Examining the Impact of Employment Status on Sleep Quality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Two Low-Income Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA

Study Objectives African Americans have faced disproportionate socioeconomic and health consequences associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study examines employment and its association with sleep quality during the initial months of the pandemic in a low-income, predominantly African American adult sample. Methods In the early months of COVID-19 (March to May 2020), we administered a survey to an ongoing, longitudinal cohort of older adults to assess the impact of COVID-related changes in employment on self-reported sleep quality (N=460; 93.9% African American). Participants had prior sleep quality assessed in 2018 and a subset also had sleep quality assessed in 2013 and 2016. Primary analyses focused on the prevalence of poor sleep quality and changes in sleep quality between 2018 and 2020, according to employment status. Financial strain and prior income were assessed as moderators of the association between employment status and sleep quality. We plotted trend lines showing sleep quality from 2013 to 2020 in a subset (n=339) with all four waves of sleep data available. Results All participants experienced increases in poor sleep quality between 2018 and 2020, with no statistical differences between the employment groups. However, we found some evidence of moderation by financial strain and income. The trend analysis demonstrated increases in poor sleep quality primarily between 2018 and 2020. Conclusions Sleep quality worsened during the pandemic among low-income African American adults. Policies to support the financially vulnerable and marginalized populations could benefit sleep quality.

Dyadic Data on U.S. Chinese Older Adults and Their Adult Children: Study Design and Sample Overview

This paper aims to describe study design of the unique dyadic older Chinese American-adult children dataset, and present sample characteristics of the dyads. A total of 807 older parents were matched with their adult children (characteristics of matched versus not matched participants will be compared). On average, adult children were 48 years old, had 12 years of education, lived with 3 persons in household, had 2 children, and lived in U.S. for 17 years. Approximately 65% of the adult children sample were female, 82% married, 93% preferred to speak Chinese dialects, and over 97% foreign-born immigrants. On the other hand, older parents were 74 years old, had 7 years of education, lived with 3 persons in household, had 3 children, and lived in U.S. for 17 years on average. About 60% of the older parent sample were female, 73% married, over 99% foreign-born immigrants who preferred to speak Chinese dialects.

Learning Through Academic Collaborations In/With the East: North American Adult Education Scholars’ Insights

Applying Culture and Appreciative Education lenses, this qualitative study, eliciting detailed descriptions, examines six North American adult and higher education scholars’ lived learning experiences and insights gained from their academic collaborations in and with the East. Our findings indicate that participants hold unique international collaboration experiences with commonalities. Most participants experienced language and cultural barriers in real-time, on-site collaborations that they would not have considered otherwise without these experiences. Many differences made them realize the fundamentals for intercultural collaborations. They consciously learned to reposition with appreciative mindsets and co-construct goals and solutions with counterparts. All participants indicated that transnational contexts enable profound reflective and authentic learning, renewed understandings of cross-cultural sensitivity, and different ways of thinking and doing. This study demonstrates that international collaborations promote adult learning with self-awareness for a new dimension of global learning and cultural competency in the internationalization of adult education.

Partisan media, untrustworthy news sites, and political misperceptions

This study investigates the potential role both untrustworthy and partisan websites play in misinforming audiences by testing whether actual exposure to these sites is associated with political misperceptions. Using a sample of American adult social media users, we match data from individuals’ Internet browser histories with a survey measuring the accuracy of political beliefs. We find that visits to partisan websites are at times related to misperceptions consistent with the political bias of the site. However, we do not find strong evidence that untrustworthy websites consistently relate to false beliefs. There is also little evidence that visits to less partisan, centrist news sites are associated with more accurate political beliefs about these issues, suggesting that exposure to politically neutral news is not necessarily the antidote to misinformation. Results suggest that focusing on partisan news sites—rather than untrustworthy sites—may be fruitful to understanding how media contribute to political misperceptions.

Still Asking ‘What Works’: A Punishment Question for the Ages or an Aging Punishment Question?

The expectation that punishment be effective at controlling crime is a longstanding convention in the U.S., and no doubt elsewhere. While the history of American punishment has not been shaped entirely by the question of efficacy, it has played a predominant role in justifying penal policy for over 200 years. The question has become even more salient in policy decision-making of late, as research has begun to certify and consolidate findings on what is effective at reducing recidivism. What is lacking in this ongoing conversation, however, is a critique of this penal policy question and the answers it generates in the form of recidivism rates. The current paper fills this void by interrogating the claims of the evaluation literature, namely that better proof of what is effective is available and that more research is still needed. The questions and findings of 19th, 20th, and 21st Century seekers of what is effective in the American adult penal system are recounted and analyzed using several data sources. They include government reports, professional association meeting minutes, legislative documents, scholarly reports, individual studies, research reviews, and statistical analysis of systematic reviews. Ultimately, an overarching narrative is provided that deepens and challenges our understanding of what is known about what is effective.