Culture-level dimensions of social axioms and their correlates across 41 cultures

Leung and colleagues have revealed a five-dimensional structure of social axioms across individuals from five cultural groups. The present research was designed to reveal the culture level factor structure of social axioms and its correlates across 41 nations. An ecological factor analysis on the 60 items of the Social Axioms Survey extracted two factors: Dynamic Externality correlates with value measures tapping collectivism, hierarchy, and conservatism and with national indices indicative of lower social development. Societal Cynicism is less strongly and broadly correlated with previous values measures or other national indices and seems to define a novel cultural syndrome. Its national correlates suggest that it taps the cognitive component of a cultural constellation labeled maleficence, a cultural syndrome associated with a general mistrust of social systems and other people. Discussion focused on the meaning of these national level factors of beliefs and on their relationships with individual level factors of belief derived from the same data set.(undefined

Genome-wide meta-analysis associates HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA and lifestyle factors with human longevity

Genomic analysis of longevity offers the potential to illuminate the biology of human aging. Here, using genome-wide association meta-analysis of 606,059 parents' survival, we discover two regions associated with longevity (HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA). We also validate previous suggestions that APOE, CHRNA3/5, CDKN2A/B, SH2B3 and FOXO3A influence longevity. Next we show that giving up smoking, educational attainment, openness to new experience and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels are most positively genetically correlated with lifespan while susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD), cigarettes smoked per day, lung cancer, insulin resistance and body fat are most negatively correlated. We suggest that the effect of education on lifespan is principally mediated through smoking while the effect of obesity appears to act via CAD. Using instrumental variables, we suggest that an increase of one body mass index unit reduces lifespan by 7 months while 1 year of education adds 11 months to expected lifespan.Variability in human longevity is genetically influenced. Using genetic data of parental lifespan, the authors identify associations at HLA-DQA/DRB1 and LPA and find that genetic variants that increase educational attainment have a positive effect on lifespan whereas increasing BMI negatively affects lifespan

Genome-wide meta-analysis associates HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA and lifestyle factors with human longevity

Genomic analysis of longevity offers the potential to illuminate the biology of human aging. Here, using genome-wide association meta-analysis of 606,059 parents' survival, we discover two regions associated with longevity (HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA). We also validate previous suggestions that APOE, CHRNA3/5, CDKN2A/B, SH2B3 and FOXO3A influence longevity. Next we show that giving up smoking, educational attainment, openness to new experience and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels are most positively genetically correlated with lifespan while susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD), cigarettes smoked per day, lung cancer, insulin resistance and body fat are most negatively correlated. We suggest that the effect of education on lifespan is principally mediated through smoking while the effect of obesity appears to act via CAD. Using instrumental variables, we suggest that an increase of one body mass index unit reduces lifespan by 7 months while 1 year of education adds 11 months to expected lifespan

Genome-wide meta-analysis associates HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA and lifestyle factors with human longevity

Genomic analysis of longevity offers the potential to illuminate the biology of human aging. Here, using genome-wide association meta-analysis of 606,059 parents' survival, we discover two regions associated with longevity (HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA). We also validate previous suggestions that APOE, CHRNA3/5, CDKN2A/B, SH2B3 and FOXO3A influence longevity. Next we show that giving up smoking, educational attainment, openness to new experience and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels are most positively genetically correlated with lifespan while susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD), cigarettes smoked per day, lung cancer, insulin resistance and body fat are most negatively correlated. We suggest that the effect of education on lifespan is principally mediated through smoking while the effect of obesity appears to act via CAD. Using instrumental variables, we suggest that an increase of one body mass index unit reduces lifespan by 7 months while 1 year of education adds 11 months to expected lifespan.Variability in human longevity is genetically influenced. Using genetic data of parental lifespan, the authors identify associations at HLA-DQA/DRB1 and LPA and find that genetic variants that increase educational attainment have a positive effect on lifespan whereas increasing BMI negatively affects lifespan

Life changes during childhood

The study concerns the instability of the child's environment. Methodologically, it represents the life event research tradition. The theoretical framework combines features of stress theory, McReynold's theory on the impact of cognitive incongruence and Pulkkinen's theory concerning self-control in children. The study consisted of four parts, which cover the most central phases of life event research. Study A consisted of ratings made by 70 Finnish child guidance workers on the readjustment required at four age levels by 30 life events. The results showed that the death of the mother was rated as the most serious event at all age levels. There were considerable differences between the ratings for the different age groups. The re-test reliability was very high, about .85. There was a remarkably high correspondence with data obtained in other countries, especially when the wording of the events was identical. Study B concerned the occurrence of both single life events and indexes of abundant change. Study C concerned their impact. In study C, data were gathered using the thematic interview, a semi-structured method, partly developed by the author for this study. The results showed that children who had experienced much change showed weak self-control and many behavioural problems. Study D analyzed the maternal factors affecting this relationship. A lack of planfulness and initiative in the mother as well as her anomia were connected with the child's weak self-control, especially in the high change group

Child, mother and grandmother : intergenerational interaction in Finnish families

This monograph reports the results of a Finnish study on intergenerational relations in the family. Is is based on semistructured interviews with 70 maternal grandmothers, their daughters and their 12-year-old grandchildren as well as on a larger questionnaire sample of these individuals. The study concerned several content areas: geographical distance between the generations, contacts between them, mutual aid and support, filial responsibility as well as affective relations. The grandmother role was also a topic of study. The results showed that the adult daughter almost invariably had loosened her ties with her mother and was less dependent on her than on her husband. The relationship between the adult generations is clearly an ambivalent one. In some families, the relationship was a very close one, but there were families where the relationship between the elderly mother and her adult daughter was almost nonexistent. The grandmother does not occupy a central role anymore in the life of a 12-year-old Finnish child. It is not that the relationship is a cold one; rather, the child seems to have so many other activities going on that the grandmother is not as important as before. This study did not support the contention that the oldest generation is left alone. The study also showed that Finnish daughters help their mothers independent of any emotional attachment to the mother. Help is determined solely by the mother's need for help. The results also partly supported the contention of earlier studies that the grandmother role is a roleless role. About a fifth of the grandmothers found it difficult to spontaneously define the main tasks of the grandmother