Study 2 examined first-year college students’ growth trajectories in positive and negative affect across the transition to college (i.e., spanning the entire first semester), predicted said trajectories and daily affective states. Participants were 146 first-year college students from a large southwestern university entering their first semester of college (Mage = 17.8, SD = 0.5). Electronic diary surveys were administered to students twice weekly between July and December of 2014, so as to span the transition to college and the entire first semester, and assessed daily affective states and interpersonal interactions. Results indicated that students decreased in their positive affect gradually across the first semester, but remained stable in their negative affect. Significant variability emerged around these average trends, and was predicted by indices of conflict and involvement with parents and friends. Generally, greater involvement with friends and parents was associated with greater positive and less negative affect, whereas greater conflict with these important social groups predicted greater negative affect. Together, these studies underscore the importance of positive attachments during developmentally-challenging contexts experienced in adolescence.
I studied how hostile and benevolent language influences one’s ability to change their misconceptions. Participants were less likely to revise their misconceptions when reading tweets with hostile language than those exposed to benevolent language, which stresses adopting a neutral or benevolent tone to increase the likelihood of successful revision. This may be due to a shift of memory resources from the less engaging Tweet information to the more engaging, evocative hostile language.
The transition from high school to college (TTC) is a critical period of change, the effects of which may be exacerbated for Latino students, who often face additional minority-specific stressors, such as ethnic/racial discrimination (ERD). Research has documented links between ERD and sleep outcomes in adolescents, but less is known regarding the longitudinal impacts of ERD experiences during unique risk periods (e.g., TTC). Further, despite the central role of family in Latino adolescents’ lives, less research has explored the protective role of family factors (e.g., familism, family support) in links between ERD and Latino students’ sleep health. Thus, this study examined: 1) longitudinal associations between peer- and adult-perpetrated ERD in high school and actigraphy-measured (e.g., duration, efficiency, midpoint) and subjective sleep (e.g., problems) during the first year of college among Latino adolescents, accounting for college ERD experiences, and 2) familism and family support as potential moderators of these associations. Participants were 209 Hispanic/Latino adolescents (Mage=18.10; 64.4% female; 84.7% Mexican descent; 67.9% first-generation students) assessed at two time points (i.e., last semester of high school and second semester of college). There were no longitudinal associations between high school ERD and college sleep. However, there were concurrent associations between ERD and sleep in college. Specifically, greater college peer- and adult-perpetrated ERD were associated with less duration and lower efficiency at the same time point. Further, more college adult-based ERD was additionally linked with greater sleep problems. There were no significant moderation findings; however, the interaction between high school adult-based ERD and family support predicting college sleep problems suggested that adolescents reporting low levels of adult ERD in conjunction with higher levels of family support had the fewest sleep problems. Study findings provide additional evidence that ERD from both adults and peers is associated with reduced sleep duration and quality among Latino college students and suggest that current cultural stressors may be particularly influential on sleep during major socio-contextual shifts. These findings can inform future programs (e.g., sleep interventions) that provide support for students experiencing race-based stressors, such as ERD, to promote Latino student health and well-being.
Magic as a practice can be found in cultures all throughout history and well into the contemporary age. Love magic specifically is a type of magic intended to promote feelings of attraction or desire, love and/or intimacy in another person. Despite some pretty compelling negative aspects of love magic, like its historically violent and controlling nature, its implications of problematic neurotic behavior, or the coercive, nonconsensual impacts of its effects, I argue that on an individual level it can have many benefits that make it a worthwhile therapeutic practice. For the spell caster, it can function as a stress-relieving response in uncontrollable situations, as well as a form of communication in instances where direct communication isn’t possible. These beneficial claims have been corroborated with many cultural and psychological studies and connect the seemingly fantastical idea of love magic to the scientific world.
Digital communication is increasingly prevalent in adolescent populations. Adolescents estimate that 50-60% of their relational communication occurs via text messaging (Coyne, Stockdale, Busby, Iverson, & Grant, 2011). With the increasing use of technology, conflict and relationship stressors are prevalent online. Social media and text messaging are associated with jealousy, monitoring behavior, and lower emotional support (Arikewuyo et al., 2020, Holtzman et al., 2017). These emerging trends make it critical for researchers to examine how technology can play a role in relationships.
Typically, researchers use questionnaires to see how participants interact in digital spaces. Self-reported methods are not ideal as they have limitations as participants may misrepresent themselves even if it is unintentional. To overcome these limitations, researchers have begun utilizing screenomics, a method in which photos of participants’ screens (screenshots) are taken every 3 seconds when the phone is in active use (Ram et al., 2020). However, these screenshots often lack context for digital interactions and result in large amounts data that may not capture specific events of interest to researchers (Ram et al., 2020). In-person dyadic communication can be studied through observational methods. The SPAFF (Specific Affect Coding System Manual) has been used to examine affectual behaviors because of it has high construct and criterion validity, effectively captures verbal and non-verbal behaviors, and associates discrete behaviors with latent psychological constructs (Coan & Gottman, 2007). It is important to understand if the measures used to study in-person behavior can be adapted to examine digital behavior in order to improve the quality of digital communication research.
