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Tag: Family and Parenting

  • Some mosquitoes like it hot

    Some mosquitoes like it hot

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    Newswise — Certain populations of mosquitoes are more heat tolerant and better equipped to survive heat waves than others, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

    This is bad news in a world where vector-borne diseases are an increasingly global health concern. Most models that scientists use to estimate vector-borne disease risk currently assume that mosquito heat tolerances do not vary. As a result, these models may underestimate mosquitoes’ ability to spread diseases in a warming world.

    Researchers led by Katie M. Westby, a senior scientist at Tyson Research Center, Washington University’s environmental field station, conducted a new study that measured the critical thermal maximum (CTmax), an organism’s upper thermal tolerance limit, of eight populations of the globally invasive tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. The tiger mosquito is a known vector for many viruses including West Nile, chikungunya and dengue.

    “We found significant differences across populations for both adults and larvae, and these differences were more pronounced for adults,” Westby said. The new study is published Jan. 8 in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

    Westby’s team sampled mosquitoes from eight different populations spanning four climate zones across the eastern United States, including mosquitoes from locations in New Orleans; St. Augustine, Fla.; Huntsville, Ala.; Stillwater, Okla.; St. Louis; Urbana, Ill.; College Park, Md.; and Allegheny County, Pa.

    The scientists collected eggs in the wild and raised larvae from the different geographic locations to adult stages in the lab, tending the mosquito populations separately as they continued to breed and grow. The scientists then used adults and larvae from subsequent generations of these captive-raised mosquitoes in trials to determine CTmax values, ramping up air and water temperatures at a rate of 1 degree Celsius per minute using established research protocols.

    The team then tested the relationship between climatic variables measured near each population source and the CTmax of adults and larvae. The scientists found significant differences among the mosquito populations.

    The differences did not appear to follow a simple latitudinal or temperature-dependent pattern, but there were some important trends. Mosquito populations from locations with higher precipitation had higher CTmax values. Overall, the results reveal that mean and maximum seasonal temperatures, relative humidity and annual precipitation may all be important climatic factors in determining CTmax.

    “Larvae had significantly higher thermal limits than adults, and this likely results from different selection pressures for terrestrial adults and aquatic larvae,” said Benjamin Orlinick, first author of the paper and a former undergraduate research fellow at Tyson Research Center. “It appears that adult Ae. albopictus are experiencing temperatures closer to their CTmax than larvae, possibly explaining why there are more differences among adult populations.”

    “The overall trend is for increased heat tolerance with increasing precipitation,” Westby said. “It could be that wetter climates allow mosquitoes to endure hotter temperatures due to decreases in desiccation, as humidity and temperature are known to interact and influence mosquito survival.”

    Little is known about how different vector populations, like those of this kind of mosquito, are adapted to their local climate, nor the potential for vectors to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. This study is one of the few to consider the upper limits of survivability in high temperatures — akin to heat waves — as opposed to the limits imposed by cold winters.

    “Standing genetic variation in heat tolerance is necessary for organisms to adapt to higher temperatures,” Westby said. “That’s why it was important for us to experimentally determine if this mosquito exhibits variation before we can begin to test how, or if, it will adapt to a warmer world.”

    Future research in the lab aims to determine the upper limits that mosquitoes will seek out hosts for blood meals in the field, where they spend the hottest parts of the day when temperatures get above those thresholds, and if they are already adapting to higher temperatures. “Determining this is key to understanding how climate change will impact disease transmission in the real world,” Westby said. “Mosquitoes in the wild experience fluctuating daily temperatures and humidity that we cannot fully replicate in the lab.”

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    Washington University in St. Louis

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  • Research on adoptees’ parenthood experiences.

    Research on adoptees’ parenthood experiences.

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    Newswise — Parenting is always challenging, but for adopted people becoming a mum or dad can be extra demanding, as well as extra special – according to research from the University of East Anglia.

    A new study is the first in to investigate the lived experiences of adopted people in the UK as they become parents.

    It finds that they are affected by issues that link back to their adoption and to difficult experiences in their past – related to loss, rejection, abuse and neglect.

    Because of these difficult early experiences, many adoptees experience significant challenges, particularly as teenagers and young adults.

    These included mental health problems, emotional and behavioural difficulties, education and employment, relationship problems, and substance misuse.

    But while many people were parenting under the pressure of also trying to manage these challenges, becoming a mum or dad was often a key turning point and a motivation to turn their lives around.

    Lead researcher Prof Beth Neil, from UEA’s School of Social Work, said: “Adoption is a life-changing event, and it is really important to understand how people are affected throughout their whole life – not just in childhood.

    “Becoming a parent is a key life experience, but the research on adopted people becoming parents is very limited and has not tended to include people adopted through the child protection system, or the experiences of adopted men as fathers.

    “We wanted to better understand the issues faced by people who are adopted, as they become parents themselves.”

    The team worked with 20 adopted men and 20 adopted women – who were interviewed about their experiences.

    Most of the participants were in their 20s and 30s and all had been adopted under the age of 12 – with two thirds having been adopted through the child protection system.

    Almost a quarter of the parents in the study were not living with their children – including some who had themselves lost their children to care or adoption.

    Prof Neil said: “We guided them to break down their life into key chapters and talk through the high points, the low points and the turning points that were most significant to them. We wanted to understand adopted people’s life stories in their own words.

    “What we found is that when adopted people become parents, lots of issues can come up that link back to their adoption and to difficult experiences in their past such as issues of loss, rejection, abuse and neglect.

    “For some, having their first child meant meeting the first person in their life that they had a biological connection to. Others were afraid they would not bond with their child or that their child would reject them.

    “Because many of the participants had a history of abuse and neglect, thinking about their birth parents often raised anxieties that they would parent their own child poorly.

    “The flipside of this was the determination to try and break cycles of abuse, and we saw that for many, becoming a parent was a positive turning point.

    “Because the often-difficult backgrounds of the parents, many reported problems in their teenage years and as young adults with mental health, education and employment, substance misuse, relationships with parents and partners.

    “Often these problems were ongoing when they became a mum or dad, threatening their parenting and playing into their biggest fear – that they might repeat negative cycles of neglect or abuse with their own children.

    “Sadly, many adoptees feared that asking for help and expressing worries would lead to scrutiny of their parenting.

    “Most people were managing well in their role as mum and dad, but a minority were still struggling with difficult problems, and a small number of parents had experienced their worst fear – the removal of their own children. For parents who were judged unable to look after their own children, not ‘breaking the cycle’ was devastating.”

    The team say that support for adopted adults with mental health problems is a particularly pressing need, as parental mental health problems are a strong mediating factor in the link between childhood adversity and compromised parenting.

    Where adoptees are still struggling with these issues when they become a parent, then support is needed at that life stage.

    But ideally, the adoption system needs to recognise the need to provide support to adoptive families much earlier on, to prevent the difficulties that often become particularly challenging during the teenage years.

    The study found that identity issues raised by both men and women were very similar. This is important because almost all previous research had focused just on mothers. But fathers also felt deeply about the impact of adoption on their life, and issues linked to adoption came up for them when they became dads.

    “This research highlights the need for more support for adopted people both in childhood and when they become parents themselves,” added Prof Neil.

    This study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

    ‘How do adopted adults see the significance of adoption and being a parent in their life stories? A narrative analysis of 40 life story interviews with male and female adoptees’ is published in the journal Children and Youth Services Review.

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    University of East Anglia

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  • fMRI study finds correlated shifts in brain connectivity associated with overthinking in adolescents

    fMRI study finds correlated shifts in brain connectivity associated with overthinking in adolescents

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    Newswise — COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine, University of Utah and University of Exeter (UK) substantiates previous groundbreaking research that rumination (overthinking) can be reduced through an intervention called Rumination-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (RF-CBT). In addition, the use of fMRI technology allowed researchers to observe correlated shifts in the brain connectivity associated with overthinking.

    Study findings are published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science.

    “We know adolescent development is pivotal. Their brains are maturing, and habits are forming. Interventions like RF-CBT can be game-changers, steering them towards a mentally healthy adulthood. We were particularly excited that the treatment seemed developmentally appropriate and was acceptable and accessible via telehealth during the early pandemic,” said corresponding author Scott Langenecker, PhD, vice chair of research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ohio State, who started this project while at the University of Utah.

    RF-CBT is a promising approach pioneered by Ed Watkins, PhD, professor of experimental and applied Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter. It has been shown to be effective among adults with recurrent depression.

    “We wanted to see if we could adapt it for a younger population to prevent the ongoing burden of depressive relapse,” said Rachel Jacobs, PhD, adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University who conducted the pilot study in 2016.

    “As a clinician, I continued to observe that standard CBT tools such as cognitive restructuring didn’t give young people the tools to break out of the painful mental loops that contribute to experiencing depression again. If we could find a way to do that, maybe we could help young people stay well as they transition to adulthood, which has become even more important since we’ve observed the mental health impact of COVID-19,” Jacobs said.

    In the just published trial, 76 teenagers, ages 14-17, with a history of depression were randomly assigned to 10-14 sessions of RF-CBT, while controls were allowed and encouraged to receive any standard treatment. Teens reported ruminating significantly less if they received RF-CBT. Even more intriguing, fMRI illustrated shifts in brain connectivity, marking a change at the neural level.

    Specifically, there was a reduction in the connection between the left posterior cingulate cortex and two other regions; the right inferior frontal gyrus and right inferior temporal gyrus. These zones, involved in self-referential thinking and emotional stimuli processing, respectively, suggest RF-CBT can enhance the brain’s ability to shift out of the rumination habit. Notably, this work is a pre-registered replication; it demonstrates the same brain and clinical effects in the Utah sample in 2023 that was first reported in the Chicago sample in 2016.

    “For the first time, this paper shows that the version of rumination-focused CBT we have developed at the University of Exeter leads to changes in connectivity in brain regions in adolescents with a history of depression relative to treatment as usual. This is exciting, as it suggests the CBT either helps patients to gain more effortless control over rumination or makes it less habitual. We urgently need new ways to reduce rumination in this group in order to improve the mental health of our young people,” Watkins said.

    Next, the researchers will focus on demonstrating the efficacy of RF-CBT in a larger sample with an active treatment control, including continued work at Ohio State, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, University of Exeter, University of Utah and the Utah Center for Evidence Based Treatment. Future directions include bolstering access to teens in clinical settings and enhancing the ways we can learn about how this treatment helps youth with similar conditions.

    “Our paper suggests a science-backed method to break the rumination cycle and reinforces the idea that it’s never too late or too early to foster healthier mental habits. Our research team thanks the youths and families who participated in this study for their commitment and dedication to reducing the burden of depression through science and treatment, particularly during the challenges of a global pandemic,” Langenecker said.

    This work was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health and funds from the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and is dedicated to researcher Kortni K. Meyers and others who have lost their lives to depression.

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    Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

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  • Cedars-Sinai’s Smallest Babies Celebrate Halloween

    Cedars-Sinai’s Smallest Babies Celebrate Halloween

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    Newswise — LOS ANGELES (Oct. 27, 2023) — It was another boo-tiful Halloween celebration at the Cedars-Sinai Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) on Thursday. Hand-sewn costumes had been specially made for the smallest babies by Cedars-Sinai volunteers and were laid out in the NICU for parents to select. The baby costumes are all based on children’s books including pumpkins, ballerinas, a zebra, an eagle, a bat, and the popular dog Bluey. The costumes are made with Velcro, so they are easy to fit around the tiny infants without disturbing their tubing.

    Cedars-Sinai volunteers have been creating the costumes for more than 20 years, and parents just love them. Oren Stevens is a new dad, and he and his husband picked out an owl costume for their baby.

    “Having him in the NICU can be really scary so getting this full moment of joy is just a delight,” said Stevens. Plus, he said, “our son looks adorable.”

    Sonya Young brought her mother with her to pick a costume for Sonya’s baby girl. The two were deciding between Angelina Ballerina and a little piglet, but ultimately went with a zebra because they fell in love with the ears and the tail.

    “It’s bittersweet,” said Young. “It’s so fun to have her in her first costume, and I’m glad she’s here getting the best care.”

    “Parents really love dressing their kids for Halloween,” said Bevin Merideth, RN, associate director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. “It allows them to celebrate their child’s first Halloween, even if they are in the NICU, and then they take the costumes home as a keepsake to show their babies how much they’ve grown.”

    Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Zombie Cells, Aging and Health

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    Cedars-Sinai

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  • The Invisible Labor of Adult Daughters: Baylor Expert Highlights the Valuable Role of Adult ‘Daughtering’

    The Invisible Labor of Adult Daughters: Baylor Expert Highlights the Valuable Role of Adult ‘Daughtering’

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    BYLINE: Kelly Craine

    Newswise — National Daughters Day is Sept. 25, an oft-overlooked holiday that has been around since 1932. But much like the holiday, adult daughters are often unnoticed for the important role they play in the lives of their parents.

    Allison M. Alford, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of business communication at Baylor University and co-host of the weekly podcast, “Hello Mother, Hello Daughter,” researches adult daughters and their “invisible labor” in maintaining the unity of a family. Adult daughters find themselves providing support, nurturing and much more in a socially and communicatively constructed, shaped and molded role that includes navigating, responding to and negotiating cultural and familial discourses. These behaviors occur throughout a daughter’s life and represent significant resources funneled toward her parents to maintain and nurture a relationship.

    Alford’s research on “daughtering” – the active way that daughters relate to and care for parents – is how she describes the work and effort that daughters provide their parents.

    “It’s that purposeful work that helps relationships flourish but often goes uncredited as work, even by daughters themselves, in part because the efforts are wrapped in misleading language and society hasn’t adopted a lexicon specifically for daughtering,” said Alford, who edited the book, “Constructing Motherhood and Daughterhood Across the Lifespan,” with research partner Michelle Miller-Day, Ph.D., of Chapman University in Orange County, California.

    Daughtering involves such “invisible labor” as planning and organizing family events, resolving conflicts, acting as a buffer with other family members, preparing for the future and more—with the intent of supporting important family relationships, Alford said. With dashes of “mental load” and “adulting,” thrown in the mix, adult children are engaging in effortful and intense relationship-building, from which they usually benefit in the form of familial support and love.

    Embracing National Daughters Day

    In recent years, social media has embraced National Daughters Day with parents posting loving tributes and sharing stories about their daughters, recognition that Alford encourages.

    “Adult daughters put a lot of effort into their families and recognizing their hard work with praise and affirmation shows that what they do matters. Every daughter would love to hear compliments on her daughtering,” Alford said, recommending that parents take time on Sept. 25 to acknowledge and thank their adult daughters for the care and time they give to the family.

    A few simple ways parents can acknowledge adult daughters:

    • Call your daughter on the phone and tell her how much her efforts have meant to you,
    • Create a social media tribute and share a picture of yourselves together over the years,
    • Order takeout delivered to her house for dinner, or
    • Call the grandkids and tell them a sweet story about their mom.

    Also on Sept. 25, Alford and Miller-Day will launch Season 2 of their weekly podcast, “Hello Mother, Hello Daughter,” which continues to explore what it means to be an adult daughter and how daughtering and mothering work together to create a harmonious family.

    This season, the hosts interview experts on adult mother-daughter relationship topics and share helpful resources that can enable positive family interactions. The podcast will be available everywhere you listen to podcasts. “Hello Mother, Hello Daughter” also is on social media on Instagram and Facebook.

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    Baylor University

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  • Find the latest expert commentary on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions here

    Find the latest expert commentary on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions here

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    This Thursday, the United States Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation, declaring that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful. Now on Friday, the Supreme Court decided to block the Biden administration’s student debt relief program and sided with a Christian web designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings out of religious objections. Despite their limited federal elected power, Conservatives have racked up more huge wins in the great political battles of the early 21st century.

    Newswise is your source for expert commentary. Below is a roundup of recent expert pitches concerning the United States Supreme Court.

    Sociologists Available to Discuss Affirmative Action Ruling in College Admissions

    – American Sociological Association (ASA)

    Law and diversity experts react to Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision

    – Tulane University

    Three important takeaways from SCOTUS decision in Groff v. DeJoy

    – University of Georgia

    SCOTUS decision on race-based admission: experts can comment

    – Indiana University

    U law expert available to comment on Supreme Court decision on affirmative action

    – University of Utah

    Recent SCOTUS decision puts to rest extreme 2020 presidential election claims, confirms state judicial input on states’ election rules

    – University of Georgia

     

     

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    Newswise

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  • Getting adults on board with messy nature play

    Getting adults on board with messy nature play

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    Newswise — Climbing trees, making mud pies, or simply playing outside, parents and educators know that being in nature is an important part of every childhood. But when it comes to messy or risky play, it’s a whole different story according to new research from the University of South Australia.

    Talking to parents and early childhood educators, researchers found that parents and educators will happily open the door to ‘safe’ or ‘clean’ nature play but are more reluctant to let children engage in ‘messy’ activities or play that may be perceived as ‘risky’.

    UniSA researcher and PhD candidate Kylie Dankiw says that parents and educators act as important gatekeepers when it comes to nature play.

    “Nature play is well known for its positive effects on children’s health, development, and wellbeing,” Dankiw says, “and this was a common theme when interviewing parents and carers alike.

    “Nature play helps improve emotional regulation, physical skills, and learning outcomes, and can encourage children to develop their creativity and imagination.

    “Parents and educators also identified that nature play can help children form a connection with the natural world and learn about sustainable practices.

    “Importantly, parents and carers felt that nature play experiences could be used to offset technology use such as TV and screens.

    “But despite the known benefits, parents and carers can find it difficult when it comes to engaging children in nature play, especially if activities are messy or dirty (such as water or mud play) or are thought of as being risky (such as climbing).

    “Educators tell us that safety regulations and time restrictions can limit what they choose as outdoor activities, especially when they need to change children’s clothes after muddy play, or when parents expect for their child to come home clean from childcare.

    “There can be a conflict between encouraging children to experience nature, and what adults need to deal with in the so-called aftermath.”

    Nearly 50% of Australia’s children aged 0-12 years (two million) spend time in formal or informal early childhood education care, with long day care being the most common type of care for children aged 0-4 years.

    Paediatric expert UniSA’s Dr Margarita Tsiros says given the large number of children in care, further education and training for both  early childhood educators and parents could help overcome some of the challenges that might be linked with nature play.

    “Our research highlights that opportunities for young children to engage in nature play is influenced by other people in their lives,” Dr Tsiros says.

    “While parents and educators recognise the benefits of nature play, they can struggle with certain aspects of being in nature, particularly risk.

    “Understanding these barriers can help inform strategies to promote nature play for different age groups. It can also help inform policies and practices to promote enabling factors.

    “A key move will be to boost educators’ knowledge about nature-based learning, what constitutes nature play, and how they can use natural resources to facilitate nature play experiences.

    “In a time where screens threaten to consume children’s interest, it’s vital that we present opportunities for them to engage in nature play, and to achieve this, we need to have parents and educators on board.” 

    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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    University of South Australia

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  • Mothers showcase ideals through children’s fashion on social media

    Mothers showcase ideals through children’s fashion on social media

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    Newswise — Mothers often share fashion photos of their children on social media, a practice which combine the traditions of family photos and the commercial symbolism of fashion images. A joint study of the University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University investigated how this phenomenon, which has become increasingly common in recent years, is connected to consumption, parenting and childhood as well as to children’s privacy.
    For the survey, 16 Finnish mothers were interviewed. These mothers have Instagram accounts concentrating on children’s clothes, and they actively post content through these accounts.

    According to the results, the fashion photos of children reflect the mothers’ taste, aesthetic skills and values, but also help the mothers identify themselves with their own reference group and save memories of themselves and their children. A key concept in this study is “sharenting”, a combination of “sharing” and “parenting”. The concept refers to parents’ practices of photographing their children and share the photos on social media. The photography practices include selecting the venue and clothes as well as taking, editing and posting the pictures.

    “Photography practices highlight the character of the images as constructed representations,” says doctoral researcher Minna Kallioharju. “For the mothers, the photos serve as a tool for expressing their own lifestyle and values as well as the prevailing commercial and social media trends. Through these, they can strengthen their own identity and parenthood and also build connection with other mothers.”

    Drawing on the visual symbolism of family photos and fashion advertisements, the photos communicate traditional childhood ideals such as an authentic and natural appearance. Although the mothers were aware that the pictures typically present the best sides of everyday life, the Instagram account was regarded as a diary and a photo album, also as a means to save memories.

    “The mothers were aware of the potential negative consequences of sharing,” Kallioharju says, “but fashion images were found to be mostly harmless due to their aesthetic and positive character. Some mothers took a more critical stance to the sharing of pictures of their children and avoided including portray their child’s face, for example.”

    The study has raised wide attention, and the article was downloaded more than 2000 times during the first week.

    The study was funded by Kone Foundation, the Academy of Finland and its Strategic Research Council.

     

    https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-06-2022-1541

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    Jyvaskylan Yliopisto (University of Jyvaeskylae)

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  • For Father’s Day: Role of fathers in families and their effects on children

    For Father’s Day: Role of fathers in families and their effects on children

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    BYLINE: Lauren Quinn

    Experts in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently published an article showing children whose fathers engage in constructive conflict resolution with mothers have greater socioemotional skills in preschool than kids whose dads engage in destructive conflict. The paper, published in the Journal of Family Psychology [DOI: 10.1037/fam0001102], is part of a greater body of work by authors Karen Kramer, Qiujie Gong, and Kelly Tu, part of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) in ACES.   

    On their recent paper: 

    “Fathers who reported using more constructive conflict resolution – like open communication and reaching compromise, as opposed to hitting, criticizing, or throwing things – showed more involvement and warmth toward their kids, compared to their counterparts,” said lead author and HDFS doctoral student Qiujie Gong.

    Co-author and HDFS associate professor Karen Kramer, added, “Fathers using constructive conflict resolution led to more parental involvement, which led to more positive child development. Destructive conflict has the opposite effect on kids.”

    On fathers more generally:

    “Fathers are key to gender equality. If we are to truly achieve gender equality, fathers would have to step up and get involved in taking care of children, family members, and household chores as much as women. Equality should not only be a part of paid work – it should also be in unpaid work,” Kramer said.

    Kramer’s previous studies have touched on paternity leave, including paid parental leave, as well as at-home father families and other aspects of family life.   

    Gong added, “Fathers are just as important as mothers in shaping children’s life. Their unique role in child development should not be underestimated. At the same time, it is also essential to recognize the challenges fathers may face and provide them with the necessary support. By supporting both parents and promoting positive interparental relationship, children would be able to thrive and flourish in a healthy family environment.”

    Gong’s previous studies have touched on the effects of parenting programs, relationship quality among African American couples, and more. Kramer and Gong also collaborated on a study looking at parental involvement among first- and second-generation Latin Americans.

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    College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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  • Immigration experts on Title 42, analysis of immigration policies, and other migrant news in the Immigration Channel

    Immigration experts on Title 42, analysis of immigration policies, and other migrant news in the Immigration Channel

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    Title 42, the United States pandemic rule that had been used to immediately deport hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed the border illegally over the last three years, has expired. Those migrants will have the opportunity to apply for asylum. President Biden’s new rules to replace Title 42 are facing legal challenges. The US Homeland Security Department announced a rule to make it extremely difficult for anyone who travels through another country, like Mexico, to qualify for asylum. Border crossings have already risen sharply, as many migrants attempted to cross before the measure expired on Thursday night. Some have said they worry about tighter controls and uncertainty ahead. Immigration is once again a major focus of the media as we examine the humanitarian, political, and public health issues migrants must face. 

    Below are some of the latest headlines in the Immigration channel on Newswise.

    Expert Commentary

    Experts Available on Ending of Title 42

    George Washington University Experts on End of Title 42

    ‘No one wins when immigrants cannot readily access healthcare’

    URI professor discusses worsening child labor in the United States

    Biden ‘between a rock and a hard place’ on immigration

    University of Notre Dame Expert Available to Comment on House Bill Regarding Immigration Legislation, Border Safety and Security Act

    American University Experts Available to Discuss President Biden’s Visit to U.S.-Mexico Border

    Title 42 termination ‘overdue’, not ‘effective’ to manage migration

    Research and Features

    Study: Survey Methodology Should Be Calibrated to Account for Negative Attitudes About Immigrants and Asylum-Seekers

    A study analyses racial discrimination in job recruitment in Europe

    DACA has not had a negative impact on the U.S. job market

    ASBMB cautions against drastic immigration fee increases

    Study compares NGO communication around migration

    Collaboration, support structures needed to address ‘polycrisis’ in the Americas

    TTUHSC El Paso Faculty Teach Students While Caring for Migrants

    Immigrants Report Declining Alcohol Use during First Two Years after Arriving in U.S.

    How asylum seeker credibility is assessed by authorities

    Speeding up and simplifying immigration claims urgently needed to help with dire situation for migrants experiencing homelessness

    Training Individuals to Work in their Communities to Reduce Health Disparities

    ‘Regulation by reputation’: Rating program can help combat migrant abuse in the Gulf

    Migration of academics: Economic development does not necessarily lead to brain drain

    How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected immigration?

    Immigrants with Darker Skin Tones Perceive More Discrimination

     

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    Newswise

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  • Study finds higher risk of sleep problems in gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth

    Study finds higher risk of sleep problems in gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth

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    Newswise — Toronto, ON – A new national study, published in LGBT Health, finds that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth are twice as likely to report trouble falling or staying asleep than their straight peers. Greater depression, stress, and family conflict contribute to the sleep problems of LGB youth.

    “Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual may face discrimination and negative attitudes because of their sexual orientation. These experiences can make it harder for them to get a good night’s sleep,” says lead author, Jason Nagata, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. “Difficulties getting along with family, feeling sad and hopeless, and being under a lot of pressure could all make it hard for lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth to sleep well.”

    The researchers analyzed data from 8563 youth ages 10-14 years old who are part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. Data were collected from 2018-2020. The youth and their parents answered questions about their sleep habits and youth were asked about their sexual orientation. Youth who were questioning their sexuality (e.g., who replied “maybe” to being gay, lesbian, or bisexual) also had greater risk for sleep problems compared to their straight peers.

    “Families should provide support by being present and encouraging young people’s exploration of their identity and development of a sense of self,” said co-author, Kyle T. Ganson, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. “Adolescent development is a challenging time for many given the social pressures and physical, psychological, and emotional changes that occur. Understanding this process and being present to support it is crucial for positive health outcomes.”

    “Getting enough sleep is crucial for teenagers because it helps their body and mind grow and develop properly,” Nagata says. “To sleep well, teenagers should follow a consistent sleep routine, make sure their sleeping environment is comfortable, and avoid using electronic devices before going to bed.”

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    University of Toronto

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  • Happy birthday to Dr. Seuss: FSU literacy researcher offers tips to get kids reading

    Happy birthday to Dr. Seuss: FSU literacy researcher offers tips to get kids reading

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    BYLINE: Kathleen Haughney

    Newswise — With school-aged children celebrating the joy of reading through Read Across America Day or Dr. Seuss Day this week, many parents and teachers are capitalizing on that joy to remind kids of the power of a good book.

    Florida State University Assistant Professor Lakeisha Johnson, a faculty affiliate for The Florida Center for Reading Research, has assembled a tip sheet for parents using this time to encourage their children to read more.

    “Sometimes, finding the right book or format can light a spark that will stay with children forever,” Johnson said.

    Here are some tips:

    Let your child lead.
    Allow your child to choose books based on their interests. Whether they like picture books or graphic novels, fiction or biographies, poetry or sci-fi, children are more motivated to read when they are interested in the topic.

    Make reading a family activity.
    Choose a time of day when all members of the family drop everything and read. Children often follow the models shown by adults and will value reading when they see their grown-ups doing it for pleasure.

    Keep reading aloud.
    Read books together, even when your child is old enough to read on their own. When grown-ups read aloud, the mental space needed to decode is freed up and the child can focus solely on understanding the story and actively participating in conversations beyond the text.

    Introduce a fun series.
    No one likes a cliffhanger. Captivating series are a great way to keep children engaged and wanting to read the next story.

    Go beyond storybooks.
    Reading doesn’t always have to be a traditional book. Read through a recipe book to find a new meal or dessert idea. Find a children’s magazine to spark interest in a new topic. Try listening to audiobooks for a fun switch in your normal reading routine.

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    Florida State University

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  • Tailored approach makes inroads in rural firearm safe storage

    Tailored approach makes inroads in rural firearm safe storage

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    Newswise — A new study shows early promise for an approach that seeks to reduce the risk of firearm injury and death in rural areas, while respecting rural culture and firearm ownership.

    The effort tailors messages about safe firearm storage and teen firearm suicide to a rural audience, and shares specific tips for improving safety.

    Early data presented at a national conference show that in 45 rural Michigan families with both children and firearms in their home, the vast majority of parents reported strong engagement with the prevention materials, finding the content useful and reflective of their rural community values.

    Three weeks after completing the intervention, 86% of the parents said they completed a firearm home safety checklist suggested by the program, and 88% talked about firearm safety with another adult in their home.

    Nearly two-thirds also went on to discuss firearm safety with children who live with them, and 40% reported that they made a change to how they store firearms in their home.

    The findings, from the pilot study of the Store Safely project, were presented on December 1 at the 2022 National Research Conference on Firearm Injury Prevention by Cynthia Ewell Foster, Ph.D., who leads the University of Michigan-based team behind the project. The presentation won one of the conference’s top awards.

    “We are excited by these findings, and by the variety of actions that these families took including changing to unloaded and locked storage and moving hunting rifles to another location less accessible to children,” says Ewell Foster, a clinical psychologist in the Michigan Medicine Department of Psychiatry and member of the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. “While we have much more work to do to assess the impact of the tools we’ve developed, our findings show the value of partnering with the community in order to develop a culturally tailored safety message.”

    The Store Safely website includes a video featuring trusted community messengers, an infographic of local data, a decision aid to help families consider different storage options, and downloadable resources, including a home safety checklist.

    The Store Safely project grew out of a partnership with the Marquette County Health Department, Marquette County Suicide Prevention Alliance and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. It involved an extensive community advisory board representing local business owners; law enforcement officials; veteran navigators; medical, behavioral, and public health professionals; and K-12 school personnel.

    Rural America has the highest per capita death toll from firearms, higher than suburban and urban areas, and the main reason for this difference is firearm suicides.

    Putting time and distance between individuals who are at risk for suicide and highly lethal means like firearms is a critical part of a comprehensive suicide prevention strategy, Ewell Foster said.

    Store Safely focuses its messaging on the importance of preventing all firearm injury as well as teen firearm-related suicide e by storing firearms in ways that reduce the chances that a teen who is upset, angry, depressed, or experiencing other kinds of risk factors will be able to access a loaded firearm.

    The program’s materials emphasize the range of options that rural families have for reducing risk within the context of their lifestyle,which includes firearm ownership for both hunting and protection. .

    Ewell Foster and her colleagues plan to increase the availability of the Store Safely intervention while continuing to evaluate its impact in other rural communities both within and beyond Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  

    In addition to Ewell Foster, the study’s authors are Christina Magness LMSW, Tayla Smith M.P.H., and Cheryl King Ph.D. of the U-M Department of Psychiatry, Sarah Derwin of the Marquette County Health Department, and Eskira Kahsay, M.P.H., of the U-M School of Public Health.

     

    The Store Safely project is funded by the Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens Consortium based at U-M. FACTS is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD087149).

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    Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

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  • Ambition to succeed despite adversity motivates people from diverse backgrounds to pursue legal careers, study shows

    Ambition to succeed despite adversity motivates people from diverse backgrounds to pursue legal careers, study shows

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    Newswise — A desire to succeed despite adversity motivates people to pursue a legal career, but barriers caused by finances and careers advice are obstacles, a new study suggests.

    Those who have become solicitors and barristers said experiencing difficult circumstances in their lives and their personal qualities had been a bigger influence than any structural class or education barriers. Some wanted to prove others wrong and succeed against the odds.

    Experts say their findings could be used to devise systems to encourage and actively promote widening participation into the legal profession with support which is emotional and psychological rather than exclusively financial.

    Experts analysed 650 UK tweets posted under the twitter hashtag #mypathtolaw in 2018, which was started by Dr Matthew Channon from the University of Exeter Law School – following his experiences – to encourage law students, solicitors, barristers and legal academics to share their personal paths to a legal career. It has already contributed in changing the narratives of entry into the legal profession by celebrating diverse routes and in providing inspiration for future lawyers from ‘non-standard’ backgrounds.

    The tweets reveal an encouraging picture of the ability of many to overcome barriers to their entry into a legal career through support from family, or personal resilience and perseverance, or the financial and emotional support of legal firms or teachers. Tweeters said poor or discouraging careers advice had been a significant barrier to them.

    Narratives of financial struggles and how they are overcome featured strongly in the tweets and the study says earlier financial support for aspiring lawyers is crucial to widen access.

    The study says greater support from legal firms through mentoring and scholarships combined with greater support from schools in careers advice, preparation for interviews, and work experience placements may significantly aid individuals to overcome barriers in their entry into the legal profession. Thus many barriers to the legal profession are conquerable with earlier financial assistance and better careers advice.

    Many of the tweeters (62.5 per cent) chose not to reference their secondary school education at all. A total of 156 mentioned having to combine work and study, 64 the influence of family or legal firms and 89 the importance of work experience. Twenty-five respondents specifically mentioned being motivated by having experienced or seen injustices while 23 mentioned luck. Gender wasn’t mentioned as a significant issue, although other research has identified it as a barrier.

    The research, published in the journal Research in Post-Compulsory Education, was carried out by Ruth Flanagan, Anna Mountford-Zimdars and Dr Channon, all from the University of Exeter.

    Professor Mountford-Zimdars said: “Social class, poverty measures like free-school meals, postcode data and gender are used as standard measures of barriers to entry for professions such as the law. It is striking that our tweeters choose to focus on different narratives.

    “Gender was only mentioned explicitly in two tweets whereas being a single parent was more commonly mentioned as a barrier. Gender was notable by its absence. In addition, references were made to losing a parent and experiences or exposure to mental illness, categories seldom part of social mobility survey research.

    “Striking also was the focus on enablers and personal characteristics that had allowed them to be successful, such as resilience, a strong character or a strong internal motivation for wishing to become a lawyer, such as a sense of injustice. While the sociological literature focuses more on barriers than enablers our tweeters focused on their individual drive to succeed. It may indeed be the tweeters focus on individual characteristics and traits that has allowed them to successfully become lawyers when others with similar backgrounds may have failed.”

    Ruth Flanagan said: “The dissatisfaction with career advice is clearly a policy issue universities can address in their outreach and schools and colleges can address in their advice practices. A greater degree of support and preparation for law as a career choice would have benefitted many of our tweeters. It might be that career advisors themselves require greater training of progress to law to be able to give the most useful advice. Changing the narratives about who can be successful in law rather than pitching law as an inaccessible profession is another way forward. Instead of encouraging individuals to self-eliminate from consideration for a legal career a wider dispersal of these narratives may further facilitate the opening of the legal profession to those from all backgrounds.

    Dr Channon said: “Advice from teachers and sometimes law-firms proved to be a strong enabler where it was positive and an impactful barrier when it was negative: tweeters remembered both encouraging and discouraging words from many years ago as having had the power to change their paths. The impact lesson here is that everyone engaging in conversations about future career aspirations must not under-estimate the huge impact their words could have.”

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    University of Exeter

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  • The COVID pandemic is over? Not quite there, say scientists

    The COVID pandemic is over? Not quite there, say scientists

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    Newswise — In widely covered remarks during an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, President Biden claimed, “the pandemic is over.” Biden elaborated, adding, “we still have a problem with COVID, we’re still doing a lot of work on it, but the pandemic is over. If you noticed, no one’s wearing masks, everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing, and I think this is a perfect example of it.” 

    According to the Washington Post, Biden’s remarks caught some senior officials off guard, particularly since the U.S. government has started its fall vaccination campaign. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced more relaxed COVID-19 guidelines last month, the agency specifically said that the pandemic was not over in a press release issued on August 11th. Therefore, this statement has earned a rating of “Half True.”

    With the rollout of boosters of life-saving vaccines, new treatments, and a large population already infected, the U.S. is in a less vulnerable place than it was in 2020.  However, the death toll, while lower than before, is still at around 400 deaths per day from COVID-19 in the U.S. Many health experts say we’re not out of the woods yet.

    “Saying that the pandemic is over has much larger and more serious ramifications, it means we take away resources allocated by Congress and other agencies. We must be careful about saying it is over. We still need resources to continue vaccination and to address vaccine hesitancy.” says Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, Founding Dean and Director of the UCI Program in Public Health.

    The end of masking restrictions and relaxing of other major guidelines has given many Americans a sense of moving on from the national health crisis that has festered for more than two years. Biden’s remarks, though perhaps an oversimplification, reflect national sentiment. However, COVID-19 is still very much evident in our U.S. population, and will likely continue for the foreseeable future. 

    “This is in great part due to human behaviors and motivations,” says Halkitis, “including subpar vaccination uptake, which continues to place all of us at risk for infection.” 

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    Newswise

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