Depression contributes substantially to the burden of disease in South Africa. Little is known about how neighbourhoods affect the mental health of the people living in them.
Using nationally ...representative data (N=11,955) from the South African National Income Dynamics Study and the South African Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SAIMD) modelled at small-area level, this study tested associations between neighbourhood-level deprivation and depression, after controlling for individual-level covariates.
Results showed a significant positive association between neighbourhood-level deprivation and depression using the composite SAIMD (β = 0.31 (0.15); p=0.04) as well as the separate deprivation domains. Living environment deprivation (β =0.53 (0.16); p=0.001) and employment deprivation (β = 0.38 (0.13); p=0.004), respectively, were the two most salient domains in predicting this relationship.
Findings supported the hypothesis that there is a positive association between living in a more deprived neighbourhood and depression, even after controlling for individual-level covariates. This study suggests that alleviating structural poverty could reduce the burden of depression in South Africa.
Interventions that train parents to share picture books with children are seen as a strategy for supporting child language development. We conducted meta‐analyses using robust variance estimation ...modeling on results from 19 RCTs (Ntotal = 2,594; Mchildage = 1–6 years). Overall, book‐sharing interventions had a small sized effect on both expressive language (d = 0.41) and receptive language (d = 0.26). They had a large effect on caregiver book‐sharing competence (d = 1.01). The impact of the intervention on child language was moderated by intervention dosage, with lower dosage associated with a minimal impact. Child age and caregiver education level were unrelated to child outcome. This review and meta‐analysis confirms the promise of book‐sharing interventions for enhancing and accelerating child language development.
Although adolescent mental health interventions are widely implemented, little consensus exists about elements comprising successful models.
We aimed to identify effective program components of ...interventions to promote mental health and prevent mental disorders and risk behaviors during adolescence and to match these components across these key health outcomes to inform future multicomponent intervention development.
A total of 14 600 records were identified, and 158 studies were included.
Studies included universally delivered psychosocial interventions administered to adolescents ages 10 to 19. We included studies published between 2000 and 2018, using PubMed, Medline, PsycINFO, Scopus, Embase, and Applied Social Sciences Index Abstracts databases. We included randomized controlled, cluster randomized controlled, factorial, and crossover trials. Outcomes included positive mental health, depressive and anxious symptomatology, violence perpetration and bullying, and alcohol and other substance use.
Data were extracted by 3 researchers who identified core components and relevant outcomes. Interventions were separated by modality; data were analyzed by using a robust variance estimation meta-analysis model, and we estimated a series of single-predictor meta-regression models using random effects.
Universally delivered interventions can improve adolescent mental health and reduce risk behavior. Of 7 components with consistent signals of effectiveness, 3 had significant effects over multiple outcomes (interpersonal skills, emotional regulation, and alcohol and drug education).
Most included studies were from high-income settings, limiting the applicability of these findings to low- and middle-income countries. Our sample included only trials.
Three program components emerged as consistently effective across different outcomes, providing a basis for developing future multioutcome intervention programs.
This study evaluated the impact of a parenting intervention on children’s cognitive and socioemotional development in a group of caregivers and their 21‐to‐28‐month‐old children in a low‐income South ...African township. A randomized controlled trial compared an experimental group (n = 70) receiving training in dialogic book‐sharing (8 weekly group sessions) with a wait‐list control group (n = 70). They were assessed before the intervention, immediately following it, and at a six month follow‐up. The intervention had positive effects on child language and attention, but not behavior problems, prosocial behavior, or theory of mind. Intervention caregivers were less verbally and psychologically harsh, showed more sensitivity and reciprocity and more complex cognitive talk. This program benefitted parenting and child development and holds promise for low‐income contexts.
Background: Children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at risk for problems in cognitive, social and behavioural development. Factors such as a lack of cognitive stimulation and ...parenting practices that lack sensitivity are central to the genesis of these developmental problems and are exacerbated in the context of poverty. Interventions that target the intersection of early childhood development, parenting, and early violence prevention are required to meaningfully address these problems. One promising intervention for improving parenting and child language and cognitive outcomes is caregiver-child picture book sharing. However, there is a paucity of up-to-date systematic evidence regarding the impact of parent-targeted book-sharing interventions on child and parenting outcomes. In addition, little is known about the mechanisms by which these interventions operate, which include the nature of caregiver-child dialogue. Further, it is unknown whether, in LMIC contexts, certain kinds of caregiver utterances are linked to areas of child development such as social understanding, as has been shown in high-income countries (HIC). Similarly, there is a need to address the shortage of research into how such interventions operate in LMIC settings, where the potential for positive change could arguably be the greatest. A further gap in the literature is the virtual absence of inquiry into the impact of book-sharing interventions on outcomes other than child language. This is surprising, given that such interventions target a set of risk and protective factors implicated in the development of child social understanding and behaviour - such as parental sensitivity, reciprocity, and disciplining strategies. Finally, very little research has looked at moderators that would help to reveal who benefits (or does not benefit) from book-sharing interventions and under what circumstances. Paper 1: The first paper aims to synthesise and appraise existing evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on the effectiveness of book-sharing interventions on child language and parent book-sharing outcomes. Interventions that train parents to share picture books with children are seen as a strategy for supporting language development. An extensive and sensitive search of seven academic databases was conducted to identify all relevant studies. Screening, extraction and quality ratings were conducted by two independent authors. Meta-analyses were conducted using robust variance estimation modelling on results from 19 RCTs (N= 2,594; child age = 1 - 6 years). Overall, book-sharing interventions had a small sized effect on both expressive language (d=0.41) and receptive language (d=0.26). They had a large effect on caregiver book-sharing competence (d=1.01). The impact of the intervention on child language was moderated by intervention dosage, with lower dosage associated with a minimal impact. Conversely, group-based intervention format was associated with larger impact. Child age and caregiver education level were unrelated to child outcome. This review and meta-analysis demonstrated the promise of book-sharing interventions for enhancing and accelerating child language development and caregiver book-sharing competence, at least in the short term. Paper 2: Social understanding or socio-cognitive development refers to our ability to give psychological explanations for human behaviour and provides the foundation for cooperation and pro-social behaviour. This paper reports a study in which 70 LMIC caregiver-child dyads were assessed to investigate individual and family predictors of child social understanding, with an emphasis on the role of caregiver-child talk. Despite much research into individual and family predictors of socio-cognitive understanding in preschoolers, little is known about corresponding predictors in younger children. Similarly, these relationships are yet to be explored in LMICs. Very little is known about the nature and content of caregiver-child talk in an African context and whether, as has been shown in many HICs, it relates to child social understanding. A better understanding of these relationships could shed light on which elements of caregiver talk could be enhanced in order to aid child socio-cognitive development through an intervention such as book-sharing. For example, this could lay the foundation for addressing the question of whether changes in caregiver talk could in turn lead to improvements in child social understanding. Seventy families with two-year-old children from Khayelitsha, a low-income peri-urban township in South Africa, participated in this cross-sectional study. Two tasks assessing socio-cognitive understanding were administered to the children and video-based transcripts of caregiver-child interactions were coded for mental state talk, causal utterances, and speech quantity. The relationship between caregiver talk and child socio-cognitive development was investigated. Key child and family demographic variables were taken into account. Child language, caregiver education, family socio-economic deprivation, and caregiver references to emotions and causal talk were all associated with child performance on socio-cognitive tasks. After controlling for relevant variables, caregiver causal talk emerged as the most salient predictor of child socio-cognitive performance. This study demonstrated that caregiver talk is associated with child socio-cognitive understanding in a low-income African context. Moreover, it addressed the paucity of research into the nature of this relationship with very young children using measures of fledgling socio-cognitive understanding. The findings suggest that the quality, rather than the quantity, of maternal speech plays an important role in helping children develop socio-cognitive capacities. In particular, speech that involves discussion of causality appears to play a central role. Paper 3: The final paper presents the outcome data from an RCT - the Benefits of Early Book-Sharing study - conducted in Khayelitsha, a low-income peri-urban township in South Africa. The purpose was to evaluate a dialogic book-sharing intervention for caregivers of children 21-28 months, designed to promote positive parenting and child cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural development. Families were randomly allocated to a book-sharing or a wait-list control group. In the intervention, caregivers were trained in supportive book-sharing with young children. Training was carried out in small groups over a period of eight weeks. Data were collected at baseline, post-intervention and at six months post-intervention. One-hundred-and-forty caregivers and their 21-28-month-old children (70:70) were assessed at enrolment, with 130 (93%) contributing data at post-intervention and 123 (88%) at a six-month follow-up. Children in the intervention group performed significantly better than controls on a number of observed and caregiver-reported measures of language (d=0.37 - 0.50) and attention (d=0.39 - 0.44). However, few between-group differences were found for observational and caregiver-reported measures of child problem behaviour, pro-social behaviour, and theory of mind. In observed measures, caregivers in the intervention group showed more sensitivity and reciprocity in both book-sharing and free play (d=0.21 - 1.01), and more complex cognitive talk in a narrative task (d=0.65). Further, intervention group dyads engaged in more conversational turns at home (d=0.38), demonstrated through naturalistic measures of the home language environment. Intervention caregivers were also less verbally and psychologically harsh (d=0.19 - 0.43). The Benefits of Early Book-Sharing (BEBS) programme benefitted a number of domains of parenting and child development and holds considerable promise as an early parenting intervention in LMIC contexts. Conclusions: This thesis provides a number of new contributions to the field of early childhood development and parenting in impoverished contexts. A meta-analysis confirmed the promise of book-sharing interventions to improve child language and caregiver book-sharing competence. It also challenged previously held notions that only younger children and more educated caregivers benefit from these interventions. However, it highlighted a gap in the literature regarding effects in LMICs. Further, a detailed investigation into the predictors of child socio-cognitive understanding helped to shed light on the kinds of caregiver language that help to promote their children's socio-cognitive development. The importance of causal talk, in particular, was highlighted. The results from the RCT demonstrated how a book-sharing intervention in a low-income African context could lead to broad improvements in sensitive and reciprocal parenting and improve child language and attention. However, the trial demonstrated limited effects on harsh parenting and child problem behaviour and socio-emotional development, suggesting that more specific and direct programming, possibly within a book-sharing intervention, may be required to address these risk factors.
Children in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at risk for problems in their cognitive, social and behavioural development. Factors such as a lack of cognitive stimulation, harsh parenting ...practices, and severe and persistent aggression in early childhood are central to the genesis of these problems. Interventions that target the intersection between early childhood development, parenting, and early violence prevention are required in order to meaningfully address these problems.
We are conducting a randomised controlled trial to evaluate a parenting intervention for caregivers of children aged between 23 and 27 months, designed to promote child cognitive and socioemotional development in Khayelitsha, a low-income peri-urban township in South Africa. Families are randomly allocated to a book-sharing intervention group or to a wait-list control group. In the intervention, we train caregivers in supportive book-sharing with young children. Training is carried out in small groups over a period of 8 weeks. Data are collected at baseline, post intervention and at 6 months post intervention. In addition to targeting child cognitive development, the intervention aims to improve child socioemotional functioning.
The Benefits of Early Book Sharing (BEBS) trial aims to evaluate the impact of an early parenting intervention on several key risk factors for the development of violence, including aspects of parenting and child cognition, prosocial behaviour, aggression, and socioemotional functioning. The study is being carried out in a LMIC where violence constitutes a major social and health burden. Since the intervention is brief and, with modest levels of training, readily deliverable in LMIC contexts, a demonstration that it is of benefit to both child cognitive and socioemotional development would be of significance.
The BEBS trial is registered on the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number database, registration number ISRCTN71109104 . Registered on 9 February 2016. This is version 1 of the protocol for the BEBS trial.
The m,n Turk's Head Knot, THK(m,n), is an "alternating (m,n) torus knot." We prove the Harary-Kauffman conjecture for all THK(m,n) except for the case where m \geq 5 is odd and n \geq 3 is relatively ...prime to m. We also give evidence in support of the conjecture in that case. Our proof rests on the observation that none of these knots have prime determinant except for THK(m,2) when P_m is a Pell prime.
The Periodic Table of Life (PeTaL) is a system design tool and open source framework that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to aid in the systematic inquiry of nature for its application to human ...systems. This paper defines PeTaL’s architecture and workflow. Biomimicry, biophysics, biomimetics, bionics and numerous other terms refer to the use of biology and biological principles to inform practices in other disciplines. For the most part, the domain of inquiry in these fields has been confined to extant biological models with the proponents of biomimicry often citing the evolutionary success of extant organisms relative to extinct ones. An objective of this paper is to expand the domain of inquiry for human processes that seek to model those that are, were or could be found in nature with examples that relate to the field of aerospace and to spur development of tools that can work together to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence, topology optimization and conventional modeling in problem solving. Specifically, specialized fields such as paleomimesis, anthropomimesis and physioteleology are proposed in conjunction with artificial evolution. The overarching philosophy outlined here can be thought of as physiomimetics, a holistic and systematic way of learning from natural history. The backbone of PeTaL integrates an unstructured database with an ontological model consisting of function, morphology, environment, state of matter and ecosystem. Tools that support PeTaL include machine learning, natural language processing and computer vision. Applications of PeTaL include guiding human space exploration, understanding human and geological history, and discovering new or extinct life. Also discussed is the formation of V.I.N.E. (Virtual Interchange for Nature-inspired Exploration), a virtual collaborative aimed at generating data, research and applications centered on nature. Details of implementation will be presented in subsequent publications. Recommendations for future work are also presented.
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