Migrants at School: Educational Inequality and Social Interaction in the UK and Germany

We test potential social costs of educational inequality by analysing the influence of spatial and social segregation on educational achievements. In particular, based on recent PISA data sets from the UK and Germany, we investigate whether good neighbourhoods with a relatively high stock of social capital lead to larger 'social multipliers' than neighbourhoods with low social capital. Estimated 'social multipliers' are higher for the German early tracking schooling system than for comprehensive schools in the UK. After aggregating data and employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, the results suggest that the educational gap between natives and migrants is mainly due to the 'endowment effect' provided by the socioeconomic background of parents and cultural capital at home. Some adverse 'integration effects' do exist for female migrants in Germany who lose ground on other groups.peer effects, identification, social interaction, reflection problem, empirical analysis, education, migrants

Eating psychopathology and cognitive functioning

The nature and scope of the current thesis is to cross-culturally explore whether non-eating disordered females with a restrained eating style exhibit deficits in executive functioning. A mediating role of potential mechanisms has been further investigated within this thesis. In contrast to the previous studies, this research is the first investigation which employs a well-established self-report measure of executive functions grounded in the everyday environment, rather than laboratory measures based on Baddeley’s model of working memory. The findings have clearly provided evidence for cultural- and dietary restraint-related differences on the domain of executive functions (EF). Overall, English females have reported poorer performance on components of a self-reported EFs, except on Emotional Control than Greeks. Restrained eaters have found to perform worst on all components of EFs than unrestrained eaters. More specifically, this research has revealed that nationality has an overall impact on EFs; and in particular on i) emotional control, namely on the way people modulate their emotional responses in everyday life, ii) self-monitor, specifically the extent to which people observe their own attitudes and behaviours and the negative effects of these on others, iii) working memory, specifically adults ability to hold information in mind for the purpose of completing a task, and iv) task-monitor, namely the degree to which people keep track of their own problem-solving success or failure. With the exception of emotional control, these nationality-related differences on self- and task-monitor, as well as WM are at least partially mediated by or co-vary with BMI, preoccupying thoughts about food, diet, and body shape, depressive symptoms, and fluid intelligence. Regarding restrained eating, the current research has provided evidence for its negative role on i) shift, ii) initiate and ii) working memory. These findings suggest that females with a restrained eating style face difficulties in their flexibility related to shifting problem-solving set, to begin a task or activity, and to independently generate ideas, responses, or problem-solving strategies, as well as difficulties on their working memory performance. When the variance attributable to BMI, preoccupying cognitions, depression, and fluid intelligence, the observed differences within the restrained eating group on shift, initiate, and working memory have been reduced. To conclude, the findings presented in this thesis point to potentially fruitful directions which future research in the domain of eating psychopathology and cognitive functioning within non-clinical populations cross-culturally might follow

Spatial Nexus in Crime and unemployment in Times of crisis: Evidence from Germany

Space is important. The recent global financial crisis has vividly pointed to spatial patterns in economies’ reactions to the global economic shocks. This paper focuses on labor market responses and its interactions with criminal activities in a causal and spatial framework. we study the case of Germany as evidently this country’s economy has demonstrated resilience during the whirl of economic crisis. Our contribution is twofold: first, we lay down a parsimonious labor market model with search frictions, criminal opportunities, and, unlike earlier analyzes, productivity shocks which are important in explaining empirical regularity of criminal engagement. Second, we seek empirical support using data on the 402 German districts for 2009-2010, the years following the global financial crisis, in a setting that allows not only crime spatial multipliers but also inherent endogeneity of unemployment. Adverse income shocks clearly unfold a spatial nexus between unemployment and crime rates. More specifical ly, we find that youth unemployment plays a prominent role in explaining property crime, namely housing burglary. Our results are in line with previous research: neglecting endogeneity of unemployment understates its impact and employing the youth unemployment share instead of rate points to distinctive effects. The analysis offers important implications for countries that are currently undergoing fiscal consolidation and are experiencing high unemployment rates

Executive functions and the role of dieting: A comparison between English and Greek females

Introduction: This study investigated and compared the effect of dieting status and culture on executive functions (EFs) between English and Greek females. The moderating role of restrained eating, preoccupying cognitions, depressed affect and IQ was also investigated to provide further evidence of the nature of this effect. Methods: A between-subjects design was employed, where 192 females were recruited from UK (n =45) and Greek (n =147) Universities; 99 were current dieters and 93 were non-dieters. The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-A) was used to assess Executive Functions (EFs). Participants also completed the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire-Restraint (DEBQ-R), Preoccupying cognitions, Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CESD), Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices-Set I, and a questionnaire acquiring demographic information. MANOVA and MANCOVA analyses were carried out. Results: There was a significant multivariate main effect for dieting status (P < 0.05) and nationality (P < 0.001). Specifically, dieters self-report greater difficulty on inhibit (P < 0.001), self- and task-monitor, organisation of materials and working memory (P < 0.01), and shift, emotional control, initiate and plan/organise (P < 0.05). A significant univariate effect was found for nationality, in terms of emotional control (P < .0.01), whereby a higher mean T-score was revealed for Greek (M = 62.12; SD = 11.01) compared to English females (M = 59.28; SD =13.95). With DEBQ-R and preoccupying cognition scores entered as covariates, the effect of nationality, on emotional control, remained significant (P < 0.001). However, none of the main effects for dieting status remained significant (P > 0.05). Discussion and Conclusion: Greek females self-report greater difficulty in controlling their emotions. Dieters found to have a poorer ability on the components of EFs; nationality also found to have an effect on EFs. Outcomes of this research provide fruitful implications on the association between dieting, culture and EFs

Emotion dysregulation and loneliness as predictors of food addiction

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate whether multiple aspects of emotion dysregulation contribute to the etiology of Food Addiction (FA); as well as to provide further evidence and clarity regarding the role of loneliness on the development of addictive behaviour towards food.Methods: A correlational study was employed to assess associations within 162 participants which were recruited via online forums on FA and student population. The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and UCLA Loneliness Scale, and a demographic and personal information questionnaire were all completed online. A Poisson regression analysis was carried out and statistical significance was set at P <0.05.Results: 79% of the sample endorsed a persistent desire or repeated unsuccessful attempts to cut down or control their use of highly processed foods, while 21% met diagnostic criteria for food addiction. Poisson regression analysis demonstrated that the model predicts food addiction (P <0.001). Specifically, food addiction symptom count was positively predicted by difficulty engaging in goal-directed behaviour, impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness and limited access to emotion regulation strategies (P <0.05); DERS total, nonacceptance of emotional responses and lack of emotional clarity were not significant predictors. Loneliness positively predicted food addiction (P =0.002).Discussion and Conclusions: The findings of this research provide further evidence on the etiology of food addiction, as multiple aspects of emotion dysregulation, including difficulty in engaging in goal-directed behaviour, impulsiveness, emotional awareness and limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and loneliness were found to influence the development of an addictive behaviour towards certain types of food. Future research will need to understand possible causality between these factors and insights into the potential role addictive behaviour of food has in overeating phenomena, such as binge-eating.University of Derby URS

Whole Exome Sequencing Points towards a Multi-Gene Synergistic Action in the Pathogenesis of Congenital Combined Pituitary Hormone Deficiency

Combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD) is characterized by deficiency of growth hormone and at least one other pituitary hormone. Pathogenic variants in more than 30 genes expressed during the development of the head, hypothalamus, and/or pituitary have been identified so far to cause genetic forms of CPHD. However, the etiology of around 85% of the cases remains unknown. The aim of this study was to unveil the genetic etiology of CPHD due to congenital hypopituitarism employing whole exome sequencing (WES) in two newborn patients, initially tested and found to be negative for PROP1, LHX3, LHX4 and HESX1 pathogenic variants by Sanger sequencing and for copy number variations by MLPA. In this study, the application of WES in these CPHD newborns revealed the presence of three different heterozygous gene variants in each patient. Specifically in patient 1, the variants BMP4; p.Ala42Pro, GNRH1; p.Arg73Ter and SRA1; p.Gln32Glu, and in patient 2, the SOX9; p.Val95Ile, HS6ST1; p.Arg306Gln, and IL17RD; p.Pro566Ser were identified as candidate gene variants. These findings further support the hypothesis that CPHD constitutes an oligogenic rather than a monogenic disease and that there is a genetic overlap between CPHD and congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism