Social Ecology of Supervised Communal Facilities for Mentally Disabled Adults: IV. Characteristics of Social Behavior

Behavior categories for observations of 304 mentally disabled adults were analyzed in relation to settings (sheltered workshops and residential facility), personal characteristics (age, sex, IQ, diagnosis, and desire for affiliation) and characteristics of partners. Both settings and personal characteristics predicted individual behavior rates for the 10 most frequently observed behavior categories. As many as 14 dimensions were extracted from behavior observed in more intense dyadic relationships; these dimensions were strongly related to characteristics of the individuals in the relationships. Although more intelligent individuals exhibited higher rates of verbal behavior, they were not more verbal in their intense social relationships. Furthermore, individuals at all levels of intelligence were sensitive to the intellectual characteristics of their partners. The results suggest that the social behavior of mentally disabled people is complex and sensitive to the presence and characteristics of others; peer-group composition seems to be critical to social adaptation in communal settings for this population

Introduction to the Issue “Adolescents in the Digital Age: Effects on Health and Development”

This thematic issue brings together papers by researchers who are studying the ways that today’s adolescents interact with their peers, families, and the larger media environment in the digital age. The contributors highlight both the challenges and the opportunities that this new age presents for the healthy development of young people

Reanalysis of the Bridge et al. study of suicide following release of 13 Reasons Why

Bridge et al. recently presented a time series analysis of suicide rates in the US following the release of the 2017 Netflix series “13 Reasons Why.” Their analysis found a powerful effect of the show on boys ages 10–17 for nine months after the show was released in April 2017. I questioned this finding on two grounds. First, contagion would be expected to be stronger for girls than boys for this story, and second their analysis did not take into account strong secular trends in suicide, especially in boys from 2016 to 2017. I reanalyzed their data using a simple auto-regression model that tested for changes in rates after removing auto-correlation and national trends in suicide. I found that the increase for boys observed by Bridge et al. in April was no greater than the increase observed during the prior month before the show was released. There were also no effects in later months of that year. For girls, I found a small but nonsignificant increase in suicide in April that was unique to that month, potentially consistent with a combined protective and harmful effect of the show. In total, I conclude that it is difficult to attribute harmful effects of the show using aggregate rates of monthly suicide rates. More fine-grained analyses at the weekly level may be more valid but only after controlling for secular changes in suicide that have been particularly strong since 2008 in the US

Social Ecology of Supervised Communal Facilities for Mentally Disabled Adults: II. Predictors of Affiliation

The behavior of 304 mentally disabled adults was observed in five settings (one residence, four sheltered workshops) during periods when they were free to affiliate with peers. Regression analyses using settings, personal traits (age, sex, IQ, and diagnosis), and mediating variables (e.g., physical attractiveness, desire for affiliation, and length of institutionalization) were conducted to predict various aspects of affiliative behavior. Settings accounted 16 to 63 percent of the predictable variation independent of personal and mediating variables. Although older and mentally ill clients affiliated less extensively, neither degree of retardation, length of previous institutionalization, use of medication, or other physical disabilities appeared to affect affiliation independent of other variables. In general, clients who were physically attractive desired affiliation, and had intelligent peers in their programs affiliated more extensively and intensively with peers. In total, the findings indicate that the variables most predictive of affiliation in the present community settings were also the ones most amenable to personal or environmental change

Social Ecology of Supervised Communal Facilities for Mentally Disabled Adults: I. Introduction

This is the first of a series of papers in which we describe social relationships among mentally disabled adults who worked in four sheltered workshops. In this paper, procedures for observing and interviewing clients and for interviewing staff members were described, and data on reliability and general levels of social behavior were reported. Reliability of social behavior was significant across time and situations. Social-choice estimates were not very consistent across staff, clients, and observations. Clients spent about 40 percent of their time in informal socializing, primarily in conversation. In future papers in the series, we analyze predictors of social behavior and social choice in detai

Afterword to the Issue “Adolescents in the Digital Age: Effects on Health and Development”

The articles in this thematic issue suggest both opportunities and hazards for the health and development of adolescents in the digital age. We place these concerns in the context of improving health for young people in the US and elsewhere, and suggest that based on evidence uncovered to date, increasing digital connection may be having no less favorable than adverse effect on adolescents

Social Ecology of Supervised Communal Facilities for Mentally Disabled Adults: III. Predictors of Social Choice

This paper is the third in a series in which the social behavior of mentally disabled clients in community facilities was examined. In this report, social choice for various cognitive and physical characteristics and for exposure to others was investigated in five settings. Preferences were inferred from observed affiliation, self reports, and staff judgments. Clients tended to prefer peers whom they had more exposure to, same-sex peers, and peers of similar attractiveness. Opposite-sex relationships were also common and were stronger for women. Neither similarity nor complementarity choice was obtained for age or the desire for affiliation; however, retarded clients tended to be segregated from mentally ill clients. Although clients tended to name friends of similar intellect, a form of limited complementarity appeared to govern observed affiliation preferences in that clients preferred to affiliate with peers who were somewhat different in IQ. This result suggests that clients of relatively moderate intelligence are critical to the social integration of a setting, since they are most likely to form relationships with clients of both higher and lower intelligence. The implications of these results for the sociability of a setting were discussed

Violence in Popular U.S. Prime Time TV Dramas and the Cultivation of Fear: A Time Series Analysis

Gerbner and Gross’s cultivation theory predicts that prolonged exposure to TV violence creates fear of crime, symptomatic of a mean world syndrome. We tested the theory’s prediction in a time series model with annual changes in violence portrayal on popular US TV shows from 1972 to 2010 as a predictor of changes in public perceptions of local crime rates and fear of crime. We found that contrary to the prediction that TV violence would affect perceptions of crime rates, TV violence directly predicted fear of crime holding constant national crime rates and perceptions of crime rates. National crime rates predicted fear of crime but only as mediated by perceptions of local crime rates. The findings support an interpretation of cultivation theory that TV drama transports viewers into a fictive world that creates fear of crime but without changing perceptions of a mean world