Individual’s daily behaviour and intergenerational mixing in different social contexts of Kenya
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Del Fava E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8566563 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Using retrospective global reports, studies have found that middle-aged adults in the United States provide intermittent support to their aging parents and more frequent support to grown children. To date, studies have not examined support middle-aged adults provide to different generations on a daily basis. Daily support may include mundane everyday exchanges that may (or may not) affect well-being.Middle-aged adults (N = 191, mean age 55.93) completed a general interview regarding family ties, followed by interviews each day for 7 days (N = 1,261 days). Daily interviews assessed support (e.g., advice, emotional, practical help) participants provided each grown child (n = 454) and aging parent (n = 253). Participants also reported daily mood.Most participants provided emotional support (80%), advice (87%), and practical help (69%) to a grown child and also provided emotional support (61%) and advice (61%) or practical help (43%) to a parent that week. Multilevel models confirmed generational differences; grown children were more likely to receive everyday support than parents. Providing support to grown children was associated with positive mood, whereas providing support to parents was associated with more negative mood.Daily intergenerational support was more common than studies using global reports of support have found. Some daily support may be fleeting and not stand out in memory. The findings were consistent with the intergenerational stake hypothesis, which suggests middle-aged adults are more invested in their grown children than in their parents. Nonetheless, middle-aged adults were highly involved with aging parents.
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Project description:BackgroundAround the world, international migration and growing economic inequality have contributed to heightened perceptions of intergroup threat (i.e., feeling that people outside of one's social group are hostile to their physical or emotional well-being). Exposures related to intergroup threat, like negative intergroup contact, are inherently stressful and may contribute to higher levels of psychological distress in the population. This longitudinal study investigated whether maternal experiences of negative intergroup contact are related to poor mental health outcomes among ethnically diverse children in The Netherlands.MethodsData are from 4025 mother-child pairs in the Generation R Study, a multi-ethnic Dutch birth cohort initiated in 2005. Mothers' experiences of negative intergroup contact were assessed during pregnancy. Child mental health was indexed by problem behavior reported by parents and teachers using the Child Behavior Checklist. Linear mixed-effects models tested longitudinal associations of maternal-reported negative intergroup contact with child problem behavior reported by mothers at ages 3, 5, and 9 years, considering a range of potential confounders. Sensitivity analyses examined whether results were replicated using child data from other informants.ResultsIn fully adjusted models, higher levels of negative intergroup contact were associated with more problem behavior averaged across childhood for both non-Dutch (standardized B = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.14) and Dutch children (standardized B = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.15). Sensitivity analyses with data from other informants largely supported primary findings.ConclusionsComparable adverse intergenerational effects on mental health were observed among both ethnic minority and majority children whose mothers experienced negative intergroup contact. These findings suggest that ethnically divisive social contexts may confer widespread risks, regardless of a child's ethnic background. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine exposures related to intergroup threat from an epidemiologic perspective and provides proof of principle that such exposures may be informative for population health.
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Project description:Atrax robustus is an iconic Australian spider because the venom can be lethal to humans. Moreover, some of the venom biomolecules have promise as therapeutic and bioinsecticidal leads. Nonetheless, aspects related to the life history and behaviour of this species, which might influence changes in venom components, have been overlooked. We assessed different behavioural traits (antipredator behaviour, defensiveness and activity) of juveniles and adult females across different contexts (predation, conspecific tolerance and exploration of a new territory) and stimuli (puff of air versus prod) over time. Adults responded to a puff of air faster than juveniles, but in response to a prod, both juveniles and adults become more defensive over time. No differences were observed between adults and juveniles for conspecific tolerance and exploration. Understanding behaviour of venomous species is important because behaviours may affect physiological traits, such as venom, and the ability of spiders to adapt to different conditions.
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