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Thursday, July 18, 2013
Study: Casual sex connected to depression, anxiety in young adults The study looked at 3,900 college students’ sexual activity and mental well-being. By Chelsea Luckey Contributing Writer
College students who indulge in casual sex have higher rates of depression and anxiety, according to a new study headed by Cal State Sacramento professor Melina Bersamin. The study, released in June, looked at 3,900 heterosexual college students between the ages of 18 and 25 from across the U.S. and asked them about their recent sexual activity as well as their mental well-being. Through the study, Bersamin and nine other researchers found higher levels of anxiety and depression in young adults who have casual sex. Bersamin, who has worked in child development for 15 years, said she has “always been interested in how young adults define things differently.”
“Different definitions of ideals cause different behaviors to people,” she said. “Therefore, ambiguity of the terms on casual sex led me to this study.” According to the study, “casual sex” is defined as sexual intercourse between two people who have known each other for less than a week. The study also found that casual sex and “hook-ups” had a negative association with psychological well-being and led to physiological stress, according to the study. According to Brad Compliment of Counseling and Psychological Services at Cal State Long Beach, approaches to sexuality vary between individuals. “Feelings one has after actions will certainly vary and may include one’s values and principles that may have been jeopardized,” Compliment said, “but that will depend on each individual and how they make meaning in their lives.” The study also looked at gender roles and their effects on the link between mental well-being and casual sex. It found that such roles had no effect on this link — results that surprised Bersamin, she said. “I thought there would be a gender
difference,” she said. “We see lots of differences in male versus female engagements, so there would be a difference in outcome. We would think that males may feel less depressed and anxious.” Bersamin said the study reveals many negative results of casual sex. “When we think of health, we think of physical health,” she said. “When we think of negative outcomes of casual sex, we think of contracting [sexually transmitted diseases], which is a physical concern. But this study focuses on mental health.” Compliment said the same, adding that any type of sexual behavior involves more than physical reasons. “As with any actions that we do, there will be a combination of mental, moral, social, psychological and behavioral components,” Compliment said. Despite the recent findings, Bersamin said more research needs to be done to better understand the connection between casual sex and depression or anxiety, including whether one may cause the other. “We have found that there is a link … but we are not fully aware of the relationship between the two variables,” she said.
S hark Continued from Page 1 endangered list, according to a status review published by the agency. However, the review found that “the NEP white shark population was most likely at a low to very low risk of extinction.” According to Kady Lyons, a recent CSULB graduate who works at the Shark Lab on campus, the petitions were filed in reaction to data from a 2011 study published in Biology Letters, a biological sciences journal, that estimated that there were 219 great white sharks in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. “They misinterpreted the research done, thinking there was only 219 great whites estimated to be in the whole Pacific, when it was very localized and a small sample,” Lyons said. According to Lyons, great white sharks are protected through multiple regulations, such as those that restrict gill-net fishermen from fishing within three nautical miles from offshore and require that any white shark incidentally captured must be immediately released. Lowe said that prior to 1994, any great white shark accidentally caught in a net was sold in fish markets. “During [that] time, the numbers being reported as caught declined,” Lowe said. “This tends to suggest overfishing or population reduction.” In the Shark Lab and out in the field, Lowe said, he and his graduate students worked on determining if the shark population is in fact becoming endangered. “My graduate students and I went through 70 years of historic fishing records to find fisheries in Southern California that reported interactions with white sharks,” Lowe said. Lyons said having a good relationship with the gill-net fishermen, who occasionally caught great white sharks accidently, allowed them to tag the sharks for their research. By tagging the sharks, they could determine whether new sharks were populating the coast or if the same sharks were being captured repeatedly. “We’ve seen an increasing trend in baby white shark incidental capture rate over the last eight years despite an over
From left: Joey Buss, Jackson Niebrugge, Jake Tickner and Ryan Wisniewski perform in Toronto, Canada.
A cappella group of CSULB students sings to top of international competition The Newfangled Four competed against 25 groups from around the world. By Donn Gruta Assistant City Editor
Four singers flew in from Canada last week with a new sense of bravado. The Newfangled Four, a four-person male a cappella group comprising two CSULB students, championed in the 2013 International Collegiate Barbershop Quartet Competition in Toronto, Canada on July 2. During the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 75th Anniversary Convention, the quartet performed before more than 6,000 people and competed against 25 other a cappella groups from around the world. The quartet consists of Jackson Niebrugge, senior music performance major, lead; Jake Tickner, senior music major, bass; Joey Buss, computer engineering and computer science alumnus, tenor; and Ryan Wisniewski, baritone, from Las Vegas. All four members of the winning quartet are also active members of an all-men a cappella chorus from Orange County called Westminster Chorus — a two-time champion of
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Marine biology professor Christopher Lowe tends to the CSULB Shark Lab in the Hall of Science. 82 percent reduction in gill-net fishing in Southern California,” Lowe said. “This suggests the population is increasing.” Lyons agreed. “We are seeing more juvenile sharks, which suggests a sign of recovery,” Lyons said. “Since protecting the great white sharks [for] almost 20 years, we are seeing the fruits of that labor. The extra regulation is helping species other than the great white, such as black sea bass and leopard sharks.”
Lowe said the NOAA’s decision to leave the great white shark off of the endangered species list could benefit animals that belong on the list. “There are so many other marine species [that are] in true danger right now,” Lowe said, “and it would be a shame to see valuable resources taken from those species to try to manage a species that seems to be increasing and already have many forms of protection in place to protect them.”
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the Barbershop Harmony Society’s international barbershop chorus contest. Tickner said the quartet formed last November and knew it wanted to shoot for the international quartet title from the start. “We wanted to give a gift to the audience and go into it with the mindset of a servant — not someone who is filling in just for the win, you know,” Tickner said. After seven months of training, the four sung classics such as “Mistakes” and “Georgia Mae” for the Toronto crowd. Their performances garnered the highest scores in the collegiate round, earning them the championship win. “The night after the contest … we met up with the Westminster Chorus, and they all just surrounded us and hugged us and congratulated us,” Tickner said. “It was just a really good feeling knowing they were so supportive [and so was] everyone when we got back home.” With the group’s recent win, Tickner said The Newfangled Four has received numerous offers to perform since their return to California. “For now, people are wanting us in their shows so we hope to be gigging and training for the open division contest in Las Vegas next year,” Tickner said. “We just do all of this because we love singing with each other, harmonizing with our brothers. This has really been life changing.”
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