The Persistent Problem: Inequality, Difference, and the Challenge of Development

This report highlights the complex, multidimensional nature of inequality in the era of globalization. It documents that despite the impressive strides by nations like China and India, absolute inequality between the richest and poorest countries is greater than ever before in history. It demonstrates that the rise of China and India creates a new dimension to the persistent problem of inequality

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and At-Risk Young Children’s Internalizing Problems: The Moderating Role of Mothers’ Positivity

Maternal depressive symptoms predict negative child behaviors, including internalizing problems. However, protective factors, such as positive emotionality and positive parenting behaviors, may play an important a role in attenuating associations between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems. This article presents two studies that examined buffers of links between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing problems. Each study examined samples of primarily African American families with young children in an impoverished large city in the Midwestern United States. Families were recruited from kindergarten classes and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) centers. In both studies, indicators of mothers’ positivity, as measured by text-based analysis of positive emotion word use or behavioral observation of positive parenting behaviors, attenuated links between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing problems. The results suggest that risk for internalizing problems within the context of maternal depressive symptoms is reduced when parents experience and express more positive emotions and behaviors

The future of STI screening and treatment for youth: a National Survey of youth perspectives and intentions

Abstract Background Sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates continue to rise in the U.S., with disproportionately high rates among those aged 15–24 years. Effective programs and policies are necessary to address this growing public health problem. The purpose of this study is to assess the perspectives of a national sample of youth on access to STI care and behaviors regarding STIs. Methods MyVoice, a national text message survey of youth, was used to pose four open-ended questions on STI screening and treatment to 1115 youth aged 14–24 in August 2018. A mixed-methods strategy was employed for the study. Qualitative data was analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. Summary statistics were calculated for demographic data and prevalence of themes. Results Of the 800 participants who responded to at least one question (72% response rate), mean age was 19 years (SD = 3.1), 55% identified as female, 61% identified as non-Hispanic white, and 33% qualified for free/reduced lunch. A majority felt it would be easy to get screened (69%) or treated (68%) for an STI. Nearly all respondents (95%) stated they would share an STI diagnosis with their sexual partners. Conclusions Despite high rates of STIs among youth, most respondents reported that STI screening and treatment is accessible, and they would share an STI diagnosis with their partner.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/173506/1/12889_2021_Article_12091.pd

Adolescent Interventions to Manage Self-Regulation in Type 1 Diabetes (AIMS-T1D): randomized control trial study protocol

Abstract Background Self-regulation (SR), or the capacity to control one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in order to achieve a desired goal, shapes health outcomes through many pathways, including supporting adherence to medical treatment regimens. Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is one specific condition that requires SR to ensure adherence to daily treatment regimens that can be arduous and effortful (e.g., monitoring blood glucose). Adolescents, in particular, have poor adherence to T1D treatment regimens, yet it is essential that they assume increased responsibility for managing their T1D as they approach young adulthood. Adolescence is also a time of rapid changes in SR capacity and thus a compelling period for intervention. Promoting SR among adolescents with T1D may thus be a novel method to improve treatment regimen adherence. The current study tests a behavioral intervention to enhance SR among adolescents with T1D. SR and T1D medical regimen adherence will be examined as primary and secondary outcomes, respectively. Methods We will use a randomized control trial design to test the impact of a behavioral intervention on three SR targets: Executive Functioning (EF), Emotion Regulation (ER), and Future Orientation (FO); and T1D medical regimen adherence. Adolescents with T1D (n = 94) will be recruited from pediatric endocrinology clinics and randomly assigned to treatment or control group. The behavioral intervention consists of working memory training (to enhance EF), biofeedback and relaxation training (to enhance ER), and episodic future thinking training (to enhance FO) across an 8-week period. SR and treatment regimen adherence will be assessed at pre- and post-test using multiple methods (behavioral tasks, diabetes device downloads, self- and parent-report). We will use an intent-to-treat framework using generalized linear mixed models to test our hypotheses that: 1) the treatment group will demonstrate greater improvements in SR than the control group, and 2) the treatment group will demonstrate better treatment regimen adherence outcomes than the control group. Discussion If successful, SR-focused behavioral interventions could improve health outcomes among adolescents with T1D and have transdiagnostic implications across multiple chronic conditions requiring treatment regimen adherence. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03688919 ; registered September 28, 2018.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/173636/1/12887_2020_Article_2012.pd

State and private sector in the GCC after the Arab uprisings

While the Gulf private sector has made huge strides since the first oil boom, most of its activities still amount to more sophisticated rent recycling rather than autonomous diversification. Its interests are in stark opposition to those of the citizenry at large, as it provides no taxes, little employment and few investment opportunities for GCC nationals. Instead, business and other social forces face a zero-sum conflict over — in some cases increasingly scarce — state resources. This structural isolation of business helps to explain Gulf capitalists' weak role in today's public political arena despite a strong pre-oil history of collective action. In recent decades, business elites have either kept their heads below the parapet or have provided auxiliary public support to beleaguered local regimes. They have for the most part abstained from or failed in electoral politics; in austere times, regimes have privileged the distributional interests of the state salariat and consumers at large over those of business. Gulf business has a chance for a greater developmental role and political autonomy only if it increases its interdependence with society at large through providing a tax base, employment and investment opportunities for GCC citizens. Of the three, employment is the most important and could decide the political fate of private capital in the Gulf in the long run