Food Costs of Children and Adolescents Consuming Vegetarian, Vegan or Omnivore Diets: Results of the Cross-Sectional VeChi Youth Study

The aim was to analyse the total food costs and the impact of food groups on total food costs among vegetarian, vegan and omnivore children and adolescents in Germany. Based on three-day weighed dietary records of 6–18-year-old children and adolescents of the VeChi Youth Study, the total daily food costs and food group costs (both EUR/day, EUR/1000 kcal) of a vegetarian (n = 145 records), vegan (n = 110) and omnivore (n = 135) diet were calculated. Minimum retail prices of 1000 empirically selected foods reported in the dietary records were linked to individual food intakes. The group differences were analysed using ANCOVA or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Vegans had the highest energy adjusted total food costs at 2.98 EUR/1000 kcal, vegetarians the lowest at 2.52 EUR/1000 kcal. Omnivores also had significantly higher costs than vegetarians with 2.83 EUR/1000 kcal/1000 kcal (p = 0.01), but the total costs did not differ significantly between omnivores and vegans (EUR/d and EUR/1000 kcal). Compared to vegetarians, vegans had significantly higher expenditures (EUR/day) on fruit (p = 0.0003), vegetables (p = 0.006), dairy alternatives (p = 0.0003) and legumes/nuts/seeds (p = 0.0003). Expenditure on starchy foods was significantly higher in the vegetarian or vegan than in the omnivore diet (p = 0.0003). Omnivores spent a quarter of their total food costs on animal source foods (25%), which is equivalent to the sum of food costs for legumes/nuts/seeds, dairy alternatives and meat alternatives in vegans and additionally dairy in vegetarians. The VeChi Youth Study indicated that financial constraints are not necessarily a barrier to switching to a more plant-based diet

Comparison of symptom-based versus self-reported diagnostic measures of anxiety and depression disorders in the GLAD and COPING cohorts

Background Understanding and improving outcomes for people with anxiety or depression often requires large sample sizes. To increase participation and reduce costs, such research is typically unable to utilise “gold-standard” methods to ascertain diagnoses, instead relying on remote, self-report measures. Aims Assess the comparability of remote diagnostic methods for anxiety and depression disorders commonly used in research. Method Participants from the UK-based GLAD and COPING NBR cohorts (N = 58,400) completed an online questionnaire between 2018 and 2020. Responses to detailed symptom reports were compared to DSM-5 criteria to generate symptom-based diagnoses of major depressive disorder (MDD), generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and agoraphobia. Participants also self-reported any prior diagnoses from health professionals, termed self-reported diagnoses. “Any anxiety” included participants with at least one anxiety disorder. Agreement was assessed by calculating accuracy, Cohen’s kappa, McNemar’s chi-squared, sensitivity, and specificity. Results Agreement between diagnoses was moderate for MDD, any anxiety, and GAD, but varied by cohort. Agreement was slight to fair for the phobic disorders. Many participants with self-reported GAD did not receive a symptom-based diagnosis. In contrast, symptom-based diagnoses of the phobic disorders were more common than self-reported diagnoses. Conclusions Agreement for MDD, any anxiety, and GAD was higher for cases in the case-enriched GLAD cohort and for controls in the general population COPING NBR cohort. For anxiety disorders, self-reported diagnoses classified most participants as having GAD, whereas symptom-based diagnoses distributed participants more evenly across the anxiety disorders. Further validation against gold standard measures is required

Competência social e empatia: um estudo sobre resiliência com crianças em situação de pobreza Social competence and empathy: study about resilience with children in poverty

O objetivo desse estudo foi avaliar a competência social e a empatia em crianças escolares que vivem em situação de pobreza. Participaram da pesquisa 100 crianças, de ambos os sexos, com idades entre seis e nove anos. Os instrumentos utilizados foram o Teste das Histórias Incompletas (THI) (Mondell & Tyler, 1981) e a Escala de Empatia (Bryant, 1982), que avaliaram, respectivamente, competência social e empatia. Os resultados demonstraram que as meninas são mais competentes socialmente e mais empáticas do que os meninos. Da mesma forma, as crianças mais empáticas tendem a ser mais competentes socialmente do que as outras. De um modo geral, os dados obtidos enfatizam a importância dessas duas características como fatores de proteção, contribuindo para a resiliência e adaptação.<br>The aim of this study was to evaluate social competence and empathy in school children who live in poverty. One hundred children, of both sexes, age six to nine years old, participated in this research. The materials were the Incomplete Stories Test (Mondell & Tyler, 1981) and the Empathy Scale (Bryant, 1982), that evaluated, respectively, social competence and empathy. The results demonstrated that girls are more socially competent and more empathic than boys. In the same way, the more empathic children tend to be more socially competent than the others. In a global sense, the data emphasized the importance of these two characteristics as protective factors, contributing to resilience and adaptation

Desenvolvimento moral pró-social: Semelhanças e diferenças entre os modelos teóricos de Eisenberg e Kohlberg Prosocial moral development: similarities and differences between Eisenberg's and Kohlberg's theoretical models

O presente artigo consiste em uma revisão crítica da literatura na área do desenvolvimento moral pró-social. O modelo teórico do desenvolvimento pró-social de Eisenberg é apresentado e discutido em comparação com o modelo teórico de julgamento moral de Kohlberg. Esses modelos apresentam enfoques complementares no estudo da moralidade. Enquanto Kohlberg estudava o julgamento moral a partir de transgressão, Eisenberg investiga a moralidade em funções de ações pró-sociais como comportamentos de ajuda. Os fatores psicológicos que podem ser concebidos como determinantes da pró-sociabilidade são também apresentados e discutidos. Finalmente, a pesquisa recente crítica ou corroboradora de ambos os modelos é sumarizada.<br>This paper presents a critical review of the literature on pro-social moral development. Eisenberg's pro-social development model is presented and discussed in contrast to Kohlberg's theory. These models focus on complementary views in the study of morality. Whereas Kohlberg studied moral judgment using dilemmas involving transgressions, Eisenberg looks at pro-social actions, such as helping behavior. Psychological factors that might determine pro-social reasoning are also presented and discussed. Finally, recent research criticizing or corroborating either model is summarized