COVID-19 Information Seeking Behaviors of University of Hawai'i at Manoa Undergraduates: Information Channels, Sources, and Consumption.

This study explored how undergraduate students at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa sought and consumed information about the virus that causes COVID-19. This study also examined student perceptions of the severity of and their susceptibility to the virus and their main concerns about it. Four hundred fifty-six students completed online surveys between October and early December of 2020 and 2021. Students reported low to moderate levels of information seeking across four domains: (1) knowledge about COVID-19 and its symptoms; (2) preventing the spread of the virus; (3) the current state of the pandemic in Hawai'i; and (4) the likely future of the pandemic in Hawai'i. Overall, websites, television, and Instagram were the top 3 channels used by students to seek information for these domains. Students reported primarily paying attention to information from government and news organizations as sources. However, students' preferred channels and sources varied with the type of information they sought. Students also reported believing that COVID-19 is severe and that they are susceptible to being infected with it. The more time students reported seeking information, the greater their perceptions of COVID-19's severity across all domains. Students' primary concerns about COVID-19 centered on state regulations/policies, vaccines, tourism/travel, the economy, and pandemic/post-pandemic life. These findings can help public health practitioners in Hawai'i determine how best to reach an undergraduate student population with information related to COVID-19.

Effects of Stereotype-Focused Imagined Contact on Young Adults' Intentions for Intergenerational Interaction.

OBJECTIVES: Face-to-face intergenerational contact is associated with more positive attitudes toward older adults. However, such contact can be difficult to achieve, and poor contact experiences can have negative consequences for intergenerational relations. We examined whether mentally simulated intergenerational contact (which is more easily facilitated and controllable) could reduce young adults' inclinations to avoid intergenerational interactions by increasing their inclusion of the older outgroup in the self (IOS), and by enhancing their stereotypes of older adults' warmth and competence. METHOD: We conducted an online experiment with 373 young adults from the United States. Participants imagined talking with an older adult (aged 70-75 years) in the circumstances intended to make salient either the older adult's warmth or their competence. RESULTS: Both manipulations increased young adult participants' IOS with respect to older adults, which in turn predicted more positive assessments of older adults' warmth and competence. IOS, along with ratings of warmth and competence, inversely predicted the desire to avoid future interaction with older adults. DISCUSSION: Findings indicate the viability of a simple and accessible intervention to improve intergenerational relations, which can be tailored to address different goals (e.g., encouraging intergenerational friendships vs. encouraging support for equal rights of older members of the workforce).

Latina/o adolescents' family undocumented-status disclosures directed at school counselors: A latent transition analysis.

For adolescents from undocumented families, school counselors may serve as a resource to draw upon for support should the adolescents decide to disclose their family status. In this study, we identified psychological factors that were associated with adolescents' decisions to disclose (or not) their own or a family member's undocumented status to a counselor and examined corresponding mental health implications. Utilizing latent transition analyses with a sample of 410 Latina/o immigrant high school students, four profiles emerged in Wave 1: (1) indifferent nondisclosers, (2) concerned revealers, (3) anxious revealers, and (4) secure revealers. By Wave 2, we identified the same profiles, except anxious revealers were no longer present, and anxious nondisclosers emerged as a new profile. At Wave 3, we only identified three profiles: (1) indifferent nondisclosers (2), concerned revealers, and (3) anxious revealers. As Latina/o immigrant students experienced greater fear of deportation in the middle and end of the year, they were more likely to be concerned revealers (i.e., reporting moderate perceived risk of disclosing, low communication efficacy, and moderate levels of disclosure) compared with most profiles. Anxious revealers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than several other profiles in the beginning of the year, and concerned revealers reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than several other profiles in the middle and end of the year. This study emphasizes the importance of considering the diverse experiences of family undocumented adolescents, and it sheds light on the extent to which family undocumented adolescents confide in a counselor. (PsycINFO Database Record

Associations Between Profiles of Communication About Aging and Quality of Life for Middle-Aged and Older American Adults.

The association between how middle-aged and older adults talk about aging and their quality of life was examined using latent profile analysis and regression techniques. Two-hundred eight-six adults with an average age of 52.82 (range: 45-77) completed an online questionnaire, which assessed participants' self-reported communication about aging, stress, health-related quality of life, and satisfaction with life. Controlling for social support and demographics, participants' profile of communication about aging was found to predict satisfaction with life, stress, and mental health but not general or physical health.

Language-specific skills in intercultural healthcare communication: Comparing perceived preparedness and skills in nurses' first and second languages.

BACKGROUND: Interactions between people from different cultures are becoming increasingly commonplace in contemporary healthcare settings. To date, most research evaluating cross-cultural preparedness has assumed that medical professionals are speaking their first language (L1). However, as healthcare workers are increasingly mobile and patient populations are increasingly diverse, more and more interactions are likely to occur in a professional's non-native language (L2). OBJECTIVES: This study assessed and compared nurses' perceived cross-cultural preparedness and skillfulness in their interactions with patients from other cultures when speaking both their L1 and L2. The goal of this project was to inform the creation of a communication skills training program. DESIGN: Nurses reported their perceived cross-cultural preparedness and skillfulness (scales adapted from Park et al., 2009) in their L1 and L2 via an online questionnaire. SETTINGS: This questionnaire was distributed among nurses working in Vienna, Austria, through the Vienna Hospital Association (VHA). PARTICIPANTS: Nurses and nurses-in-training working in VHA hospitals participated. Most participants who provided demographic information were currently nurses (n=179) with an average of 16.88years (SD=11.50) of professional experience (range: 0-40); n=40 were nurses-in-training with an average of 2.13years (SD=0.88) of experience (range: 1-5). METHODS: Descriptive statistics for each cross-cultural preparedness and skillfulness (in each language) are reported; comparisons between L1 and L2 responses were also conducted. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify predictors of preparedness and L1/L2 skillfulness. RESULTS: Nurses reported feeling significantly less confident in their skills when working in an L2, across a range of culture-related issues. Having had previous communication skills training predicted (better) self-reported L2 skillfulness, although it did not predict L1 skillfulness. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that there is a language-specific component to cross-cultural skillfulness. Thus, there is a need for language-specific skills training to address L2 skill deficits.