CSDE Affiliates Dr. Anne Conway (University of Tennessee) and Dr. Amelia Gavin (Social Work) co-authored research in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, titled “Child emotional abuse and adult depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of Black females: The moderating role of adolescent sleep duration“. Emotional abuse up to age 18 is associated with depressive symptoms in adulthood, yet few studies have examined these links in Black females. Despite research documenting the moderating role of sleep duration on early adversity and mental health, no studies have examined whether sleep duration during adolescence moderates the relations between emotional abuse up to age 18 and depressive symptoms in adulthood. Authors examined these relations in 690 Black females from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)—Public Use.
Individuals reported the frequency of emotional abuse up to age 18, hours of sleep during adolescence, and depressive symptoms using the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Only 55% of adolescents reported sleeping the recommended 8–10 hr per night. Frequent emotional abuse before age 18 years was associated with more adult depressive symptoms for those with shorter, but not longer, sleep duration. Greater attention should be placed on facilitating and promoting sleep health for Black females.
CSDE Affiliate Dr. Mia Bennett (Geography) recently released research with colleagues in Global Environmental Change Advances, titled “Bringing satellites down to Earth: Six steps to more ethical remote sensing“. To shed light on the politics of remote sensing, a technique often regarded as objective and neutral, the subfield of critical remote sensing has emerged in the social sciences. This perspective translates its key ideas into an actionable framework that offers suggestions for how to transform remote sensing to better engage and empower people and places typically studied at a distance.
First, authors encourage remote sensing scientists and practitioners to weigh the consequences of exposing inaccessible or off-limits places, incorporate local knowledge and values into research design, methods, and applications, and share skills and data with stakeholders who wish to learn and use remote sensing for their own objectives. Second, authors offer suggestions for teaching critical remote sensing and making research accessible and replicable. Third, they stress the importance of acknowledging that despite being conducted from afar, remote sensing can still affect the people and places it observes.
CSDE Affiliate Dr. Marcia Weaver (Health Metrics Sciences, Global Health, Health Systems and Population Health) and co-authors published “Burden and risk factors of mental and substance use disorders among adolescents and young adults in Kenya: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019” in eClinical Medicine. Mental and substance use disorders are a major public health concern globally, with high rates of morbidity for all disorders, and mortality for primarily substance use disorders. The first author, Dr. Manasi Kumar (Global Health) initiated the article with colleagues at the Kenyan Ministry of Health to summarize Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor (GBD) Study 2019 results for ages 10 to 24 years. Mental disorders are the second leading cause of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), which combine the burden of morbidity and mortality, in these age groups. Burden for mental disorders is higher for females than males, and for substance use disorders is higher for males than females. The burden of mental and substance abuse disorders increases with age, with the exceptions of autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and idiopathic developmental intellectual disability. Among the 17% of DALYs for mental disorders that are attributable to risk factors, bullying and victimization accounted for 65%.