Estimation of physical activity intensity using triaxial ActiGraph accelerometers in youth populations: Impact of data type, attachment site, and modeling approach, including adaptations of the Sojourn method for varied use in youth

Adequate physical activity (PA) in youth is essential for short- and long-term health. However, it is difficult to perform large-scale assessments of youth PA levels and be assured of accurate results. Recent developments in accelerometer-based PA monitoring for adults (e.g. the Sojourn method) have enhanced the accuracy attainable by those devices, but the same has not been accomplished for youth. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and cross-validate versions of the established Sojourn method that can be used for research with youth. METHODS: The study involved two phases. In Phase 1, existing ActiGraph monitor data from 54 youth were used to train artificial neural networks that were implanted into customized shells of the existing Sojourn method, and these were compared against indirect calorimetry for validation. In Phase 2, a separate cross validation analysis was conducted on an independent sample of 21 youth that wore Actigraph monitors during a simulated free-living protocol. This phase utilized direct observation as the criterion measure of activity intensity and consisted of one hour of self-directed activity, with limited direction provided outside of the requirement that at least 5 activities be performed within the hour. In both phases, standard processing methods were included to compare the relative utility of the new methods to the established and currently available techniques for both hip and wrist ActiGraph data. Phase 2 additionally compared non-dominant and dominant wrist attachment. Tests of classification accuracy (confusion matrices, sensitivity and specificity, percent accuracy, and kappa statistics) were used in both phases to evaluate the methods. RESULTS: The adapted Sojourn methods achieved accuracies ranging from 53.9% to 73.7% in Phase 1 (kappa scores from 0.24 to 0.44). In Phase 2, the adaptations fell between 38.2% and 60.5% accuracy (kappa scores from 0.06 to 0.41). The adapted Sojourn method using activity counts from hip worn Actigraph monitor showed the strongest overall performance. CONCLUSIONS: The adaptations of the Sojourn method were more accurate than currently available methods for youth, but improvements are still needed, particularly for methods using raw acceleration data from the wrist. Attachment to the dominant or non-dominant wrist is inconsequential

Friends, relatives, sanity, and health: The costs of politics

Political scientists have long known that political involvement exacts costs but they have typically defined these costs in relatively narrow, largely economic terms. Though anecdotal evidence suggests that the costs of politics may in fact extend beyond economics to frayed personal relationships, compromised emotional stability, and even physical problems, no systematic evidence on these broader costs exists. We construct and validate batteries of survey items that delineate the physical, social, and emotional costs of political engagement and administer these items to a demographically representative sample of U.S. adults. The results suggest that a large number of Americans believe their physical health has been harmed by their exposure to politics and even more report that politics has resulted in emotional costs and lost friendships

Friends, relatives, sanity, and health: The costs of politics

Political scientists have long known that political involvement exacts costs but they have typically defined these costs in relatively narrow, largely economic terms. Though anecdotal evidence suggests that the costs of politics may in fact extend beyond economics to frayed personal relationships, compromised emotional stability, and even physical problems, no systematic evidence on these broader costs exists. We construct and validate batteries of survey items that delineate the physical, social, and emotional costs of political engagement and administer these items to a demographically representative sample of U.S. adults. The results suggest that a large number of Americans believe their physical health has been harmed by their exposure to politics and even more report that politics has resulted in emotional costs and lost friendships

Donald Trump’s contribution to the study of politics and the life sciences

If the life sciences are to have much to say about politics, there needs to be a universal element to political orientations. In this essay, I argue that the recent prominence of nativist, law-and-order, populist politicians reveals the nature of this universal element. All social units have to address bedrock dilemmas about how to deal with norm violators and how welcoming to be to outsiders as well as to proponents of new lifestyles. Might differences on these core dilemmas be the universal element of political life? Using the followers of one of the most prominent examples of a nativist political leader—Donald Trump—as an example, I present data showing that Trump’s most earnest followers are different from others—even those who share their general ideological leanings—not on traditional economic or social issues, but rather on the group-based security issues that grow out of the bedrock dilemmas of social life

Why Do Trump’s Authoritarian Followers Resist COVID-19 Authorities? Because They Are Not Really Authoritarian Followers

People’s responses to the threat posed by COVID-19 varied widely. In direct contradiction to the popular theory that Trump supporters prefer to submit to powerful people, Trump’s most enthusiastic followers actually were the most vocal in resisting the urgings of authorities to get vaccinated and to wear masks. I explain this anomaly by showing that Trump’s followers are driven less by a desire for authority and more by a desire to be secure from the threats human outsiders pose to society’s historically dominant racial, language, religious, and cultural group. Far from being authoritarians, the followers of leaders such as Donald Trump stridently oppose all authority figures who divert attention from what they believe are the real threats: immigrants, powerful foreign enemies, diversity, terrorists, and criminals. From this perspective, it is unsurprising that those with a securitarian orientation would not take seriously authorities who are concerned with the threat posed by an mRNA virus

Satisfaction with public policy decisions is dependent on the racial composition of decision-makers, not only on the decisions themselves

When a lack of diversity in decision-making bodies signals to citizens that the policymaking process is inherently unfair, then it increases the likelihood that any outcomes detrimental to minorities are perceived as the result of systematic bias rather than unfortunate circumstances. Research by Matthew Hayes and Matthew Hibbing finds that Americans’ satisfaction with public policy decisions is dependent on the racial composition of decision-makers, not only on the decisions themselves, suggesting that governments work to ensure their decision-making bodies are more inclusive

The Effect of Personal Economic Values on Economic Policy Preferences

Objectives Citizens often express that the government should be run like a business or household in the way that money is saved and spent, though individuals vary in their personal financial preferences and attitudes toward money. To explore the relationship between the personal and political, we draw upon research in psychology, economics, and consumer science on personal economic values, such as materialism and the importance of saving money. Methods Using a survey of 340 adults, we test connections between political ideology, the Big Five personality traits, and money conservation and material values. Results Our data suggest that values regarding personal money conservation are unrelated to economic policy attitudes like welfare spending and wealth redistribution, but the value individuals place on material items is predictive of these political preferences. Conclusion By showing the political significance of personal (and nonpolitical) materialism values, we contribute to a rapidly growing literature showing that political attitudes and behaviors are best understood in the context of the larger social world

Black Trust in US Legislatures

Trust is a key part of any political system. Given the very different experiences of Black people and White people in the United States, it is likely that the nature and contours of political trust varies widely from one racial group to the other. In this article, we take advantage of a specially commissioned 2018 survey to compare Black and White trust in American legislative institutions (Congress and the state legislatures). Thanks to an oversample, we also are able to zero in on variations across Black respondents, making it possible to identify the variables that push legislative trust up or down within that demographic. Our findings indicate that, relative to Whites, Black individuals are significantly more trusting of Congress and that Black people who go to church tend to be more trusting of legislative institutions while those who have experienced racism in their lives are less trusting