French Young Adults Research Articles

Suicidal ideation among young French adults: Association with occupation, family, sexual activity, personal background and drug use

BackgroundTo assess associations among young adults between suicidal ideation in the previous year and adverse childhood events, occupation, education, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, cannabis use in the previous month, illicit drug use, sexual orientation and activity, depression, physical violence in the previous year, and lifetime forced sexual intercourse. MethodsA subsample of 4075 French adults aged 18–30years was drawn from a random national telephone survey in 2005. Major depressive episode and alcohol abuse were assessed using CIDI-SF and AUDIT-C (score above 4). Data were analysed with logistic regressions. ResultsSuicidal ideation affected 5.7% of men and 4.9% of women. Among men depression had the highest adjusted odds ratio (ORa=8.06, 5.07–12.79), followed by homosexual intercourse (3.37, 1.62–7.04), absence of sexual activity (2.83, 1.80–4.44); ORa between 1.6 and 2.0 were observed for living alone, daily tobacco smoking, being unemployed, serious health event concerning the father, age 26–30 and bad relationships between parents. Among women, depression had the highest ORa (7.60, 4.70–12.29), followed by lifetime experience of forced sexual intercourse (5.37, 2.89–9.96), having consumed illicit drugs other than cannabis (4.01, 1.48–10.89); ORa between 1.7 and 2.5 were observed for living alone, being unemployed, bad relationship between parents and age 26–30. LimitationsCross-sectional survey, sexual orientation inferred from sexual activity. ConclusionSuicide prevention should integrate the fact that besides depression, unemployment, family history, age, and sexual activity and orientation are specific risk factors among men, whereas illicit drug use, violence and forced sexual intercourse are more important among women.

Athletes' dietary intake was closer to French RDA's than those of young sedentary counterparts

It has been demonstrated that athletes' dietary intake was relatively well-balanced according to the recommended dietary allowances (RDAs). In contrast, other studies have shown that athletes may have low energy intake or imbalance of protein and fat and insufficient minerals and vitamins. Nonetheless, we hypothesized that practicing a sport may allow young adults to have a nutritional status closer to recommended values. The purpose of this experiment was to study the nutritional status of young French adults, particularly to compare the nutritional status of trained young male and female athletes to those of young sedentary control subjects, and to national RDAs. A total of 85 young adults were recruited and filled a 4-day food and physical activity record. Dietary intake, energy expenditure, energy balance, carbohydrate, protein, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals were recorded. Data were analyzed with a software Nutrilog and statistics with Sigma Stat. Energy intake values were 9874 +/- 3050 kJ for the athletes and 7506 +/- 1845 kJ for control subjects. Athletes' nutritional status was closer to French RDAs than those of sedentary subjects who present a lower energy intake, a greater percentage of the energy intake from fat and lower values for minerals and vitamins. In conclusion, practicing a sport may allow athletes to balance their energy intake and expenditure and could be a good way to have a nutritional status closer to RDAs. Educational programs for students on proper food selection, eating habits and physical activity are needed to improve the nutritional status of these young French adults, particularly in sedentary students.

An influence over eye movements in reading exerted from beyond the level of the word: Evidence from reading English and French

We report the results of a series of multiple regression analyses conducted on the Dundee Corpus, a corpus of eye-movement data obtained from ten British and ten French young adults as they read newspaper articles (the equivalent of more than 52,000 words per language) presented on a screen, five lines at a time. Inspection parameters (inter-word saccade latency, saccade extent, skipping probability, first fixation and gaze duration and number of fixation) were all determined in part by properties defined beyond the level of individual words, e.g., the relative or mean length of adjacent words rather than individual word length. Properties defined at this level do not feature in any current model of eye-movement control in reading. Moreover, foveal inspection time was found to vary as a function of the properties of words in the parafovea (lexical frequency for English; initial trigram informativeness for French). We account for these results by proposing a process monitoring mechanism, in which a number of visual parameters simultaneously contribute to optimize visibility over a sequence of adjacent words.

Employment And Family As Determinants Of Anticipated Life Satisfaction: Contrasting European And Maghrebi People’s Viewpoints

The present study examined the relationship between life satisfaction, personal employment, spouse employment, and family responsibilities as perceived by lay people and, more specifically, studied the extent to which the additive threshold model evidenced by Macri and Mullet American Journal of Psychology 116, pp. 581–611 (2003) and Bouazzoui and Mullet Journal of Happiness Studies 3, pp. 129–159 (2002) on Greek and French samples can be generalized to a Maghrebi sample. One hundred young French adults of Maghrebi origin were presented with several vignettes depicting family conditions in terms of the three variables. Their task was to rate each vignette in terms of anticipated life satisfaction. The rule that best accounted for anticipated satisfaction was the hypothesized additive threshold rule: Anticipated Satisfaction=Proximity to optimal personal employment level + Proximity to spouse optimal employment level + Proximity to optimal family size, as far as acceptable personal and spouse employment levels are considered. When unacceptable personal or spouse employment levels were present, the level of satisfaction with life that was derived from the other sources was strongly reduced.

Young Adults in France: Becoming Adult in the Context of Increased Autonomy and Dependency

When we compare young French adults of between 18 and 29 years of age with their European counterparts, we see that the French live at home with their parents for longer periods of time, that they are less frequently inactive and more often students or unemployed than European average. A substantial number have their own means of support - employment generated income accounts for some 80% of their private resources and social security benefits for about 15%, which is again slightly above the European average. The fact that they live at home with their parents improves their standard of living which is among the highest in the community; poverty levels are close to the European average (Chambaz, 2001). These findings, obtained on the basis of an enquiry conducted on a representative selection of European households, confirm the view, adopted by the French media, politicians and administration, that the young adults of the present day, whether students or unemployed, are overgrown children (grands enfants) largely supported by their families and by the State1.Although international comparisons show that the living conditions of young French adults have decreased relatively less than those of other European countries, scientific, political and administrative commentaries on the new risks incurred by the younger population have steadily gained ground since the mid 90's. There is a growing concern about the increased dependence of young persons on adult communities and, in particular, on their own family. To designate this greater degree of interdependence between generations in the context of the progressive undermining of social insertion mechanisms, the expression jeunes adultes (young adults) has been adopted. The recent introduction of this category both in the administrative and scientific domains and by the media constitutes an invitation to researchers to examine the conditions that have given rise to it, and thus to better comprehend the coupling of two terms which, at first sight, would appear to be diametrically opposed: young and adult.BIRTH AND MEANING OF THIS CATEGORY IN SOCIAL AND SCHOLAR DEBATESThe expression 'young adults' is gradually replacing other appellations such as 'postadolescents' or, very simply, 'the young'. Moreover, it is being used 'across the board', so to speak, and applies equally to school-goers and to young job-seekers. In this way we are witnessing a more homogeneous treatment of young people after years of bracketing by age group (Cicchelli, 2002). This grouping follows from political and administrative recognition of the three major factors affecting today the young people2: the deterioration of the professional insertion mechanisms available to young adults (Nicole-Drancourt and RoulleauBerger, 2001; Ponthieux, 1997); the dilution of stages leading to adult life (Galland, 2000) and the extension of schooling to include higher education (Erlich, 1998). Notwithstanding the fact that each of these three factors has its own particular logic, they are generally treated jointly, and this raises the question of the dividing line between the care provided by young person's family and that provided by the State's social services with respect to the financing of studies and protection against unemployment and social alienation. More recent social debate on the subject tends to recognise more common ground between the young adult student and the young adult who is as yet insufficiently inserted into the social system: the demands for a 'statut etudianf (student status) are now abandoned in favour of a request for an allocation autonomie' (autonomy allowance) for all young persons.Moreover, it is as if in every official discourse and political solution envisaged and strongly advocated, the family was the sole agent responsible for the cost of 'socialising' the young. Such 'familialisation' of young persons, that is to say the assignment of youth care to the family (Labadie, 2001), became the most visible mark of the dependence between the generations. …

Employment and Family as Determinants of Anticipated Life Satisfaction: Contrasting Young Adults’ and Elderly People’s Viewpoints

The objective of the present study was to examine the relationship between life satisfaction, personal employment, spouse employment, and family responsibilities as perceived by lay people and, in particular, to study the extent to which the additive threshold model evidenced by Macri and Mullet (2002) in a Greek sample of respondents can be generalized to other samples. One hundred young French adults and 100 elderly French people were presented with several vignettes depicting family conditions in terms of the three variables. Their task was to rate each vignette in terms of anticipated life satisfaction. The rule, which best accounted for anticipated satisfaction with life judgments was the hypothesized additive threshold rule. It may be expressed as anticipated satisfaction = proximity to optimal personal employment level + proximity to spouse optimal employment level + proximity to optimal family size, as long as acceptable personal and spouse employment levels are considered. This rule was common to young and elderly participants and largely independent of educational level.

Eating habits, food and health related attitudes and beliefs reported by French students.

To assess eating habits and some food related behaviours, beliefs and knowledge in educated young French adults. A standardized questionnaire administered in university classes. University or 'Grandes Ecoles' of Paris and Dijon. 660 male and female French students. International survey; questionnaire composed of three major sections: (1) Health-related attitudes such as substances used, dieting, health practices; (2) Beliefs concerning behaviour and health, including eating habits; (3) Knowledge, namely relevance of factors to diseases such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases. Gender, self-perception of body size, BMI and attempts to lose weight affected a number of behaviours. Average BMI corresponded to standard values. 'Healthy' behaviours were often reported such as: avoiding fat and cholesterol, efforts to eat fruit and fiber. The French students showed a low frequency of snacking and a high regularity in having breakfast, especially respondents with lower BMI (females < or = 23 and males < or = 24.5 kg/m2). Beliefs about the importance of behaviours were closely associated with the performance of the behaviours. Awareness of the role of eating factors in cardiovascular diseases was observed. The meal and snack pattern in French students is very close to the traditional model. More food- and health-related behaviours and attitudes are reported by women than men. Some of them could be due to a genuine motivation for prevention and health in females or else to a greater wish to be thin. 'Desire to lose weight' is often reported although BMI values are normally low in this young population. Beliefs in the importance of a behaviour for health are correlated with the reported performance of the behaviours.

Intention to Migrate, Job Opportunities and Aspiration for Better Pay: An Information Integration Approach

This study examines (a) the relationship between intention to migrate, aspiration for better pay, and job opportunities in host countries in samples of Portuguese and French adolescents, and young French adults; and (b) the relationship between intention to return to country of origin, pay and job opportunities in Portuguese migrant workers living in France. In the two Portuguese groups, the model that best accounts for intentional processes is multiplicative. This finding partially explains why a minimal change in one of the two parameters can have repercussions that are apparently disproportional with this change. In the two French groups, the models that best account for intentional processes are the additive model (for young adults) and a unifactorial model (in adolescents). The discussion centres on possible links between these cross‐cultural differences and recent findings on the effect of task difficulty and perceived stakes on integration rules.

The influence of socio-professional factors and family dimension on anthropometric characteristics

A study of two samples of young French adults was carried out in order to distinguish between the influence of family dimension and that of social environment upon the anthropometric variations of the body. With the help of a double-entry table, we find that the differences between social categories are more marked in large families (4 children at least) as far as transversal body dimensions are concerned. A logical explanation cannot be put forward: in fact, a reduction in this dimension is found in well-to-do environments where a longilinear tendency and a lesser corpulence appear.