Positive Youth Development Life Skills Gained at the Iowa 4-H Youth Conference

Research suggests 4-H programs build Life Skills such as leadership, communication, citizenship and learning. However, 4-H programs vary from long-term on-going experiences to shorter, more intense opportunities. This paper discusses a program evaluation articulating the life skill development of participants in a 3-day residential State 4-H Conference on a Midwestern college campus. The Life Skills assessed were in the areas of leadership, citizenship, communication, and learning as part of overall Life Skill development. Participants were youth ages 14-18 years. A retrospective pretest-posttest was used to evaluate skill development and understanding. Analysis, including paired sample t-tests, indicated growth in each of the 12 common outcome measures evaluated. This study supports the importance of purposeful planning and youth engagement in the learning process to achieve desired life skill outcomes

Creating School-Family Partnerships in Adolescence: Challenges and Opportunities

Adolescence is a time of rapid change. These changes present challenges and opportunities for developing youth including physical changes, significant cognitive advancements, emotional maturation, and new peer and romantic relationships. For most adolescents, these changes are also accompanied by changes in their environments including more demanding expectations for independence, more challenging academic tasks, and new expectations for social participation from parents and peers. At the same time, adolescents are becoming more independent from their families while also maintaining a sense of connection to them and to their schools

Harsh Parenting and Food Insecurity in Adolescence: The Association with Emerging Adult Obesity

In the U.S., as of 2012, more than one in three youth were overweight or obese [1]. This is a critical health issue, as being overweight or obese (OW/OB) during adolescence increases the risk of adulthood diseases, including but not limited to cardiovascular and heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and osteoarthritis [2]. Understanding the pathways to obesity is critical for implementation of successful prevention and intervention programs. One of the pathways leading to OW/OB is through social and economic experiences within the family

Intergenerational Continuity of Psychological Violence: Intimate Partner Relationships and Harsh Parenting.

Objective: This prospective, longitudinal investigation examined psychological violence across generations. We examined how parent psychological violence experienced during adolescence influenced the stability of one’s own intimate partner psychological violence perpetration across time and how psychological violence is related to harsh parenting in adulthood. Method: Data came from 193 parents and their adolescent who participated from adolescence through adulthood. Parental psychological violence was assessed in early adolescence. Partner violence was assessed in late adolescence, emerging adulthood, and adulthood. Harsh parenting to their offspring was assessed in adulthood. Results: Parent psychological violence in early adolescence was associated with one’s own intimate partner psychological violence in late adolescence. Partner psychological violence was stable from emerging adulthood to adulthood. Moreover, parental violence was also related to their own harsh parenting in adulthood. Conclusions: Findings suggest that children exposed to parental psychological violence during adolescence may have greater difficulty developing acceptable behaviors in their own romantic relationships over time, as well as parenting their own child in adulthood. Findings highlight the importance for clinicians and policymakers to develop and utilize effective educational and preventive interventions designed toward not only adolescent behaviors, but also that of the parent. Understanding how the family environment impacts current and long-term functioning is important in helping stop the cycle of violence across generations

1000 Genomes-based meta-analysis identifies 10 novel loci for kidney function

HapMap imputed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed >50 loci at which common variants with minor allele frequency >5% are associated with kidney function. GWAS using more complete reference sets for imputation, such as those from The 1000 Genomes project, promise to identify novel loci that have been missed by previous efforts. To investigate the value of such a more complete variant catalog, we conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of kidney function based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in 110,517 European ancestry participants using 1000 Genomes imputed data. We identified 10 novel loci with p-value < 5 × 10(-8) previously missed by HapMap-based GWAS. Six of these loci (HOXD8, ARL15, PIK3R1, EYA4, ASTN2, and EPB41L3) are tagged by common SNPs unique to the 1000 Genomes reference panel. Using pathway analysis, we identified 39 significant (FDR < 0.05) genes and 127 significantly (FDR < 0.05) enriched gene sets, which were missed by our previous analyses. Among those, the 10 identified novel genes are part of pathways of kidney development, carbohydrate metabolism, cardiac septum development and glucose metabolism. These results highlight the utility of re-imputing from denser reference panels, until whole-genome sequencing becomes feasible in large samples

Association of vitamin D status with arterial blood pressure and hypertension risk : a mendelian randomisation study

Peer reviewe

Multi-ancestry sleep-by-SNP interaction analysis in 126,926 individuals reveals lipid loci stratified by sleep duration.

Both short and long sleep are associated with an adverse lipid profile, likely through different biological pathways. To elucidate the biology of sleep-associated adverse lipid profile, we conduct multi-ancestry genome-wide sleep-SNP interaction analyses on three lipid traits (HDL-c, LDL-c and triglycerides). In the total study sample (discovery + replication) of 126,926 individuals from 5 different ancestry groups, when considering either long or short total sleep time interactions in joint analyses, we identify 49 previously unreported lipid loci, and 10 additional previously unreported lipid loci in a restricted sample of European-ancestry cohorts. In addition, we identify new gene-sleep interactions for known lipid loci such as LPL and PCSK9. The previously unreported lipid loci have a modest explained variance in lipid levels: most notable, gene-short-sleep interactions explain 4.25% of the variance in triglyceride level. Collectively, these findings contribute to our understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in sleep-associated adverse lipid profiles

Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels