Adolescent School Bullying Victimisation and Later Life Outcomes

We analyse the long-term effects of experiencing bullying victimisation in junior high school, using rich data on a large cohort of English adolescents. The data contain self-reports of five types of bullying and their frequency, for three waves, when the pupils were aged 13 to 16 years. We assess the effects of bullying victimisation on short- and long-term outcomes, including educational achievements, earnings, and mental ill-health at age 25 years using a variety of estimation strategies - least squares, matching, and inverse probability weighting. We also consider attenuation associated with relying on self-reports. The detailed longitudinal data, linked to administrative data, allows us to control for many of the determinants of child outcomes that have been explored in previous literature, together with comprehensive sensitivity analyses, to assess the potential role of unobserved variables. The pattern of results strongly suggests that there are quantitatively important long run effects on victims – stronger than correlation analysis would otherwise suggest. In particular, we find that both type of bullying and its intensity matters for long run outcomes such as obtaining a degree, income, and mental health

Insomnia symptoms and repressive coping in a sample of older Black and White women

BACKGROUND: This study examined whether ethnic differences in insomnia symptoms are mediated by differences in repressive coping styles. METHODS: A total of 1274 women (average age = 59.36 ± 6.53 years) participated in the study; 28% were White and 72% were Black. Older women in Brooklyn, NY were recruited using a stratified, cluster-sampling technique. Trained staff conducted face-to-face interviews lasting 1.5 hours acquiring sociodemographic data, health characteristics, and risk factors. A sleep questionnaire was administered and individual repressive coping styles were assessed. Fisher's exact test and Spearman and Pearson analyses were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The rate of insomnia symptoms was greater among White women [74% vs. 46%; χ(2 )= 87.67, p < 0.0001]. Black women scored higher on the repressive coping scale than did White women [Black = 37.52 ± 6.99, White = 29.78 ± 7.38, F(1,1272 )= 304.75, p < 0.0001]. We observed stronger correlations between repressive coping and insomnia symptoms for Black [r(s )= -0.43, p < 0.0001] than for White women [r(s )= -0.18, p < 0.0001]. Controlling for variation in repressive coping, the magnitude of the correlation between ethnicity and insomnia symptoms was substantially reduced. Multivariate adjustment for differences in sociodemographics, health risk factors, physical health, and health beliefs and attitudes had little effect on the relationships. CONCLUSION: Relationships between ethnicity and insomnia symptoms are jointly dependent on the degree of repressive coping, suggesting that Black women may be reporting fewer insomnia symptoms because of a greater ability to route negative emotions from consciousness. It may be that Blacks cope with sleep problems within a positive self-regulatory framework, which allows them to deal more effectively with sleep-interfering psychological processes to stressful life events and to curtail dysfunctional sleep-interpreting processes

Noise exposure-response relationships established from repeated binary observations: Modeling approaches and applications

Noise exposure-response relationships are used to estimate the effects of noise on individuals or a population. Such relationships may be derived from independent or repeated binary observations, and modeled by different statistical methods. Depending on the method by which they were established, their application in population risk assessment or estimation of individual responses may yield different results, i.e., predict “weaker” or “stronger” effects. As far as the present body of literature on noise effect studies is concerned, however, the underlying statistical methodology to establish exposure-response relationships has not always been paid sufficient attention. This paper gives an overview on two statistical approaches (subject-specific and population-averaged logistic regression analysis) to establish noise exposure-response relationships from repeated binary observations, and their appropriate applications. The considerations are illustrated with data from three noise effect studies, estimating also the magnitude of differences in results when applying exposure-response relationships derived from the two statistical approaches. Depending on the underlying data set and the probability range of the binary variable it covers, the two approaches yield similar to very different results. The adequate choice of a specific statistical approach and its application in subsequent studies, both depending on the research question, are therefore crucial

Additive Effects Of The Number Of Completed Flights And Time Awake On Fatigue In Short-Haul Airline Pilots

Introduction: Time awake more so than the duration of the flight duty period affects airline pilots’ fatigue, consistent with current models of sleep-wake regulation. It is less clear, however, whether the quality of the time awake impacts fatigue. Although current flight time limitations take the number of flights within a duty period as a measure of workload into account, quantitative evidence for its fatiguing effect is scarce. Methods: Fatigue (Samn-Perelli 20-point scale) and workload ratings (NASA-Task-Load-Index) were obtained at the end of each of 553 short-haul flights from 37 pilots operating regular rosters. Pilots also checked off from a predefined list the hassles (e.g. critical fuel status, unforeseen aircraft change, bad weather, no break between flights etc.) experienced during each flight. A linear mixed-model with fatigue as dependent variable was adjusted for time awake, number of completed flights, number of hassles, and pilot’s responsibility (flying/monitoring). In addition, we tested (linear mixed-model) the influence of number of hassles, number of flights, time awake, and pilot’s responsibility on subjective workload. Linearity of the predictors, and absence of multicollinearity were verified. Results: Fatigue was influenced by time awake, number of flights and pilot’s responsibility (p<0.05), whereas no effect was found for number of hassles. Fatigue increased by 0.4 points with every hour awake, and by 0.3 points with every completed flight (other variables kept constant). Fatigue was lower by 0.4 points when the pilot was flying instead of monitoring. Assuming one completed flight fatigue exceeded the critical threshold of 12 points (flying duty not recommended) after 17.1h awake, whereas with four completed flights this threshold was crossed already after 14.7h. Subjective workload increased with number of hassles, but not with number of flights or time awake. Conclusion: Objective workload measured by the number of completed flights contributes to fatigue, adding to the time-awake effect. Subjective workload assessed by the NASA-Task-Load-Index increases with the number of hassles, but not with the number of flights, indicating that this instrument is not sensitive to this type of objective workload

Additive Wirkungen der Anzahl Flüge und der Wachdauer auf die Fatigue von Kurzstreckenpiloten

Einleitung: In Übereinstimmung mit aktuellen Modellen der Schlaf-Wachregulation konnte gezeigt werden, dass die verstrichene Wachdauer einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf die Fatigue von Kurzstreckenpiloten hat. Weniger klar ist dagegen, ob die Qualität der verbrachten Wachzeit, also z.B. der Grad der Arbeitsbelastung, einen zusätzlichen Einfluss hat. Derzeitige Flug- und Dienstzeitregelungen beziehen zwar die Anzahl Flüge pro Flugdienstzeit als zusätzlichen Einfluss auf die Fatigue mit ein, die wissenschaftliche Evidenz für einen quantitativen Zusammenhang ist allerdings noch immer gering. Methoden: 37 Piloten wurden während 553 Kurzstreckenflügen untersucht. Fatigue-Selbsteinschätzungen (Samn-Perelli 20-Punkte-Skala) und subjektive Arbeitsbelastung (NASA-TLX) wurden am Ende jedes Fluges erhoben. Zusätzlich gaben die Piloten auf einer vorgegebenen Check-Liste die im zurückliegenden Flug erfahrenen sogenannten Hassles („Unannehmlichkeiten“; z.B. keine Pause, schlechtes Wetter, schwieriger Flughafen, kein Ramp Agent, technischer Defekt etc.) an. Ein lineares gemischtes Modell wurde gerechnet, um den Einfluss der Wachdauer, der Anzahl zurückliegender Flüge pro Flugdienstzeit, der Anzahl der Hassles, und der Funktion des Piloten (Flying/Monitoring) zu bestimmen. In einem zweiten Modell wurde der Einfluss dieser Faktoren auf die subjektive Arbeitsbelastung untersucht. Ergebnisse: Die Wachdauer, die Anzahl zurückliegender Flüge und die Funktion des Piloten hatten einen signifikanten Einfluss (p<0.05) auf die Fatigue, während die Anzahl der Hassles keinen Effekt zeigte. Die Fatigue nahm mit jeder verstrichenen Wachdauerstunde um 0,4 Punkte zu, und zusätzlich mit jedem absolvierten Flug um 0,3 Punkte (andere Faktoren konstant gehalten). Die Fatigue war höher für den überwachenden (Monitoring) als für den steuernden (Flying) Piloten. Die subjektive Arbeitsbelastung nahm mit der Anzahl Hassles zu, nicht aber mit der Anzahl absolvierter Flüge. Schlussfolgerungen: Die objektive Arbeitsbelastung, gemessen an der Anzahl absolvierter Flüge, trägt zusätzlich zur Wachdauer in additiver Weise zur Fatigue der Piloten bei. Die subjektive Arbeitsbelastung, gemessen mittels NASA-TLX, nimmt mit der Anzahl Hassles, nicht aber mit der Anzahl Flüge zu. Der NASA-TLX ist somit kein geeignetes Instrument, diese Art der objektiven Arbeitsbelastung von Piloten zu erfassen

Is education the mechanism through which family background affects economic outcomes? A generalised approach to mediation analysis

We seek to quantify the role of education as a mechanism through which family background affects economic outcomes. To this end, we generalise mediation analysis to allow for multidimensional treatments. This improves the validity of mediation analysis for our application, in which family background is exogenous and multidimensional. Our approach allows the mediating role of education to vary across background characteristics, whilst also estimating its overall mediating effect. We estimate that educational attainment explains 21%-37% of the family background effect on hourly earnings in Australia, and only 13%-19% of the effect on wealth. We argue that these estimates are likely upward-biased. Therefore the link between family background and economic outcomes operates mostly through other mechanisms

Association between residents’ attitude towards air traffic and their objective sleep quality at Frankfurt Airport.

Sleep disturbances and impaired quality of life are among frequent complaints from residents around airports. This paper aims at investigating whether psychological factors such as subjective attitude towards air traffic are related to the objective sleep quality of an individual. In 2012 as part of the NORAH sleep study, 74 residents around Frankfurt Airport rated their attitude towards air traffic and assessed its necessity. Polysomnography was recorded in residents’ home environment. In the NORAH study, a negative attitude towards air traffic was associated with a significantly impaired sleep quality (i.e. prolonged sleep onset latency: Δ 5.6 min, increased wake after sleep onset: Δ 12.3 min, reduced sleep efficiency: Δ 3 %, and less deep sleep: Δ 12.3 min). The assessment of air traffic as less necessary was related to a significant reduction in deep sleep duration (Δ 15.1 min). These results suggest that residents’ objective sleep quality and their subjective assessment of air traffic are related. Cause and effect of the relationship remain to be identified