Active Shooter Protocols: Perceptions, Preparedness, and Anxiety

The national concern about active shootings has pushed schools to implement intense drills without considering unintended consequences. Studies have found that, although training had the potential to increase preparedness, it also increased anxiety. These findings apply to short-term effects, but there is a lack of empirical research on long-term effects of active shooter drills. The present study investigated whether active shooter training completed in high school impacts current levels of anxiety and preparedness of undergraduates. Collegiate participants (N = 364) completed an online survey and answered questions about their perceived knowledge of protocols, protocol actions, and training methods from high school followed by the same set of questions, this time referring to their current university. Participants then completed an anxiety measure (Spielberger, 1983) and a preparedness measure. Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to predict anxiety and preparedness. This study expanded findings on the effects of active shooter training by demonstrating long-term effects for high school training. Evacuation protocols (β = −.13, p = .03; β = .16, p = .007) and perceived knowledge (β = −.16, p = .004; β = .14, p = .01) positively impacted anxiety and preparedness, respectively, of university students. Experiences at the university level had an additional, larger impact on student anxiety, ΔR2 = .11, F(8, 347) = 5.88, p < .001, and preparedness, ΔR2> = .26, F(8, 347) = 17.32, p < .001, which seems to overshadow the effects from high school. This may be problematic because the perceived knowledge that leads to higher feelings of preparedness may not translate into appropriate actions in a real-life situation, potentially risking lives.

Anti-Immigration Media Portrayals and Latinx Well-Being

The current study examined the immediate impact of exposure to anti-immigration sentiments on the psychological well-being of Latinx young adults. A quasiexperimental, mixed-factorial design was used to analyze differences in mood, stress, ethnic identification, and motivation to take action after exposure to a video stressor across four groups: immigrants from Latin America, first-generation Latinx Americans, second-generation and up Latinx Americans, and non-Latinx, nonimmigrant, White Americans. Three hundred forty participants, ages 18–30, were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition involving an anti-immigration video or a control condition involving a multivitamin video. As hypothesized, those who viewed the anti-immigration video exhibited significantly higher levels of negative affect (p < .001; ηp2 =.06), stress (p < .001; ηp2 =.04), and motivation to take action (p < .001; ηp2 =.07) than those who viewed the multivitamin video. Additionally, Ethnicity/Generation American was associated with higher negative affect (p < .001, ηp2 =.06), stress (p = .01, ηp2 =.04), and motivation to take action (p < .001, ηp2 =.10) after video viewings, such that immigrants from Latin American countries and first-generation Latinx Americans tended to have greater levels than the other groups (pairwise comparison ps < .05). Contrary to our hypothesis, results indicated that firstgeneration Latinx Americans (p = .01) and non-Latinx, nonimmigrant participants (p < .001) experienced a significant decrease in ethnic identification after viewing the anti-immigration video. Our results indicate that, across the differing Ethnicities/Generations American, participants are impacted by anti-immigration sentiments in the media.

Social Media Use in Emerging Adults: Investigating the Relationship With Social Media Addiction and Social Behavior

In the 21st century, use of online communication has skyrocketed, and this is particularly true for young people who have grown up in the age of the smartphone. In the world of online communication, adolescents and young adults especially seem to gravitate toward social media. The present study examined a mediational model wherein social media use in emerging adults predicts social media addiction through altered social behaviors, including face-to-face interactions, communication apprehension, and social skill deficits. More than 100 undergraduate students reported on their social media use and social behaviors via an online questionnaire. Contrary to expectations, social media use was only significantly correlated with social skills deficits, r(108) = .204, p = .017, and social media addiction, r(108) = .495, p < .001. Face-to-face interactions, communication apprehension, and social skills deficits did not function as mediators of the relationship between social media use and addiction and had no significant correlations with social media addiction. A modified mediation model is proposed, wherein impoverished face-to-face behavior and communication apprehension predict social skills deficits and those deficits predict social media addiction only when social media use is high.

The Effects of Divided Attention on Memory for Road Signs

We examined incidental learning of road signs under divided attention in a simulated naturalistic environment. We tested whether word-based versus symbol-based road signs were differentially maintained in working memory by dividing attention during encoding and measuring the effect on long-term memory. Participants in a lab watched a video from the point of view of a car driving the streets of a small town. Participants were instructed to indicate whether passing road signs in the video were on the left or right side of the street while either singing the Star-Spangled Banner (phonological divided attention) or describing familiar locations (visuospatial divided attention). For purposes of analysis, road signs were categorized as word signs if they contained words (e.g., a STOP sign) or as symbol signs if they contained illustrations or symbols (e.g., a pedestrian crosswalk sign). A surprise free recall test of the road signs indicated greater recall for word signs than symbol signs, and greater recall of signs for the phonological divided attention group than the visuospatial divided attention group. Critically, the proportion of correct recall of symbol signs was significantly lower for the visuospatial divided attention group than the phonological divided attention group, p = .02, d = 0.63, but recall for word signs was not significantly different between phonological and visuospatial groups, p = .09, d = 0.44. Results supported the hypothesis that visuospatial information—but not phonological information—is stored in working memory in a simulated naturalistic environment that involved incidental learning.

The Association Between Racial Microaggressions and Depressive Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

The present study investigated whether racial microaggressions, specifically assumptions of inferiority, assumptions of criminality/second class citizenship, and microinvalidations had a relationship with depressive symptoms, and whether this relationship varied by age group (adults vs. adolescents) and race (Black and Latinx). This cross-sectional study compared 194 undergraduate college students who were all over the age of 18 to 168 high school juniors and seniors. All participants identified as either African American/Black or Latinx/Hispanic. The results indicated that respondents identifying as Black/African American, regardless of age, experience higher levels of assumptions of criminality/second class citizenship compared to Latinx respondents, F(2, 350) = 0.82, p = .442, ηp2 = .004. Results also indicated that, among Black/African American college students, but not high school students nor Latinx participants, higher levels of assumptions of inferiority were associated with depressive symptoms (b = .34, SE = 0.07, p < .001). Assumptions of criminality/second class citizenship, on the other hand, were not related with depressive symptoms (b = .06, SE = 0.08, p = .433). Lastly, regardless of race, high school students experienced more microinvalidations than college students, F(2, 350) = 3.97, p = .047, ηp2 =.013. These results underscore developmental changes in how students of color experience race and racism as they transition from adolescence into adulthood.

The Gender Achievement Gap: Do Teacher–Student Relationships Matter?

Low academic performance in middle childhood/early adolescence has long-term negative implications. The link between early performance and later outcomes is of special concern for boys, who tend to evidence lower levels of achievement than girls by early adolescence. Scholars have demonstrated that variations by gender in quality of teacher–student relationships may partly explain this achievement gap. That is, girls tend to have higher quality teacher–student relationships (i.e., higher levels of closeness and lower levels of conflict) than boys. Centering low-income early adolescents of color, the present analyses found that girls outperformed boys in both English Language Arts (ELA; p < .001) and math (p = .009). Teacher–student closeness fully and significantly mediated the association between gender and ELA (p = .05) and partially mediated the association between gender and math achievement (effects were nonsignificant). Teacher–student conflict partially mediated associations between gender and ELA and math achievement, although effects similarly did not reach significance. Results have the capacity to inform future interventions aiming to increase the utility of education and decrease school dropout among low-income boys of color.

Anything He Can Do, She Can Do Better: Children’s Attitudes About Gender and Occupations

Children’s career aspirations are affected by cultural stereotypes about gender. We investigated rudimentary implicit associations and explicit gender attitudes about occupations with a diverse sample of fifty-eight (29 girls, 29 boys) 10-year-old children. We tested implicit gender associations using an adapted auditory Stroop task and tested explicit gender attitudes using the Gender-Stereotyped Attitude Scale for Children (GASC). We also modified a version of the GASC to assess children’s attitudes about a female and a male firefighter-paramedic seen in a brief video. Children also judged the firefighter-paramedics’ job skills. Children did not display implicit associations between occupations and one’s gender based on differences in the response times between the congruent and incongruent test trials that paired male and female voices with occupations, t(1762) = 0.65, p = .52, d = 0.03. Auditory voice stimuli might have confounded the tested associations between gender and occupations. The GASC findings highlighted gender stereotype flexibility about men and women. Girls were more flexible than boys on the job component of the GASC, t(56) = −2.12, p = .039, d = 0.55. The level of children’s gender stereotype flexibility varied by occupation. Children exhibited the most flexibility for who should be a doctor and the least flexibility for who should be a ballet dancer/teacher. Lastly, we assessed attitudes toward the specific woman featured in the video; children overwhelmingly saw her as a potentially good fire chief (vs. the man featured in the video; 91% selected Kate or both for who would be a better fire chief).

Investigating the Relationship Between Disability Status and Grit

An established definition of the concept grit is a combination of resilience and stamina for long-term challenges. Although literature on grit has been vast in terms of linking this concept to success for nondisabled individuals, limited research exists for individuals with disabilities. The present study investigated the relationship between grit and disability status within the college population. We surveyed individuals with and without a registered disability at a university, using the Grit Scale to measure responses and later subdividing it into Consistency of Interest and Perseverance of Effort scales. We found a significant main effect, defining significant differences with p values < .05, between disability status with total Grit score. Another significant interaction was found when evaluating the relationship of disability and underrepresentation (e.g., Black Indigenous People of Color) on Grit and Consistency of Interest subscores. No significant differences were found within the Perseverance subcategory of Grit. These results indicate that individuals within the underrepresented category, or people of color, as well as students registered with a disability scored significantly lower than their White and nondisabled counterparts. Further investigation is needed for confirmation of results. Suggested future investigations include the relationships of grit with varying disability categories as well as with individuals making up the underrepresented ethnic group.

Police Perceptions of Children at Drug-Related Crime Scenes

Drug use is on the rise in the United States, and many individuals who use drugs are also parents of children under 18. Although research has been conducted to explore police officer perceptions of drug use, no research to date has examined officers’ perceptions when children are present at drug-related calls. This is an important area to investigate because police perceptions have the ability to influence the way they behave. In the current study, 12 officers employed in Indiana completed a demographic questionnaire and a semistructured interview, which was analyzed using the consensual qualitative research (CQR) method. Results revealed that police perceptions of children present at drug-related crime scenes could be impacted by the age of the children and whether they believe the children had received negative messages about police. Additionally, findings revealed that officers tend to feel anger toward caregivers, believe that the children are being told that police are bad, indicated that their jobs are impacted by needing to find placement for the children, and want to have positive interactions with the children. On a personal level, officers reported coping with stress by not showing emotions, not bringing work home, and participating in hobbies. Officers also reported seeing addiction as a cycle. Limitations include lack of diversity of gender, race, and location of police officers; further, all but one officer interviewed had children. Findings highlight a need for further research to help shape policy surrounding training of and expectations for officers when children are present at drug-related crime scenes.