109 research outputs found
Health inequalities among university students: the association between social capital, sense of belonging and psychological health
No full textBackground
A mental health crisis has hit university campuses across the world. According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization approximately one-third of first-year students suffer for a common DSM–IV mood (e.g., major depressive disorder), anxiety, or substance disorder. The study also showed significant country variations, with the highest rates of mental health problems found among students from Australia. Furthermore, in recent years, there has been growing concern about the poor mental health of young people of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning/queer (LGBQ) sexual orientation. Apart from individual characteristics (e.g., genetic predisposition for depression), studies have documented the role of social determinants (e.g., socioeconomic status) on the etiology and evolution of mental disorders. A number of studies suggest that social capital, often referred to as features of social structures including interpersonal trust and mutual support, is an important determinant of health. Although there is evidence of an association between social capital and many indicators of health most research to date has been conducted among adult and adolescent samples and has primarily focused on one geographical area. Evidence on the effect of social capital on young adults’ and students’ health, specifically, remains limited. However, to tackle the ongoing student mental health crisis it is important to look beyond the common social determinants of health.
The here presented thesis comprises three parts:
• Part I: The SPLASH study
• Part II: The HMS study
• Part III: Overall conclusion
Key aims
Part I: To facilitate a cross-national comparison of the prevalence of mental health problems and to investigate whether social capital is associated with such problems in university students in 12 countries.
Part II: To explore differences in mental health problems between LGBQ and heterosexual students, with a specific focus on the moderating effects of sexual assault and sense of belonging. The specific objective of the secondary data analysis is to test for a potential three-way interaction effect (i.e., moderated moderation) between sexual assault, sense of belonging, and sexual orientation. Specifically, the study aims to examine a) whether there is a difference in mental health between LGBQ and heterosexual students, b) whether exposure to sexual assault may affect students’ psychological states, such as depressive symptoms and suicidality, c) whether a high sense of belonging can buffer the effects of sexual assault exposure on psychological states, and d) whether this differs according to sexual orientation.
Data used
Several methodological approaches were applied due to the diverse range of aspects studied.
Part I: To assess whether there is an association between social capital and students’ health, the Social Capital and Students’ Health study (SPLASH) was developed. This is a two-wave panel study conducted among students from different faculties during their first year at university in Europe, Asia, the Western Pacific, and Latin and North America.
Data was obtained through a self-administered questionnaire, including questions on sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, health behaviors and social capital.
Part II: Because not enough data for LGBQ students was available (sample size = 7 students), a secondary data analysis was performed using variables from the 2017-2018 Healthy Minds Study (HMS) dataset. HMS is an annual cross-sectional web-based survey that examines mental health, service utilization, and related factors among undergraduate and graduate students in the United States.
Statistical analyses
Part I: Multilevel logistic regression modelling was used to analyze hierarchical data with individuals (1st level) nested in universities/countries (2nd level). The analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, covariates (e.g., perceived stress), and country-level characteristics (e.g., country income).
Part II: To test for a possible three-way interaction effect, Hayes PROCESS macro models were used in SPSS.
Results
Part I: A total of 4,228 students participated in the SPLASH study. Forty-eight percent presented clinically relevant depressive symptoms. The likelihood of having clinically depressive symptoms was greater among those with low individual levels of cognitive social capital (OR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.44 – 2.29) and those living in regions with low levels of social capital and political instability (OR: 3.22, 95% CI: 1.21 – 8.58).
Part II: In the HMS, 60,200 students from 60 campuses in the United States participated. Around 20% (circa 12,000 students) identified as LGBQ. A significantly higher proportion of LGBQ students reported depression, suicidal ideation, and sexual assault compared to heterosexual students. A significant three-way interaction effect was found for sexual orientation, sexual assault, and sense of belonging, predicting depressive symptoms (b= -0.06, p=0.042) and suicidality (b= -0.10, p=0.004). The effect of sexual assault on mental health differed depending on sexual orientation and sense of belonging. In particular, among LGBQ students, a high sense of belonging was protective in the presence of sexual assault, while its absence had a deleterious effect on mental health.
Discussion:
Part I and Part II: Both the SPLASH study and the HMS study offered a new data on possible risk and protective factors for depressive symptomology among university students. However, both studies followed a cross-sectional design, and therefore, inferences about causality and the directionality of the variables cannot be made. It is possible that social capital and sense of belonging influence students’ mental health or vice versa.
Conclusions
Part I: The SPLASH study shows that social capital has a positive effect on the self-rated and psychological health of university students. To understand the decrease in students’ psychological health, one must also consider social aspects of their environment, such as social capital. Strengthening social capital should be considered an important health promotion strategy. Tackling mental health issues among university students requires joint action from universities, mental health professionals, policymakers, and political leaders.
Part II: The secondary data analysis of the HMS study illuminates an important step in understanding mental health disparities in LGBQ students. The findings highlight the need to reduce mental health problems and sexual assault on college campuses, and to foster a sense of belonging to the college. Further longitudinal studies may continue to examine stressors and protective factors that account for mental health disparities among LGBQ and heterosexual students.
A modified version of the second part of this thesis has been published in the Journal of American College health (Backhaus et al. 2019)
Tobacco smoking and multiple sclerosis: a systematic review of systematic and narrative reviews of observational studies
No full textAim The aim of this review was to systematically review systematic
and narrative reviews of observational studies published
on the relation between tobacco smoking and multiple
sclerosis (MS).
Subjects and methods A systematic search of the literature in
PubMed and Scopus was conducted in June 2016. Two authors
independently reviewed the search results and extracted
key points. Review studies (i.e., review, systematic, narrative,
or meta-analysis) that reported on smoking and MS were selected.
The methodological quality of included systematic reviews
and meta-analyses was assessed using the AMSTAR
checklist. The methodological quality of narrative reviews
was evaluated using a seven-item measure developed by the
authors.
Results Seventeen reviews met the inclusion criteria and were
categorized as either systematic reviews or narrative reviews.
Smoking was associated with increased risk of MS for evercompared
with never-smokers and current compared with
non-smokers. The summary odds ratio of MS for eversmokers
versus never-smokers varied between 1.40 (95%
CI: 1.29–1.52) and 1.46 (95% CI: 1.33–1.59).
Conclusion This review of reviews identifies smoking as a
risk factor for MS susceptibility. However, more research is
needed to conclusively establish the mechanisms driving this
association
A systematic review of economic evaluation studies of drug-based non-malignant chronic pain treatment
No full textChronic pain is a highly prevalent problem, involving high costs and seriously affecting a patient's quality of life. This review aimed to systematically review economic evaluations of pharmacological-based treatments for non-malignant chronic pain and to compare different treatment approaches with regard to their economic profile
Right-wing populism and self-rated health in Europe. A multilevel analysis
No full textBackground: Individuals who identify as politically
conservative have been previously shown to report
better self-rated health compared with liberals. We
tested whether this association still holds for right-wing
populists, which are gaining strength as a political force
in Europe in recent decades.
Methods: We analysed data from 24 617 respondents
nested within 18 European countries included in the
2016 European Social Survey. Multilevel analyses were
conducted to assess the association between political
ideology and self-rated health, adjusting for other
individual covariates (happiness and social capital).
Results: Individuals who voted for right-wing populist
parties were 43% more likely to report fair/poor health
compared with traditional conservatives (OR=1.43,
95% CI 1.23 to 1.67). The association was attenuated
(OR=1.21, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.42) after controlling for
additional individual-level variables, including happiness
and access to social capital. Higher levels of social capital
(informal networks, OR=0.40, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.56;
trust, OR=0.82, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.92) and happiness
(OR=0.18, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.22) were protectively
correlated with fair/poor self-rated health.
Conclusions: Individuals voting for right-wing populist
parties report worse health compared with conservatives.
It remains unclear whether ideology is just a marker
for health-related practices, or whether the values and
beliefs associated with a particular brand of ideology
lead to worse health
sj-docx-1-aph-10.1177_10105395231172311 – Supplemental material for Mental Health, Loneliness, and Social Support Among Undergraduate Students: A Multinational Study in Asia
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-aph-10.1177_10105395231172311 for Mental Health, Loneliness, and Social Support Among Undergraduate Students: A Multinational Study in Asia by Insa Backhaus, Mustika Fitri, Mahdi Esfahani, Huyen Thi Ngo, Li-jung Lin, Akira Yamanaka, Majed M. Alhumaid, Ling Qin, Azizuddin Khan, Nur �Ashikin Fadzullah and Selina Khoo in Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health</p
Polyphony
No full textThis book looks at the rich and complex history of broadcasting and community broadcasting in the multicultural and multilingual milieu in India. It explores the world of community radio and how community radio broadcasters hear and speak to their audiences under the overarching theme of polyphony.
The book discusses the socio-historical contexts which allowed community radio to thrive in India. It highlights its potential to create alternative spaces of representation, and opportunity and its importance in preserving and disseminating local knowledge and traditions. The author weaves together ethnographic research and literature, as well as personal narratives and stories of those involved in the field. Further, the monograph critically examines the impact of development agendas on community projects and processes, discussing in detail the pervasiveness of the development discourse in every aspect of community radio and how it manifests on air. It also illustrates the limitations of community radio, within the context of its participation in the “spectacle of development”.
Accessible and deeply insightful, this book will be of interest to researchers and students of cultural studies, sociology, social anthropology, media and communication studies, and South Asian studies.Full Tex
Social capital and students' health: results of the splash study
No full textBackhaus I, Kawachi I, Ramirez A, et al. Social capital and students' health: results of the splash study. In: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. Vol 29. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press; 2019: 313
Sexual assault, sense of belonging, depression and suicidality among LGBQ and heterosexual college students
No full textObjective: To compare the effect of sexual orientation, history of sexual assault and sense of belonging on depression and suicidality among lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and questioning (LGBQ) and heterosexual students. Participants: A total of 60,194 students from 60 US campuses who participated in the 2017-2018 Healthy Minds Study. Methods: Three-way interaction effects were analyzed using PROCESS macro models in SPSS. Results: Significant three-way interaction effects were found for sexual orientation, sexual assault and sense of belonging predicting depressive symptoms (b = -0.06, p= 0.042, CI: -0.12 to -0.00), and suicidality (b = -0.10, p= 0.004, CI: -0.01 to -0.003). The effect of sexual assault on mental health differed depending on sexual orientation and sense of belonging. Particularly among LGBQ students, high sense of belonging was protective in the presence of sexual assault, and its absence had a deleterious effect on mental health. Conclusion: Enhancing sense of belonging may represent a strategy to mitigate depression and promote suicide prevention, particularly among LGBQ students
Book Review: Backhaus, Peter (2007): Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters; 158 Pages ISBN 9781853599460
No full textBackhaus examines urban multilingualism in the linguistic landscape of Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. In this monograph, the linguistic landscape is seen as a sub-discipline of sociolinguistics. The significance of this monograph to linguistic landscape research is that it represents the first comprehensive approach tackling multilingualism in the linguistic landscape and overcoming a range of methodological problems facing former studies. In this sense, Backhaus’s approach in data collection and analysis may help linguistic landscapers and researchers to undertake research in multilingualism in the linguistic landscape. The current work comprises acknowledgements, a foreword by Bernard Spolsky, six chapters, an appendix, references, and an index. While the first three chapters represent an introduction and theoretical background, the fourth chapter in turn paves the way for the application of an empirical study in Tokyo’s linguistic landscape, applied in chapter five.That chapter one discusses the examination of written language in the public space of metropolises is the bulk of Backhaus’s work. In this respect, the author (p.1) refers to previous studies such as Halliday (1972), who considers the city not only a place of talk, but also a place of writing and reading. At the same time, this work focuses on ‘urban language contact in the written medium: the languages of the signs’. Backhaus (p.1) holds:Every urban environment is a myriad of written messages on public display: office and shop signs, billboards, and neon advertisements, traffic signs, topographic information and area maps, emergency guidance and political poster campaigns, stone inscriptions, and enigmatic graffiti discourse.The author maintains that these messages contribute to the making of the linguistic landscape of any given place.In chapter two, Semiotic Background and Terminology, Backhaus gives an introduction to the main features of language use on signs, arguing that the examination of multilingualism on signs in the public space differs from other modes of communication in written and spoken contexts. In addition, the writer discusses different definitions and interpretations of the term linguistic landscape and senses and types of the term ‘sign’. After Itagi and Singh (2002), the author (p.10) draws a distinction between the noun ‘linguistic landscape’ and the gerund ‘linguistic landscaping’. While the former refers to ‘the planning and implementation of actions pertaining to language on signs’, the latter relates to ‘the result of these actions’. Throughout his monograph, Backhaus maintains a distinction between these two terms as cited above. As maintained by Backhaus (p.12), only the paper introduced by Landry and Bourhis (1997) established this field of study as a coherent discipline, even though several previous studies employed linguistic landscape research. This is mainly apparent in Backhaus’s expansion upon the definition of survey items suggested by Landry and Bourhis (1997). In chapter three, Previous Approaches to the Linguistic Landscape: An Overview, Backhaus gives a comprehensive overview of previous linguistic landscape studies conducted in different urban settings, including Brussels (Tulp, 1978), Montreal (Monnier, 1989), Paris and Dakar (Calvet, 1990,1994), and Lira, a town in Uganda (Reh, 2004). In light of these studies, the author notices that the language policy of the state does not indicate which code(s) prevail(s) in the public space, whose language(s) is /are mainly manifested in language practices on nonofficial signs.. The author also discusses the methodological issues followed in the above studies to arrive at a congruent methodological framework aiming at examining multilingualism from a sociolinguistic point of view.In the light of the methodology followed in the abovementioned studies, Chapter four outlines the main concerns that envelope the sociolinguistics of the linguistic landscape. Interestingly, the chapter aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice by introducing three research questions aiming at directing the current work. These research parameters include linguistic landscape by whom, for whom, and the general language situation. To accomplish this study, the writer applies both qualitative and quantitative procedures while gathering and analysing data. According to the writer, this chapter attempts to find a coding scheme suitable for carrying out a sociolinguistic study in the linguistic landscape and devoid of methodological problems.In chapter five, the author (p.64) introduces a frame for studying the linguistic landscape and applies a fine-grained coding scheme to a corpus of signs. According to Backhaus, a sound data collection procedure requires two conditions: the determination of the geographical limits of the survey area and the unit of analysis. Backhaus investigated the linguistic landscape of 29 survey areas of the Yamanote Line, a circular railway line connecting a number of major city centres in Tokyo. These stations represent a multi-layered picture of the city centre in the sense that they include very busy and less crowded districts. The boundaries of each survey area were specified as consisting of an area located between the traffic lights of two consecutive intersections , wherein the poles of traffic lights represent the end of any given survey area. The survey items were also thoroughly defined (p.66):A sign was considered to be any piece of written text within a spatially definable frame. The underlining definition is physical, not semantic. It is rather broad, including anything from the small handwritten sticker attached to a lamp-post to huge commercial billboards outside a department store. Items such as push and pull stickers at entrance doors, lettered foot mats, or botanic explanation plates on trees were considered signs, too.In analysing data collected, the first step is to categorise countable items into monolingual and multilingual signs. Backhaus has excluded monolingual Japanese signs from data collected because he wants to examine urban multilingualism in Tokyo. A sign will be considered multilingual if it contains two languages or more, say Japanese and English (p.67). Backhaus presents a congruent methodology to study the linguistic landscape by introducing research parameters and analytical categories. These research questions include ‘linguistic landscaping by whom?, linguistic landscaping for whom?, and linguistic landscape quo vadis?’. These guiding questions are analysed according to nine criteria: languages contained, combinations, top-down and bottom-up forces, geographic distribution, code preference, part writing, visibility, idiosyncrasies, and layering (p.65).In chapter six, the writer closes his book by summarising the findings of the Tokyo sample, which are guided by the questions cited above. It reveals that nonofficial agencies are almost the main responsible for the majority of multilingual signs in the linguistic landscape of Tokyo, whereas official forces participate in the construction of multilingualism on signs by less than 30 per cent. The presence of complete and partial translations and transliterations on signs is very useful for the readers from the foreign and Japanese populations. It was noticed that English is generally confined to slogans, titles, and business names, while Japanese relates to more specific information. The general linguistic situation reveals the impact of language interference from Japanese into English, which is apparent in the number of linguistic idiosyncrasies noticed in the linguistic landscape. In comparing the older and newer versions of signs, there is a noticeable preference toward the use of foreign languages at the expense of Japanese, which shows signs of multilingualism in Tokyo’s linguistic landscape. However, Japanese will be the predominant language at least in the near future. As pointed out throughout, Backhaus presents a congruent methodological approach, which has added new dimensions to the existing field of linguistic landscape. More specifically, Backhaus identifies three guiding research questions: Linguistic Landscape by whom? Linguistic landscape for whom? Linguistic landscape quo vadis?. At the same time, his definition of the unit of analysis as described above contributed greatly to linguistic landscape research. Although Backhaus relies on former studies, Backhaus has created analytical categories neglected by previous studies, especially linguistic idiosyncrasies, and uses his own terminology, particularly ‘part writing’ with its main types adopted from the field of musicology: homophonic, mixed, polyphonic, monophonic signs. The same notions with the exception of monophonic signs have been implemented by Reh (2004), but the terminological designations are different. I wonder why Backhaus uses the term ‘polyphonic signs’, which might be replaced by code mixing or switching in that it may be mainly subdivided into intra-sentential code-switches and inter-sentential code-switches. This work also counts on the observations made by Scollon and Scollon (2003), especially those on code prominence and layering. For example, code preference as an analytical category in Backhaus’ quantitative study relies on placement and size in case that there is a conflict, font size outweighs order. As far as my current project is concerned, the relevance of this work comes from the methodological considerations provided, which will help to expand upon Backhaus’ paradigm to apply in the linguistic landscape of urban Jordan. In other words, we will adapt and build upon this methodological framework to devise a coding scheme suitable for the linguistic landscape of Jordanian cities.
The relationship between environment and mental health
No full textMental health is defned by the World Health Organization as a state of well-being in which the person realizes his/her own abilities, can cope with the stressing situations of life, reaches effciency in work and is able to con tribute to the community he/she belongs to. In the past years, a deeper understanding about the causes for mental disorders was gained, but in general, they demonstrated to be related to complex interactions between bio logical and environmental factors. In fact, there is growing evidence that the quality of the environment that surrounds us, both natu ral and anthropological, impacts on physical and mental health.
The relationship between environmental conditions and mental well-being has long been acknowledged and has recently garnered
additional attention in the face of climate change. In this chapter, we will present the main potentially associations between the mental illnesses and heavy metals, the cli matic factors and indoor environment, and will give an overview on new psychological effect of ecological crises, such as eco-anxiety, ecological grief and solastalgia.
Finally, this chapter will give an overview on the methods to better face with the prevention and treatment of mental health related to environmental issues
- …
