Some disclaimers may even harm at-risk women

TORONTO, November 28, 2019 –Labels that warn an image has been altered or enhanced do nothing to mitigate women’s negative perceptions of their appearance, according to a study published in this week.  More importantly, some disclaimers heightened and even harmed body dissatisfaction in at-risk women, the study showed.

“Disclaimers aren’t helpful. Once that image hits the brain, it has a profound effect on the way a woman thinks about how her body should look, says Jennifer Mills, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and senior author on the study. “Telling people that the image is not real doesn’t change the fact that that image becomes internalized.”

Mills and Sarah McComb, a Ph.D. student in Mills’ lab and first author of the study, conducted a systematic review of 15 experimental studies and found that disclaimers were ineffective at reducing women’s body dissatisfaction following exposure to thin-ideal images.

The goal of the study was to determine the effectiveness of media disclaimers in protecting women’s body image and mood after exposure to thin-ideal media. The keywords “warning*” or “disclaimer*” and “body image” or “body dissatisfaction” were searched in the PsycINFO and MEDLINE/PubMed databases.

Researchers looked at several types of commonly used disclaimers on photos in the study. The ‘specific’ disclaimer tells the viewer which body part has been altered, the ‘warning or consequence’ disclaimer explains that the photo can be bad for body image or your health, the ‘generic’ disclaimer lets consumers know “This image has been digitally altered” and the ‘information’ disclaimer says the model is underweight.

“We found that specific disclaimers and warning disclaimers were harmful to women who were already very dissatisfied with their bodies – the disclaimers seemed to trigger their already negative feelings about their bodies,” says McComb.

“The warning disclaimer was especially harmful, because it also had negative impacts on women’s eating habits. Women who already had restrictive eating habits and who saw an image of a model with a warning label were actually found to eat less calories than when they saw the image without the disclaimer.”

Overall, 11 studies found that disclaimers were ineffective at mitigating body dissatisfaction after exposure to thin-ideal images (relative to no disclaimer), three studies found medium effects that disclaimers were effective at mitigating increased body dissatisfaction, and one study found a small-medium effect that disclaimers actually heightened body dissatisfaction.

“If the disclaimer is too specific it draws the person’s attention to parts of the body on a model that are unattainable or unrealistic,” says Mills.  “Individuals still want to look like the model despite knowing there is a disclaimer, because it draws our attention to the unrealistic body part. People tend to want what they cannot have.”

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.

91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact: Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

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Research models use data from Toronto’s Don River and Calgary’s Bow River

TORONTO, November 11, 2019 – Using complex models based on artificial intelligence (AI) and data from the Don River in Toronto and Bow River in Calgary, researchers at the Lassonde School of Engineering can now predict the water levels in rivers days in advance of floods.

“We’ve created methods to predict real-time flood risk,” says Usman T. Khan, professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at 91��ɫ’s Lassonde School of Engineering.  “These results outline an approach that can be used to create models with higher accuracy and lower data requirements, which translates to improved flood early warning systems. Early warning systems are considered the most effective way to mitigate flood induced hazards.”

The study, led by Khan, was published today in the It used four models to predict water levels, including two developed specifically for this research. The two new models improved the characterization and objectivity of water level estimates and recommended a new approach for determining the optimum number of model input parameters, an important component of AI-based models. The resulting algorithm created a direct and simple way of predicting water levels in the rivers, to mitigate flood risk.

AI-based models are increasingly being used to predict flood events. These models forecast flood conditions at downstream locations along a river using information from upstream hydrological and meteorological stations. Not all of the upstream information is useful for prediction and including non-useful data in models can be detrimental to the accuracy of the forecasts. Therefore, there are a wide variety of methods for selecting the most useful input stations; Khan’s research proposes two new methods to select the most useful inputs.

In the 18-month-long study, researchers Khan, his Ph.D. student Everett Snieder and  Master’s student Rahmah Shakir, used a type of AI known as artificial neural networks, which combine flood-related data such as rainfall, temperature and other flood-related variables to provide the level of the water in the river. This provides information on which data has the biggest impact on predicting water levels. The models reduce prediction uncertainty caused by noise from input data that is not useful.

The researchers found these models provided more accurate estimates of early flood hazard for the Bow River and Don River compared to other methods available to date. Their results can predict floods up to three days in advance for the Bow River and up to six hours in advance for the Don River.

“Currently, Canada doesn’t have a nation-wide flood prediction network,” says Khan. “Our models provide a first step in creating this network and can be extended to many other rivers in Canada. Using our approach, we can now predict a flood hazard for a given river and use this to estimate the damage at a given location, thereby providing better risk quantifications. These types of models are called early warning systems which are essential for emergency preparedness and flood mitigation.”

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.

91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact: Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416 736 2100 ext. 44543 or cell 437-242-1547, anayyar@yorku.ca

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91��ɫ Faculty of Health study shares new findings on who is at risk for Orthorexia Nervosa

TORONTO, May 14, 2019 – Researchers at 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health say those who have a history of an eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive traits, dieting, poor body image, and a drive for thinness are more likely to develop a pathological obsession with healthy eating or consuming only healthy food, known as orthorexia nervosa (ON). Although eating healthy is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, for some people this preoccupation with healthy eating can become physically and socially impairing.

In the first exhaustive review of the psychosocial risk factors associated with orthorexia nervosa, 91��ɫ psychology researchers examined all studies published up until the end of 2018 in two popular databases. They looked at studies that examined how orthorexia nervosa is related to psychosocial risk factors that predisposed or made an individual vulnerable to or more likely to develop the condition. They then amalgamated all available findings for each risk factor to reach conclusions about which psychosocial factors were most reliably associated with the condition.

“The long-term impact of these findings is that they will lead to better recognition among healthcare providers as well as members of the public that so-called healthy eating can, in fact, be unhealthy. It can lead to malnourishment or make it very difficult to socialize with people in settings that involve eating. It can also be expensive and time-consuming,” says Jennifer Mills, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and senior author on the study.

"When taken to the extreme, an obsession with clean eating can be a sign that the person is struggling to manage their mental health.”

Previous research has shown that unlike individuals with anorexia nervosa who restrict calories to maintain very low body weight, people who have the condition have a fixation with the quality of food eaten and its preparation rather than the number of calories.  Over time, they spend increasing amounts of time and effort purchasing, planning, and preparing pure and healthy meals, which eventually becomes an all-consuming obsession that interferes with other areas of life and results in weight loss.

One of the main reasons for conducting this study was that current research on the condition is limited. Unlike other eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia, orthorexia is not recognized in standard psychiatric for healthcare providers.

“It was surprising to me that the overwhelming majority of the articles in this field were of neutral-poor quality, indicating that the results of these studies must be interpreted with caution,” says Sarah McComb, a Master’s student in Mills’ lab and first author of the study. “It really suggests a call for more valid measurement tools of orthorexia, so that more reliable conclusions can be drawn about the true prevalence of orthorexia in the population and which psychosocial factors really put a person at risk for developing orthorexia nervosa.”

Researchers found the literature consistently showed that those who have obsessive-compulsive traits, depression and a previous eating disorder, and/or are preoccupied with their appearance and body image, are more likely to be at risk for developing the condition. Other eating habits such as being a vegetarian or vegan also put individuals at higher risk for developing orthorexia nervosa. Lacto-vegetarians were at highest risk for the condition and people who are on a strict eating schedule, spending large amounts of time preparing meals, were also at greater risk.

“In our research, we found equal rates of men and women who struggle with symptoms of orthorexia nervosa,” said Mills. “We still think of eating disorders as being a problem that affects mostly young women. Because of that assumption, the symptoms and negative consequences of orthorexia nervosa can fly under the radar and not be noticed or taken seriously.”

Researchers say developing a consistent definition of orthorexia nervosa will make it easier for health researchers to develop reliable measures and provide better diagnosis and treatment of the condition.

The study is published in

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact: Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, anayyar@yorku.ca

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TORONTO, Wednesday, February 6, 2019 -- In what is one of the latest innovations in legal education, 91��ɫ’s Osgoode Hall Law School is training people from a variety of backgrounds to be simulated clients and help law students develop their client-facing skills.

“Outside of law school clinics, it’s as close to the reality of working with clients as most of our students will get,” said Paul Maharg, a leading scholar in legal education who joined Osgoode in 2017 as Distinguished Professor of Practice.

“Like student doctors meeting real patients in surgeries and hospitals, student lawyers learn to shift their thinking from the technical details of appellate cases and legislation they learn in most courses in law school to a holistic appreciation of a client’s situation, wishes, expectations and the possible extra-legal solutions that might be available to the client.”

Maharg and Professor Shelley Kierstead are using 11 simulated clients in a pilot program this winter involving Juris Doctor (JD) students in Kierstead’s first-year Legal Process course.

“We’re using the simulated clients with students to help develop students’ interviewing skills, their awareness of clients, the role of affect, perspective and perception of law in clients, and much else,” Kierstead said.

The simulated clients participate in an intense four-day training course before meeting the students. The simulated clients must be able to memorize a scenario and represent it conversationally; improvise on the scenario where appropriate; assess students’ client-facing skills; and self-monitor their own performances as simulated clients.

Meanwhile, Maharg and Kierstead prepare the students to meet the simulated clients with a brief presentation on the simulated client initiative and a tutorial on interviewing skills. This is followed by a student’s mandatory meeting with a simulated client and a second, voluntary meeting with a simulated client.

Until now, students or actors have been mostly used to play the roles of clients. There have been problems with that approach including concerns about the authenticity and fairness of the client experience.

“The simulated clients are, paradoxically, more authentic because they are trained to enact being themselves with each student,” he said. “We also train them to react conversationally with the lawyer, not to give the full problem as a highly detailed, linear, logical narrative but to present as if the client were relating to the lawyer for the first time, with narrative gaps, redundancies and other markers of conversational register.”

When actors are used with students, they are almost never used to assess students, Maharg said. “In our initiative, we use the simulated clients to assess students’ client-facing behaviours and attitudes. We make client experience the focus of the assessment and ensure the validity and robustness of the assessment.”

Since 2005 about a dozen simulated client projects have been established internationally among a loose consortium of law schools, legal educators and legal education regulators, Maharg said.

“In addition to the benefits to this approach, it also challenges many aspects of conventional legal educational practices and cultures,” Maharg said. “In future years, we hope to expand the use of simulated clients in the Law School.”

-30-

About Osgoode Hall Law School
of 91��ɫ has a proud history of 130 years of leadership and innovation in legal education and legal scholarship. A total of about 900 students are enrolled in Osgoode’s three-year Juris Doctor (JD) Program as well as joint and combined programs. The school's Graduate Program in Law is also the largest in the country and one of the most highly regarded in North America. In addition, Osgoode Professional Development, which operates out of Osgoode’s facility in downtown Toronto, offers both degree and non-degree programming for Canadian and international lawyers, non-law professionals, firms and organizations. Osgoode has an internationally renowned faculty of 60 full-time professors, and more than 100 adjunct professors. Our respected community of more than 18,000 alumni are leaders in the legal profession and in many other fields in Canada and across the globe.

About 91��ɫ
91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contacts:
Virginia Corner, Communications Manager, Osgoode Hall Law School of 91��ɫ, 416-736-5820, vcorner@osgoode.yorku.ca
Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 22094, suhasini@yorku.ca

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Six-month-old babies who are brought up hearing more than one language show advantages in early development of attention

TORONTO, Jan. 30, 2019 – The advantages of growing up in a bilingual home can start as early as six months of age, according to new research led by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health. In the study, infants who are exposed to more than one language show better attentional control than infants who are exposed to only one language. This means that exposure to bilingual environments should be considered a significant factor in the early development of attention in infancy, the researchers say, and could set the stage for lifelong cognitive benefits.

The research was conducted by Ellen Bialystok, Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology and Walter Gordon Research Chair of Lifespan Cognitive Development at 91��ɫ and Scott Adler, associate professor in 91��ɫ’s Department of Psychology and the Centre for Vision Research, along with lead author Kyle J. Comishen, a former Master’s student in their lab. It was published today in 

The researchers conducted two separate studies in which infants’ eye movements were measured to assess attention and learning. Half of the infants who were studied were being raised in monolingual environments while others were being raised in environments in which they heard two languages spoken approximately half of the time each. The infants were shown images as they lay in a crib equipped with a camera and screen, and their eye movements were tracked and recorded as they watched pictures appear above them, in different areas of the screen. The tracking was conducted 60 times for each infant.

“By studying infants – a population that does not yet speak any language – we discovered that the real difference between monolingual and bilingual individuals later in life is not in the language itself, but rather, in the attention system used to focus on language,” says Bialystok, co-senior author of the study. “This study tells us that from the very earliest stage of development, the networks that are the basis for developing attention are forming differently in infants who are being raised in a bilingual environment. Why is that important? It’s because attention is the basis for all cognition.”

In the first study, the infants saw one of two images in the centre of the screen followed by another image appearing on either the left or right side of the screen. The babies learned to expect that if, for example, a pink and white image appears in the centre of the screen, it would be followed by an attractive target image on the left; If a blue and yellow image appeared in the centre, then the target would appear on the right. All the infants could learn these rules.

In the second study, which began in the same way, researchers switched the rule halfway through the experiment. When they tracked the babies’ eye movements, they found that infants who were exposed to a bilingual environment were better at learning the new rule and at anticipating where the target image would appear. This is difficult because they needed to learn a new association and replace a successful response with a new contrasting one.

“Infants only know which way to look if they can discriminate between the two pictures that appear in the centre,” said Adler, co-senior author of the study.  “They will eventually anticipate the picture appearing on the right, for example, by making an eye movement even before that picture appears on the right. What we found was that the infants who were raised in bilingual environments were able to do this better after the rule is switched than those raised in a monolingual environment.”

Anything that comes through the brain’s processing system interacts with this attentional mechanism, says Adler. Therefore, language, as well as visual information, can influence the development of the attentional system.

Researchers say the experience of attending to a complex environment in which infants simultaneously process and contrast two languages may account for why infants raised in bilingual environments have greater attentional control than those raised in monolingual environments.

In previous research, bilingual children and adults outperformed monolinguals on some cognitive tasks that require them to switch responses or deal with conflict. The reason for those differences were thought to follow from the ongoing need for bilinguals to select which language to speak. This new study pushes back the explanation to a time before individuals are actively using languages and switching between them.

“What is so ground-breaking about these results, is that they look at infants who are not bilingual yet and who are only hearing the bilingual environment. This is what’s having the impact on cognitive performance,” says Adler.

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact: Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

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TORONTO, Jan. 29, 2019 – Losing weight slowly or quickly won’t tip the scale in your favour when it comes to overall health, according to new research. Health researchers at 91��ɫ found that people who lose weight quickly versus those who lose it slowly don’t get any additional health benefits and it’s the amount of weight lost overall that can have an impact.

In the study led by , associate professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, researchers looked at the data of over 11,000 patients at a publicly-funded clinical weight management program and found that those who lost weight quickly had similar improvements in metabolic health with those who lost weight slowly. Moreover, the rate of weight loss matters less for overall health benefits than the amount of weight you lose. Normally, individuals are recommended to lose weight at one to two pounds per week, as faster weight loss is related with a slightly higher risk for gallstones. However, there are reasons to believe that faster weight loss may have better effects for cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors.

The study is the first study of its kind to look specifically at risk factors for cardiovascular health and diabetes.

“With the same pound for pound weight loss, there is no difference in terms of health benefits if you lose weight fast or slow,” says Kuk. “However, given the risk for gallstones with faster weight loss, trying to lose weight at the recommended one to two pounds per week is the safer option.”

Jennifer Kuk, associate professor, Faculty of Health at 91��ɫ

The study looked at 11,283 patients who attended the Wharton Medical Clinic Weight Management Program between July 2008 and July 2017. Researchers found that patients who lost weight more quickly tended to have a bigger reduction in obesity and better health improvements than patients who lost weight slowly. However, these improvements in health associated with faster weight loss were abolished after adjusting for absolute weight loss.

“The results show that we really need to look at interventions that focus on long-term weight management that can achieve sustained weight loss at the recommended one to two pounds per week,” says Kuk.

The study is published today in the

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

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Whites and non-blacks struggle to distinguish between true and false smiles on black faces

TORONTO, Jan. 8, 2019 – Race can impact how we read emotions on other people’s faces and a reluctance to make eye contact can be a key mechanism in this process, according to new research from 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health.

The research, published by the American Psychological Association in the this week, looked at biases in identifying emotions on white and black faces. According to the study, conducted by Psychology Professor Kerry Kawakami in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health and her former postdoctoral student, , now an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Winnipeg, white and non-black participants have greater difficulty in distinguishing between true and false smiles on black compared to white faces.

“Being able to accurately read someone’s emotions is important for interpersonal interactions. Especially in an interracial context, this could be crucial to how well we get along with others,” says Kawakami. “If you can’t distinguish between different emotions such as happiness, fear and anger, that has huge consequences.”

While previous research has shown that white participants in the United States tend to perceive black faces as angrier than comparable white faces, the goal of their project was to determine if similar biases in recognizing emotions occur for more positive emotions, such as happiness. Kawakami and her team conducted a series of six experiments with more than 425 participants. Although some experiments had all white participants, other studies involved black and non-black participants. In all experiments, participants were shown white and black faces and were asked to rate the level of happiness on each face. While some faces depicted genuine or true smiles, other faces depicted false smiles, also known as polite smiles.

In all of the experiments, white and non-black participants had a harder time differentiating between true and false smiles on black than white faces.

Notably, black participants showed no differences in their ability to identify true and false smiles based on the race of the face.

The researchers proposed that because white and non-black participants pay more attention to the eyes of white compared to black faces, they are better able to identify emotions on white faces. An experiment tracking eye movements supported this theory. Specifically, they found that white and non-black participants spent longer looking at the eyes of white compared to black faces and that this difference predicted biases in identifying emotions. When participants were only presented with the eyes of black and white faces in an additional experiment, and therefore were obliged to look at the eyes of black faces, racial biases were decreased and participants easily distinguished between real and false smiles on black faces.

Research was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology® January 2018

The difference between expressions related to true and false smiles is all related to the eyes, Kawakami says, so identifying these emotions and other emotions may actually depend on a willingness to look into the eyes of black faces.

“If people aren’t looking at your eyes and can’t read your emotions, how can they know whether you like their company or not? Or when you’re in a job interview or interacting with police, how do they respond if they can’t accurately gauge your expression to know how you are feeling? In a lot of different contexts, reading a person’s emotions is key to being able to react appropriately.”

The researchers suggest that given that intergroup interactions are often fraught with misunderstandings, these findings provide clues to better understand how these processes unfold and may also inform the development of meaningful strategies to improve group relations.

This research is part of a larger project on intergroup biases in face perception described in a recent co-authored by Kawakami, which was awarded the American Psychological Association’s 2018 Gordon Allport Award for best article on Intergroup Relations.

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.
91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

The post Study: Race may bias how you perceive people’s smiles appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

Graduated driver licensing and booster seat legislation just the start

TORONTO, December 7, 2018 – Provinces with road traffic safety policies that are evidence-based had lower injury-related hospitalizations and deaths among children and youth, according to a new study by researchers at 91��ɫ.

The national study, published in the journal , looked at three indicators: injury-hospitalization, injury-death and the road traffic safety policies.   in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health, and her former Ph.D. student Liraz Fridman, examined policies related to the safety of vehicle occupants, cyclists, and pedestrians, and focussed in on specific criteria such as graduated driver licensing,  bicycle helmet legislation, pedestrian safety laws, and booster seat legislation.

“We’re not saying there’s a causal relationship. We are saying that policy is one indicator that may be playing a role in the reduction of injury over time,” says Fridman, lead author of the study. “We found that provinces with stronger evidence-based policies in place are more likely to have lower rates of injury.”

This is the first Canadian study to compare data on hospitalizations and deaths alongside provincial policies.

Macpherson and her team looked at a national database from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and compared provinces’ road traffic hospitalizations over a seven-year period, from Jan. 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2012. Children and youth (0–19 years) who were hospitalized after sustaining a road traffic-related injury were included in the study, for all provinces except Quebec, which is not required to report this data. Data on the number of transport-related childhood deaths was used to analyze the death rate during the same period.

The mortality rate from all road traffic-related injuries in Canada (excluding Quebec) was 4.5 deaths per 100,000 children/youth between 2006 and 2012. The highest mortality rate was 10.99 per 100,000 population in Saskatchewan and the lowest rate was 3.09 per 100,000 in Ontario.

“Our study suggested that evidence-based policies and strategies such as reduced speed limits in residential and school zones across provinces may be one effective way to reduce road traffic injuries,” says Macpherson, senior author of the study. “These findings also suggest that graduated driver licensing may be an important injury prevention policy that has the potential to reduce injury-related deaths.”

She said the study provides evidence to support the need for booster seat legislation and other road safety policies to be consistent across provinces.

Study highlights include:

• Ontario had the lowest rate of child and youth deaths from road traffic-related causes. One of the first provinces to introduce graduated driver licensing, Ontario restricts novice drivers from being on the roads from 12am to 5am.
• Ontario and B.C. had the lowest average annual rates in occupant-related hospitalization over time. B.C.’s booster seat legislation has been in place since 1985 but was updated to reflect evidence-based best practice in 2008.
• The only province with a significant reduction in pedestrian-related injuries was B.C., which has speed limits of 50 km/h in residential zones and 30 km/h in school zones.
• All nine Canadian provinces included in the analysis showed a decrease in transport-related injury morbidity rates between 2006 and 2012
• All-cause transport-related injury hospitalization rates significantly decreased among children and youth over the seven-year study period.
• Saskatchewan’s injury hospitalization rate was almost double the Canadian average.

According to statistics, road traffic collisions are the leading cause of injury death among Canadian children and youth (ages 1–19 years). The total economic burden to Canadians in 2010 from transport incidents for all ages was . Motor-vehicle collisions (MVCs) accounted for 50 per cent of all transport-related injury costs, followed by pedal cyclists (14 per cent) and pedestrians

“What we want to see happen is a harmonization of evidence-based road traffic safety policies across provinces,” says Fridman. “While transport-related injuries among Canadian children and youth are on the decline, there are still inconsistencies between road traffic safety policies across the country. This study highlights the need for these evidence-based policies to follow best practice guidelines and be standardized across Canada.”

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Through cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design, diverse experiential learning and a supportive community environment, our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact for interviews: Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

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Graduated driver licensing and booster seat legislation just the start

TORONTO, December 7, 2018 – Provinces with road traffic safety policies that are evidence-based had lower injury-related hospitalizations and deaths among children and youth, according to a new study by researchers at 91��ɫ.

The national study, published in the journal , looked at three indicators: injury-hospitalization, injury-death and the road traffic safety policies.   in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health, and her former Ph.D. student Liraz Fridman, examined policies related to the safety of vehicle occupants, cyclists, and pedestrians, and focussed in on specific criteria such as graduated driver licensing,  bicycle helmet legislation, pedestrian safety laws, and booster seat legislation.

“We’re not saying there’s a causal relationship. We are saying that policy is one indicator that may be playing a role in the reduction of injury over time,” says Fridman, lead author of the study. “We found that provinces with stronger evidence-based policies in place are more likely to have lower rates of injury.”

This is the first Canadian study to compare data on hospitalizations and deaths alongside provincial policies.

Macpherson and her team looked at a national database from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and compared provinces’ road traffic hospitalizations over a seven-year period, from Jan. 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2012. Children and youth (0–19 years) who were hospitalized after sustaining a road traffic-related injury were included in the study, for all provinces except Quebec, which is not required to report this data. Data on the number of transport-related childhood deaths was used to analyze the death rate during the same period.

The mortality rate from all road traffic-related injuries in Canada (excluding Quebec) was 4.5 deaths per 100,000 children/youth between 2006 and 2012. The highest mortality rate was 10.99 per 100,000 population in Saskatchewan and the lowest rate was 3.09 per 100,000 in Ontario.

“Our study suggested that evidence-based policies and strategies such as reduced speed limits in residential and school zones across provinces may be one effective way to reduce road traffic injuries,” says Macpherson, senior author of the study. “These findings also suggest that graduated driver licensing may be an important injury prevention policy that has the potential to reduce injury-related deaths.”

She said the study provides evidence to support the need for booster seat legislation and other road safety policies to be consistent across provinces.

Study highlights include:

• Ontario had the lowest rate of child and youth deaths from road traffic-related causes. One of the first provinces to introduce graduated driver licensing, Ontario restricts novice drivers from being on the roads from 12am to 5am.
• Ontario and B.C. had the lowest average annual rates in occupant-related hospitalization over time. B.C.’s booster seat legislation has been in place since 1985 but was updated to reflect evidence-based best practice in 2008.
• The only province with a significant reduction in pedestrian-related injuries was B.C., which has speed limits of 50 km/h in residential zones and 30 km/h in school zones.
• All nine Canadian provinces included in the analysis showed a decrease in transport-related injury morbidity rates between 2006 and 2012
• All-cause transport-related injury hospitalization rates significantly decreased among children and youth over the seven-year study period.
• Saskatchewan’s injury hospitalization rate was almost double the Canadian average.

According to statistics, road traffic collisions are the leading cause of injury death among Canadian children and youth (ages 1–19 years). The total economic burden to Canadians in 2010 from transport incidents for all ages was . Motor-vehicle collisions (MVCs) accounted for 50 per cent of all transport-related injury costs, followed by pedal cyclists (14 per cent) and pedestrians

“What we want to see happen is a harmonization of evidence-based road traffic safety policies across provinces,” says Fridman. “While transport-related injuries among Canadian children and youth are on the decline, there are still inconsistencies between road traffic safety policies across the country. This study highlights the need for these evidence-based policies to follow best practice guidelines and be standardized across Canada.”

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Through cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design, diverse experiential learning and a supportive community environment, our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact for interviews: Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

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TORONTO, November 15, 2018 − Young women who actively engage with social media images of friends who they think are more attractive than themselves report feeling worse about their own appearance afterward, a 91��ɫ study shows.

It’s no secret that social media can blur the lines on what’s real and what’s fantasy, but new research at 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health now shows how young women interact with images online can affect how they feel about their own bodies.

The research entitled “The effects of active social media engagement with peers on body image in young women” appears in the journal . The study was conducted by Jennifer Mills, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Jacqueline Hogue, a PhD student in the department’s Clinical Program. It focused on young women, aged 18 to 27 years old, who liked or commented on photos of people they deemed to be more attractive than themselves.

“The results showed that these young adult women felt more dissatisfied with their bodies,” says Mills. “They felt worse about their own appearance after looking at social media pages of someone that they perceived to be more attractive than them. Even if they felt bad about themselves before they came into the study, on average, they still felt worse after completing the task.”

The research included 118 female undergraduate students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Participants reported their age, ethnicity, whether English was their first language, and years of post-secondary education in an online questionnaire six weeks before the experiment. Each participant was given a consent form and questionnaire where they had to indicate using a specific scale how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with their appearance or body image.

Participants were then randomly assigned into one of two experimental conditions. One group of participants were asked to log into Facebook and Instagram for a period of five or more minutes and find one peer that was the same age who they felt was more attractive than themselves. After looking at the photos, each participant was asked to leave a comment of their choice. In the control group, participants were asked to do the same task except this time comment on a post of a family member whom they did not think was more attractive than themselves. The data showed that participants’ views of their own appearance were not affected when interacting with their family members.

“I think in a lot of cases, young women who post to social media are hoping to get positive reinforcement for what they’re posting and the way in which women use social media is more appearance-based than it is for men.”

Mills said particularly in this age group, 18 to mid-20’s, appearance is very important, and women care a great deal about how they are perceived by other people. They are also most likely to use social media.

“When we compare ourselves to other people, that has the potential to affect the valuation of ourselves,” says Mills. We really need to educate young people on how social media use could be making them feel about themselves and how this could even be linked to stringent dieting, eating disorders or excessive exercise. There are people who may be triggered by social media and who are especially vulnerable.”

91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni.

91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Anjum Nayyar, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 44543, anayyar@yorku.ca

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