180 Are Sleep Education Programs Equitable? A Meta-Analysis on Sleep Knowledge and Behaviors Across Gender and Racial/Ethnic Groups

Introduction Female and under-represented minority students (URMs) disproportionately experience sleep disturbances. Such sleep disparities may contribute to health disparities and academic achievement gaps. A potential solution is to improve sleep quality via education-based sleep interventions, but it remains unclear whether such interventions produce equitable sleep outcomes across gender and racial/ethnic groups. Methods We conducted a meta-analysis on sleep education interventions in high school and college students. We requested that authors provide demographic-separated data on how the intervention changed sleep knowledge, sleep quality, and sleep duration. Data were shared from 12 of the studies that met inclusion criteria (N=964; 64.8% female; 27.6% URM). We used random-effects models and computed Hedges’ g for each demographic group for each variable/study separately. We also systematically reviewed the content of each intervention to evaluate diversity, inclusion, and cultural sensitivity metrics. Results Sleep education significantly improved sleep knowledge (g=.82, p<.001) and sleep quality (g=.14, p=.01), but not sleep duration (g=.12, p=.28). Pre-to-post change scores indicated that the sleep education intervention was similarly effective for sleep knowledge across males (g=.80, p=.01) and females (g=.76, p=.002); sleep knowledge also similarly improved in White/Caucasian students (g=.94, p=.002), Asian students (g=.85, p=.08), and URM students (g=1.24, p=.01). Furthermore, sleep quality improved in Asian students (g=.28, p=.03), White/Caucasian students (g=.12, p=.09), and female students (g=.22, p=.008; but not males; g=.11, p=.22). Whereas URM students showed the largest improvement in sleep knowledge (g=1.24), they showed the least improvement in sleep quality (g=.07, p=.58). Systematic review of intervention content showed that 75% of interventions were individually-focused (e.g., interviews, participants selected their own goals), but only one sleep intervention was explicitly designed to be culturally sensitive and no interventions addressed financial, social, or neighborhood-level barriers to poor sleep. Conclusion Sleep education programs increase sleep knowledge in all student groups, but may not equitably improve sleep quality. Future sleep interventions will need to utilize theories of behavioral change, incorporate cultural tailoring, and address system-level financial, social, and other barriers to sleep quality in URM students. Support (if any) National Science Foundation (1920730 and 1943323)

“Dear White People Vol. 2”: Social networking as an enforcing tool for racial inequality

Recently, social networking sites have been used as a means of spreading an alarming narrative under the premise of freedom of speech, through enraging, provocative and harmful messages. Some of them, posted by powerful and influential people, have empowered a group of individuals who have spoken up and expressed their approval of said messages through increasingly harsher language, as well as violent actions. Some of them were racist in tone, and increasingly widespread on several social media platforms, such as Twitter, where the issue of racial inequality fuels increasing division and hatred. Dear White People is a Netflix series, based on a 2014 film of the same title, depicting Winchester University, an ethnically diverse college in the United States of America, where a conflict along racial lines erupts. At the same University, Samantha White, a junior Media Studies major, begins hosting a radio show called “Dear White People”, addressed to Caucasian students in order to make them aware of what Blackness means in a judgmental, predominantly white society. The aim of this article is to present how influential social networking is in society by using the example of Dear White People Vol. 2, as well as to illustrate how the issue of racism increases in magnitude through a narrative that spreads and encourages individuals to take verbal and physical actions against the black minority.

Missing Faces

In this chapter, the researcher discusses a study from the United States in which the subjective nature of criteria used for advanced course selection by middle school administrators and core content teachers is evaluated. The use of arbitrary factors by educators in decisions related to moving students into advanced courses disproportionately excludes African American students and other marginalized student groups from upper level course-taking opportunities when compared to Caucasian students. The unequal access for African American students to enter advanced courses limits the operational citizenship of these students and increases opportunity gaps, attainment gaps, and achievement gaps within public education systems. In order to narrow the distance between Caucasian students' opportunities and achievement and those of African American students, middle school educators must commit to eliminating the use of subjective criteria in all course placement decisions.

Exploring factors influencing the retention rates of Indigenous students in post-secondary education

In comparison to Caucasian students, Indigenous students are outnumbered when it comes to enrollment in post-secondary education programs. Designated seats for Indigenous students often sit empty. With an aim to succeed academically, Indigenous students have had to develop a strong sense of resiliency and identity to overcome barriers to attend institutions of higher learning. Questions still remain as to why the seats are not being filled or what is preventing Indigenous students from enrolling in post-secondary education resonate among faculty and administrative leaders. Tinto’s model of persistence confirmed the importance of integrating social involvement in academia. Students need support to achieve academic success and personal satisfaction. Motivational factors consisting of specific family member encouragement and exploring a better way of life was seen as the main reason to enroll in post-secondary education. Limitations of support at the peer and institutional levels were seen as challenging for Indigenous students and often times had an impact on academic completion. Questions as to why the seats are not being filled or what is preventing Indigenous students from enrolling in higher education programs led to the purpose of this study.

Equivalence Testing of a Youth Risk and Needs Assessment

Truancy can have a detrimental impact on student outcomes. Risk assessments are used to identify behavioral and emotional problems associated with school truancy. Although imperative for informing decisions about student’s welfare, risk assessments generally lack substantial validity evidence. Specifically, supporting score interpretation across cultural groups through measurement invariance (MI) is needed for such assessments. This study examined MI, specifically factor invariance (FI), of the Washington Assessment of the Risks and Needs of Students (WARNS) across African American, Latinx, and Caucasian students using confirmatory factor analysis with traditional FI criteria and the equivalence testing (ET) procedure. Results from traditional criteria suggested that the factor structure is similar across groups. The ET procedure demonstrated minor model misspecifications.

A Multi-factorial Analysis of Elementary Students’ Interest in Physical Education Considering Students’ Ethnicity and Gender

Background: Student’s harboring positive interest in physical education is of great concerning in academia. More importantly, the rational as to why one would maintain a positive interest in physical education is of concern. These topics have been widely researched. However, the comparison of gender and ethnicity as it relates to students’ interest in physical education is a novel investigation. Objective: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationship between elementary student’s interest in physical education considering gender, ethnicity, curricular and teacher influences, and student’s perceived competency. Method: Participants included 99 fifth-grade elementary school students (62 males, 37 females). Participant selection was conducted by utilizing 6 intact physical education classes from a single culturally diverse elementary school. The Physical Education Interest Questionnaire was the instrument used for this study as well as open-ended questions for the purpose of qualitative analysis (Van Wersch, Trew, & Turner, 1992). Results: Findings, indicated that students, regardless of ethnicity and gender, maintained positive interest in physical education. However, male students maintained greater interest in physical education than female students, irrespective of ethnicity. Caucasian students maintained significantly higher interest than other ethnicities. Perceived competence had the most effect on students’ overall interest. Answers to open-ended questions supported these results. Conclusion: Although this study identified that a positive interest in physical education regardless of the subjects’ gender and ethnicity existed, it is imperative that future instructors consider teaching non-mainstream individual fitness activities to students. This would lead to increased individual perceived competency and continued positive interest in physical education.

Examination of Racial Bias in Alpha Omega Alpha Inductions: A Single-Center 15-Year Retrospective Study

ABSTRACTImportanceWith USMLE Step 1 becoming pass/fail, subjective clinical evaluations will hold greater weight in residency applications. However, no longitudinal studies exist that examine the role of race in clinical success during medical training.ObjectiveUtilizing Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) as an objective marker of clinical achievement, I investigated the relationship between race and AOA membership at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine over a span of 15 years.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsTo accomplish this retrospective, single center, multi-year cohort study, names of all Feinberg graduates between 2003 and 2018 were collected via the school’s public website. Images for each student were gathered by social media, assigned an ethnic identity by a blind evaluator, and confirmed by an unblinded evaluator. Finally, each name was verified against the AOA database to determine membership status.Main Outcomes and MeasuresAOA membership among medical students of various racial groups at Feinberg.ResultsFrom a 2,466 student body, there were 546 (22.1%) Eastern/Southeastern Asian, 123 (5.0%) African-American, 102 (4.1%) Hispanic/Latino, 399 (16.2%) South Asian, 59 (2.4%) Other, and 1205 (48.9%) Caucasian students, with 32 (1.3%) exclusions. Within this collective group, 428 students were inducted to AOA: 62 (14.5%) Eastern/Southeastern Asian, 4 (0.9%) African-American, 10 (2.3%) Hispanic/Latino, 70 (16.4%) South Asian, 10 (2.3%) Other, and 270 (63.1%) Caucasian students, with 2 (0.5%) exclusions. By class/year, the percentage of Caucasians inducted into AOA were higher than the class percent in 15 out of 16 classes, compared to 1 by Eastern/Southeastern Asians and 7 by South Asians. Odds ratio analysis demonstrated Eastern/Southeastern Asian (OR, 0.44; 99.67% CI, 0.28 – 0.69) and African-American (OR, 0.12; 99.67% CI, 0.03 – 0.53) students were at disadvantage relative to Caucasians for AOA membership.ConclusionI revealed Eastern/Southeastern Asian and African-American students were statistically less likely to be selected for AOA compared to Caucasian counterparts. Additionally, Eastern/Southeastern Asian students were under-represented almost every year despite being the most represented minority demographic. These results demonstrate subjective bias in AOA membership for both under- and over-represented minorities and suggests the recent Step I paradigm shift may disproportionately affect certain students over others.KEY POINTSQuestionWhich minority groups are disadvantaged compared to Caucasian counterparts for AOA membership?FindingsIn this longitudinal, retrospective cohort study spanning fifteen years at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, I found Caucasian students were 2 and 8 times more likely to obtain AOA membership than Eastern/Southeastern Asian and African-American medical students respectively.MeaningCertain bias underlying AOA admission may exist and are possibly stable over time, which is concerning given the recent Step 1 policy changes and thus eventual shift away from objective evaluations in residency applications.

ORAL FOLK ART IN THE SYSTEM OF AESTETIC EDUCATION OF SCHOOLCHILDREN IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS

Today, the spiritual and emotional development of North Caucasian students is closely linked with the system of aesthetic education. We consider it as the formation of a specific aesthetic and artistic pattern of an individual to the realities of objective reality. The regional component of aesthetic education is included in the system of complex formation of the ethno-cultural personality of the North Caucasus, which have close ties with their language, traditions, culture, and history. It is aimed at developing individual guidelines in the continuum of aesthetic and moral values in a clear equivalence with the established ethno-cultural ideas about oneself in the world civilization, which creates parity of regional and universal values in the Caucasian society. In parallel, aesthetic and artistic education penetrates into the archetypal depths of the personality of the North Caucasian junior school student, involving him in his studies as a continuous game with himself and the world, taking into account the nature of selectivity, individual personality qualities, including emotional intelligence. Oral folk art focuses on the priority of targeted impact of North Caucasian aesthetics on the formation of background knowledge in the personality structure of each Caucasian student. Folklore is a storehouse of background knowledge, since it contains aesthetic and moral constants of ethnic autostereotypes, demonstrating aesthetic and artistic priorities in the ethno-cultural picture of the world, indicating the rarity of the Caucasian locus in language, subject matter, time, and geography. Coloristics the language of North Caucasian folklore methodically cultivates respect for the ethno-cultural practices of its people among Caucasian schoolchildren, forming a whole mentally preserved personality of a person of the North Caucasus who is resistant to the aggression of the surrounding world.

Designing Transitional Programs to Meet the Needs of Multi-Ethnic First-Year Students

Colleges and universities often rely on transitional programs to convey a sense of institutional expectations to new students. These programs, however, are often defined and created from a perspective of history and tradition, and do not necessarily reflect the increasingly diverse college student population. Using the "CAS Standards for New Student Orientation," a student orientation program was reviewed with special attention to multi-ethnic student perceptions of the goals outlined in the standards. Using two years of data collection, the findings suggest that multi-ethnic students are more satisfied with the orientation program than are Caucasian students as measured by the CAS Standards.