Using a Policy of "Gross National Happiness" to Guide the Development of Sustainable Early Learning Programs in the Kingdom of Bhutan: Aspirations and Challenges

A national study on demand for early childhood care and development programs in Bhutan found strong support for development of a new early childhood care and development (ECCD) sector.  A wide range of stakeholders participating in the study, including ministries of education and health, post-secondary institutions, private preschool providers, community management committees, parents and children, emphasized the goal of preschool to promote success in English-medium formal education.  Promoting cultural traditions was also a priority, while developing children’s proficiency in home languages was hardly mentioned. The study highlighted the changing needs of Bhutanese families in the current context of increasing urbanization, dual career parents, and a shift from extended to nuclear family homes. Recommendations derived from the study encouraged a made in Bhutan approach to ECCD policy, programs, and professional education.  Subsequent to the study, the national education policy included plans for implementation of ECCD covering children from birth to 8 years old. To ensure the sustainability and cultural congruence of new programs and investments with the Kingdom’s Gross National Happiness Policy, a Gross National Happiness Commission screened and approved the new National Education Policy, which the Ministry of Education is charged with implementing. The emergence of an ECCD sector in Bhutan points to the role that national aspirations and value-driven policies and review processes could play in maintaining language diversity and transmitting culturally based knowledge

Exploring the efficacy of brief, single-session interventions to promote young people’s mental health and wellbeing

Background Children and young people’s mental health is an area of concern worldwide. In the face of barriers such as long waits to access evidence-based treatment, perceived stigma, and a want to deal with difficulties themselves, single session interventions (SSIs) have arisen as one potential solution. Method A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to synthesise evidence of the efficacy of self-administered SSIs for youth mental health. An empirical study then explored the efficacy of an online growth mindset intervention. Results Meta-analyses of 19 studies found a small effect for anxiety symptoms (g = -0.22, 95% CI: -0.40, -0.04) with substantial heterogeneity (I² = 67%) and a wide prediction interval (-0.69, 0.25). Furthermore, there was a small effect for depressive symptoms (g = -0.12, 95% CI: -0.23, -0.01) with substantial heterogeneity (I² = 58%) and a wide prediction interval (- 0.44, 0.20). The empirical study was pre-registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05676554) and recruited and randomised 104 young people aged 14-18 years old. At the four-week follow-up anxiety and depression symptoms were small (d = .07, [95% CI: -0.32, 0.47]). However, personality mindset yielded a significant large effect (p = .02, d = -.96, [95% CI: - 1.87, -0.04]), but this was non-significant following Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Case completer analysis resulted in similar observations. Conclusions The complementary projects explored the efficacy of SSIs for young people. The medium to large effect sizes for growth mindset interventions highlighted in the systematic review are consistent with findings from the empirical project. Taken together the research suggest that SSIs can have positive effects on mental health and have contributed to the field of children and young people’s mental health research. The projects have hopefully paved the way for future RCTs

“All about communication" - a perspective on our public involvement practices in the Networked Data Lab in Grampian

Peer reviewe

High-Precision Entropy Values for Spanning Trees in Lattices

Shrock and Wu have given numerical values for the exponential growth rate of the number of spanning trees in Euclidean lattices. We give a new technique for numerical evaluation that gives much more precise values, together with rigorous bounds on the accuracy. In particular, the new values resolve one of their questions.Comment: 7 pages. Revision mentions alternative approach. Title changed slightly. 2nd revision corrects first displayed equatio

Telehealth Assessment of Frailty in Community Dwelling Older Adults using the Modified Physical Performance Test (Poster)

Frailty in Older Adults ● Frailty is a health condition that effects increasing numbers of the population past the age of 65 ● The modified Physical Performance Test (mPPT) is a test that assesses multiple dimensions of physical function with different levels of difficulty. It has been shown to assess frailty in an older adult population. ● Due to health care barriers, it may be advantageous to assess individuals via telehealth. ● It is critical to determine the concurrent validity of telehealth delivery of mPPT with that of a clinical setting to determine if it can increase access to car