Predicting Pay Grade in the U.S. Military by Gender and Ethnic Minority Status1

This study examined predictors of pay grade for ethnic minorities and women in the U.S. military using hierarchical regression analyses. In the analysis including all personnel, being a woman and ethnic minority status were negative predictors of pay grade after controlling for education and years of service. In the analysis using enlisted personnel, the interaction between years of service and minority status showed that more years of service was associated with higher pay grade among ethnic majority enlisted personnel after controlling for education and years of service. In the model using officers, being a woman was a negative predictor of pay grade after controlling for education and years of service. Future studies, implications, limitations, and strengths are discussed.     

Plasma interleukin-6 and soluble IL-6 receptors are associated with psychological well-being in aging women.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested the hypothesis that psychological well-being would predict lower plasma levels of inflammatory factors in aging women. DESIGN: One hundred thirty-five women ages 61-91 years (M = 74.5 years) participated in this study. After completing self-administered questionnaires in their homes, participants stayed overnight at the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Blood samples for cytokine analyses were obtained in participants' homes after the GCRC visit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Psychological well-being and ill-being, history of health problems, and health behaviors were assessed via self-administered questionnaires. Detailed medical history and concurrent health measures were obtained during the GCRC stay. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to determine interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) concentrations in plasma. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Regression analyses showed that plasma IL-6 levels were lower in women scoring higher on positive relationships, whereas sIL-6R levels were lower in women scoring higher on purpose in life, even after a variety of sociodemographic and health factors were controlled. These outcomes, combined with the absence of significant links with other measures of well-being and ill-being, suggest selective patterns of association between later life inflammatory processes and psychological factors, particularly those focused on positive ties with others and purposeful engagement.     

Subjective social status, objective socioeconomic status, and cardiovascular risk in women.

OBJECTIVE: Subjective perceptions of personal social status may relate to health beyond the effects of objective socioeconomic status (SES). The authors examined the relationship between subjective social status (SSS) and psychosocial, behavioral, and physical cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged women. DESIGN: Ninety-two women (90.2% White) completed ladder-based, pictorial self-report measures of SSS relative to others in their community and in the United States. Psychosocial measures of depression, anxiety, pessimism, stress, and social support and behavioral risk factors of fruit and vegetable consumption, leisure physical activity, and body-mass index were obtained. In addition, women underwent measurement of clinic blood pressure and assessment of daytime ambulatory systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP; DBP) over 2 consecutive days. RESULTS: Community SSS was significantly inversely related to anxiety, pessimism, stress, and daytime ambulatory DBP after controlling for objective SES and U.S. SSS. Women with lower U.S. SSS showed less healthy dietary and exercise behaviors and, contrary to predictions, lower clinic and ambulatory DBP. CONCLUSION: This study provides additional evidence that perceptions of one's position in the social hierarchy could have important health implications beyond the impact of objective SES. Further, the cardiovascular risk implications of perceived community versus U.S. social status appear to be distinct.     

Rape Myth Acceptance Among First- and Second-Generation South Asian American Women

Differences between European American women and first- and second-generation South Asian American women in their acceptance of rape myths were investigated. The Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale, and a demographic questionnaire were administered to 75 participants. A one-way analysis of variance and planned comparisons analyses showed that first-generation South Asian American women had higher rape myth acceptance than second-generation South Asian American women and European American women. Second-generation South Asian American women and European American women had similar rates of acceptance of rape myths.     

Signal clarity: an account of the variability in infant quantity discrimination tasks

Infants have shown variable success in quantity comparison tasks, with infants of a given age sometimes successfully discriminating numerical differences at a 2:3 ratio but requiring 1:2 and even 1:4 ratios of change at other times. The current explanations for these variable results include the two‐systems proposal – a theoretical framework that suggests that there are multiple systems at play and that these systems do not communicate early in infancy, leading to failure in certain numerical comparisons. An alternative proposal is that infants may be attending to continuous extent dimensions in these tasks rather than number per se. However, neither of these two main proposals is independently capable of accounting for the previously published data. Recently the Signal Clarity Hypothesis was proposed to account for and predict the variability (Cantrell & Smith, 2013). According to this hypothesis, infants’ variable success may be understood from a framework of statistical learning taken together with the signal‐to‐noise ratio generated by control procedures in habituation tasks. Here we test specific predictions made by the Signal Clarity Hypothesis. Across four experiments assessing 9‐month old discriminations of small and large sets (2 vs. 4 and 3 vs. 4), we demonstrate that infant success can be predicted by this novel approach and, further, that infants may discriminate smaller ratios of change than previously believed (3:4 numerical change and 2:3 cumulative area change).     

Temporal Variation in Adolescent Suicide Attempts

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between adolescent suicide attempts and temporal cycles in a multiethnic population. Medical records at two hospitals in the state of Hawaii were reviewed for all adolescents (ages 12–18) admitted for suicide attempts during the years 1987–1991. Results showed 296 adolescents attempted suicide, and as hypothesized, temporal factors were associated with the attempts. A significant increase in attempts was found during the afternoon/evening and on Mondays and Tuesdays, transition points between home and school. The results are discussed and implications for delivery and temporal theory development considered.     

Defending or relinquishing belief in occurrence for remembered events that are challenged: A social-cognitive model

We describe a social-cognitive model explaining processing of cognitive dissonance resulting from being told by someone that a vividly remembered event did not actually occur. The model proposes that receiving challenges to one's recollection of events results in both intrapersonal and interpersonal cognitive dissonance. Rememberers process intrapersonal dissonance by weighing features of memory representations against the qualities of the feedback, and they process interpersonal elements by weighing the potential costs of agreeing or disagreeing with the challenger within the social dynamics of the relationship. To resolve the dissonance, people will either maintain or reduce belief in occurrence for the event, and will agree or disagree with the challenger. We explore factors that can influence dissonance and how they impact the rememberers' beliefs in occurrence of the event and their interaction with challengers in terms of defending or relinquishing their memory, and we discuss preliminary data confirming some of these factors.