PsychBriefs: September 30-October 6, 2007

More Evidence for Influence of Cinematic Smoking
A study of 1,528 adults age 18 to 25 highlights the impact of on-screen smoking on young adults. Comparing subjects' exposure to smoking in films over the past 30 days to rates of smoking, investigators found that those who saw the most smoking in movies were 77 percent more likely to have smoked in the last month and 86 percent more likely to be established smokers.
[ARTICLE]

Minority Gays Have Fewer Mental Disorders
Testing the theory that prejudice leads to a stronger risk for mental health disorders, a study on lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations of blacks and Latinos found that these groups did not have a higher incidence of disorders. Rather, non-heterosexual blacks had a lower rate of mental health problems than non-heterosexual whites, while Latinos had about the same prevalence as whites. These findings suggest that these groups learn behaviors to cope with prejudice. Despite having a lower rate of mental health disorders, these individuals did have a stronger history of suicide attempts, though mainly in adolescence, when they may have been dealing with the social repercussions of coming out. This was less true for younger participants, suggesting changes in societal acceptance of gays lessen the mental burden on these individuals.
[ABSTRACT]