Global discourses and experiential speculation: Secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians dissect the HIV/AIDS epidemic

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the perspectives of secondary and tertiary school graduates in sub-Saharan Africa regarding the effectiveness of government and international HIV/AIDS policies and programmes have not been thoroughly examined. When extensive monetary aid is directed toward "development" in a country like Malawi, it is the educated elites - secondary and tertiary graduates who are heavily involved and influential in the domestic re-distribution and implementation of millions of dollars worth of aid - on whom international expectations fall to decrease the transmission of HIV. Many Malawian jobs related to public health and HIV/AIDS are created as a direct result of this funding and are occupied by the few secondary and tertiary graduates. Thus, it is a practical venture to understand their perspectives on highly contentious and heavily funded HIV/AIDS issues that affect their nation. Qualitative data was collected in this study in efforts to discover in-depth perspectives on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Thirty-eight secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians took part in semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed using an early grounded theory approach and subsequent themes of "global discourses" and "experiential knowledge of HIV/AIDS" emerged. This group of Malawians frequently responded to questions regarding healthcare and access to medicine, sexual behaviours and methods of reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS by citing and explaining the widespread, international and "proper" responses. The secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians also discussed these same topics in terms of what they perceive or have experienced. Experiential responses, such as the counter-productivity of circumcision and condoms, the overestimation of HIV/AIDS prevalence, and calls for more authoritarian policing of commercial sex work, were remarkably divergent from the HIV/AIDS discourse. The opinions of this group of secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians do not always coincide with the current literature and policies. They give deeper insight into what is perceived and what may be taking place, and hint at what the future holds for their people. The widespread and divergent perspectives must be seriously considered because these experiences describe the potential positive and negative consequences that occur on the ground throughout Malawi as a result of HIV/AIDS policies.https://doi.org/10.1186/1758-2652-14-4

Marital Dissolutions and Changes in Mental Health: Evidence from Rural Malawi

Family demographers conducting research in high-income countries have long examined the link between multiple dimensions of marital dissolutions—including discrete events and marital histories—and adverse health outcomes. Research on the relationship between marital dissolutions, marital histories, and health among older adults in sub-Saharan Africa is comparatively limited, and less empirically developed, despite marriage being a paramount cultural and life-course marker on the African continent. Using fixed-effects regressions and 2012 data from the Mature Adults Cohort of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH-MAC) linked back to cohort information from 2008 and 2010 available through MLSFH, we test how changes in different dimensions of marital dissolutions are associated with changes in mental health among nearly 1200 respondents, in addition to the potential moderating effects of household savings and region of residence. For men, spending more of one’s life outside of marriage is associated with worse mental health, while more marital dissolutions are surprisingly linked to better mental health for women

Inequalities in Global Trade: A Cross-Country Comparison of Trade Network Position, Economic Wealth, Pollution and Mortality

In this paper we investigate how structural patterns of international trade give rise to emissions inequalities across countries, and how such inequality in turn impact countries’ mortality rates. We employ Multi-regional Input-Output analysis to distinguish between sulfurdioxide (SO2) emissions produced within a country’s boarders (production-based emissions) and emissions triggered by consumption in other countries (consumption-based emissions). We use social network analysis to capture countries’ level of integration within the global trade network. We then apply the Prais-Winsten panel estimation technique to a panel data set across 172 countries over 20 years (1990–2010) to estimate the relationships between countries’ level of integration and SO2 emissions, and the impact of trade integration and SO2 emission on mortality rates. Our findings suggest a positive, (log-) linear relationship between a country’s level of integration and both kinds of emissions. In addition, although more integrated countries are mainly responsible for both forms of emissions, our findings indicate that they also tend to experience lower mortality rates. Our approach offers a unique combination of social network analysis with multiregional input-output analysis, which better operationalizes intuitive concepts about global trade and trade structure

How Midwestern College students protected their families in the first year of COVID-19

IntroductionCollege students routinely visit their families due to geographic proximity and their financial dependence. Consequently, the potential of transmitting COVID-19 from campus to their families’ homes is consequential. Family members are key sources of support for one another in nearly all matters but there is little research uncovering the mechanisms by which families have protected each other in the pandemic.MethodsThrough an exploratory qualitative study, we examined the perspectives of a diverse, randomly sampled, group of students from a Midwestern University (pseudonym), in a college town, to identify COVID-19 prevention practices with their family members. We interviewed 33 students between the end of December 2020 and mid-April 2021 and conducted a thematic analysis through an iterative process.ResultsStudents navigated major differences in opinions and undertook significant actions in attempts to protect their family members from COVID-19 exposure. Students’ actions were rooted in the greater good of public health; prosocial behavior was on display.DiscussionLarger public health initiatives could target the broader population by involving students as messengers

The Longitudinal Dynamics of Household Composition and Wealth in Rural Malawi

Household living arrangements play a crucial role in survival efforts throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Household living arrangements foster the development of informal insurance that can mitigate economic or filial shocks, and potentially improve the overall well-being of kin. However, scholarship in subSaharan African settings has not been able to, or has not attempted, to track how households have changed and the coinciding changes in livelihood outcomes. We ask whether changes in overall household size and the addition of dependents and working-age individuals are associated with changes in household wealth, a signal of well-being. We use the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) to exploit detailed data on changing Malawian household composition via a household roster matching technique and fixed effects regressions. The addition of members to a household and the presence of more boys and workingage men—to a certain point—are associated with having more durable goods and greater chances of acquiring a metal roof—key indicators of wealth in rural Malawi. The addition of girls and women of any age are seemingly not linked to changes in household wealth

Marital Dissolutions and Changes in Mental Health: Evidence from Rural Malawi

Family demographers conducting research in high-income countries have long examined the link between multiple dimensions of marital dissolutions—including discrete events and marital histories—and adverse health outcomes. Research on the relationship between marital dissolutions, marital histories, and health among older adults in sub-Saharan Africa is comparatively limited, and less empirically developed, despite marriage being a paramount cultural and life-course marker on the African continent. Using fixed-effects regressions and 2012 data from the Mature Adults Cohort of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH-MAC) linked back to cohort information from 2008 and 2010 available through MLSFH, we test how changes in different dimensions of marital dissolutions are associated with changes in mental health among nearly 1200 respondents, in addition to the potential moderating effects of household savings and region of residence. For men, spending more of one’s life outside of marriage is associated with worse mental health, while more marital dissolutions are surprisingly linked to better mental health for women

Getting a Child through Secondary School and to College in India: The Role of Household Social Capital

n the classic formulations of social capital theory, families employ their social capital resources to enhance other capitals, in particular their human capital investments. Social capital would seem to be espe�cially important in the case of India, where, in recent years, higher education has been under considerable stress with rising educational demand, inadequate supply, and little parental experience to guide children’s transition through the education system. We use the 2005 and 2012 waves of the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS) to show how relatively high-status connections advantage some families’ chances of their children reaching educational milestones such as secondary school completion and college entry. The 2005 IHDS survey measure of a household’s formal sector contacts in education, govern�ment, and health predicts their children’s educational achievements by the second wave, seven years later, controlling for households’ and children’s initial background