Impacting Maternal and Prenatal Care Together: A Collaborative Effort to Improve Birth Outcomes

Objectives To describe the development of a collaborative partnership to improve birth outcomes in Harris County, Texas. Methods State and city-level maternal and infant health data were re-analyzed and presented to stakeholders at the zip-code level to generate a renewed response to health issues in these populations, particularly infant mortality. Public and private sector stakeholders convened to form the Impacting Maternal and Prenatal Care Together (IMPACT) Collaborative, identifying four priority areas that required collaborative action. Results Priority area action groups are currently working on strategies to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. Collaborative strategies include: raising patient and provider awareness, campaign partnerships, advocating for legislative change, and implementing community based programs. As a collaborative, IMPACT received funding to implement an evidence-based health education intervention for women at risk of having poor birth outcomes. Conclusions Through the leveraging of resources, expertise, and leadership, collaborative partnerships are capable of formulating innovative ideas, developing sustainable solutions, and generating change at multiple levels

Family first: Evidence of consistency and variation in the value of family versus personal happiness across 49 different cultures

People care about their own well-being, but also about the well-being of their families. It is currently however unknown how much people tend to value their own and their family’s well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size (N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries (N = 49), We found that the strength of the idealization of family over personal happiness preference was small (average Cohen’s ds = .20 with country levels varying from -.02 to almost .48), but ubiquitous, i.e., direction presented in 98% of the studied countries, 73-75% with statistical significance and .40 and .30). Importantly, we did not find strong support for traditional theories in cross-cultural psychology that associate collectivism with greater prioritization of the family versus the individual; country level individualism-collectivism was not associated with variation in the idealization of family versus individual happiness. Our findings indicate that no matter how much various populists abuse the argument of “protecting family life” to disrupt emancipation, family happiness seems to be a pan-culturally phenomenon. Family well-being is a key ingredient of social fabric across the world, and should be acknowledged by psychology and well-being researchers, and by progressive movements too

Toll-like receptor signaling and stages of addiction

Athina Markou and her colleagues discovered persistent changes in adult behavior following adolescent exposure to ethanol or nicotine consistent with increased risk for developing addiction. Building on Dr. Markou's important work and that of others in the field, researchers at the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies have found that persistent changes in behavior following adolescent stress or alcohol exposure may be linked to induction of immune signaling in brain. This study aims to illuminate the critical interrelationship of the innate immune system (e.g., toll-like receptors [TLRs], high-mobility group box 1 [HMGB1]) in the neurobiology of addiction. This study reviews the relevant research regarding the relationship between the innate immune system and addiction. Emerging evidence indicates that TLRs in brain, particularly those on microglia, respond to endogenous innate immune agonists such as HMGB1 and microRNAs (miRNAs). Multiple TLRs, HMGB1, and miRNAs are induced in the brain by stress, alcohol, and other drugs of abuse and are increased in the postmortem human alcoholic brain. Enhanced TLR-innate immune signaling in brain leads to epigenetic modifications, alterations in synaptic plasticity, and loss of neuronal cell populations, which contribute to cognitive and emotive dysfunctions. Addiction involves progressive stages of drug binges and intoxication, withdrawal-negative affect, and ultimately compulsive drug use and abuse. Toll-like receptor signaling within cortical-limbic circuits is modified by alcohol and stress in a manner consistent with promoting progression through the stages of addiction

The influence of ideological interest groups on congressional financial support of international family planning

The World Health Organization estimates there are about 585,000 maternal deaths each year, with 98% of the maternal deaths in developing countries. Access to family planning methods is one method to decrease maternal mortality and morbidity. ^ The U.S. was the leader in providing financial and technical assistance to developing countries to enable women to have this access. The election of Ronald Regan changed the course of U.S. support; abortion became a central factor in the political decision-making with regards to the financial support of international family planning. ^ One factor that may sway policy-makers\u27 decisions is the influence of ideological interest groups, Political Action Committees funding of candidates in relation to votes on bills that impacted on financial support of international family planning and the amount spent by these groups on lobbyist was reviewed. Pro-choice funding of candidates was greater for the four of the fives votes supporting family planning. Pro-Choice lobbyist spending was $185,000 vs.$8,184,000 spent by Pro-Life ideological groups.

Societal Emotional Environments and Cross-Cultural Differences in Life Satisfaction: A Forty-Nine Country Study

In this paper, we introduce the concept of ‘societal emotional environment’: the emotional climate of a society (operationalized as the degree to which positive and negative emotions are expressed in a society). Using data collected from 12,888 participants across 49 countries, we show how societal emotional environments vary across countries and cultural clusters, and we consider the potential importance of these differences for well-being. Multilevel analyses supported a ‘double-edged sword’ model of negative emotion expression, where expression of negative emotions predicted higher life satisfaction for the expresser but lower life satisfaction for society. In contrast, partial support was found for higher societal life satisfaction in positive societal emotional environments. Our study highlights the potential utility and importance of distinguishing between positive and negative emotion expression, and adopting both individual and societal perspectives in well-being research. Individual pathways to happiness may not necessarily promote the happiness of others