Matching Items (71)
Description
Previous work suggests that lower-income individuals are more likely to engage in mutual aid as a means to manage risk, giving rise to a psychology that is other-oriented, including an empathetic disposition and a proclivity to help people in need. While no study has directly investigated whether helping in times of need increases dispositional empathic concern over time, this assumption is deep-seated among social psychologists. Employing a two-year longitudinal survey of US adults (N = 915), I show that people who experience more needs report helping others when in need a greater number of times, in turn leading to a small but positive increase in their empathetic disposition. This study also identifies the types of needs that elicit empathic concern (i.e., those that arise from unpredictable sources of risk), and shows why cultivating an empathetic disposition is likely to pay off in the long run: those who provide help are more likely to receive help during future times of need. Moreover, this study identifies the types of targets for whom providing help might cultivate an empathetic disposition: those with whom people are likely to share lower interdependence. While previous theoretical frameworks posit that empathic concern selectively directs investment towards interdependent others, providing help to non-interdependent targets might allow people to build positive interdependence with prospective risk pooling partners. Cultivating an empathetic disposition and building interdependence with prospective risk pooling partners can allow people to manage needs that arise from unpredictable sources of risk.
ContributorsGuevara Beltran, Diego (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Shiota, Michelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other Backward Classes.” This method obscures the diversity of experiences, indicators of well-being, and health outcomes between castes, tribes, and other communities in the “scheduled” category. This study analyzes data on 699,686 women from 4,260 castes, tribes and communities in the 2015-2016 Demographic and Health Survey of India to: (1) examine the diversity within and overlap between general, government-defined community categories in both wealth, infant mortality, and education, and (2) analyze how infant mortality is related to community category membership and socioeconomic status (measured using highest level of education and household wealth). While there are significant differences between general, government-defined community categories (e.g., scheduled caste, backward class) in both wealth and infant mortality, the vast majority of variation between communities occurs within these categories. Moreover, when other socioeconomic factors like wealth and education are taken into account, the difference between general, government-defined categories reduces or disappears. These findings suggest that focusing on measures of education and wealth at the household level, rather than general caste categories, may more accurately target those individuals and households most at risk for poor health outcomes. Further research is needed to explain the mechanisms by which discrimination affects health in these populations, and to identify sources of resilience, which may inform more effective policies.
ContributorsClauss, Colleen (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Background In the United States (US), first-year university students typically live on campus and purchase a meal plan. In general, meal plans allow the student a set number of meals per week or semester, or unlimited meals. Understanding how students’ use their meal plan, and barriers and facilitators to meal plan use, may help decrease nutrition-related issues.
Methods First-year students’ meal plan and residence information was provided by a large, public, southwestern university for the 2015-2016 academic year. A subset of students (n=619) self-reported their food security status. Logistic generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were used to determine if meal plan purchase and use were associated with food insecurity. Linear GEEs were used to examine several potential reasons for lower meal plan use. Logistic and Linear GEEs were used to determine similarities in meal plan purchase and use for a total of 599 roommate pairs (n=1186 students), and 557 floormates.
Results Students did not use all of the meals available to them; 7% of students did not use their meal plan for an entire month. After controlling for socioeconomic factors, compared to students on unlimited meal plans, students on the cheapest meal plan were more likely to report food insecurity (OR=2.2, 95% CI=1.2, 4.1). In Fall, 26% of students on unlimited meal plans reported food insecurity. Students on the 180 meals/semester meal plan who used fewer meals were more likely to report food insecurity (OR=0.9, 95% CI=0.8, 1.0); after gender stratification this was only evident for males. Students’ meal plan use was lower if the student worked a job (β=-1.3, 95% CI=-2.3, -0.3) and higher when their roommate used their meal plan frequently (β=0.09, 99% CI=0.04, 0.14). Roommates on the same meal plan (OR=1.56, 99% CI=1.28, 1.89) were more likely to use their meals together.
Discussion This study suggests that determining why students are not using their meal plan may be key to minimizing the prevalence of food insecurity on college campuses, and that strategic roommate assignments may result in students’ using their meal plan more frequently. Students’ meal plan information provides objective insights into students’ university transition.
Methods First-year students’ meal plan and residence information was provided by a large, public, southwestern university for the 2015-2016 academic year. A subset of students (n=619) self-reported their food security status. Logistic generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were used to determine if meal plan purchase and use were associated with food insecurity. Linear GEEs were used to examine several potential reasons for lower meal plan use. Logistic and Linear GEEs were used to determine similarities in meal plan purchase and use for a total of 599 roommate pairs (n=1186 students), and 557 floormates.
Results Students did not use all of the meals available to them; 7% of students did not use their meal plan for an entire month. After controlling for socioeconomic factors, compared to students on unlimited meal plans, students on the cheapest meal plan were more likely to report food insecurity (OR=2.2, 95% CI=1.2, 4.1). In Fall, 26% of students on unlimited meal plans reported food insecurity. Students on the 180 meals/semester meal plan who used fewer meals were more likely to report food insecurity (OR=0.9, 95% CI=0.8, 1.0); after gender stratification this was only evident for males. Students’ meal plan use was lower if the student worked a job (β=-1.3, 95% CI=-2.3, -0.3) and higher when their roommate used their meal plan frequently (β=0.09, 99% CI=0.04, 0.14). Roommates on the same meal plan (OR=1.56, 99% CI=1.28, 1.89) were more likely to use their meals together.
Discussion This study suggests that determining why students are not using their meal plan may be key to minimizing the prevalence of food insecurity on college campuses, and that strategic roommate assignments may result in students’ using their meal plan more frequently. Students’ meal plan information provides objective insights into students’ university transition.
Contributorsvan Woerden, Irene (Author) / Bruening, Meg (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Schaefer, David (Committee member) / Vega-Lopez, Sonia (Committee member) / Adams, Marc (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Background: This study examines how pro-vaccine flu messages, guided by the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), affect parents’ intentions to vaccinate their children.
Methods: Parents of children six months to five years old (N = 975) were randomly exposed to one of four high-threat/high-efficacy messages (narrative, statistical, combined, control) and completed a follow-up survey. Differences between message conditions were assessed with one-way ANOVAs, and binary logistic regressions were used to show how constructs predicted intentions.
Results: There were no significant differences in the ANOVA results at p = .05 for EPPM variables or risk EPPM variables. There was a significant difference between message conditions for perceived manipulation (p = 0.026), authority, (p = 0.024), character (p = 0.037), attention (p < .000), and emotion (p < .000). The EPPM model and perceptions of message model (positively), and the risk EPPM model and fear control model (negatively), predicted intentions to vaccinate. Significant predictor variables in each model at p < .05 were severity (aOR = 1.83), response efficacy (aOR = 4.33), risk susceptibility (aOR = 0.53), risk fear (aOR = 0.74), issue derogation (aOR = 0.63), perceived manipulation (aOR = 0.64), character (aOR = 2.00), and personal relevance (aOR = 1.88). In a multivariate model of the significant predictors, only response efficacy significantly predicted intentions to vaccinate (aOR = 3.43). Compared to the control, none of the experimental messages significantly predicted intentions to vaccinate. The narrative and combined conditions significantly predicted intentions to search online (aOR = 2.37), and the combined condition significantly predicted intentions to talk to family/friends (aOR = 2.66).
Conclusions: The EPPM may not be effective in context of a two-way threat. Additional constructs that may be useful in the EPPM model are perceptions of the message and fear control variables. One-shot flu vaccine messages will be unlikely to directly influence vaccination rates; however they may increase information-seeking behavior. The impact of seeking more information on vaccination uptake requires further research. Flu vaccine messages should be presented in combined form. Future studies should focus on strategies to increase perceptions of the effectiveness of the flu vaccine.
Methods: Parents of children six months to five years old (N = 975) were randomly exposed to one of four high-threat/high-efficacy messages (narrative, statistical, combined, control) and completed a follow-up survey. Differences between message conditions were assessed with one-way ANOVAs, and binary logistic regressions were used to show how constructs predicted intentions.
Results: There were no significant differences in the ANOVA results at p = .05 for EPPM variables or risk EPPM variables. There was a significant difference between message conditions for perceived manipulation (p = 0.026), authority, (p = 0.024), character (p = 0.037), attention (p < .000), and emotion (p < .000). The EPPM model and perceptions of message model (positively), and the risk EPPM model and fear control model (negatively), predicted intentions to vaccinate. Significant predictor variables in each model at p < .05 were severity (aOR = 1.83), response efficacy (aOR = 4.33), risk susceptibility (aOR = 0.53), risk fear (aOR = 0.74), issue derogation (aOR = 0.63), perceived manipulation (aOR = 0.64), character (aOR = 2.00), and personal relevance (aOR = 1.88). In a multivariate model of the significant predictors, only response efficacy significantly predicted intentions to vaccinate (aOR = 3.43). Compared to the control, none of the experimental messages significantly predicted intentions to vaccinate. The narrative and combined conditions significantly predicted intentions to search online (aOR = 2.37), and the combined condition significantly predicted intentions to talk to family/friends (aOR = 2.66).
Conclusions: The EPPM may not be effective in context of a two-way threat. Additional constructs that may be useful in the EPPM model are perceptions of the message and fear control variables. One-shot flu vaccine messages will be unlikely to directly influence vaccination rates; however they may increase information-seeking behavior. The impact of seeking more information on vaccination uptake requires further research. Flu vaccine messages should be presented in combined form. Future studies should focus on strategies to increase perceptions of the effectiveness of the flu vaccine.
ContributorsHall, Sarah (Author) / Jehn, Megan (Thesis advisor) / Mongeau, Paul (Committee member) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The health situation of indigenous peoples is comparable to that of the world's poorest populations, but with the additional burdens of social and cultural marginalization, geographic and cultural barriers to accessing health services, and, in some areas, appropriation of land and natural resources. Cultural transmission (the transfer of beliefs, ideas, and behaviors from one culture to another) from outsider health institutions should presumably aid in closing this health gap by transferring knowledge, practices, and infrastructure to prevent and treat disease. This study examines the biosocial construction of the disease ecology of tuberculosis (TB) in indigenous communities of the Paraguayan Chaco with varying degrees of cultural transmission from outside institutions (government, religious, and NGOs), to determine the influence of cultural transmission on local disease ecologies. Using a biocultural epidemiological framework for the analysis of human infectious disease ecology, this study employed an interdisciplinary, mixed methods approach to examine the interactions of host, pathogen, and the environment in the Paraguayan Chaco. Three case studies examining aspects of TB disease ecology in indigenous communities are presented: (1) The effective cultural transmission of biomedical knowledge to isolated communities, (2) Public health infrastructure, hygiene, and the prevalence of intestinal parasites: co-morbidities that promote the progression to active TB disease, and (3) Community-level risk factors for TB and indigenous TB burden. Findings from the case studies suggest that greater influence from outside institutions was not associated with greater adoption of biomedical knowledge of TB. The prevalence of helminthiasis was unexpectedly low, but infection with giardia was common, even in a community with cleaner water sources. Communities with a health post were more likely to report active adult TB, while communities with more education were less likely to report active pediatric TB, suggesting that healthcare access is the major determinant of TB detection. More research is needed on the role of non-indigenous community residents and other measures of acculturation or integration in TB outcomes, especially at the household level. Indigenous TB burden in the Chaco is disproportionately high, and better understanding of the mechanisms that produce higher incidence and prevalence of the disease is needed.
ContributorsVansteelandt, Amanda (Author) / Hurtado, Ana Magdalena (Thesis advisor) / Stone, Anne (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Rojas de Arias, Antonieta (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Suicide is one of the fastest-growing and least-understood causes of death, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMIC). In low-income settings, where the technical capacity for death surveillance is limited, suicides may constitute a significant portion of early deaths, but disappear as they are filtered through reporting systems shaped by social, cultural, and political institutions. These deaths become unknown and unaddressed. This dissertation illuminates how suicide is perceived, contested, experienced, and interpreted in institutions ranging from the local (i.e., family, community) to the professional (i.e., medical, law enforcement) in Nepal, a country purported to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Drawing on a critical medical anthropology approach, I bridge public health and anthropological perspectives to better situate the problem of suicide within a greater social-political context. I argue that these complex, contestable deaths, become falsely homogenized, or lost. During 18 months of fieldwork in Nepal, qualitative, data tracing, and psychological autopsy methodologies were conducted. Findings are shared through three lenses: (1) health policy and world systems; (2) epidemiology and (3) socio-cultural. The first investigates how actors representing familial, legal, and medical institutions perceive, contest, and negotiate suicide documentation, ultimately failing to accurately capture a leading cause of death. Using epidemiologic perspectives, surveillance data from medical and legal agencies are analyzed and pragmatic approaches to better detect and prevent suicidal death in the Nepali context are recommended. The third lens provides perceived explanatory models for suicide. These narratives offer important insights into the material, social, and cultural factors that shape suicidal acts in Nepal. Findings are triangulated to inform policy, prevention, and intervention approaches to reduce suicidal behavior and improve health system capabilities to monitor violent deaths. These approaches go beyond typical psychological investigations of suicide by situating self-inflicted death within broader familial, social, and political contexts. Findings contribute to cultural anthropological theories related to suicide and knowledge production, while informing public health solutions. Looking from the margins towards centers of power, this dissertation explicates how varying institutional numbers can obfuscate and invalidate suffering experienced at local levels.
ContributorsHagaman, Ashley (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Kohrt, Brandon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Lay theories of healthy eating are a potentially important consideration for public health and nutrition efforts as perceptions and beliefs about “healthiness” are key determinants of dietary choices (Furst et al. 1996; Grunert, 2007). A rich body of social science literature has examined how people across cultures decide what counts as healthy eating, yet such work has focused mainly on what people think is good and bad to consume, overlooking another important aspect- how one eats. The ways one eats can include patterns and timing of meal intake, as well as mental and emotional states during eating (henceforth, “eating styles”). This dissertation aims to 1) examine whether beliefs on eating styles constitute a separate category of healthy eating perceptions, 2) describe American and Eastern European lay models of how both food characteristics and styles of eating shape health outcomes, and 2) investigate cross-cultural variation in the endorsement of eating styles as important for health in the United States and Eastern Europe. Aims 1 and 2 use pile sorts (n=48), in-person interviews (n=49), and online surveys (n=283) to elicit subjective perspectives on how different eating considerations impact health, and aim 3 involves two sets of questionnaires collected in the U.S. (n=50; n=42) and Eastern Europe (n=42; n=35) to test the hypothesis that levels of collectivism influence variation in endorsement of eating styles for health. Results demonstrate that “eating styles” is a separate category of beliefs in people’s models of healthy eating and individuals in both cultures perceive a variety of important health outcomes from how one eats- weight management, energy levels, digestive health, and overall feeling of wellbeing. These perceptions are not uniform, as participants held contrasting models of how styles of food consumption can influence weight control, and Eastern European respondents held additional views on how aspects of food timing can affect long-term health. Finally, results show that individual level of collectivism, not differences in nationality, accounts for variation in endorsement of eating styles for health. These results suggest that the holistic pattern of attention characteristic of the collectivist social orientation extends to the domain of diet.
ContributorsVoytyuk, Mariya (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Slade, Alexandra (Committee member) / Bruening, Meredith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Resource transfers can confer many adaptive benefits such as specialization, helping genetically related individuals, future compensation, and risk-pooling. Need-based transfers are a risk-pooling mechanism in which partners mitigate unpredictable losses by transferring resources based on need. Need-based transfers are likely to be most useful for resources that are necessary and unpredictable because being unable to reliably obtain essential resources would be devastating. However, need-based transfers make people vulnerable to two types of exploitation: a person can be greedy by asking when not in need and a person with a surplus of resources can be stingy by not giving to someone in need. Previous research suggests that people might have cognitive mechanisms for detecting greediness and stinginess, which would serve to protect against exploitation by cheaters. This study investigated whether resources that are necessary and unpredictable are most likely to trigger greediness and stinginess detection mechanisms. Participants saw four types of rules. One rule could be violated through greedy behavior, another through stingy behavior, another by not paying a debt, and another was a descriptive rule that could be violated by not finding one type of resource near another type of resource. Then, participants saw information about events relating to one of the rules and indicated whether the rule in question could have been violated. Consistent with past research, participants were better at detecting greediness, stinginess, and debts not paid than at detecting violations of a descriptive rule. However, contrary to my predictions, the necessity and unpredictability of resources did not impact people’s ability to detect greediness and stinginess. The lack of support for my hypothesis might be because the benefits of detecting greediness and stinginess might outweigh the costs even for situations in which need-based transfer rules are unlikely to apply, because people might be able to consciously activate their greediness and stinginess mechanisms even for resources that would not naturally trigger them, or because of methodological limitations.
ContributorsMunoz Castro, Andres (Author) / Aktipis, Athena (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Neuberg, Steven (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
This dissertation presents three novel algorithms with real-world applications to genomic oncology. While the methodologies presented here were all developed to overcome various challenges associated with the adoption of high throughput genomic data in clinical oncology, they can be used in other domains as well. First, a network informed feature ranking algorithm is presented, which shows a significant increase in ability to select true predictive features from simulated data sets when compared to other state of the art graphical feature ranking methods. The methodology also shows an increased ability to predict pathological complete response to preoperative chemotherapy from genomic sequencing data of breast cancer patients utilizing domain knowledge from protein-protein interaction networks.
Second, an algorithm that overcomes population biases inherent in the use of a human reference genome developed primarily from European populations is presented to classify microsatellite instability (MSI) status from next-generation-sequencing (NGS) data. The methodology significantly increases the accuracy of MSI status prediction in African and African American ancestries.
Finally, a single variable model is presented to capture the bimodality inherent in genomic data stemming from heterogeneous diseases. This model shows improvements over other parametric models in the measurements of receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curves for bimodal data. The model is used to estimate ROC curves for heterogeneous biomarkers in a dataset containing breast cancer and cancer-free specimen.
ContributorsSaul, Michelle (Author) / Dinu, Valentin (Thesis advisor) / Liu, Li (Committee member) / Wang, Junwen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
ContributorsMaupin, Jonathan (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-09-19