, and a conclusion. The US Forest Service report is a technical document which reviews the goals for outreach, strategies employed to achieve those goals, how community members perceived strategies used, and researcher insight into how outreach might be improved for future projects. My findings show that outreach providers in the study area had two primary goals: to garner understanding of and support for forest restoration projects in the community, and to encourage private landowners to consider implementing projects on their own land. These strategies were emphasized differently based on the specific goal and the outreach recipients' phase of learning. The second stand-alone chapter, which will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, offers a comparison of outreach provider and recipient perspectives on goals and outreach strategies used. I found that most of the community members I interviewed perceived a high level of wildfire risk to their homes and other material assets, and that was often their reason for seeking information initially. Providers and recipients of outreach generally perceived that interactive strategies, such as project tours and personal communication, were the most effective in achieving their goals. However, providers faced problems with capacity for this type of outreach, and recipients struggled to find information independently after they had established a general understanding of forest restoration techniques. In each chapter, I offer recommendations for improving future outreach programs based on feedback from interview participants and my own observations. Following initial data collection for this project, a prescribed fire in the study area escaped and was declared a wildfire. I conducted follow-up interviews with 16 of the original 23 interviewees to understand how outreach informed community members before, during, and after the escape, whether changes to the outreach program would or should be made following the escape, and whether community members' perspectives on forest restoration had changed after such an event. My conclusion chapter introduces key findings from these follow-up interviews, and summarizes key findings about initial interviews from the previous two chapters. Key findings in this chapter show that outreach recipients prefer a standardized email notification system no matter what entity is burning, and that those who were supportive of prescribed fire before remained supportive after the escape. Findings from this study can be used to improve the ongoing outreach program in this study area, while adding to existing literature on prescribed fire outreach and informing similar efforts in other locations. Further research in other communities is necessary to identify contextual factors that influenced my findings

The Effects of Role-taking and Embarrassability on Undergraduate Drinking: Some Unanticipated Findings

This paper focuses on the relationship between role-taking, affect, and alcohol use among college undergraduates. Role-taking is the process through which people anticipate the perspectives—expectations, evaluations, and behaviors—of others (Mead, 1934). Reflexive role-taking (i.e.,viewing oneself through the eyes of others) was significantly related to four distinct types of embarrassment. However, in opposition to our hypotheses, embarrassment resulting from becoming the center of others’ attentions was the only form of embarrassability significantly related to undergraduate drinking. Moreover, it was those students least susceptible to this type of embarrassment who were the most likely to be drinkers. While role-taking, in general, was unrelated to the amount of alcohol consumed, individuals who rarely engaged in empathic role-taking (i.e., rarely anticipated the feelings of others) were more likely to be drinkers and drank more heavily than other students

The effects of public self-consciousness and embarrassability on college student drinking: Evidence in support of a protective self-presentational model

In this article we examine the effects of public self-consciousness (PSC) and a cross-situational reactivity to embarrassing encounters (EMB) on college students’ levels of alcohol consumption by levels of perceived peer drinking. The analysis of self-report data from two undergraduate samples (n = 118 and n = 195) yielded virtually identical results and suggests that PSC and EMB affect alcohol use primarily among students with friends who drink heavily. Among these individuals, our findings are consistent with a protective self-presentational model. While PSC increased levels of alcohol consumption among students who believed drinking to be prevalent within their social circle if they were low in EMB, a susceptibility to embarrassment in response to the transgressions of self and others counteracted this tendency

Parental and Peer Influences on Adolescent Drinking: The Relative Impact of Attachment and Opportunity

The purpose of this paper was to assess the relative effects of parents and peers on adolescent alcohol use via mechanisms of attachment and opportunity. Panel data from the second and third waves of the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS:88) were used to examine the relationship between multiple measures of peer and parent-child relations reflecting these concepts and alcohol use among high-school students. Overall, our results indicated that peers are more influential than parents in shaping adolescents’ patterns of alcohol consumption and that unstructured peer interaction is an especially powerful predictor of adolescent alcohol use and binge drinking. Our findings further suggest that gender serves as a conditioning factor, moderating the effects of parental and peer variables on high-school students’ drinking. Potential programmatic applications, as well as the theoretical implications, of these findings are discussed within the context of control theory and prior research on the relationship between opportunity and delinquency

Parent-Child Relations and Peer Associations as Mediators of the Family Structure-Substance Use Relationship

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988, the authors assess the extent to which adolescents’ levels of parental attachment and opportunities for participating in delinquent activities mediate the family structure–substance use relationship. A series of hierarchical regressions supported the hypotheses that high levels of substance use among adolescents residing with stepfamilies would be explained by low parental attachment, whereas heightened opportunities for participating in deviant activities would account for the substance use behaviors of individuals living in single-parent households. More generally, the findings suggest that family structure has a moderate effect on youth substance use; that parental and peer relations are better predictors than family structure of levels of alcohol and marijuana consumption; and that variations in parental attachment, parenting style, and peer relations across family types explain some, but not all, of the effects of family structure on adolescents’ substance use behaviors

Resisting peer pressure: Characteristics associated with other-self discrepancies in college students’ levels of alcohol consumption

Since college undergraduates tend to increase their use of alcohol to match what they perceive to be normative, the assumption has been that students who believe that others on campus drink more than they do (a common misperception) are in a vulnerable position. Taking a different perspective, we consider large other-self discrepancies in levels of alcohol consumption as indicative of a capacity to resist situational pressures that favor drinking. OLS regression was used to assess the relationship between student background characteristics, self-presentational tendencies, and a gender-specific other-self gap measure. Overall, those individuals who drank closest to what they regarded as typical for same-sex peers at their school were students high in public self-consciousness with a family history of alcohol abuse and males who exhibited a tendency toward cross-situational variability. Students not affiliated with the Greek system who consciously limited their alcohol intake to avoid negative outcomes, on the other hand, drank substantially below what they perceived to be normative for their gender, suggesting that they were the most able to resist peer pressure

Routine activities as determinants of gender differences in delinquency

This study examined the extent to which gender differences in delinquency can be explained by gender differences in participation in, or response to, various routine activity patterns (RAPs) using data from the second and third waves of the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. While differential participation in routine activities by gender failed to explain males’ high levels of deviance relative to females, two early RAPs moderated the effect of gender on subsequent deviant behavior. Participation in religious and community activities during the sophomore year in high school decreased, while unstructured and unsupervised peer interaction increased, levels of delinquency two years later substantially more for males than for females, suggesting there are gender differences in reactivity to contextual opportunities for deviance during early high school with effects that persist over time