Diverging Prevalence of Female Genital Cutting

The arrival of female genital cutting to northeastern Africa predates that of Christianity and Islam, and Muslims, Christians, and Jews continue the practice today. Popular association of the practice with religious ideals has justified its continuation, and beliefs that the practice contradicts religious principles have justified its abandonment. Anthias and Yuval-Davis (1989) argue that strategic use of 'gender symbols' concerning the sexuality of women can reproduce religious boundaries, and this process of differentiation may involve national or transnational political bodies that endorse or oppose selected symbols. This framework helps to understand the diverging prevalence of female genital cutting among Christians and Muslims in Egypt

SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern fitness and adaptation in primary human airway epithelia

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic is characterized by the emergence of novel variants of concern (VOCs) that replace ancestral strains. Here, we dissect the complex selective pressures by evaluating variant fitness and adaptation in human respiratory tissues. We evaluate viral properties and host responses to reconstruct forces behind D614G through Omicron (BA.1) emergence. We observe differential replication in airway epithelia, differences in cellular tropism, and virus-induced cytotoxicity. D614G accumulates the most mutations after infection, supporting zoonosis and adaptation to the human airway. We perform head-to-head competitions and observe the highest fitness for Gamma and Delta. Under these conditions, RNA recombination favors variants encoding the B.1.617.1 lineage 3′ end. Based on viral growth kinetics, Alpha, Gamma, and Delta exhibit increased fitness compared to D614G. In contrast, the global success of Omicron likely derives from increased transmission and antigenic variation. Our data provide molecular evidence to support epidemiological observations of VOC emergence

Diverging Prevalence of Female Genital Cutting

The arrival of female genital cutting to northeastern Africa predates that of Christianity and Islam, and Muslims, Christians, and Jews continue the practice today. Popular association of the practice with religious ideals has justified its continuation, and beliefs that the practice contradicts religious principles have justified its abandonment. Anthias and Yuval-Davis (1989) argue that strategic use of 'gender symbols' concerning the sexuality of women can reproduce religious boundaries, and this process of differentiation may involve national or transnational political bodies that endorse or oppose selected symbols. This framework helps to understand the diverging prevalence of female genital cutting among Christians and Muslims in Egypt

توثيق مصدوقية مقياس الكفاءة الذاتية العامة لدى الشابات القطَريات

The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) is a measure of people’s beliefs about their capacity to cope with life’s demands. Self-efficacy may be particularly relevant in transitional stages such as in late adolescence, when young people make decisions that will impact their adult lives. In the present study, we aimed to validate an Arabic version of GSES among 355 Qatari young women aged 18+ years and finishing their final year of high school. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the scale dimensionality. The final model fit was adequate (root mean square error of approximation = 0.07, comparative fit index = 1.00, Tucker– Lewis index = 0.99), confirming a unidimensional self-efficacy measure. The Qatari Standard Arabic GSES is a reliable tool for measuring general self-efficacy among young Qatari women.الخلاصة: إن مقياس الكفاءة الذاتية العامة (GSES) هو مقياس لمعتقدات الناس حول قدرتهم على التعامل مع متطلبات الحياة. وقد تكون للفعالية الذاتية أهمية خاصة في المراحل الانتقالية؛ كما هو الحال في مرحلة المراهقة المتأخرة، عندما يقدم الشباب على اتخاذ القرارات التي من شأنها أن تؤثر على حياتهم في مرحلة البلوغ. وقد هدفنا في هذه الدراسة إلى توثيق مصدوقية مقياس الكفاءة الذاتية العامة لدى 355 شابة قطرية تزيد أعمارهن على 18 سنة، وقد أنهين السنة الأخيرة من المرحلة الثانوية. فأجرينا تحليلات استكشافية وتوكيدية للعوامل من أجل تقييم أبعاد المقياس. فكانت صلاحية النموذج النهائي مقبولة (الجذر الوسطي لمربع الخطأ يقارب = 0.07، مؤشر الصلاحية المقارن = 1.00، مؤشر تاكر لويس = 0.99)، مما يؤكد أنه مقياس للكفاءة الذاتية ذو بعد واحد. إن المقياس القطَري للكفاءة الذاتية العامة باللغة العربية الفصحى يعتبر أداة موثوقة لقياس الكفاءة الذاتية العامة لدى الشابات القطَريات

Recourse seeking and intervention in the context of intimate partner violence in Vietnam: a qualitative study

This qualitative study examines attitudes toward recourse seeking and intervention in cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in periurban Vietnam. The data come from 20 open-ended interviews, 4 focus group discussions, and 40 cognitive interviews conducted with married men and women. The findings indicate that many people hold contradictory beliefs and inconsistent attitudes about IPV and IPV intervention. Also, most informants know about the law against domestic violence in the abstract, but have limited knowledge of, and confidence in, potential mechanisms for recourse provided under the law. Strategies intended to undermine IPV and promote recourse seeking and intervention in Vietnam should be strategically designed to address ambivalence concerning IPV and recourse, and there should be a focus on changing norms associated with masculinity. Further efforts are needed to disseminate information about existing laws and mechanisms of recourse

Measuring Attitudes about Intimate Partner Violence against Women: The ATT-IPV Scale

In lower-income settings, women more often than men justify intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet, the role of measurement invariance across gender is unstudied. We developed the ATT-IPV scale to measure attitudes about physical violence against wives in 1,055 married men and women ages 18-50 in My Hao district, Vietnam. Across 10 items about transgressions of the wife, women more often than men agreed that a man had good reason to hit his wife (3 % to 92 %; 0 % to 67 %). In random split-half samples, one-factor exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (N 1 = 527) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (N 2 = 528) models for nine items with sufficient variability had significant loadings (0.575-0.883; 0.502-0.897) and good fit (RMSEA = 0.068, 0.048; CFI = 0.951, 0.978, TLI = 0.935, 0.970). Three items had significant uniform differential item functioning (DIF) by gender, and adjustment for DIF revealed that measurement noninvariance was partially masking men’s lower propensity than women to justify IPV. A CFA model for the six items without DIF had excellent fit (RMSEA = 0.019, CFI = 0.994, TLI = 0.991) and an attitudinal gender gap similar to the DIF-adjusted nine-item model, suggesting that the six-item scale reliably measures attitudes about IPV across gender. Researchers should validate the scale in urban Vietnam and elsewhere and decompose DIF-adjusted gender attitudinal gaps

Measuring Attitudes about Women’s Recourse after Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: The ATT-RECOURSE Scale

Attitudes about intimate partner violence (IPV) against women are widely surveyed, but attitudes about women’s recourse after exposure to IPV are understudied, despite their importance for intervention. Designed through qualitative research and administered in a probability sample of 1,054 married men and women 18 to 50 years in My Hao District, Vietnam, the ATT-RECOURSE scale measures men’s and women’s attitudes about a wife’s recourse after exposure to physical IPV. Data were initially collected for nine items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with one random split-half sample (N 1 = 526) revealed a one-factor model with significant loadings (0.316-0.686) for six items capturing a wife’s silence, informal recourse, and formal recourse. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the other random split-half sample (N 2 = 528) showed adequate fit for the six-item model and significant factor loadings of similar magnitude to the EFA results (0.412-0.669). For the six items retained, men consistently favored recourse more often than did women (52.4%-66.0% of men vs. 41.9%-55.2% of women). Tests for uniform differential item functioning (DIF) by gender revealed one item with significant uniform DIF, and adjusting for this revealed an even larger gap in men’s and women’s attitudes, with men favoring recourse, on average, more than women. The six-item ATT-RECOURSE scale is reliable across independent samples and exhibits little uniform DIF by gender, supporting its use in surveys of men and women. Further methodological research is discussed. Research is needed in Vietnam about why women report less favorable attitudes than men regarding women’s recourse after physical IPV

Men's perpetration of intimate partner violence in Vietnam: gendered social learning and the challenges of masculinity

Using the survey responses of 522 married men (eighteen to fifty-one years) in Vietnam, we explored how gendered social learning in boyhood and challenges to men’s expected status in marriage may increase the risk that men perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV) against their wives. Over one-third (36.6 percent) of the participants reported having ever perpetrated psychological, physical, or sexual IPV against their current wife. Accounting for other characteristics of men in the sample, witnessing IPV as a boy, being physically maltreated as a boy, and being the same age or younger than one’s wife were associated with almost two to three times higher odds of perpetrating any IPV. Men with thirteen to eighteen completed grades of schooling had about half the adjusted odds of ever perpetrating any IPV than men with twelve or fewer completed grades (aOR = 0.56). The determinants of men’s perpetration of physical IPV and psychological IPV were, largely, similar. Programs to prevent men’s perpetration of IPV should address the parenting practices of boys that legitimize men’s aggression and gendered status expectations in marriage, which when challenged, may lead husbands to respond with violence. Engaging men to endorse nonviolent masculinities is an important consideration for future intervention

Violence in childhood, attitudes about partner violence, and partner violence perpetration among men in Vietnam

Purpose: We assess the association of men’s exposure to violence in childhood—witnessing physical violence against one’s mother and being hit or beaten by a parent or adult relative—with their attitudes about intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. We explore whether men’s perpetration of IPV mediates this relationship and whether men’s attitudes about IPV mediate any relationship of exposure to violence in childhood with perpetration of IPV. Methods: Five hundred twenty-two married men 18-51 years in Vietnam were interviewed. Multivariate regressions for ordinal and binary responses were estimated to assess these relationships. Results: Compared with men experiencing neither form of violence in childhood, men experiencing either or both had higher adjusted odds of reporting more reasons to hit a wife (aOR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.03-2.00 and aOR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.05-2.64, respectively). Men’s lifetime perpetration of IPV accounted fully for these associations. Compared with men experiencing neither form of violence in childhood, men experiencing either or both had higher adjusted odds of ever perpetrating IPV (aOR, 3.28; 95% CI, 2.15-4.99 and aOR, 4.56; 95% CI, 2.90-7.17, respectively). Attitudes about IPV modestly attenuated these associations. Conclusions: Addressing violence in childhood is needed to change men’s risk of perpetrating IPV and greater subsequent justification of it