Improving the AMBER Alert System: Psychology Research & Policy Recommendation

When lawmakers implemented the AMBER Alert System, they initi­ated a system designed to save the lives of missing children. However, the system might not be working as well as possible. If psychological research on related areas (e.g., memory and witness identification) extends to AMBER Alerts, it is likely that the system can be improved. Section II of this article begins with a description and history of the AMBER Alert System, followed by a brief discussion of the effectiveness of the system. Section III continues with a review of numerous psycho­ logical studies that have important implications when applied to the AMBER Alert System. In Section IV, the authors make suggestions for improvements to the AMBER Alert System based on the reviewed re­ search literature. Section V offers policy suggestions for improving the System, such as designating more money toward psychological research on AMBER Alerts. Finally, the paper concludes with suggestions for future research directly measuring the effectiveness of the AMBER Alert System. These steps are desperately needed to fully realize the visions of lawmakers who crafted the legislation

The psychology of AMBER Alert: Unresolved issues and implications

The AMBER alert system is likely affected by a number of psychological processes, yet remains understudied. The system assumes people will remember Alert information accurately and notify police, but psychological research on related phenomena (e.g., memory, willingness to help) indicates that people may not be able or willing to act in ways the promote the success of the system. In addition, the system is intended to deter child abductions, however, the system could prompt copycat crimes from perpetrators seeking publicity. The system could also cause a precipitation effect in which a perpetrator who sees the Alert could decide to murder the child immediately to avoid capture. Policy recommendations are made based on psychological research and theory, although more research is needed to develop the most effective system possible

Healthy ageing: the flower children’s emotional responses to music in exercise

Reaching the age of 65 is widely celebrated in the United Kingdom as a milestone, bringing about retirement and supposedly a time for increased relaxation (Wang & Shi, 2014, Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 209-233). As the population of over 65s steadily increases however, so does the incidence of age related disorders and diseases (Rowe & Kahn, 1997, The Gerontologist, 4, 433-440). As regular exercise is well demonstrated to prolong healthy lives, and fight such disorders and disease, it is therefore important to encourage the ageing population to be active. Although, to date, music has been compellingly shown to help motivate healthy exercise, little research has investigated the role of music choices used within gym and exercise facilities for the over 65 population. The purpose of this study, using an ethnographic approach, was to explore how a group of over-65s, when exercising to music, make sense of their own preferences. With institutional ethical approval, 7 participants were recruited via social media, announcements on local radio stations, direct exercise classes and word of mouth. The participants took part in two exercise classes, which were filmed for reference to visual reactions, and a focus group was held post-class, allowing participants the opportunity to discuss their individual opinions of the music choices. An ethnographic frame work was used to build knowledge and understanding of how important music genres are to this population during exercise. While the final outcomes of the investigation are pending, initial findings suggest that music typically used within gym and class environments is not music that the over 65’s enjoy. ‘Music with a solid defined beat’ and ‘music that reminds me of my youth’ were discussed, whilst dance music ‘did nothing for me’ and most ‘struggled to find the beat’. It is also mentioned that gym environments are not appealing to their age group, they lack character and warmth and are intimidating. Existing research into music choices for gyms focuses on younger generations and has eliminated the older populations. This study discusses how much value the over 65’s place on music, not just in exercise but in everyday life. Creating playlists of music from their youth is a logical way to encourage exercise for an increasingly sedentary age group. Thus allowing this overlooked generation a reflection of their youth whilst inspiring increased activity levels, mental wellbeing and healthy ageing and potentially relieving an already overstretched health care system

An occupational perspective on the lived experience of menstruation for autistic adults

Menstruation is known to have potentially adverse impacts at multiple levels of occupational performance (Armour et al., 2019). Little research has to date, however, directly investigated the everyday menstruation experiences of autistic individuals, for whom menses and menarche are widely thought to be particularly occupationally disruptive (Steward et al., 2018). In this paper, a qualitative research design was employed to address the lived experiences of menstruation among a small set (N=6) of autistic adults in the UK. With institutional ethical approval (reference: 2511/SRPM/2021), in-depth online interviews were conducted. These yielded 34,734 words of transcript, which were thematically analysed using the six steps described by Braun and Clarke (2006), and interpreted through an Occupational Perspective of Health Framework (Wilcock and Hocking, 2015). Three interconnected global themes were identified. 1. ‘Sense of self’, addressing participants’ sensory overload and amplified experiences of anxiety, ‘brain fog’ and concern with cleanliness. 2. ‘Attributional work’, addressing events and contexts which were taken to trigger and/or exacerbate key problems (such as the need to use public restrooms). 3. ‘Reclaiming orderliness’, addressing participants’ pragmatic strategies for overcoming the increased unpredictability inherent in their lives during periods. It was concluded that menstruation poses specific, significant challenges for autistic individuals which require autism-specific solutions. These challenges impact individuals’ ability to particularly perform occupations of self-care, productivity, and leisure. As such, Occupational Therapists have a key role to play in the provision of support to address the impact of menstruation on occupational engagement and participation. References: Armour, M., Parry, K., Al-Dabbas, M., Curry, C., Holmes, K., MacMillan, F., Ferfolja, T. and Smith, C.A. (2019) 'Self-care strategies and sources of knowledge on menstruation in 12,526 young women with dysmenorrhea: A systematic review and meta-analysis', PloS One, 14(7), pp. e0220103. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220103. Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) 'Using thematic analysis in psychology', Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), pp. 77-101. doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa. Steward, R., Crane, L., Mairi Roy, E., Remington, A. and Pellicano, E. (2018) '“Life is much more difficult to manage during periods”: Autistic experiences of menstruation', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(12), pp. 4287-4292. doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3664-0. Wilcock, A.A. and Hocking, C. (2015) An Occupational Perspective of Health. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK Incorporated

Generations in Families Talking Safe Sleep (GIFTSS)

Background: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and suffocation account for more than half of all Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID) and are leading causes of post-neonatal deaths. Risk reduction strategies, including supine sleep position and safe sleep environment, are critical for prevention. Teen mothers, especially those in rural, poor, southern states, are at higher risk due to low compliance with recommendations. Methods: We will conduct a randomized trial to test a tailored educational intervention on the sleep-related safety behaviors of teen mothers. In one study arm, the intervention will include not only the teen mothers but also senior caregivers (SCGs) to assess the influence they have in the decision-making of young mothers regarding infant health and safety. Our hypotheses are H1) teen mothers exposed to intervention will be more likely than controls to adopt safe sleep practices, and H2) teen mothers will be more likely to use those practices when they and their mothers or other significant female senior caregivers also participate in safe sleep education. Discussion: Better understanding of the mediating role of female SCGs in the health decision of young mothers for their children may have implications for interventions addressing important health problems

Athletic Administrators Report of Emergency Action Plan Adoption in Secondary School Athletics: The Influence of Athletic Training Services

This study describes the emergency action plan (EAP) adoption in secondary school athletics reported by athletic administrators in the United States. Utilizing best-practice criteria, a questionnaire assessed athletic administrators’ knowledge and adoption of an EAP in their athletics program. A majority of athletic administrators reported having an EAP; however, the EAP often lacked the necessary components to be compliant with best-practice guidelines. Further, access to an athletic trainer was associated with increased EAP adoption and adopting a venue specific EAP. Athletic administrators should utilize these data to facilitate improved policy adoption and management of athletics programs

Employing a coaching model of supervision during physiotherapy placements: Charting the student experience

Purpose Placement capacity during physiotherapy degree programmes is presently under unprecedented stress. In the wake of COVID-19, Health Education England has moved to increase university places across all Allied Health Professions (AHPs) by 50%, without any reduction in quality of education. In order to facilitate this increase in student numbers, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and healthcare teams are being asked to change their ways of working and consider alternative supervision models. One such model is the group-based ‘coaching’ approach which is commonly used in the education of medical students but seldom employed on AHP programmes, where one-to-one supervision remains the default. The research reported herein was tasked with qualitatively elucidating student experiences of such a coaching supervision initiative, introduced by the research team across a set of undergraduate and postgraduate physiotherapy placements in two NHS Trusts the north of England during 2020 and 2021. Methods The research team contacted all students who had (a) completed a placement using the coaching supervision model, while also (b) having prior experience of placement(s) using the more conventional one-to-one approach. These students, registered at a number of UK HEIs, were informed that participation would involve sitting for a semi-structured interview in which they would be afforded the opportunity to critically discuss their experiences of the coaching placement. In accordance with time and budgetary constrictions, the first N=20 students to register interest in participating were invited to take part in an online interview. All invited students provided interviews, with a mean duration of 25 minutes. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, with redactions made only for participant identity protection. Transcripts were investigated coordinatively by the full research team using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Results Analysis yielded four global themes. 1. Teamwork and Camaraderie; the collective experience engendered by the coaching model was widely lauded and cited as a source of confidence and support, though some participants were conscious that they were too often deferring to the more ‘experienced’ students in their group. 2. Leadership; all students cited opportunities to lead and delegate within their group as important to their professional development, though the experience of being led - and delegated to - by other students was more difficult for some than others. 3. Safety Nets; it was commonly asserted that the coaching model exposed both strengths and weaknesses in performance much more than one-to-one supervision, which was taken to simultaneously boost and undermine confidence. 4. Acceleration and Inertia; while all students argued that they initially learned more quickly in the group environment, a few contended that, as time passed, it began to hold them back. Conclusion(s) Findings indicated that although the coaching model was generally very popular with students, these successes did not come without caveats. Future research might specifically investigate links between these caveats and student profiles over a wider population. Impact These findings have clear import for nuancing in design of future coaching placements, particularly regarding how to maintain the strengths while further improving the student experience

Predicting functional responses in agro-ecosystems from animal movement data to improve management of invasive pests

Functional responses describe how changing resource availability affects con- sumer resource use, thus providing a mechanistic approach to prediction of the invasibility and potential damage of invasive alien species (IAS). However, functional responses can be context dependent, varying with resource characteristics and availability, consumer attributes, and environmental variables. Identifying context dependencies can allow invasion and damage risk to be predicted across different ecoregions. Understanding how ecological factors shape the functional response in agro-ecosystems can improve predictions of hotspots of highest impact and inform strategies to mitigate damage across locations with varying crop types and avail- ability. We linked heterogeneous movement data across different agro-ecosystems to predict ecologically driven variability in the functional responses. We applied our approach to wild pigs (Sus scrofa), one of the most successful and detrimental IAS worldwide where agricultural resource depredation is an important driver of spread and establishment. We used continental- scale movement data within agro-ecosystems to quantify the functional response of agricul- tural resources relative to availability of crops and natural forage. We hypothesized that wild pigs would selectively use crops more often when natural forage resources were low. We also examined how individual attributes such as sex, crop type, and resource stimulus such as dis- tance to crops altered the magnitude of the functional response. There was a strong agricul- tural functional response where crop use was an accelerating function of crop availability at low density (Type III) and was highly context dependent. As hypothesized, there was a reduced response of crop use with increasing crop availability when non-agricultural resources were more available, emphasizing that crop damage levels are likely to be highly heterogeneous depending on surrounding natural resources and temporal availability of crops. We found sig- nificant effects of crop type and sex, with males spending 20% more time and visiting crops 58% more often than females, and both sexes showing different functional responses depend- ing on crop type. Our application demonstrates how commonly collected animal movement data can be used to understand context dependencies in resource use to improve our under- standing of pest foraging behavior, with implications for prioritizing spatiotemporal hotspots of potential economic loss in agro-ecosystems

Adoption of Lightning Safety Best-Practices Policies in the Secondary School Setting

CONTEXT: Lightning-related injuries are among the top 10 causes of sport-related death at all levels of sport, including the nearly 8 million athletes participating in US secondary school sports. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the adoption of lightning safety policies and the factors that influence the development of comprehensive lightning safety policies in United States secondary schools. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Secondary school. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Athletic trainers (ATs). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): An online questionnaire was developed based on the “National Athletic Trainers' Association Position Statement: Lightning Safety for Athletics and Recreation” using a health behavior model, the precaution adoption process model, along with facilitators of and barriers to the current adoption of lightning-related policies and factors that influence the adoption of lightning policies. Precaution adoption process model stage (unaware for need, unaware if have, unengaged, undecided, decided not to act, decided to act, acting, maintaining) responses are presented as frequencies. Chi-square tests of associations and prevalence ratios with 95% CIs were calculated to compare respondents in higher and lower vulnerability states, based on data regarding lightning-related deaths. RESULTS: The response rate for this questionnaire was 13.43% (n = 365), with additional questionnaires completed via social media (n = 56). A majority of ATs reported maintaining (69%, n = 287) and acting (6.5%, n = 27) a comprehensive lightning safety policy. Approximately 1 in 4 ATs (25.1%, n = 106) described using flash to bang as an evacuation criterion. Athletic trainers practicing in more vulnerable states were more likely to adopt a lightning policy than those in less vulnerable states (57.4% versus 42.6%, prevalence ratio [95% CI] = 1.16 [1.03, 1.30]; P = .009). The most commonly cited facilitator and barrier were a requirement from a state high school athletics association and financial limitations, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of ATs related adopting (eg, maintaining and acting) the best practices for lightning safety. However, many ATs also indicated continued use of outdated methods (eg, flash to bang)