This study sought to identify issues rural, low-income mothers face within their housing conditions and implications for their health and well-being. In-depth interview data from 79 rural, low-income ...mothers across 11 states who participated in the multi-state USDA Hatch funded project, Rural Families Speak about Health (RFSH), were analyzed. A conceptual framework that incorporated both Morris and Winter's theory of family housing adjustment and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's principles of healthy homes was used to organize the findings. Findings revealed that mothers faced multiple, interconnected housing deficiencies that have grave implications for their health and well-being. Implications for research and practice making connections between the condition of the physical home environment and people's health. This study advances the literature in that it provides important insights into the physical housing conditions facing a growing, vulnerable population - low-income families across rural America, and implications for their health and well-being.
Reports an error in "Atypical child-parent neural synchrony is linked to negative family emotional climate and children's psychopathological symptoms" by Haowen Su, Christina B. Young, Zhuo Rachel ...Han, Jianjie Xu, Bingsen Xiong, Zisen Zhou, Jingyi Wang, Lei Hao, Zhi Yang, Gang Chen and Shaozheng Qin (
, Advanced Online Publication, Jul 13, 2023, np). In the article "Atypical Child-Parent Neural Synchrony Is Linked to Negative Family Emotional Climate and Children's Psychopathological Symptoms," by Haowen Su, Christina B. Young, Zhuo Rachel Han, Jianjie Xu, Bingsen Xiong, Zisen Zhou, Jingyi Wang, Lei Hao, Zhi Yang, Gang Chen, and Shaozheng Qin (American Psychologist, 2024, Vol. 79, No. 2, pp. 210-224, https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001173), Figure 2 and its caption were corrected to fix a mismatch between the r coefficients and scatterplots. The caption was changed from "(c) Child-parent hippocampal activity concordance was significantly higher for boundary than nonboundary event time series (Z = 2.30, p = .01). (d) Child-parent vmPFC activity concordance was marginally significantly higher for boundary than nonboundary time series (Z = -1.39, p = .08)" to "(c) Child-parent vmPFC activity concordance was marginally significantly lower for boundary than nonboundary time series (Z = -1.39, p = .08). (d) Child- parent hippocampal activity concordance was significantly higher for boundary than nonboundary event time series (Z = 2.30, p = .01)." In addition, in the second sentence of the second paragraph of the "Reduced Child-Parent vmPFC Connectivity With the Hippocampus Links to Negative Family Emotional Climate and Children's Internalizing Symptoms" section, "anxious/depressed" and "internalizing" were switched. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The abstract of the original article appeared in record 2023-89696-001.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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Abstract Experiences in early childhood form the bedrock of future human potential. In impoverished settings, structured early childhood education (ECE) in preschool years can augment overall ...childhood and later human abilities. The current study evaluates preschool learning exposure and childhood cognition, using longitudinal follow-up of a community-based birth cohort in Vellore, south India. The birth cohort study site in Vellore recruited 251 newborns between 2010 and 2012 from dense urban settlements and further followed up into childhood. Preschool enrolment details were obtained from parents. Childhood cognition was assessed by Weschler’s preschool primary scale of intelligence (WPPSI) and Malin’s intelligence scale for Indian Children (MISIC) at 5 and 9 years of age respectively. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed with adjustments for socio-economic status (SES), maternal education, stunting status and home environment. Out of 251 new-borns recruited into the MAL-ED birth cohort, 212 (84.46%) and 205 (81.7%) children were available for the 5 year and 9 year follow-up respectively. At 5 years, structured ECE of 18 to 24 months duration was significantly associated with higher cognition scores, with the highest increase in processing speed β: 19.55 (11.26–27.77), followed by full-scale intelligence β: 6.75 (2.96–10.550), even after adjustments for SES, maternal cognition, home factors and early childhood stunting status. Similarly adjusted analysis at 9 years showed that children who attended 1.5–2 years of structured ECE persisted to have higher cognition, especially in the performance domain β: 8.82 (2.60–15.03), followed by the full-scale intelligence β: 7.24 (2.52–11.90). Follow-up of an Indian birth cohort showed that structured ECE exposure was associated with better school entry cognition as well as mid-childhood cognition. Strengthening ECE through a multi-pronged approach could facilitate to maximize cognitive potential of human capital.
•Learning enjoyment and learning effort decreased during the pandemic.•Student-perceived consequences of the pandemic predicted the decreases.•Parental ability to provide learning support predicted ...the decrease in enjoyment.•The strength of this link depended on prior student achievement.
This study investigated changes in learning enjoyment and learning effort, two central yet under-researched aspects of school-related emotion and motivation, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also verified whether selected aspects of the home environment predicted changes in the two aspects. To this end, we used data gathered from 4240 German lower secondary school students surveyed before (Grade 7, 2018/19) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (Grade 8, 2019/20 and Grade 9, 2020/21). The analyses, which involved latent change score models with covariates, revealed a decrease in student learning enjoyment and learning effort between Grades 7 and 9. Moreover, the student-perceived consequences of the pandemic predicted a decrease in both of these constructs, whereas parental ability to provide learning support during distance learning predicted a decrease in learning enjoyment. The strength of this relationship depended on prior student academic achievement. The results highlight the role of environmental factors for the development of learning enjoyment and learning effort.
Children are considered to be especially vulnerable to energy poverty; however, there has been little empirical research on how energy poverty affects early childhood development in energy-poor ...countries. To overcome this, here we measure energy poverty and early child development using a multidimensional approach based on data from national multiple indicator cluster surveys (MICS). Using this data, we utilize mediation techniques to empirically investigate the impact of energy poverty on early childhood development using two mediators, namely living standards and child health. The results suggest that energy poverty hampers childhood development through living standards and child health. Findings also confirm that early childhood development has a statistically significant relationship with the living standard of a household, child health, gender, age, home environment, quality of the care of the child, the mother's education level, education level of the household head and the region of residence. Finally, we propose viable policy strategies to prevent energy poverty to ensure proper child development for future generations to achieve relevant SDGs in the investigated nations.
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•Calculation of adjusted multidimensional energy poverty score for energy poor nations.•Calculation of multidimensional early childhood development index.•Mediation analysis is employed using multiple indicator cluster survey data.•Energy poverty hampers childhood development through living standards and child health.
Introduction: Technology can improve the health care outcomes of the elderly. However, there are many barriers to the adoption of mobile monitoring and care systems (MMCs) by the elderly reported in ...literature. The main purpose of this research was to investigate why elderly people do not adopt MMCs to improve the quality of their health care. Methods: The study made use of semi-structured interviews to collect data in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa. The study sample consisted of 15 purposively chosen study participants, representing a diverse racial profile, in order to investigate the adoption of MMCs of the elderly in their home environment. The interviews were analysed thematically. Results: The study found that social challenges like technology anxiety, the intrusive nature of the technology and attitude towards the technology will affect adoption of MMCs. Government need to address the standardisation, data governance and interoperability of the systems. The cost of MMCs were seen as an inhibitor, but could be off set against the perceived return on investment of health care. While the elderly acknowledged that MMCs can improve their independence, the design of the MMCs and training to use it was identified as barriers to the adoption. Conclusion: The study, therefore, recommends collaborative engagements amongst government, business and the elderly to facilitate the adoption of MMCs in the elderly community to improve the quality of health care.
Background: The home environment is the first context where children have experience, so in the present review article, important aspects of the child development that are influenced by home ...environment are analyzed, and common questionnaires were used to evaluate them. Review of Literature: The method applied in the present study was a narrative review. Initially, a variety of different sources were employed to find the related literature. The sources included; web-based browsers of Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest & Google Scholar, OT Seeker, Magiran and Iranmedex with keywords combination of “Development”, “child”, “home environment”, “Measurement ”&“Questionnaire” and word related to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) adaptation. A total of 13 articles were included to be studied in detail in order to find the impact of home environment on the child developmental skills, including cognition, movement, emotion and interaction with regard to common home environment measurement. Discussion: All aspects of the home environment such as; physical space, toys, play, and learning materials, and child-adult interaction relationship stimulate motor, emotional and cognitive development and are influential on child developmental skills. The home environment is dependent on family culture, ethnicity, social economic status, and poverty. Conclusion: Most common questionnaires (The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) in domains of cognitive and social development and the Affordance in the Home Environment for Motor Development (AHEMD) in the domain of motor development) were set up to evaluate the home environment.
Experiencing child sexual abuse (CSA) is a major public health problem with serious consequences for CSA victims. For effective assessment and (preventive) intervention, knowledge on risk factors and ...their effects is crucial. Here, the aim was to synthesize research on associations between (putative) risk factors and CSA victimization. In total, 765 (putative) risk factors were extracted from 72 studies, which were classified into 35 risk domains. A series of three-level meta-analyses produced a significant mean effect for 23 of the 35 risk domains ranging from r = .101 to r = .360. The strongest effects were found for prior victimization of the child and/or its family members, such as prior CSA victimization of the child and/or siblings (r = .360), prior victimization of the child other than child abuse (r = .340), prior or concurrent forms of child abuse in the child's home environment (r = .267), and a parental history of child abuse victimization (r = .265). Other identified risks were related to parental problems (e.g., intimate partner violence, r = .188), parenting problems (e.g., low quality of parent-child relation, r = .292), a non-nuclear family structure (e.g., having a stepfather, r = .118), family problems (e.g., social isolation, r = .191), child problems (e.g., having a mental/physical chronic condition, r = .193), and other child characteristics (e.g., being female, r = .290). Moderator analyses suggested that contact CSA victimization may be better predicted than noncontact CSA victimization. It was concluded that an ecological perspective on preventing CSA victimization is necessary.
Public Significance Statement
This review integrates research on risk factors for child sexual abuse (CSA) victimization. A substantial number of significant risks were identified. The results showed that the most important risks refer to prior (CSA and non-CSA) victimization of children and/or family members. Other relevant risks refer to different types of problems and characteristics of parents, the family system, and the child itself. Non-nuclear family structures also pose risk for CSA victimization.
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Abstract
Study Objectives
High rates of sleep and mental health problems have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic, but most of the evidence is retrospective without pre-pandemic data. This ...study documented rates of prevalent, incident, and persistent insomnia and psychological symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) compared to pre-pandemic data (2018).
Methods
Data were derived from a longitudinal, population-based study of insomnia in Canada. When the first lockdown started in the province of Quebec, a subsample of participants who had completed the latest 2018 follow-up were surveyed (April to May 2020) about their sleep, insomnia, and psychological symptoms since the beginning of the pandemic. Prevalence, incidence, and persistence rates of insomnia, and severity of stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were estimated, as well as their associations with confinement, loneliness, social support, use of electronics, and other lifestyle changes occurring during the pandemic. A sleep/health survey and validated questionnaires of insomnia, sleep quality, stress, fatigue, anxiety, and depression were administered at both assessments.
Results
The sample consisted of 594 adults (mean age: 48.3 ± 13.1 years; 64.0% women). Prevalence of insomnia increased from 25.4% to 32.2% (symptoms) and from 16.8% to 19% (syndrome) from 2018 to 2020, for an overall 26.7% increase in insomnia rates. Of those classified as good sleepers in 2018 (n = 343), 32.6% (n = 112) had developed new insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among participants who had insomnia in 2018, the persistence rate was 76.5% 2 years later. There was a significant worsening of sleep quality, fatigue, anxiety, and depression (all ps < .005) during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to 2018. Significant associations were found between sleep and psychological symptoms and with living alone and being in confinement, lower social support, increased time using electronic devices, reduced physical exercise, and higher financial stress.
Conclusions
The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with significant increases in insomnia and psychological symptoms compared to the pre-pandemic period. Large scale public sleep and mental health intervention programs should be prioritized during and after a pandemic such as the COVID-19.
Statement of purposeThe home is a primary setting for toddlers’ injuries. Home safety and characteristics of a family’s daily life have scarcely been studied. This study aimed to examine the ...association between a safe home environment for toddlers and the variables in their mothers’ daily healthy lifestyle.Methods/ApproachThis was a cross-sectional study, during 2019 in Israel. Mothers of toddlers aged 1–4 years old (n=100) completed a questionnaire, including a safe home checklist (BETEREM), a healthy lifestyle questionnaire (HLPCQ), and socio-demographic information. Questionnaires were collected through two community mother-child enrichment centers.ResultsMothers reported having a moderately safe home environment and low daily health habits (mean 58.9, 34.1 respectively on 0–100 scale). Mothers with higher safe home environment score reported less child injuries at home (p<0.01); additionally, mothers with higher healthy lifestyle score reported less child injuries at home (p<0.01). Safe home environment score is positively associated with mothers’ daily healthy lifestyle score (r=0.791, p<0.01). A hierarchical regression demonstrated that of the five HLPCQ scales, mental balance predicted 79% of home safety; moreover, a mother’s religious definition predicted 7% (p< 0.05).ConclusionHome safety is associated with mothers’ daily healthy lifestyle. To promote child home safety there is a need to further study differences in parents’ and in families’ daily healthy lifestyle in diverse populations.SignificanceHome safety interventions for parents of toddlers need to be embedded with general daily healthy lifestyle and health promotion initiatives (sleep, stress management, diet etc.).
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