Social connectedness, self-esteem, and depression symptomatology among collegiate athletes versus nonathletes.

OBJECTIVE: The authors compared collegiate athletes and nonathletes to see whether there were significant differences in the perceived levels of social connectedness, self-esteem, and depression and if an interaction among the variables of athlete status, gender, GPA, BMI, and levels of weekly exercise and sleep were associated with depression symptomatology. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 227 college students. METHOD: The authors surveyed students using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Social Connectedness Scale-Revised. RESULTS: Athletes had significantly greater levels of self-esteem and social connectedness, as well as significantly lower levels of depression, than did nonathletes. However, the statistically strongest predictors of depression in this cohort were the variables of gender, self-esteem, social connectedness, and sleep. CONCLUSION: This study adds to the limited and inconsistent research in the empirical knowledge base regarding depression among collegiate athletes.

A 16-year examination of domestic violence among Asians and Asian Americans in the empirical knowledge base: a content analysis.

Until recently, research studies have implied that domestic violence does not affect Asian American and immigrant communities, or even Asians abroad, because ethnicity or culture has not been addressed. In this content analysis, the authors examined trends in publications in leading scholarly journals on violence relating to Asian women and domestic violence. A coding schema was developed, with two raters coding the data with high interrater reliability. Sixty articles were published over the 16 years studied, most atheoretical and focusing on individual levels of analysis. The terms used in discussing domestic violence reflected a feminist perspective. Three quarters of the studies were empirical, with most guided by logical positivism using quantitative designs. Most targeted specific Asian subgroups (almost a third focused on Asian Indians) rather than categorizing Asians as a general ethnic category. The concept of "Asian culture" was most often assessed by discussing Asian family structure. Future research is discussed in light of the findings.