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Objective: How do learning communities influence academic performance in Introductory Psychology? Method: The present research examines the relationship between participation in first-year students learning communities and academic performance across a variety of course requirements (midterms, finals, papers, and class participation) in introductory psychology and, for comparison, sociology courses. Results: Students who took Introductory Psychology as part of a first-year-student learning community outperformed their peers (who took the same course without a learning community) on the first exam of the semester and were less likely to miss assignments but otherwise showed no significant differences on the other course assignments; introductory sociology students part of these communities showed even greater differences in performance that lasted through the end of the semester. Conclusion: First-year students learning communities offers significant albeit limited benefits for student performance in introductory courses in the social sciences. Teaching Implications: Short of institutional efforts to enact programming for first-year learning communities, introductory psychology instructors can attempt to simulate the experience of such communities by promoting a sense of belonging via extra-curricular service or discipline-related activities.

Background: Mobile medical clinics have been used for decades to provide primary and preventive care to underserved populations. While several studies have examined their return on investment and impact on chronic disease management outcomes in the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast regions of the United States, little is known about the characteristics and clinical outcomes of adults who receive care aboard mobile clinics on the West Coast region. Guided by the Anderson Behavioral Model, this study describes the predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with mobile medical clinic use among mobile medical clinic patients in Southern California and examines the relationship between mobile clinic utilization and presence and control of diabetes and hypertension. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 411 adults who received care in four mobile clinic locations in Southern California from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019. Data were collected from patient charts on predisposing (e.g., sex, race, age), enabling (e.g., insurance and housing status), and need (e.g., chronic illness) factors based on Andersen's Behavioral Model. Zero-truncated negative binomial regression was used to examine the association of chronic illness (hypertension and diabetes) with number of clinic visits, accounting for potential confounding factors. Results: Over the course of the 2-year study period, 411 patients made 1790 visits to the mobile medical clinic. The majority of patients were female (68%), Hispanic (78%), married (47%), with a mean age of 50 (SD = 11). Forty-four percent had hypertension and 29% had diabetes. Frequency of mobile clinic utilization was significantly associated with chronic illness. Patients with hypertension and diabetes had 1.22 and 1.61 times the rate of mobile medical clinic visit than those without those conditions, respectively (IRR = 1.61, 95% CI, 1.36–1.92; 1.22, 95% CI, 1.02–1.45). Conclusions: Mobile clinics serve as an important system of health care delivery, especially for adults with uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts and rapid development in the wildland-urban interface are increasing population exposure and vulnerability to the harmful effects of wildfire and wildfire smoke. The direct and indirect effects of these hazards may impact future mobility decisions among populations at risk. To better understand how perceptions and personal experience inform wildfire- and smoke-associated migration intentions, we surveyed a representative sample of 1108 California residents following the 2020 wildfire season. We assessed the associations between threat appraisal, coping appraisal, personal experience, migration intentions, the impact of wildfire and smoke on migration intentions and place satisfaction, and the potential likelihood of future migration. Results indicate that roughly a third of our sample intended to move in the next 5 years, nearly a quarter of whom reported that wildfire and smoke impacted their migration decision at least a moderate amount. Prior negative outcomes (e.g., evacuating, losing property) were associated with intentions to migrate. Perceived susceptibility and prior negative outcomes were associated with a greater impact of wildfire and smoke on migration intentions. For those intending to remain in place, prior negative outcomes were associated with a greater impact of wildfire and smoke on place satisfaction, which was in turn associated with a greater reported likelihood of future migration. Our findings suggest that perceptions of and experiences with wildfire and smoke may impact individual mobility decisions. These insights may be leveraged to inform risk communications and outreach campaigns to encourage wildfire and smoke risk mitigation behaviors and to improve climate migration modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have theorized and empirically shown that compared with low rape myth acceptance (RMA) individuals, those high in RMA are more likely to discount rape prevention messages. These researchers have urged the development of approaches to counteract the defensiveness and related processes that are presumed to cause such discounting. In the present research we empirically tested the effectiveness of a self-affirmation approach designed to reduce defensiveness to and increase engagement with important but potentially self-threatening information about sexual assault. Female participants classified as low or high in RMA were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or no-affirmation control condition and then read about a controversial case of campus sexual assault. We found support for the effectiveness of such a self-affirmation intervention for high-RMA women. Specifically, on a questionnaire administered after the exposure, affirmed high-RMA women relative to the control group reported greater endorsement of the realistic use of the "yes means yes" standard of consent, higher self-standards in defining consensual sexual behavior, increases in perceived knowledge of available resources for sexual assault victims, lower support of rape myths, and greater support for punishing someone convicted of sexual assault. As expected, for women low in RMA there were no significant differences in reporting on these measures between the affirmation condition and the no-affirmation condition. From an agentic perspective these results are encouraging. This approach may merit further development as part of an intervention for reducing biased processing and increasing the effectiveness of consent campaigns and other sexual violence prevention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]