Integrative approaches required to support children affected by COVID-19

No abstract available.https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-lancet-child-and-adolescent-healthhj2023Educational Psycholog

The Epidemiology of College Alcohol and Gambling Policies

Background: This article reports the first national assessment of patterns of drinking and gambling-related rulemaking on college campuses (e.g., punitive versus recovery oriented). Analyses relating school policies to known school rates of drinking or gambling identified potentially influential policies. These results can inform and encourage the development of guidelines, or "best practices," upon which schools can base future policy. Methods: The college policy information was collected from handbooks, Web sites and supplemental materials of 119 scientifically selected colleges included in the fourth (2001) Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS). A coding instrument of 40 items measured the scope and focus of school alcohol and gambling policies. This instrument included items to measure the presence of specific policies and establish whether the policies were punitive or rehabilitative. A total of 11 coders followed a process of information extraction, coding and arbitration used successfully in other published studies to codify policy information. Results: Although all schools had a student alcohol use policy, only 26 schools (22%) had a gambling policy. Punitive and restrictive alcohol policies were most prevalent; recovery-oriented policies were present at fewer than 30% of schools. Certain alcohol and gambling policies had significant relationships with student binge drinking rates. Conclusions: The relative lack of college recovery-oriented policies suggests that schools might be overlooking the value of rehabilitative measures in reducing addictive behaviors among students. Since there are few college gambling-related policies, schools might be missing an opportunity to inform students about the dangers of excessive gambling

HIV/AIDS, declining family resources and the community safety net

Families play central roles in the HIV/AIDS pandemic, caring for both orphaned children and the ill. This extra caregiving depletes two family resources essential for supporting children: time and money. We use recent data from published studies in sub-Saharan Africa to illustrate deficits and document community responses. In Botswana, parents caring for the chronically ill had less time for their preschool children (74 versus 96 hours per month) and were almost twice as likely to leave children home alone (53% versus 27%); these children experienced greater health and academic problems. Caregiving often prevented adults from working full time or earning their previous level of income; 47% of orphan caregivers and 64% of HIV/AIDS caregivers reported financial difficulties due to caregiving. Communities can play an important role in helping families provide adequate childcare and financial support. Unfortunately, while communities commonly offer informal assistance, the value of such support is not adequate to match the magnitude of need: 75% of children's families in Malawi received assistance from their social network, but averaging only US$81 annually. We suggest communities can strengthen the capacity of families by implementing affordable quality childcare for 0–6 year olds, after-school programming for older children and youth, supportive care for ill children and parents, microlending to enhance earnings, training to increase access to quality jobs, decent working conditions, social insurance for the informal sector, and income and food transfers when families are unable to make ends meet

Nocturnal basking in freshwater turtles: A global assessment

Diurnal basking (“sunning”) is common in many ectotherms and is generally thought to be a behavioural mechanism for thermoregulation. Recent studies have reported the occurrence of nocturnal basking in a few distantly-related species of freshwater turtles, but the true extent of this behaviour is unknown, and it may be underreported due to sampling biases (e.g., not surveying for turtles at night). Therefore, we initiated a global, collaborative effort to systematically document and quantify basking activity (diurnal and nocturnal) across a wide range of freshwater turtle species and locations. We conducted camera trap or manual surveys in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Seychelles, and Australia. We collected 873,111 trail camera photographs (25,273 hrs of search effort) and obtained data on 29 freshwater turtle species from seven families. Nocturnal basking was documented in 13 species, representing six families (Chelidae, Emydidae, Geoemydidae, Kinosternidae, Pelomedusidae, and Trionychidae), including representatives in Central America, Trinidad and Tobago, Africa, the Seychelles, Asia, and Australia. Nocturnal basking was restricted to tropical and sub-tropical locations, suggesting that environmental temperature plays a role in this behaviour. However, the primary factors driving nocturnal basking are yet to be determined and may vary geographically and by species. The frequency and duration of nocturnal basking varied among species and seasons, but nocturnal basking events were often substantially longer than diurnal events. This is the first study to document a widespread occurrence of nocturnal basking, and our results suggest that nocturnal basking may be a common, although overlooked, aspect of many species’ ecology