Healthy lifestyles and body mass index as correlates of body image in primary schoolchildren

Background: Body image is a representation of the self that develops from an early age. Such representations are likely to be associated with lifestyle choices.Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between health behaviours (i.e., physical activity, screen time and adherence to the Mediterranean diet), body mass index (BMI) and body image dissatisfaction among primary schoolchildren.Methods: A total of 782 pupils (age 7.92 ± 1.36 years), 405 boys (age 8.01 ± 1.38 years) and 377 girls (age 7.95 ± 1.33 years) from the Southeast region of Portugal, answered a survey containing the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED) to measure eating patterns and gender congruent Figure Rating Scales to measure body image dissatisfaction. Children also had their weight and height measured to calculate BMI. Based on the Krece Plus quick test, parents reported on children's physical activity and screen time.Results: Girls reported being less active, t(619) = 2.29, p = .022, d = 0.19; adhering more to the Mediterranean diet, t(775) = -3.92, p < .001, d = -0.29; and having higher body image dissatisfaction than boys, t(773) = -2.53, p = .012, d = -0.19. There was a significant association between BMI and body image dissatisfaction, χ2(4) = 79.34, p < .001. Moreover, 22.5% of the children with normal BMI perceived being overweight/obese. Gender (β = 0.085, p = .036) and BMI (β = 0.40, p < .001), but not lifestyle variables, predicted body image dissatisfaction (R2 = .173).Conclusions: Physical activity, screen time, and adherence to a Mediterranean diet were not associated with body image dissatisfaction. However, BMI was positively associated with body image dissatisfaction. Children are not accurate in estimating their body size which can lead to body image dissatisfaction and attempts to control body weight

The Two Methods of Economics

A Teoria Econômica Emprega Dois Métodos: o Método Hipotético-Dedutivo, Utilizado Principalmente Pelos Economistas Neoclássicos, e o Método Histórico-Dedutivo, Adotado Pelos Economistas Clássicos e Keynesianos. Ambos são Legítimos, Mas, Desde que a Economia é Substantiva, não uma Ciência Metodológica, Onde o Objeto é o Sistema Econômico, o Método Histórico-Dedutivo é o Mais Apropriado. o Método Hipotético-Dedutivo Permite que o Economista Desenvolva Ferramentas para Analisar o Sistema Econômico, Mas Falha ao Analisar o Sistema como um Todo. em Contrapartida, o Método Histórico-Dedutivo Parte da Observação Empírica da Realidade e da Busca por Regularidades e Tendências. é um Método Empírico, Apropriado para as Ciências Substantivas que Tratam de Sistemas Abertos, como é o Caso da Economia.

Hybrid Political Institutions And Governability:The Budgetary Process In Brazil

In this paper we take a close look at some of the particular pathways by whichmajoritarian and consensual institutions affect governability. We demonstrate that the mixof majoritarian and consensual institutions found within a country can influence thesepathways quite dramatically, such that they produce rather different consequences forgovernability, even when these pathways are relatively similar in nature. Particularly, wefocus on the rules governing the relationship between the President and the Legislature,especially the appropriation of amendments proposed by legislators. In some presidentialcountries, the president possesses a partial veto (or a line-item veto) which allows him/herto approve or strike appropriations, which legislators introduce in amendments.Concentrating on the case of Brazil, we argue and demonstrate that whether or not thepresident can use this tool to sustain governing majorities (i.e., to increase governability)depends on the kind of amendment introduced by legislators. One kind, individualamendment, is linked to the majoritarian institution of a powerful presidency and thereforehelps to increase governability. A second kind, collective amendment, is linked toconsensual institutions and actually does not enhance legislative support for the Executive.

Structuralist macroeconomics and new developmentalism

This paper, first, presents some basic ideas and models of a structuralist development macroeconomics that complements and actualizes the thought of structuralist development economics that was dominant between the 1940s and the 1960s including in the World Bank. The new approach focus on the relation between the exchange rate and economic growth, and develops three interrelated models: the tendency to the overvaluation of the exchange, the critique of growth with foreign savings, and a model of the Dutch disease based on the existence of two exchange rate equilibriums: the “current” and the “industrial” equilibrium. Second, it summarizes “new developmentalism” – a sum of growth policies based on these models and on the experience of fast growing Asian countries

Why economics should be a modest and reasonable science

Unlike the methodological sciences such as mathematics and decision theory, which use the hypothetical-deductive method and may be fully expressed in complex mathematical models because their only truth criterion is logical consistency, the substantive sciences have as their truth criterion the correspondence to reality, adopt an empirical-deductive method, and are supposed to generalize from and often unreliable regularities and tendencies. Given this assumption, it is very difficult for economists to predict economic behavior, particularly major financial crises.

From old to new developmentalism in latin America

The failure of the Washington Consensus and of macroeconomic policies based onhigh interest rates and non-competitive exchange rates to generate economic growthprompted Latin America to formulate national development strategies. Newdevelopmentalism is an alternative strategy not only to conventional orthodoxy but also toold-style Latin American national developmentalism. While old national developmentalismwas based on the tendency of the terms of trade to deteriorate and, adopting a microeconomicapproach, proposed economic planning and industrialization, the new nationaldevelopmentalismassumes that industrialization has been achieved, although in differentdegrees by each country, and argues that, in order to assure fast growth rates and catching up,the tendency that must be neutralized is that of the exchange rate to overvaluation. Contraryto the claims of conventional economics, a capable state remains the key instrument to ensureeconomic development, and industrial policy continues to be necessary; but whatdistinguishes the new approach is principally growth with domestic savings instead of withforeign savings, a macroeconomic policy based on moderate interest rates and a competitiveexchange rate instead of the high interest rates and the overvalued currencies prescribed byconventional orthodoxy.