Bonfim, Paula. <i>La "cultura del voluntariado" en Brasil. Determinaciones económicas e ideo-políticas en la actualidad</i> : San Pablo, Cortez, 2010

El libro de Paula Bonfim publicado por la editora Cortez que aquí reseñamos, resulta de fundamental importancia para comprender nuevas determinaciones en el patrón de intervención social, a partir de la comprensión de lo que ella denomina “cultura del voluntariado” en Brasil como una de las formas contemporáneas de respuesta a las refracciones de la “cuestión social”. La riqueza de este análisis crítico radica en la posibilidad de pensar –a partir de la construcción de mediaciones particularizadoras– una “nueva” forma de actuación en los llamados “problemas sociales” -producto de la contradicción fundamental de la sociedad de clases- que no es exclusiva de la sociedad brasileña, sino que constituye una estrategia presente en la mayoría de los países de la región.Facultad de Trabajo Socia

Bonfim, Paula. <i>La "cultura del voluntariado" en Brasil. Determinaciones económicas e ideo-políticas en la actualidad</i> : San Pablo, Cortez, 2010

El libro de Paula Bonfim publicado por la editora Cortez que aquí reseñamos, resulta de fundamental importancia para comprender nuevas determinaciones en el patrón de intervención social, a partir de la comprensión de lo que ella denomina “cultura del voluntariado” en Brasil como una de las formas contemporáneas de respuesta a las refracciones de la “cuestión social”. La riqueza de este análisis crítico radica en la posibilidad de pensar –a partir de la construcción de mediaciones particularizadoras– una “nueva” forma de actuación en los llamados “problemas sociales” -producto de la contradicción fundamental de la sociedad de clases- que no es exclusiva de la sociedad brasileña, sino que constituye una estrategia presente en la mayoría de los países de la región.Facultad de Trabajo Socia

Prácticas pre-profesionales y ética profesional: desafíos para la formación en el trabajo social brasileño

Este capítulo presenta una reflexión respecto del lugar de las prácticas pre-profesionales en Trabajo Social, en el proyecto de formación profesional construido por el Trabajo Social brasileño en las últimas décadas. Se parte de la comprensión de este proyecto de formación como dimensión constitutiva del llamado proyecto ético-político profesional y, en ese sentido, se aborda la naturaleza y función político-pedagógica de las prácticas pre-profesionales coherente con los principios norteadores del mencionado proyecto. Se abordan los fundamentos que sustentan la concepción de profesión que orienta ese proyecto y los desafíos para su defensa intransigente en el escenario socio-histórico contemporáneo. En esa perspectiva los documentos, normativas y resoluciones que son expresión del proyecto profesional son presentados y analizados no en una concepción legalista/burocrática, sino, como estrategias y herramientas de enfrentamiento al aligeramiento de la formación académica y la precarización de las condiciones de trabajo de los trabajadores sociales, expresiones típicas de la era neoliberal. Esta concepción de profesión que supone la indisociabilidad entre formación y ejercicio profesional supone, también, la transversalidad de la ética en ambas dimensiones. En ese sentido, se abordan los fundamentos filosóficos de la ética, su dimensión normativa, el ethos profesional y las particularidades que esta aprehensión presenta en el ejercicio de las prácticas pre-profesionales.Facultad de Trabajo Socia

Socioeconomic risk, parenting during the preschool years and child health age 6 years

Parent–child relationships and parenting processes are emerging as potential life course determinants of health. Parenting is socially patterned and could be one of the factors responsible for the negative effects of social inequalities on health, both in childhood and adulthood. This study tests the hypothesis that some of the effect of socioeconomic risk on health in mid childhood is transmitted via early parenting. Methods: Prospective cohort study in 10 USA communities involving 1041 mother/ child pairs, selected at birth at random with conditional sampling. Exposures: income, maternal education, maternal age, lone parenthood, ethnic status and objective assessments of mother child interaction in the first 4 years of life covering warmth, negativity and positive control. Outcomes: mother’s report of child’s health in general at 6 years. Modelling: multiple regression analyses with statistical testing of mediational processes. Results: All five indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) were correlated with all three measures of parenting, such that low SES was associated with poor parenting. Among the measures of parenting maternal warmth was independently predictive of future health, and among the socioeconomic variables maternal education, partner presence and ‘other ethnic group’ proved predictive. Measures of parenting significantly mediated the impact of measures of SES on child health. Conclusions: Parenting mediates some, but not all of the detectable effects of socioeconomic risk on health in childhood. As part of a package of measures that address other determinants, interventions to support parenting are likely to make a useful contribution to reducing childhood inequalities in health

The inflated mitochondrial genomes of siphonous green algae reflect processes driving expansion of noncoding DNA and proliferation of introns.

Within the siphonous green algal order Bryopsidales, the size and gene arrangement of chloroplast genomes has been examined extensively, while mitochondrial genomes have been mostly overlooked. The recently published mitochondrial genome of Caulerpa lentillifera is large with expanded noncoding DNA, but it remains unclear if this is characteristic of the entire order. Our study aims to evaluate the evolutionary forces shaping organelle genome dynamics in the Bryopsidales based on the C. lentillifera and Ostreobium quekettii mitochondrial genomes. In this study, the mitochondrial genome of O. quekettii was characterised using a combination of long and short read sequencing, and bioinformatic tools for annotation and sequence analyses. We compared the mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes of O. quekettii and C. lentillifera to examine hypotheses related to genome evolution. The O. quekettii mitochondrial genome is the largest green algal mitochondrial genome sequenced (241,739 bp), considerably larger than its chloroplast genome. As with the mtDNA of C. lentillifera, most of this excess size is from the expansion of intergenic DNA and proliferation of introns. Inflated mitochondrial genomes in the Bryopsidales suggest effective population size, recombination and/or mutation rate, influenced by nuclear-encoded proteins, differ between the genomes of mitochondria and chloroplasts, reducing the strength of selection to influence evolution of their mitochondrial genomes

Mental Health of Parents and Life Satisfaction of Children: A Within-Family Analysis of Intergenerational Transmission of Well-Being

This paper addresses the extent to which there is an intergenerational transmission of mental health and subjective well-being within families. Specifically it asks whether parents’ own mental distress influences their child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa. Whilst the evidence on daily contagion of stress and strain between members of the same family is substantial, the evidence on the transmission between parental distress and children’s well-being over a longer period of time is sparse. We tested this idea by examining the within-family transmission of mental distress from parent to child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa, using rich longitudinal data on 1,175 British youths. Results show that parental distress at year t-1 is an important determinant of child’s life satisfaction in the current year. This is true for boys and girls, although boys do not appear to be affected by maternal distress levels. The results also indicated that the child’s own life satisfaction is related with their father’s distress levels in the following year, regardless of the gender of the child. Finally, we examined whether the underlying transmission correlation is due to shared social environment, empathic reactions, or transmission via parent-child interaction

Measuring the impact and costs of a universal group based parenting programme : protocol and implementation of a trial

Background Sub-optimal parenting is a common risk factor for a wide range of negative health, social and educational outcomes. Most parenting programmes have been developed in the USA in the context of delinquency prevention for targeted or indicated groups and the main theoretical underpinning for these programmes is behaviour management. The Family Links Nurturing Programme (FLNP) focuses on family relationships as well as behaviour management and is offered on a universal basis. As a result it may be better placed to improve health and educational outcomes. Developed in the UK voluntary sector, FLNP is popular with practitioners, has impressed policy makers throughout the UK, has been found to be effective in before/after and qualitative studies, but lacks a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence base. Methods/Design A multi-centre, investigator blind, randomised controlled trial of the FLNP with a target sample of 288 south Wales families who have a child aged 2-4 yrs living in or near to Flying Start/Sure Start areas. Changes in parenting, parent child relations and parent and child wellbeing are assessed with validated measures immediately and at 6 months post intervention. Economic components include cost consequences and cost utility analyses based on parental ranking of states of quality of life. Attendance and completion rates and fidelity to the FLNP course delivery are assessed. A nested qualitative study will assess reasons for participation and non-participation and the perceived value of the programme to families. By the end of May 2010, 287 families have been recruited into the trial across four areas of south Wales. Recruitment has not met the planned timescales with barriers including professional anxiety about families entering the control arm of the trial, family concern about video and audio recording, programme facilitator concern about the recording of FLNP sessions for fidelity purposes and delays due to the new UK research governance procedures. Discussion Whilst there are strong theoretical arguments to support universal provision of parenting programmes, few universal programmes have been subjected to randomised controlled trials. In this paper we describe a RCT protocol with quantitative and qualitative outcome measures and an economic evaluation designed to provide clear evidence with regard to effectiveness and costs. We describe challenges implementing the protocol and how we are addressing these

Role Stress, Role Reward, and Mental Health in a Multiethnic Sample of Midlife Women: Results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN)

Abstract Background: Little is known about the independent associations of reward and stress within specific roles with multiple measures of mental health in an ethnically diverse community sample of midlife women. The objective of this study is to examine if (1) role reward (within each role and across roles) contributes directly to mental health and buffers the negative impact of role stress and (2) associations among role occupancy, role stress, and role reward and mental health vary by race/ethnicity. Methods: With separate logistic regression analysis, we investigated cross-sectional relationships between role stress and role reward with presence/absence of high depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [CES-D≥16]), anxiety symptoms (feeling tense or nervous, irritable or grouchy, fearful for no reason, and heart pounding or racing total score≥4), or low social functioning (bottom 25th percentile of the Short-Form-36 [SF-36] social functioning subscale) in 2549 women participating in the third visit of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a longitudinal population-based study of menopause. Results: High reward across roles attenuated the negative impact of role stress on social functioning but not on anxiety or depression. High reward marriage buffered the impact of marital stress on depression, and high reward mothering buffered the effect of maternal stress on depression and social functioning. Compared to Caucasians, Hispanics and Chinese with high stress across roles had better social functioning, and African American mothers had lower odds of high depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Role reward buffers the negative impact of stress on social functioning and depression, but not on anxiety. Minorities may respond to role stress by seeking social support.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98462/1/jwh%2E2011%2E3180.pd