News by Subject Social & Behavior

A study of a majority-black cohort, led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher, finds no clear upward trend in cognitive abilities among older adults.

The rise of social media and fake news challenge long-held assumptions about the First Amendment and are undermining the functioning of the 'the marketplace of ideas,' a Duke professor argues in a new article. Much of our thinking about the First Amendment assumes that the answer to false speech is more speech, or counter-speech, and that the truth will triumph in the marketplace of ideas, he says. That may be changing.

The more failing grades students have during eighth grade, the more likely they are to experience social-emotional learning problems, academic difficulties and behavioral problems during their freshman year in high school, University of Illinois social work professor Kevin Tan found in a new study. And despite the gender stereotype that boys are more likely to be the problem children in school, the researchers found that girls constitute the majority of youths who struggled the most academically, socially and behaviorally.

Women who are sexually assaulted and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can learn to decrease negative thoughts and enhance self-worth by a combination of meditation and aerobic exercise. A combination of mental and physical training with meditation and aerobic exercise done for one hour twice a week over a six-week period significantly reduced post-traumatic and ruminative thoughts in women with a history of sexual violence.

A series of converging trends provided political cover for the reforms of long-standing energy subsidies launched by oil-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa, according to a new paper by an expert in the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. These subsidies are thought to be an important source of legitimacy for autocratic regimes.

Telling job applicants how many people applied for a job on LinkedIn - regardless of whether the number of applicants was high or low - increased the number of applications, a finding that could help companies that are seeking more diverse applicant pools, according to new research from Tufts University economist Laura Gee.

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers surveyed 2,664 young adults who were current users, never users, or past users of little cigars and cigarillos, finding cigarillo packs with colors and containing a flavor descriptor were rated more positively for taste and smell, and health warnings didn't fully mitigate the draw of the packaging.

With marijuana use during pregnancy on the rise, a new study led by the Colorado School of Public Health shows that prenatal cannabis use was associated with a 50 percent increased likelihood of low birth weight, setting the stage for serious future health problems including infection and time spent in neonatal intensive care units.