Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Daughters of divorced fathers start reproduction earlier than daughters of dead fathers – PsyPost

New research published in Evolution and Human Behavior has found that girls whose fathers were divorced started reproduction about 9.2 months earlier than girls whose fathers were no longer living.

Researchers have been interested in investigating why and how stressful experiences in childhood affect sexual maturation, behaviors, and reproductive outcomes. Girls who grow up without a father may start reproduction earlier because the absence is a cue of environmental harshness and uncertainty in which a fast life history strategy is favored. Alternatively, the trend might be the result of genetic factors.

Researchers Markus Valge and colleagues were interested in investigating whether the absence of the father, the mother, or both was most associated with the early onset of puberty among girls. The researchers used a large dataset to study girls who were born between 1936 and 1962 in Estonia. Valge and colleagues had access to information about the girls rate of puberty (via breast development stages), when they had their first child, and their overall reproductive success (how many children they had in their lifetime). The girls either grew up in orphanages, without a mother, or without a father due to either divorce or death.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that girls whose fathers divorced started reproduction about 9.2 months earlier than girls who grew up with only their father or both parents present, and about 7.4 months earlier than girls whose fathers died. However, the difference in reproductive starting age was not significant once education was controlled for.

Girls whose mothers died had .25 less children in their lifetime on average than girls who grew up with just a mother or a father. There was no difference in the number of children girls had when their fathers died compared to girls who grew up in an orphanage.

This study indicates that stressful childhood environments do not predict faster sexual maturation for girls when controlling for education. Valge and colleagues argue this may be due to low test power and confounding variables. However, there was an association between how old the girls were when they had their first child and whether their parents were divorced. Valge and colleagues argue this could be explained by Flinns hypothesis that suggests fathers guard their daughters from predatory men, so girls with fathers in their life reproduce later in life.

However, this hypothesis is only partially supported because girls whose fathers were dead did not have children significantly earlier than girls whose fathers were present. Valge and colleagues argue that the Grandmother Hypothesis (in which mothers help promote the survival of their grandchildren) is supported, considering girls whose mothers died had .25 less children on average.

A limitation of this study is that there was no information regarding whether a step-parent was involved in the families in which mothers and fathers were absent. There was also a lack of information about the girls age when a parent died or divorced.

The study, Pubertal maturation is independent of family structure but daughters of divorced (but not dead) fathers start reproduction earlier, was authored by Markus Valge, Richard Meitern, and Peeter Hrak.

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Daughters of divorced fathers start reproduction earlier than daughters of dead fathers - PsyPost

Human Behavior

What is air quality? How can the weather and human behavior impact it? – WQAD Moline

Youll often hear the term air quality mentioned in weather forecasts, but what does that mean? Meteorologist Effrage Davis explains.

MOLINE, Ill. June 1 is the first day of meteorological summer, and throughout the upcoming summer months, youll often hear the term air quality mentioned in weather forecasts. But what does that mean?

Air is primarily made up of nitrogen, oxygen and other gases. When air contains small amounts of chemical pollutants, it is considered good air quality. When air is hazy and contains high amounts of solid particles and chemical pollutants, it is considered poor air quality.

Air quality is measured using the air quality index. The index measures the changes in the amount of pollution on a scale from 0 to 500 degrees, according to the UCAR Center for Science Education. The lower the degree, the cleaner and safer the air is to breathe. The bigger the degree, the more pullulated and dangerous it is.

Thefive pollutants measured by the AQI are ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Our air quality depends on the amount of pollution in the air.

The Clean Air Act, enacted in 1970, enforces national standards for each of these pollutants to help protect public health. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, decades of research have proven poor air quality can cause detrimental effects on human health and increase disease, especially among vulnerable populations, including children, the elderly and those living in areas with high levels of pollution.

Several things can affect air quality. Manmade pollutants from vehicle emissions, coal power plants and more can play a direct role in air quality, but there are also natural causes.

Weather can affect air quality as well, according to the UCAR Center. If there is a volcanic eruption or a fire that emits pollutants into the air, wind can then carry these pollutants hundreds of miles away to another location. Storms can wash pollutants out of the atmosphere or move them to another location, but high-pressure systems and heatwaves create stagnant air that can cause high concentrations of pollutants to sit over an area. Droughts can increase the chances of fires, which also add more carbon monoxide and particle pollution to the atmosphere.

But weather can also increase air quality. Humidity can help decrease ozone pollution, and afternoon thunderstorms block sunlight, therefore slowing down ozone production while moisture destroys the ozone that has formed.

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What is air quality? How can the weather and human behavior impact it? - WQAD Moline

Human Behavior

When Yellowstone Wildlife Injures Humans, We Need To Keep Own Behavior In Check – Mountain Journal

Its been one of the damndest kinds of human behavior towitnessand witness it I have for nearly five full yearsas Mountain Journalbuilt its large and engaged audience on Facebook.

Eyebrow raising, too, is how the tenor of discourse in thedigital town squarethe modern version of spectators shouting from cheap seatsin the Roman Coliseum changes abruptly if the injured person dies.

It's happened with a number of fatal grizzly bear maulings.

Rest assured the same kind of vile fulmination flows frompeople who wish ill things to happen to environmentalistsespecially todefenders of grizzlies and wolvesas it does with animal rights activists saying all hunters ought to be hunted. To share almost any story on social media is to affirm that it's often mighty hard to foster a civil discussion.

On the morning of Memorial Day 2022, a young woman from Ohio,25 years old, in the early prime of her life, was gored by a bison as shestrolled along a boardwalk in Black Sand Basin in Yellowstone National Park. Accordingto the press release offered by Yellowstone officials, she was tossed 10 feetin the air. She was evacuated and her condition remains unknown.

Initially, when news first broke of the encounter, she was roundly ridiculed for venturing too close to thelarge post-Pleistocene icon of Americas oldest national park. If you want toget a taste of the flavor of comments, go to Mountain Journals Facebookpage now and read them for yourself.

Before one judges, consider that the impetuous reactions frommost were not likelyif we are giving them the benefit of the doubtintended tobe cruel. Often it is instead a cathartic acknowledgment that the space of wildanimals needs to be respected. Rallying on behalf of wildliferecognizing animalsentience and not treating species other than ourselves merely as harvestable natural resources or propcuriositiesis actually only a fairly recent advancement in the thinking of Homo sapiens.

In its press release,Yellowstone emphasized a fact that is included in the pamphlets and fliersgiven to visitors as they pass through the park gates. Wildlife in Yellowstoneare wild and can be dangerous when approached, the press release reminded, andit repeated the legal spatial mandates that exist in both Yellowstone and GrandTeton national parks: visitors are required to maintain at least a 25-yard(75-foot) distance between themselves and bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer,moose and coyotes and at least 100 yards (300 feet) from bears and wolves.

Indeed, neither Yellowstone, nor Grand Teton nor the otherpublic wildlands in Greater Yellowstone are Disneyland. And this is precisely whyGreater Yellowstone and its unparalleled array of large mammal inhabitants stands apart.

But here, lets reflect on what that means. It means theanimals are not tame. It means they are self-willed and mostly uncontrolled. It means they are larger than people. Asa tenet of personal responsibility, it means that in order to minimize thepossibility of us getting injured or injuring them we are required to arm ourselves not with gunsbut solid information. It means that we increase our ecological literacy, whichis to say becoming aware of the natural history of other beings that are notrobots or creations of artificial intelligence or virtual reality.

This Yellowstone tourist, who moved too close to a mother grizzly and cubs, darts away after the adult bear made a bluff charge. The 25-year-old visitor from Carol Stream, Illinois, was banned from Yellowstone and required to pay more than $2,000 in fines. Photo courtesy Yellowstone Facebook page/Darcie Addington

Wild lives have the potential to wipe smugness from the faceof any arrogant, self-absorbed person who does not check their own ego at thedoor. Sometimes, even the reverent,respectful and unprepared are reminded of that with devastating consequences.

The point is not to mock others when it happens but rather morefully appreciate that such wildness still exists in the 21stcenturyeven after decades of litigious, opportunistic lawyers seeking toblame, sue and profit on misadventure, and frightened government agencies being forced to buffthe edges off of danger. In essence, thetendency has been to eviscerateor make antiseptic the very things that makewild places wild and which summon us closer with hearts in full palpitation.

Obviously, sincere sympathies are offered to the humans whoget hurt or killed. They are somebodys belovedsons and daughters, moms, dads and good personal friends. They did not come toYellowstone and Grand Teton with any notion of being mauled or gored. Enthusiastic, they made the trekbecause the allure of wild nature matters to them and, in today's world, the scarcity of such places in the Anthropocene mean most humans are out of their element.

Whats also essential to understand is that such negativeencounters are actually exceedingly rare; that maintaining awesome wildness isnot so much a matter of wildlife management but human management, and wehumans often create trouble for both wildlife and those in uniform whovirtuously look after them.

So, what about bisonhow dangerous are they? While most visitorworry is directed toward bears, bison are actually the most dangerous animal inYellowstone.

That number has risen since the analysis was made. But the researchers, when it was written, also cited the advent of a newphenomenon that, in some ways, has undermined the great educational outreachefforts made by the national parks. The popularity of smart phone photographywith its limited zoom capacity and social media sharing of selfies mightexplain why visitors disregard park regulations and approach wildlife moreclosely than when traditional camera technology was used.

Yes, revolutionaryhand-held technology that alters human behavior has actually resulted in morepeople abandoning common sense, turning their backs to wildlife which are closeby, and then posing for a selfie to get the animal in the frame.

Rangers in Yellowstone and Grand Teton have theirhands full trying to manage wildlife jams along the park highways. In JacksonHole, public excitement surrounding grizzlies, namely mother bear 399, has putthe Grand Teton Park wildlife brigade into a tough spot trying to prevent people from doingextraordinarily dumb things in their zeal to see bears and capture theexperience on camera.

However, the authors also note: Despite thesuccess of the 1970 bear management program in reducing the number ofbear-inflicted human injuries in the park, an average of 1 bear-inflicted humaninjury/year still occurs. These injuries most often involve surprise encountersbetween backcountry hikers and female grizzly bears with young. It will bedifficult to reduce the frequency of this type of injury, especially if bothbackcountry recreational activity and the grizzly bear population in YellowstoneNational Park continue to increase. Public education programs informing hikershow to avoid surprise encounters and how to react to encounters and attacksonce they occur may be the most useful tool in further decreasing the numberand severity of bear-inflicted human injuries in the park.

In 2021, a 25-year-old woman from Carol Stream, Illinois, unwittingly made national news after she was captured on video remaining too close to a Yellowstone grizzly mother with cubs and was bluff charged by the adult bear. Pleading guilty to a number of charges, Samantha Dehring spent four days in jail, was banned from Yellowstone for a year and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and make a $1,000 community service contribution to the Yellowstone Forever Wildlife Protection Fund,

Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are, indeed, wild. The park is not a zoo where animals can be viewed within the safety of a fenced enclosure. They roam freely in their natural habitat and when threatened will react accordingly, statedActing US Attorney Bob Murray in a news release issued by Yellowstone. Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish. Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist.

But to show how rare such an encounter is, the park put it inperspective. Chances of being attacked by a grizzly in developed areas,roadsides, and boardwalks in Yellowstone: 1 in 59.5 million visits; chanceswhile in a roadside campground; 1 in 26.6 million overnight stays; chanceswhile camped in the backcountry: 1 in 1.7 million overnight stays; chances while hiking in the backcountry: 1 in232,613 person travel days. Put altogether, the chances of having a grizzlyencounter overall: 1 in 2.7 million visits.

The irony of potential peril is that it possesses the potential of making us feel more alive. Lucky are we to still have nature preserves we enter at our own risk. For those who come into harm's way, let us resist the temptation to debase ourselves by being unkind. Sometimes when things happen in Yellowstone, the could happen to any of us.

NOTE: Todd Wilkinson's longstanding column, "The New West," appears every Wednesday and Monday at Mountain Journal.

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When Yellowstone Wildlife Injures Humans, We Need To Keep Own Behavior In Check - Mountain Journal

Human Behavior

Researchers are trying to teach residents to respect Long Island beach spaces occupied by shore birds – CBS New York

LONG ISLAND -- Two Long Island beaches are part of a national study into how human behavior can help endangered shore birds.

As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported Monday, our beaches are filled with threatened birds that thrive when given room to nest and rest.

Lido Beach may look somewhat empty, but it's actually filled with fragile bird life that is breeding.

Long Island ocean beaches are as much a people playground as they are a wildlife preserve.

"It's an entire ecosystem that we are protecting, but also how to balance that with recreation and to provide these spaces for people to come with their families to enjoy the beaches," said Tara Schneider-Moran, a Town of Hempstead biologist.

The Town of Hempstead and Jones Beach are part of a national study to find the best way to help humans understand our beaches belong to endangered birds like piping plovers, American oystercatchers, terns, and black skimmers, too.

"We do want to push for this idea of sharing the shore. It's not just their nesting area, that it's also our beach season where we are playing volleyball, going swimming," said Shelby Casas of Audubon NY.

The study on the East Coast's Atlantic Flyway, conducted by the Audubon Society and Virginia Tech, will determine how best to teach the public to co-exist, keeping dogs away, and walking around shore birds, not through a flock.

"I like to think of it as sort of a smiley face. If you think of the two birds right in front of you along the edge of the water or out in the sand, if you just do a half circle around them, then you're not walking straight at them," said Ashley Dayer, a professor of fish and wildlife at Virginia Tech.

The researchers are getting the message out with fencing, signage, in-person outreach, and asking the public to keep at least 100 feet from a nesting area.

"That's a little hard to visualize. We have a lot of ways. It's like six kayaks worth of space from the birds. Stay out of the fenced areas. They are clearly marked. They have signage," Casas said.

Getting too close makes birds fly off in fear leaving eggs and young vulnerable.

"We want to protect them so that generations to come can appreciate them and go to the beach and see them nesting for years and years to come," Casas said.

"They are beautiful birds. We love seeing them," said Gail Blumenthal of Oceanside.

"I love the beach, it's nature. The animals belong here," added Stacey Ortiz of Bellmore.

The study's results are due next spring. Researchers are hoping to determine how many more chicks were bred because humans learned how to share the shore.

There are 464 nesting pairs of piping plovers across Long Island.

Carolyn Gusoff has covered some of the most high profile news stories in the New York City area and is best known as a trusted, tenacious, consistent and caring voice of Long Island's concerns.

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Researchers are trying to teach residents to respect Long Island beach spaces occupied by shore birds - CBS New York

Human Behavior

Why the top baby names then get less popular – Futurity: Research News

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The more popular a baby name becomes, the less likely parents are to choose it, research finds.

Parents first chose the name Maverick after a television show called Maverick aired in the 1950s, but its popularity rose meteorically in 1986 with the release of the movie Top Gun. Today, it is even used for baby girls.

The name Emma peaked in popularity in the late 1800s, declined precipitously through the first half of the 1900s, then shot back up to be one of the most popular names of the early 2000s. Linda peaked somewhere in the late 1940s and Daniel in the mid-1980s. But each rise in popularity was followed by an equally steep decline.

Same goes for popular dog breeds: Dalmatians today are a tenth as popular as they were in the 1990s.

Mitchell Newberry, an assistant professor of complex systems, says examining trends in the popularity of baby names and dog breeds can be a proxy for understanding ecological and evolutionary change. The names and dog breed preferences themselves are like genes or organisms competing for scarce resources. In this case, the scarce resources are the minds of parents and dog owners. His results are published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

Newberry looks at frequency-dependent selection, a kind of natural selection in which the tendency to copy a certain variant depends on that variants current frequency or popularity, regardless of its content. If people tend to copy the most common variant, then everyone ends up doing roughly the same thing. But if people become less willing to copy a variant the more popular it becomes, it leads to a greater diversity of variants.

Think of how we use millions of different names to refer to people but we almost always use the same word to refer to baseball, Newberry says. For words, theres pressure to conform, but my work shows that the diversity of names results from pressures against conformity.

These trends are common in biology, but difficult to quantify. What researchers do have is a complete database of the names of babies over the last 87 years.

Newberry used the Social Security Administration baby name database, itself born in 1935, to examine frequency dependence in first names in the United States. He found that when a name is most rare1 in 10,000 birthsit tends to grow, on average, at a rate of 1.4% a year. But when a name is most commonmore than 1 in 100 birthsits popularity declines, on average, at 1.6%.

This is really a case study showing how boom-bust cycles by themselves can disfavor common types and promote diversity, Newberry says. If people are always thirsting after the newest thing, then its going to create a lot of new things. Every time a new thing is created, its promoted, and so more rare things rise to higher frequency and you have more diversity in the population.

Using the same techniques they applied to baby names, Newberry and colleagues examined dog breed preferences using a database of purebred dog registrations from the American Kennel Club. They found boom-bust cycles in the popularity of dog breeds similar to the boom-bust cycles in baby names.

The researchers found a Greyhound boom in the 1940s and a Rottweiler boom in the 1990s. This shows what researchers call a negative frequency dependent selection, or anti-conformity, meaning that as frequency increases, selection becomes more negative. That means that rare dog breeds at 1 in 10,000 tend to increase in popularity faster than dogs already at 1 in 10.

Biologists basically think these frequency-dependent pressures are fundamental in determining so many things, Newberry says. The long list includes genetic diversity, immune escape, host-pathogen dynamics, the fact that theres basically a one-to-one ratio of males and femalesand even what different populations think is sexy.

Why do birds like long tails? Why do bamboos take so long to flower? Why do populations split into different species? All of these relate at a fundamental level to either pressures of conformity or anti-conformity within populations.

Conformity is necessary within species, Newberry says. For example, scientists can alter the order of genes on a flys chromosomes, and it does not affect the fly at all. But that doesnt happen in the wild, because when that fly mates, its genes wont pair with its mates, and their offspring will not survive.

However, we also need anti-conformity, he says. If we all had the same immune system, we would all be susceptible to exactly the same diseases. Or, Newberry says, if the same species of animal all visited the same patch of land for food, they would quickly eat themselves out of existence.

Life is this dance of when do we have to cohere, and when do we have to separate? he says. Natural selection is incredibly hard to measure. Youre asking, for an entire population, who lived, who died, and why? And thats just a crazy thing to try to ask. By contrast, in names, we literally know every single name for the entire country for a hundred years.

Source: University of Michigan

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Why the top baby names then get less popular - Futurity: Research News

Human Behavior

Letter to the Mountaineer editor Fort Carson Mountaineer – fortcarsonmountaineer.com

Editors note: The following is a letter to the editor from a Colorado Springs community member who was assisted after being involved in a car accident.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. To whom it may concern,

On May 21, 2022, the weekend of the snowstorm, I found myself in a car accident involving another driver off of Southgate Road. A Soldier saw the accident and pulled over to check if both parties were OK.

After the Soldier deemed both parties were uninjured, he helped move the vehicles out of traffic and off the snowy road. He helped both parties make sure a claim was filed and tow trucks were called. He stayed with me and the other driver until a tow truck showed up.

Once the tow truck loaded the other drivers vehicle, the helpful Soldier offered a ride to that driver and took him back to his home. After he dropped off that driver he went back to the scene and waited for another tow truck to load my vehicle, followed by offering me and my service dog a ride back to my home.

He also made my service dog feel completely safe and allowed her in his vehicle for the ride home. I failed to the get name of the Soldier who went above and beyond, and he deserves to be commended for his outstanding human behavior. Fort Carson along with the Army should feel proud to have him among the ranks.

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Letter to the Mountaineer editor Fort Carson Mountaineer - fortcarsonmountaineer.com

Human Behavior

Its Pride month, and certain behavior is nothing to be proud of – Chicago Sun-Times

Welcome to LGBTQ+ Pride Month, sports fans. Tolerance is fun, isnt it?

Im speaking, specifically, to fans at the Mexico-Ecuador game at Soldier Field on Sunday night, the ones who chanted a homophobic slur at Ecuadorian goalkeeper Alexander Dominguez as he attempted a kick late in the game.

This wasnt about Dominguez being gay or anything like that. The 6-5, 35-year-old veteran is straight, for all we know. But thats not relevant anyway.

This was about Mexicos fans chanting a nasty, homophobic word in Spanish that they have been warned many times not to use. And its not just that one word, either.

Soccer fans around the world have been told by governing body FIFA to knock off all sexual, racial and ethnic chants aimed at foes. And the use of a three-step warning system with the third tier being cancellation of the game is the penalty for such behavior.

The Mexico-Ecuador game, a friendly, by the way, was paused in the 81st minute while a warning flashed on the scoreboard.

STEP #1, it read. ANY INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATING IN THE DISCRIMINATORY CHANT WILL BE EJECTED FROM THE STADIUM.

Players from both teams gathered peacefully in the center circle, the crowd tamed, and shortly the game continued.

But we still have a gay thing going on in this world, and demeaning an opponent with a homophobic slur is the time-honored way of attacking not just a foes abilities but his or her status as a human being.

Even as we see rainbow colors throughout Chicago, and even as our city prepares for its annual Pride Parade on June 26, the forces against acceptance remain.

Clearly, these are troubling, confusing times for us all. It seems every minority or oppressed person or group has abruptly demanded equality as fast as possible.Sometimes, even faster than possible.

But this is how things change. This is how turbulence leads to equity, to fairness. And to hold out against such change is to fall behind history and, ultimately, to be humiliated.

That kind of reluctance was at the root of the nasty chant that rocked 61,000 fans at Soldier Field. Of course, we cant rule out the effect of alcohol here, either. Its probably no coincidence the slurs came after the crowd had hours of warm-weather drinking under its belt.

Yet there was no boozing among Rays players who refused to wear the rainbow cap and sleeve decals designed by their team for the clubs 16th Pride Night held Saturday at Tropicana Field.

The Rays played the White Sox, and fans watching probably barely noticed anything unusual about any of the uniforms because players wear camouflage, pink, retro and hybrid outfits almost as often as regular ones.

So why bother to consciously remove a little rainbow sleeve starburst or a barely altered cap?

Rays pitcher Jason Adam pointed to his religious objections, saying, Its just that maybe we dont want to encourage [gay behavior] if we believe in Jesus, whos encouraged us to live a lifestyle that would abstain from that behavior.

So theres that. Maybe Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his crackdown on sexual-orientation teachings in the first years of grade school were a subtle part of this, too.

But its Pride Month in the United States, no matter what, and attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ citizens of our country will keep changing, always for the better, we must hope.

Myself, I am not convinced that mature transgender women that is, females who went through puberty and have trained as males should be allowed to compete at the highest levels with cisgender females.

My mind could change. I dont know. Information is key. As is science. Lia Thomas 6-3, broad-shouldered and a male for 21 years winning a womens NCAA swimming championship made me dubious. But well see.

Remember this: According to a recent Gallup poll, 71% of Americans now support gay marriage. In 1996, only 27% did. Thats pretty fast change.

Theres also the weariness that comes from resisting something that is personal, inevitable, applies only to others and should not affect our private lives at all. I often chuckle at a poem by late British writer Dorothy Sayers, admiring its wisdom:

As I grow older and older

And totter towards the tomb

I find I care less and less

Who goes to bed with whom.

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Its Pride month, and certain behavior is nothing to be proud of - Chicago Sun-Times

Human Behavior

On Fatherlessness and Mass Shootings – Daily Citizen – Daily Citizen

As the unspeakable evil of mass shootings continue to increase, each of us are trying to understand what could be driving these tragedies. There are no shortage of explanations being bandied about with absolute certainty, from ineffectual gun control laws, mental illness, peer bullying, first-person shooter video games, violence in movies and television shows, growing personal anger and alienation. Fatherlessness has even been mentioned as a driver. Others strongly deny the linkage and blame guns.

Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, considered the role of family breakdown and fatherlessness in a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Lee said, Every time one of these tragedies occurs, for too long we have failed to look back at the root causes of rampage violence. Why is our culture all of sudden producing so many young men who want to murder innocent people? Lee continued, It raises the question, could fatherlessness, the break-down of the family, isolation from civil society or the glorification of violence be contributing factors?

The Senator is asking important questions. But others disagree.

A faculty member at the highly conservative Brigham Young University recently opined in the Mormon-owned Deseret News that as a sociologist of family and fatherhood, I can tell you that the best available evidence suggests that neither is responsible for the increase in these horrific events. He denies father absence and family breakdown are drivers. He says its guns.

But leading mainstream sociologists and the larger body of data disagree with this dismissal. Brad Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia and founder and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, contends, Sen. Mike Lee is right to wonder if fatherlessness and family breakdown are factors in the tidal wave of violence that has engulfed America since 2020.

Professor Wilcox adds, We know that young men who are raised without the benefit of good fathers are more likely to engage in violent behavior. Of course, other factors are also likely in play

It has long been consistently demonstrated that fatherlessness, violence, and criminal behavior go together in dramatic ways. The U.S. Department of Justice explains that the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency reported in 1997 that the most reliable indicator of violent crime in a community is the proportion of fatherless families. This scholarly journal also reported, According to a 1993 Metropolitan Life Survey, Violence in Americas Public Schools, 71 percent of teachers and 90 percent of law enforcement officials state that the lack of parental supervision at home is a major factor that contributes to the violence in schools. And fatherlessness decreases the amount and quality of this supervision dramatically.

More recently, a 2021 meta-analysis in the scientific journal Psychology, Crime & Law examined 48 different academic studies on the relationship between fatherlessness and criminal behavior, finding a remarkably strong correlation. These scholars explain, the results suggest that growing up in a single-parent family and adolescent involvement in crime are related since a large majority of the studies shows a positive relation between single-parent families and the level of crime. They add their findings are in accordance with previous literature reviews on the topic.

These scholars seem to agree with leaders like Senator Mike Lee when they conclude their journal article with this encouragement: it is important to investigate in more detail how this relation between single-parent families and crime works to ensure that criminal behavior by adolescents is minimized.

Deserert News countered such findings with curious statements from a variety of miscellaneous scholars like Shawn Fremstad, a scholar at the Center for Economic Policy Research,

Mass shootings are extreme events, so we dont have a lot of demographic or survey data to look at, but there is no evidence-based reason for believing that mass shootings are caused by single mothers, grandmothers who raised their grandchildren or lesbian couples, all examples of fatherless household arrangements.

Fremstad is correct from a number of angles. But wrong in others.

Yes, the violent and public slaughter of innocent lives with high-powered guns is an extreme event that confounds all reason. And no one is saying fatherlessness alone is driving such tragedies. But to dismiss it altogether is unsound.

There has not been a great deal of research breaking down the psychological profiles and reasoning behind such shootings. But there has been some, as we will examine below. But isolating single reasons for such madness is nearly impossible because such atrocities challenge any sort of reasoning. It is nearly impossible to find reasons for inherently irrational actions. And certainly, a mass shooter does not a fatherless home create. But it certainly does cause all such children to walk with significant emotional, developmental and spiritual limps.

That is the problem with trying to explain the unspeakable evil of mass shooting with a single driver like gun possession, mental illness, violent video games, or the breakdown of the family. Yes, psychologists find that fatherlessness negatively impacts nearly every measure of well-being for children, including criminal and violent behavior. Sociologists find the same thing. Fatherlessness does not generally benefit any measure of child well-being. None.

But guns and fatherlessness have been widely experienced in our society for decades. Neither can be isolated as the primary cause of the dramatic increase in mass shootings we are experiencing in the last twenty years. There must be other troubling factors as well.

The U.S. Department of Justices National Institute of Justice (NIJ) recently reported that [p]ersons who committed public mass shootings in the U.S. over the last half century were commonly troubled by personal trauma before their shooting incidents, nearly always in a state of crisis at the time. Specially, NIJ reported, Suicidality was found to be a strong predictor of perpetration of mass shootings. In fact, among young people, NIJ reports that 92% of mass shooters committed by those in the K-12 age range were found to be suicidal at the time of the shootings and 100% of college-age shooters were suicidal at the time!

Family breakdown and father abandonment certainly fit as a major life driver of such individual pain and life trauma. Who can deny this fact? But we must also be open to considering additional evils at work today driving such horrific social problems if we are going to find real solutions. Human behavior is indeed complex. Pure evil is too and that is what each mass shooting is.

Photo from Shutterstock.

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On Fatherlessness and Mass Shootings - Daily Citizen - Daily Citizen

Human Behavior

DiPiazza named Delaware Behavioral Specialist of the Year – Milford LIVE

Rosa DiPiazza, BHP, a behavioral specialist with Milford School District was recently named Delaware Behavioral Health Specialist of the Year. DiPiazza has been with Milford since completing an internship as part of her masters degree.

Ive always been interested in the intersection of science and behavior, but it took me some time to find the right balance for me, DiPiazza said. I worked in a neuroscience research lab for a while in college, but quickly realized I needed more human interaction. That led me to work with Domestic Violence Services, which solidified my desire to work with children and my belief in the importance of early intervention. Part of that work included partnering with schools to run prevention education groups. I loved working in schools and being able to provide consistent services to children. I initially started my graduate work in clinical psychology, but when I learned about school psychology, I realized it was a great fit for me and switched programs. I love school psychology because it combines data-driven interventions and science with direct human service. Its the best of both worlds.

DiPiazza graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2013 with a bachelors degree in neuroscience. She worked as a Childrens Advocate with Domestic Violence Services of Lancaster County before starting graduate school at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, where she earned a bachelors degree psychology and an educational specialist certification in school psychology. While DiPiazza was finishing her masters degree, her mother moved to Delaware. She felt it made sense to search for internships and was selected for one in Milford where she has remained.

One of the most challenging things about this job is how long it can take to see progress in student mental health, DiPiazza said. I think theres sometimes a perception that everything gets better immediately if you just get someone started with counseling or other mental health supports. Thats usually not the case. Progress in mental health can be a slow process that sometimes doubles back on itself. Its important to stay hopeful and optimistic. You have to be able to look for the incremental changes and hold expectations that are both high and reasonable. Sometimes it feels like there isnt any progress being made at all, and then all of a sudden everything will come together. That can be a different kind of challenging. Thats usually when students graduate from my caseload, which means I see them less when everything is going well.

One of the best parts of her job is building relationships with students, colleagues and families. DiPiazza explained that she loves feeling like she is part of the school community.

I love watching students grow and learn and apply their new skills in new situations, DiPiazza said. Being involved in problem-solving teams and providing consultative support to colleagues is deeply rewarding. Not only can I see students improving, I am often also able to watch colleagues take those same skills and strategies and apply them in other situations with other students. Anything I can do to share my knowledge and expertise with others and build collective capacity is rewarding. Hoarded knowledge helps one person; shared knowledge helps us all.

As part of the recognition, DiPiazza receives a $2,000 personal award in recognition of being chosen as the district Behavioral Specialist of the Year. She also receives an additional $3,000 as a state winner and the Delaware Department of Education provides her with a $5,000 grant to be used for the educational benefit of her students.

I hope to use this platform to advocate for universal implementation of trauma-informed practices and well-functioning multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) in our schools, DiPiazza said. Things like having calming areas in our classrooms and schools, building consistent structure and routines into our days, and praising effort and growth feel like small changes, but they can go a long way towards making our students feel safe and cared for at school. When these things are part of every students school experience, we are then able to identify students who need additional supports and provide them with what they need without overwhelming our systems.

Laura Manges, Director of Student Services, believes this was an amazing honor for DiPiazza, but is not at all surprised she received it.

From the moment Rosa began working with our students in Milford, she provided a level of compassion, maturity and expertise that was extremely rare to find in such a young practitioner, Manges said. The Milford School community is truly fortunate to have Rosa DiPiazza on our team. She most certainly is a leader in behavioral health. I look for more great things to come from her leadership in the future.

Dr. Kevin Dickerson, Superintendent, echoed the sentiments of Manges.

We are incredibly proud of Ms. DiPiazza for her deserved recognition as Delawares Behavioral Health Professional of the Year, stated Dr. Dickerson. We are extremely grateful to have Ms. DiPiazza working in the Milford School District and, furthermore, for the exceptional work that she does with our students, staff and families. This is a tremendous honor and is reflective of the huge impact she has serving our students and the entire Mispillion Elementary Schools school-community.

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DiPiazza named Delaware Behavioral Specialist of the Year - Milford LIVE

Human Behavior

Rice’s top-ranked I-O psychology program has helped its alumni stand out – Rice News

Earlier this year, Rice Universitys graduate program in industrial organizational psychology was ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report .

The top ranking comes as no surprise to the faculty, students and alumni affiliated with the program, long known for excellence in the field of I-O psychology, the scientific study of human behavior in organizations and the workplace.

"I am so proud of the world-class scholars in our I/O Psychology program who bring such energy and skill to their work," said Rice Dean of Social Sciences Rachel Kimbro. "This is a well-deserved recognition!"

The I-O program is an undiscovered diamond at Rice, said Eduardo Salas, department chair and I-O professor of psychological sciences. Just look at the accomplishments of the faculty from national scholarly lifetime achievement awards to national teaching awards winners. Our faculty and graduate students conduct impactful research on a range of issues, including diversity and inclusion, resilience in organizations, employee training and testing, team science, safety, the aging workforce and artificial intelligence in the workplace. Our expertise is sought out worldwide.

Rice I-O psychological sciences faculty include three past presidents of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and five fellows of the organization. They have authored books, won numerous teaching, mentoring and research awards, and received millions of dollars in grant funding.

In short, theyre exactly what you would expect in the No. 1-ranked program in this discipline, Salas said.

Perhaps the biggest indicators of the programs success are its alumni, who have flourished in fields ranging from academia to health care to aerospace.

Eden King, the Lynette S. Autrey Professor of Psychology and graduate of Rice with a bachelors degree and Ph.D. in psychological sciences, was attracted to Rices culture before attending as an undergraduate. She returned for graduate school because of the chance to work with Mikki Hebl, the Martha and Henry Malcolm Lovett Chair of Psychology, to address meaningful questions about prejudice and discrimination at work.

I definitely had a competitive edge because of the mentorship I received, King said, recalling professors who stopped at nothing to make sure she was prepared for entering the workforce. The faculty at Rice helped make sure that I had the knowledge, skills and scholarly evidence to propel me forward in my career.

Stephanie Zajac, a leadership practitioner at MD Anderson Cancer Center, picked Rice and the Department of Psychological Sciences because she was seeking a smaller, more personal environment for grad school.

In the grad school rankings, the culture at Rice was mentioned as something that really drew students there, and I could tell when I visited that it was very supportive and collegial. Both the students and the professors were warm and inviting, she said. Also, Rice overall is an amazing university with a very good reputation in the field.

Zajac said the programs rigor, in combination with professors who were truly invested in her success, helped her determine her career direction and find success in this field.

Whatever your goals are, they are invested in helping you get there, she said. I still have a great relationship with our I-O professors and have worked with many of them throughout my professional career.

Like King and Zajac, Kelly Goff, currently senior director of talent strategy for Blue Origin, came to Rice because of the I-O programs quality, support of graduate students and the reputation of the university overall as well as its central location in Houston. She is responsible for workforce planning, compensation, talent management, talent analytics and employer branding for her company, which is working to enable a future where millions of people are living and working in space for the benefit of Earth.

It was important to me to select a program that was supportive of not only the academic research, but the practical application in the real world, she said. I knew before grad school that I wanted to use my education by applying research-backed solutions within companies. Rice provided that balanced approach strong academics coupled with industry connections.

Goff said Rices affiliation with a variety of organizations provided a pathway to practical work experiences in the Texas Medical Center and an internship at NASA.

Rices I-O program provided a very strong foundation in how to do research identify a problem, investigate, understand relevant research in the field, experimentation, statistical analysis and writing, she said. My success in my career is largely due to these skills applied to a variety of problems. Knowing how to do research has given me the ability to tackle any problem, especially new ones, and work through them successfully.

More information on Rices Department of Psychological Sciences is available online at https://psychology.rice.edu.

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Rice's top-ranked I-O psychology program has helped its alumni stand out - Rice News