Psychological predictors of vaping uptake among non-smokers: A longitudinal investigation of New Zealand adults.

INTRODUCTION: Demographic and health factors are known to predict vaping. Less is known about psychological predictors of vaping uptake, particularly among non-smoking adults using longitudinal designs. We aimed to model how psychological factors related to personality and mental health predicted the likelihood of vaping uptake over time in non-smoking adults ages 18+ using longitudinal data. METHODS: Longitudinal regression models utilised data from the 2018-2020 waves of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study to assess how the Big Five personality traits, mental distress and self-control predicted who began vaping over time among non-users (non-vapers and non-smokers), controlling for gender, age, ethnicity and economic deprivation. RESULTS: Analyses included 36,309 adults overall (ages 18 to 99; M = 51.0). The number of non-users who transitioned into current vaping was small (transitioned from 2018 to 2019, n = 147; 0.48%; 2019 to 2020, n = 189, 0.63%). Fully adjusted models showed that adults with higher mental distress (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.88), lower self-control (aOR 0.79; 95% CI 0.69-0.89) and higher extraversion (aOR 1.09; 95% CI 1.06-1.13) were more likely to begin vaping at the next time point compared to adults who remained non-users. Higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness also predicted vaping uptake in initial models, but inclusion of mental distress and self-control superseded these traits. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Psychological factors related to mental distress, impulse control and sociability predicted who was more likely to begin vaping as non-smoking adults. Harm prevention interventions could target these factors to reduce vaping uptake in non-smokers.

Socio-demographic profile of medical students in Aotearoa, New Zealand (2016-2020): a nationwide cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the socio-demographic profile of all students enrolled to study medicine in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational, cross-sectional study. Data were sought from the Universities of Auckland and Otago, the two NZ tertiary education institutions providing medical education, for the period 2016-2020 inclusive. These data are a subset of the larger project 'Mirror on Society' examining all regulated health professional enrolled students in NZ. VARIABLES OF INTEREST: gender, citizenship, ethnicity, rural classification, socioeconomic deprivation, school type and school socioeconomic scores. NZ denominator population data (18-29 years) were sourced from the 2018 census. PARTICIPANTS: 2858 students were enrolled to study medicine between 2016 and 2020 inclusive. RESULTS: There were more women (59.1%) enrolled to study medicine than men (40.9%) and the majority (96.5%) were in the 18-29 years age range. Maori students (rate ratio 0.92; 95% CI 0.84 to 1.0) and Pacific students (rate ratio 0.85; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.98) had lower overall rates of enrolment. For all ethnic groups, irrespective of rural or urban origin, enrolment rates had a nearly log-linear negative relationship with increasing socioeconomic deprivation. Enrolments were lower for students from rural areas compared with those from urban areas (rate ratio 0.53; 95% CI 0.46-0.61). Overall NZ's medical students do not reflect the diverse communities they will serve, with under-representation of Maori and Pacific students and students who come from low socioeconomic and rural backgrounds. CONCLUSIONS: To meaningfully address these issues, we suggest the following policy changes: universities commit and act to Indigenise institutional ways of knowing and being; selection policies are reviewed to ensure that communities in greatest need of doctors are prioritised for enrolment into medicine (specifically, the impact of low socioeconomic status should be factored into selection decisions); and the government fund more New Zealanders to study medicine.

Experimentally induced changes in authoritarian submission as a response to threat.

Authoritarianism is best conceptualised by three attitudinal clusters: Aggression, Submission, and Conventionalism. Once considered a fixed characteristic, recent observational research has demonstrated how the dimension of submission can fluctuate in response to COVID-19 threat as a means of maintaining collective security. However, this effect has not been investigated with other forms of threat, nor has it been supported experimentally. In the present study, we sought to test observational findings by priming 300 participants with either a COVID-19 threat, a domestic terrorism threat, or a non-threatening control. Levels of authoritarianism were tested before and after presentation of a prime and then the difference between the two measures could be compared between prime conditions. Results from a Bayesian multivariate regression analysis informed by observational findings suggested that participants who experienced the COVID-19 or terrorism primes reported higher levels of authoritarian submission after the prime compared to before the prime, relative to those who experienced the neutral control prime. In contrast, the aggression subfactor did not seem to elicit any change in response to threat, and the conventionalism subfactor showed a response only to the terrorism prime. We concluded that two different forms of societal threat could elicit changes in specific dimensions of authoritarianism over a very short time span. We caution against the common practice of treating authoritarianism as a unidimensional construct without careful consideration.

The COVID Psychosocial Impacts Scale: A Reliable and Valid Tool to Examine the Psychosocial Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This paper reports on the development and validation of the COVID Psychosocial Impacts Scale (CPIS), a self-report measure that comprehensively examines both positive and negative psychosocial impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first part of the program of work in which the CPIS was administered and compared with a measure of psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, K-10) and wellbeing (World Health Organization Well-Being Index, WHO-5). The data were obtained online in 2020 and 2022 at two distinct time points to capture different exposures to the pandemic in the New Zealand population to a non-representative sample of 663 and 687 adults, respectively. Two hundred seventy-one participants took part in both surveys. Findings indicate a unidimensional structure within CPIS subscales and inter-relatedness among CPIS stress-related subscales. The scatter plots and correlation matrix indicate CPIS having a positive moderate correlation with K10 and a negative moderate correlation with WHO-5, indicative of construct validity. The paper outlines contextual factors surrounding CPIS development and makes suggestions for future iterations of CPIS. Further work will examine its psychometric properties across cultures.

Curating a body-positive feed? An attempt to mitigate the negative impacts of thin-ideal content on Instagram.

Over the last decade, research has shown a negative relationship between social media use and body image. For women, these adverse effects tend to result from viewing content that promotes thinness as the ideal body type. Attempts to mitigate these adverse effects using disclaimers have failed. In the current study, we tested whether interspersing thin-ideal content with body-positive posts can mitigate the impact of thin-ideal content. The current study had six conditions. In three conditions, participants were exposed to 20 images of either thin-ideal, body-positive, or nature (control) images from Instagram. In the remaining three conditions, we interspersed the 20 images from the thin-deal condition with either 1 (i.e., 1:20 condition), 2 (i.e., 1:10 condition), or 4 (i.e., 1:5 condition) body-positive posts. For all six conditions, body satisfaction, body appreciation, appearance self-esteem, positive affect, and negative affect were measured before and after exposure. Our results demonstrated that irrespective of frequency, interspersing thin-ideal content with body-positive content did not mitigate decreases in body satisfaction, body appreciation, appearance self-esteem, or positive affect. Our failure to mitigate the negative impact of thin-ideal content adds to a growing body of work demonstrating that combating the impact of thin-ideal content on Instagram is extremely difficult.

Effects of vaping on uptake and cessation of smoking: Longitudinal analysis in Aotearoa New Zealand adults.

INTRODUCTION: Globally, the use of vapes, or e-cigarettes, is increasing. While vaping is less harmful than smoking and may help smokers to quit, there is also the possibility that vaping may lead to smoking. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of vaping and smoking in Aotearoa New Zealand and explore longitudinal pathways between smoking status and vape use. METHOD: Data related to smoking and vaping status was analysed from Times 10, 11 and 12 across 2018-2020 of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values study, a large, representative, multi-wave study of adults living in New Zealand. Weighted descriptive analyses were used to determine prevalence rates of vaping and smoking and a generalised linear modelling approach was used to examine the likelihood of changing to, or taking up, the other behaviour in the transition between time points. RESULTS: Broadly, the prevalence of smoking was found to be decreasing over time while the prevalence of vaping was increasing. Despite these general trends, no differences were observed in the likelihood of transitioning from smoking to vaping or from vaping to smoking, indicating that either pathway was equally as likely. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The current findings demonstrate that vaping appeared to be just as likely to have a gateway effect to smoking as it was to have a cessation effect. This highlights the need for greater consideration regarding vaping-related policies and restrictions.

High Risk or Risky Highs: Understanding the Links Between Alcohol and Cannabis Use on the Transition From Suicidal Ideation to Attempts in Australian Men.

Alcohol and cannabis use are consistently associated with greater risk of suicide, particularly among men and in higher-income countries (e.g., Australia). Adult data (n = 7,464) from waves 1 and 2 of Ten to Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health were used to explore whether alcohol and/or cannabis use increased the longitudinal risk of a suicide attempt among suicidal ideators. Cannabis use was associated with increased risk of transitioning from suicidal ideation to making a suicide attempt; no association was found for alcohol. Broadly, these findings indicate that greater cannabis but not alcohol use may increase risk of transitioning to making a suicide attempt among those who are thinking about suicide.

University students' opinions towards mobile sensing data collection: A qualitative analysis.

mHealth researchers can now collect a wealth of data using "life tracking apps" (LTAs), which are smartphone applications that use mobile sensing to capture and summarise a multitude of data channels (e.g., location, movement, keyword use, sleep, exercise, and so on). The combined wealth of information can create digital signatures of individuals, which hold immense promise for mental health research and interventions by allowing new insights into moment-to-moment changes in behaviour and mental states. However, little is known about what a common research demographic (university students) thinks about these apps and what might factor into their decisions to participate in research using a LTA. This qualitative study ran five focus group sessions (21 students in total) to explore students' experiences, beliefs, and opinions about LTAs to generate insights into what would make them more or less likely to participate in research involving LTAs. Transcripts were coded and examined for categories using qualitative content analysis. Important categories that emerged were privacy (although this varied based on the individual and data being collected), data security, inconvenience, intrusiveness, financial compensation, and the perceived nature of the research team responsible. On the basis of these categories, we derived seven key insights to increase student participation in research using LTAs: strengthen and communicate privacy and data security, design the app to be as convenient as possible to users, maximise passive data collection, think cautiously before tracking data perceived as "creepy" such as messages, offer suitable financial compensation, be transparent about goals and justification for data being collection to build trust, and attract participants by highlighting how the app can help them achieve their goals. With these insights, mHealth researchers can maximise their participant pool and improve this nascent and promising field.

National cross-sectional study of the sociodemographic characteristics of Aotearoa New Zealand's regulated health workforce pre-registration students: a mirror on society?

OBJECTIVES: To provide a sociodemographic profile of students enrolled in their first year of a health professional pre-registration programme offered within New Zealand (NZ) tertiary institutions. DESIGN: Observational, cross-sectional study. Data were sought from NZ tertiary education institutions for all eligible students accepted into the first 'professional' year of a health professional programme for the 5-year period 2016-2020 inclusive. VARIABLES OF INTEREST: gender, citizenship, ethnicity, rural classification, socioeconomic deprivation, school type and school socioeconomic scores. Analyses were carried out using the R statistics software. SETTING: Aotearoa NZ. PARTICIPANTS: All students (domestic and international) accepted into the first 'professional' year of a health professional programme leading to registration under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. RESULTS: NZ's health workforce pre-registration students do not reflect the diverse communities they will serve in several important dimensions. There is a systematic under-representation of students who identify as Maori and Pacific, and students who come from low socioeconomic and rural backgrounds. The enrolment rate for Maori students is about 99 per 100 000 eligible population and for some Pacific ethnic groups is lower still, compared with 152 per 100 000 for NZ European students. The unadjusted rate ratio for enrolment for both Maori students and Pacific students versus 'NZ European and Other' students is approximately 0.7. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend that: (1) there should be a nationally coordinated system for collecting and reporting on the sociodemographic characteristics of the health workforce pre-registration; (2) mechanisms be developed to allow the agencies that fund tertiary education to base their funding decisions directly on the projected health workforce needs of the health system and (3) tertiary education funding decisions be based on Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the foundational constitutional agreement between the Indigenous people, Maori and the British Crown signed in 1840) and have a strong pro-equity focus.

Exposure to behavioral regularities in everyday life predicts infants' acquisition of mental state vocabulary.

There are two broad views of children's theory of mind. The mentalist view is that it emerges in infancy and is possibly innate. The minimalist view is that it emerges more gradually in childhood and is heavily dependent on learning. According to minimalism, children initially understand behaviors rather than mental states, and they are assisted in doing so by recognizing repeating patterns in behavior. The regularities in behavior allow them to predict future behaviors, succeed on theory-of-mind tasks, acquire mental state words, and eventually, understand the mental states underlying behavior. The present study provided the first clear evidence for the plausibility of this view by fitting head cameras to 54 infants aged 6 to 25 months, and recording their view of the world in their daily lives. At 6 and 12 months, infants viewed an average of 146.5 repeated behaviors per hour, a rate consistent with approximately 560,000 repetitions in their first year, and with repetitions correlating with children's acquisition of mental state words, even after controlling for their general vocabulary and a range of variables indexing social interaction. We also recorded infants' view of people searching or searching for and retrieving objects. These were 92 times less common and did not correlate with mental state vocabulary. Overall, the findings indicate that repeated behaviors provide a rich source of information for children that would readily allow them to recognize patterns in behavior and help them acquire mental state words, providing the first clear evidence for this claim of minimalism. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Six- to 25-month-olds wore head cameras to record home life from infants' point-of-view and help adjudicate between nativist and minimalist views of theory-of-mind (ToM). Nativists say ToM is too early developing to enable learning, whereas minimalists say infants learn to predict behaviors from behavior patterns in environment. Consistent with minimalism, infants had an incredibly rich exposure (146.5/h, >560,000 in first year) to repeated behaviors (e.g., drinking from a cup repeatedly). Consistent with minimalism, more repeated behaviors correlated with infants' mental state vocabulary, even after controlling for gender, age, searches witnessed and non-mental state vocabulary.

#Bodypositive surpasses 1 billion engagements.

The body-positive movement (#bodypositive) champions body acceptance by celebrating a diverse - visual - array of body types and shapes online. Sparked out of collective resistance to unrealistic bodies on social media, the #bodypositive community has assembled a considerable following: having now surpassed one billion engagements on Instagram. To mark this milestone, we highlight the problem, the promise, and the peril of image-focused movements on Instagram. On balance, we argue #bodypositive content on Instagram likely has a positive impact. As the movement continues to grow though, advocates can look to strengthen the content's positive impact with some careful, research-informed, messaging adjustments.

Evaluation of the English Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale and Its Relationship with Behavior Change and Political Beliefs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has many individuals around the world fearing for their lives. The constant news coverage, rapid transmission, and relatively high mortality rate, make fearfulness a natural response. To assess the fear of COVID-19, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) was developed. The primary aim of the present study was to conduct the first psychometric assessment and validation of the English version of the FCV-19S. Two samples were collected in New Zealand. Sample 1 comprised 1624 participants of which 1397 completed all questions and were used in the analyses. Sample 2 comprised 1111 participants of which 1023 completed all questions and were used in the analyses. Several psychometric tests were conducted to ascertain the scale's reliability and validity. Across both samples, the FCV-19S had high internal consistency. Consistent with the earlier validation studies, the FCV-19S displayed a moderately strong relationship with the perceived infectability and germ aversion subscales of the perceived vulnerability to disease scale (PVDS). Furthermore, FCV-19S scores were negatively correlated with the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) scores. With respect to the motivating role of fear, there was a significant relationship between FCV-19S scores and adherence to the lockdown rules that were implemented in New Zealand. Finally, consistent with recent reports on the politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic, an exploratory question found that participants who rated themselves as more conservative tended to report lower FCV-19S scores. The English version of the COVID-19S is a sound unidimensional scale with robust psychometric properties and can be used with confidence among English-speaking populations.

A combined web based intervention and ecological momentary intervention for reducing alcohol use among incoming first-year university students: Results from a three-arm randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The transition from high school to university is associated with increased alcohol use and harm. Web-based interventions (WBIs) and ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) are two methods that have had some success in reducing alcohol use among university students and may be particularly effective if implemented during the transition to university. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of a combined WBI and EMI to reduce alcohol use among incoming university students. METHODS: Incoming first-year students (n = 783, in 2018 and 2019) were randomized into either a WBI + EMI, WBI-only, or an assessment-only condition. All participants completed online questionnaires before university, after their first and second semester, and reported their alcohol use fortnightly throughout their first year. Those in the WBI + EMI and WBI conditions received online feedback about their drinking (i.e., the WBI) immediately following the pre-university survey. Those in the WBI + EMI were also sent eight EMI messages to their mobile phones during Orientation Week and six EMI messages across the academic year aimed at reducing alcohol harm. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the conditions in Orientation Week drinking, academic year drinking (both "typical" semester or fortnightly drinking), or alcohol-related harms. CONCLUSION: A WBI + EMI intervention aimed at the transition to university did not reduce university students' alcohol use. The transition, however, continues to be a period of serious harm where students drink more than any other period.

Understanding Aotearoa New Zealand University Students Intentions to Seek Help If Experiencing Mental Distress: A Comparison of Naturalistic and Interventional Findings.

University students globally are consistently identified as a vulnerable group for mental distress and suicide. Despite this, students report low engagement in help-seeking behaviours. This series of studies aimed to assess barriers to help-seeking for students and the impact of an intervention that sought to increase support-seeking intentions. In Study 1, 373 undergraduate psychology students completed items related to depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, stigma, and help-seeking intentions. In Study 2, 133 undergraduate psychology students were randomly allocated into one of three intervention groups (control, infographic, video) and completed measures as used in Study 1. Despite experiencing clinically relevant symptoms and recent suicidal ideation, students in Study 1 tended to report low intentionality to seek help, citing perceptions that their distress was not serious enough or a desire to handle their issues independently. In Study 2, an infographic about different support services increased student's intentions to access support services and reduced their perception that their issues were not serious enough. Overall, Aotearoa New Zealand students endorsed similar barriers to help-seeking as students in other countries. Importantly, we demonstrated that a simple infographic intervention reduced perceptions regarding these common barriers and may increase students' knowledge about when to seek help.

Why So Serious? An Attempt to Mitigate the Short-Term Harmful Effects of the Film Joker on Prejudice toward People with Mental Illness.

The media perpetuates many harmful stereotypes about people with mental illness. In two studies, we demonstrate the impact of negative media portrayals of mental illness on prejudice and attempt to mitigate these negative effects. Specifically, in Study 1, participants watched the movie Joker, a recent film which associates mental illness with violent behavior, or a control film (Terminator). Participants completed the Prejudice towards People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale before and after viewing their respective films. The PPMI consists of four dimensions: fear/avoidance (i.e., wanting to avoid people with mental illness), malevolence (i.e., viewing people with mental illness as inferior), authoritarianism (i.e., preference for control over people with mental illness), and unpredictability (i.e., the behavior of people with mental illness is unreliable). We hypothesized that participants who watched the film Joker would display an increase in their fear/avoidance of people with mental illness and their support for authoritarian approaches to their treatment. Consistent with these hypotheses, participants who viewed Joker displayed a significant increase in the fear/avoidance and authoritarian subscales of the PPMI, relative to participants that watched Terminator. In Study 2, in an attempt to mitigate the impact of Joker on prejudice towards people with mental illness, directly after the film we displayed educational and counter-stereotypical statements on-screen that challenged the view that people with mental illness are violent. A control group viewed Joker without these statements. Identical to Study 1, all participants completed the PPMI scale before and after viewing the film. We hypothesized that participants who viewed Joker with the statements would display lower prejudice relative to the control condition. Unfortunately, participants in the experimental and control conditions displayed a comparable increase in prejudice. Together, these studies confirm the negative effect of media portrayals of mental illness (as depicted in Joker) and demonstrate that these effects are not easily mitigated.

Lung Cancer Attracts Greater Stigma than Other Cancer Types in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Aotearoa New Zealand, killing over 1,700 people each year. Despite the burden of lung cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand, the popular press has referred to it as the cancer type that no one talks about. Here, we investigate one factor that may contribute to this state of affairs: lung cancer stigma. Methods: Participants were university students and members of the general public. University students were recruited via an online experiment participation system in 2021. Members of the public were recruited via social media. All participants completed the Cancer Stigma Scale (CSS) for one of five cancer types (lung, cervical, breast, skin, or bowel). The CSS is a 25-item scale with six subscales: awkwardness, avoidance, severity, policy opposition, personal responsibility, and financial discrimination. Results: The mean age of participants was 24.3 (Standard Deviation = 10.4). Data from each subscale were submitted to an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with cancer type as a between-participant factor (5: lung, cervical, breast, skin, or bowel) and stigma as the dependent variable. Relative to most other cancer types, people were more likely to avoid someone with lung cancer, view interacting with someone with lung cancer as more awkward, and view people with lung cancer as being responsible for their condition. Conclusion: The Health Research Council of New Zealand recently funded the very first trial of lung cancer screening in Aotearoa New Zealand. The current study suggests that addressing stigma will be essential for the success of such programs, with stigma likely influencing those who engage in such trials.

Left-wing support of authoritarian submission to protect against societal threat.

New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, adopted a "go hard, go early" approach to eliminate COVID-19. Although Ardern and her Labour party are considered left-leaning, the policies implemented during the pandemic (e.g., police roadblocks) have the hallmarks of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). RWA is characterized by three attitudinal clusters (authoritarian aggression, submission, and conventionalism). The uniqueness of the clusters, and whether they react to environmental change, has been debated. Here, in the context of the pandemic, we investigate the relationship between political orientation and RWA. Specifically, we measured political orientation, support for New Zealand's major political parties, and RWA among 1,430 adult community members. A multivariate Bayesian model demonstrated that, in the middle of a pandemic, both left-leaning and right-leaning individuals endorsed items tapping authoritarian submission. In contrast to authoritarian submission, and demonstrating the multidimensional nature of RWA, we observed the typical relationships between political orientation and authoritarian aggression and conventionalism was observed.

Older adults have difficulty decoding emotions from the eyes, whereas easterners have difficulty decoding emotion from the mouth.

Older adults and Easterners have worse emotion recognition (than young adults and Westerners, respectively), but the question of why remains unanswered. Older adults look less at eyes, whereas Easterners look less at mouths, raising the possibility that compelling older adults to look at eyes, and Easterners to look at mouths, might improve recognition. We did this by comparing emotion recognition in 108 young adults and 109 older adults from New Zealand and Singapore in the (a) eyes on their own (b) mouth on its own or (c) full face. Older adults were worse than young adults on 4/6 emotions with the Eyes Only stimuli, but only 1/6 emotions with the Mouth Only stimuli. In contrast, Easterners were worse than Westerners on 6/6 emotions for Mouth Only and Full Face stimuli, but were equal on all six emotions for Eyes Only stimuli. These results provide a substantial leap forward because they point to the precise difficulty for older adults and Easterners. Older adults have more consistent difficulty identifying individual emotions in the eyes compared to the mouth, likely due to declining brain functioning, whereas Easterners have more consistent difficulty identifying emotions from the mouth than the eyes, likely due to inexperience inferring mouth information.