Is tobacco use a problem among deaf college students?

College students' tobacco use poses a significant public health problem. Effective intervention requires understanding of this behavior among race/ethnic, cultural, and linguistic collegiate subgroups, including deaf and hard of hearing collegians. Findings from a first-ever tobacco-related survey among this understudied population are reported. The authors used written questionnaires and the Interactive Video Questionnaire, a multimedia computer technology developed for use with the deaf and hard of hearing, to interview 241 volunteers on seven California college campuses. They found lower self-reported current smoking prevalence (14.5%) relative to collegians in the general population, but considerable ever smoking (65.1%) and multiple types of tobacco use (37.3%). The authors report on factors associated with tobacco use and on students' exposure to cigarette marketing, gaps experienced in receipt of antitobacco messages and services, and students' antitobacco intervention recommendations. Limitations of the research are described, including possible underreporting of participants' tobacco use.     

The effect of pitch type on ground reaction forces in the baseball swing

Coaches have identified the batter's weight shift as a critical component for promoting proper timing and balance in a baseball swing. Analysing the weight shift through maximum horizontal (Fx) and vertical (Fz) ground reaction forces (GRFs) of professional batters (N = 29; height = 185 +/- 6 cm; mass = 92 +/- 9 kg), the purpose of this study was to compare GRFs among swings against fastballs and changeups. General linear models were used to compare three conditions of interest: successful results against fastballs, successful results against changeups, and unsuccessful results against changeups. Batters had a similar loading mechanism and initial weight transfer from back foot to front foot regardless of pitch type, but peak front foot GRFx and GRFz occurred with significantly different magnitudes and at significantly different times, depending on the pitch type and hit result. Peak front foot GRFs were greater for successful swings against fastballs compared to both successful and unsuccessful swings against changeups. Peak front foot GRFs of unsuccessful swings against changeups occurred, on average, 15-20 ms earlier than successful swings against changeups and 30-35 ms earlier than successful swings against fastballs, quantifying how a changeup can disrupt the coordination of a hitter's weight shift.     

Understanding Reliability

The topic of test reliability is about the relative consistency of test scores and other educational and psychological measurements. In this module, the idea of consistency is illustrated with reference to two sets of test scores. A mathematical model is developed to explain both relative consistency and relative inconsistency of measurements. A means of indexing reliability is derived using the model. Practical methods of estimating reliability indices are considered, together with factors that influence the reliability index of a set of measurements and the interpretation that can be made of that index.     

Adult Attachment States of Mind: Measurement Invariance Across Ethnicity and Associations With Maternal Sensitivity

This study examined the developmental significance of mothers' adult attachment representations assessed prenatally with the Adult Attachment Interview in relation to observed maternal sensitivity at 6 months postpartum in an ethnically diverse sample (N = 131 African American; N = 128 European American). Multiple‐group confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for partial measurement invariance of a two‐factor dismissing and preoccupied latent structure of adult attachment across the two ethnic groups of women. African American women showed modest elevations on the preoccupied factor relative to European American women. Although the dismissing factor showed an empirically equivalent negative association with maternal sensitivity in both ethnic groups, this effect was reduced to marginal significance when controlling for maternal socioeconomic status.     

Communication in General

COMMUNICATION YEARBOOK 11 edited by James A. Anderson (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1988, 648 pp.—$41.95, ISBN 0-8039-3138-7)

TARNISHED GOLD: THE RECORD INDUSTRY REVISED by R. Serge Denisoff (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books/Rutgers, 1986, 487 pp.—$34.95/16.95, ISBN 0-88738-06809 [cloth], 0-88738-618-0 [paper])

INSIDE MTV by R. Serge Denisoff (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books/Rutgers, 1988, 373 pp.—$24.95, ISBN 0-88738-173-1)

THE END OF CONVERSATION: THE IMPACT OF MASS MEDIA ON MODERN SOCIETY by Franco Ferrarotti (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988, 192 pp.—$37.95, ISBN 0-313-26087-7)

LAWS OF OUR FATHERS: POPULAR CULTURE AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION by Ray and Glenn Browne (Bowling Green, Ohio: Popular Culture Press, 1986—$24.95/12.95, no ISBN given)

POPULAR CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES edited by Josie Campbell (Bowling Greene, Ohio: Popular Culture Press, 1986—$19.95/9.95, no ISBN given)

THE PREDICAMENT OF CULTURE: TWENTIETH-CENTURY ETHNOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, AND ART by James Clifford (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988—$30.00/15.95, no ISBN given)

THE SILENT MAJORITY: NONRESPONDENTS ON SAMPLE SURVEYS by John Goyder (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988—$39.00, no ISBN given)

MEDIA IN SOCIETY: READINGS IN MASS COMMUNICATION edited by Caren J. Deming and Samuel L. Becker (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1988, 435 pp.—price not given, ISBN 0-673-15820-9)