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African American Teens Are Less Likely to Become Regular Smokers
Researchers know that early smoking experimentation among teens is a known risk factor for escalation to regular smoking later on, but is this true for all racial and ethnic groups? A new RAND study indicates that, compared with other teenagers, "African American youth try smoking early but then quit early on," said Phyllis Ellickson, lead author of the study.
The study, published in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health, tracked more than 6,000 African American, white, Latino, and Asian American youth for ten years, from ages 13 to 23.
By age 13, a total of 69 percent of Latino and 62 percent of African American youth in the study had tried smoking, compared with 52 percent of whites. But by age 15, only 7 percent of the African American teenagers were regular smokers, in contrast to about 20 percent of both whites and Latinos.
The study found that after age 13 or 14, the social environment of African American youth includes positive influences—such as a stronger likelihood of communicating with parents about social problems and of encountering parental disapproval of smoking—that are strong enough to offset other risk factors for smoking, such as doing poorly in school.
"Our results suggest we might be able to stop more young smokers from developing a regular habit by helping parents talk with their children, improving family bonds, and dampening peer pressure to smoke," Ellickson said.
New Interventions Lead to Improvements for Minorities Suffering from Depression
Following on the heels of national calls for approaches to reduce health disparities between whites and minorities, researchers at RAND and the University of California at Los Angeles have shown that new interventions improve the way that primary care medical practices treat depression, leading to significant, long-lasting benefits for African American and Latino patients.
"These interventions significantly improved health in the long run, for historically underserved minority groups at risk for poor health outcomes," said Kenneth Wells, principal investigator of the study published in the April edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
As part of a random controlled trial, primary care practices across different sites in the United States were assigned either to their usual care for depression or to interventions that provided the practices and patients with education about depression treatments and resources. The interventions made it easier to obtain treatments—either medications or psychotherapy—if necessary.
Among all participants, the interventions caused a small overall improvement in depression outcomes. But the improvements among minorities were large enough to erase the disparities in outcomes between minorities and whites in standard care, particularly in the psychotherapy-based version of the intervention.
Minorities continued to benefit from the intervention five years later. In fact, their improvement at five years was the largest outcome improvement found in the study at any time period.
"Frontline" Responders Vary in Preparedness for Terrorist Attacks
Much of the responsibility for protecting the American people against terrorist attacks devolves to state and local responders, who form the "front line" in our homeland defense against terrorism. How prepared are these responders for potential terrorist attacks, and what are their key concerns?
"Organizations have undertaken a range of activities to improve their response capabilities, but it is difficult to say how much better prepared they are, because no national standards exist to measure organizational and community preparedness," said Lois Davis, author of a nationwide RAND survey of 910 state and local responder agencies.
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The agencies include police departments, fire departments, offices of emergency management (OEMs), emergency medical service (EMS) agencies, hospitals, and public health agencies. RAND conducted the survey for the federal Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (better known as the Gilmore Commission).
Based on the survey, most state and local emergency response organizations want the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to improve coordination, information sharing, and communication among all levels of government. These moves could help to unify state and local efforts with federal programs.
Nevertheless, fewer than 10 percent of local law enforcement agencies have applied for the security clearances necessary to obtain access to federal intelligence information. In contrast, more than three-fourths of state emergency management and state public health organizations have sought the security clearances.
Less than a fifth of hospitals and local responders (excluding local OEMs) considered it a high priority to spend money on the type of terrorist incident they deemed most important for their department (or agency) to prepare for. Higher percentages of state agencies and local public health agencies considered it a high spending priority (see figure).
In terms of funding, local preparedness officials are less satisfied with the distribution of federal homeland security grants than are state officials. "Their mantra has been wanting the funding to come directly to them, rather than having it filtered through the states," Davis said.
Within each discipline (such as law enforcement), agencies receiving external resources were more likely to undertake preparedness activities than agencies not receiving such support. For example, only 41 percent of local police departments said they had updated their emergency response plans. But of those departments that had received outside funding, 61 percent updated their plans. Of those that had not received outside funding, only 35 percent updated their plans.
For more information:
"Summary of Selected Survey Results," Appendix D in The Fifth Annual Report to the President and the Congress of the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction: V. Forging America’s New Normalcy: Securing Our Homeland, Protecting Our Liberty, Dec. 15, 2003. Available at www.rand.org/nsrd/terrpanel/.
Concerns Grow About South Korean Attitudes Toward United States
In late 2002 and early 2003, Americans witnessed candlelight vigils, demonstrations, and burning of American flags in South Korea. While this flare-up of anti- Americanism has tapered off, the most exhaustive analysis yet conducted of public opinion data on South Korean attitudes toward the United States shows that such attitudes are quite complex and do raise cause for concern.
"This is no time for complacency about South Koreans’ views of the U.S. and the bilateral relationship," according to a new RAND study led by Eric Larson. "There is a deep ambivalence about the presence of U.S. forces. On the one hand, most South Koreans have said that U.S. forces are important to their security, but on the other, they believe that the presence of U.S. forces may impede the pace of reunification with North Korea or adversely affect other goals."
In the figure, fluctuations can be seen across recent polls that have asked South Koreans whether they view the United States favorably or unfavorably. Favorable sentiment plummeted in late February 2002 in reaction to an incident in which a South Korean short-track speed skater lost the Olympic gold medal to an American. The sentiment then rose in the summer of 2002 but bottomed out again in December 2002, following the acquittal of two U.S. soldiers whose armored vehicle had accidentally killed two South Korean schoolgirls.
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While the study finds reasons for "cautious optimism" about an upturn of South Korean support for the United States, the study also points to longer-term challenges. One of those challenges is the fact that large numbers of South Koreans with college educations and those in their 20s hold an unfavorable view of the United States and believe America poses a greater threat to their country than North Korea.
Since the number of college-educated South Koreans is growing, there are serious concerns of a further erosion in attitudes toward the United States in the years ahead, a shift that policymakers will need to monitor closely.
The study recommends some ways to improve South Korean attitudes toward the United States. For one, it suggests exploring various opportunities—from better intelligence sharing to consultations and other mechanisms—to harmonize U.S.–South Korean views on threats and appropriate responses.
Another recommendation is to do more to persuade South Koreans that American interests in the region go beyond the North Korean threat and that the United States has a long-term interest in a peaceful, stable, and economically vital Northeast Asia.
Yet another suggestion is to develop a public diplomacy strategy that focuses on South Koreans’ legitimate grievances, while not attempting to change the views of those whose anti-Americanism is ideological and more deeply rooted.
For more information:
Ambivalent Allies? A Study of South Korean Attitudes Toward the U.S. (RAND/TR-141-SRF).
Three Trends Foreshadow the Future of Work
Shifting demographic patterns, the pace of technological change, and the path of economic globalization are three trends that "will affect the size, makeup, and skills of the labor force; the kinds of work and its settings; and worker compensation"—according to a new RAND study led by Lynn Karoly.
While the U.S. workforce will continue to grow, it will do so much more slowly than in the past, making it more difficult for employers to recruit workers during periods of strong economic growth (see figure). Firms could try to recruit groups with relatively low labor-participation rates, such as older individuals, women with children, and people with disabilities.
Technological advances will help make this possible. As data are transferred at higher speeds, more employees will be able to participate in such nonstandard work arrangements as telecommuting and flexible scheduling. Another lever that could be used to recruit workers is immigration policy, particularly targeting highly skilled immigrants, thus raising the overall skill level of the U.S. workforce.
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Rapid technological change and increasing economic globalization will combine to shape the future workforce and workplace. The workforce will need to be able to adapt to changing technologies and shifting product demand, and the growing importance of knowledge-based work will also favor strong nonroutine cognitive skills, such as abstract reasoning. Lifelong learning—training and retraining that continues well past initial entry into the labor force—will become the norm.
The workplace itself will continue to move toward more decentralized forms of business organization, with a shift away from more-permanent, lifetime jobs toward less permanent, even nonstandard employment relationships (such as self-employment) and work arrangements (such as distance work). Such changes highlight the importance of personally tailored benefit packages and the portability of benefits, the study says.
"Alternative workplace arrangements may be particularly attractive to workers who need to balance work and family obligations and may allow for faster workforce growth than what is projected," said Constantijn (Stan) Panis, coauthor of the study.
From a policy perspective, many of the institutional features of the U.S. labor market—such as the laws and regulations that govern employment—evolved in an earlier era. Given current trends and their implications, some policies may need to be reexamined.
For more information:
The 21st Century at Work: Forces Shaping the Future Workforce and Workplace in the United States (RAND/MG-164-DOL).
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