A multilevel approach to understanding the determinants of maternal harsh parenting: the importance of maternal age and perceived partner support

Determinants of parenting are most often considered using one child per family within a cross-sectional design. In 182 families, the current study included two siblings and sought to predict maternal harsh parenting measured prospectively when each child was age 2 years from child gender, infant temperament, maternal age, maternal educational attainment, maternal depression and anxiety and maternal perceptions of partner support. Multilevel modeling was used to examine between- and within-family variance simultaneously. Mothers reported levels of harsh parenting that were similar towards both children (intraclass correlation = 0.69). Thus, the majority of variance in maternal perceptions of their harsh parenting resided between rather than within families and was accounted for in part by maternal age and maternal perceptions of partner support. Results are discussed in relation to family-wide determinants of harsh parenting, previous literature pertaining to parenting siblings and the potential avenues for future research and practice

Technology as a disruptive agent: Intergenerational perspectives

YesThis study explores how British South Asian parents perceive their children’s technology consumption through their collectivist lenses and interdependent values. The findings for this qualitative study indicate that second and third generation South Asian parents acknowledge the benefits of children’s technology use; but largely perceive technology as a disruptive agent, whereby children are becoming isolated and increasingly independent within the household. The analysis aims to understand how parents view their children’s relationship with others as a result of technology consumption. Accordingly, this paper proposes an extension of the Construal of self conceptualisation and contributes a Techno-construal matrix that establishes a dyadic connection between technology consumption and cultural values. Overall, the study reveals that children display less inter-reliance and conformance typically associated with collectivist cultures, resulting from their technology use. Consequently, parents interpret their children’s shift from interdependence to more independence as a disruptive and unsettling phenomenon within the household

Taking stock of 10 years of published research on the ASHA programme: Examining India’s national community health worker programme from a health systems perspective

Background: As India’s accredited social health activist (ASHA) community health worker (CHW) programme enters its second decade, we take stock of the research undertaken and whether it examines the health systems interfaces required to sustain the programme at scale. Methods: We systematically searched three databases for articles on ASHAs published between 2005 and 2016. Articles that met the inclusion criteria underwent analysis using an inductive CHW–health systems interface framework. Results: A total of 122 academic articles were identified (56 quantitative, 29 mixed methods, 28 qualitative, and 9 commentary or synthesis); 44 articles reported on special interventions and 78 on the routine ASHA program. Findings on special interventions were overwhelmingly positive, with few negative or mixed results. In contrast, 55% of articles on the routine ASHA programme showed mixed findings and 23% negative, with few indicating overall positive findings, reflecting broader system constraints. Over half the articles had a health system perspective, including almost all those on general ASHA work, but only a third of those with a health condition focus. The most extensively researched health systems topics were ASHA performance, training and capacity-building, with very little research done on programme financing and reporting, ASHA grievance redressal or peer communication. Research tended to be descriptive, with fewer influence, explanatory or exploratory articles, and no predictive or emancipatory studies. Indian institutions and authors led and partnered on most of the research, wrote all the critical commentaries, and published more studies with negative results. Conclusion: Published work on ASHAs highlights a range of small-scale innovations, but also showcases the challenges faced by a programme at massive scale, situated in the broader health system. As the programme continues to evolve, critical comparative research that constructively feeds back into programme reforms is needed, particularly related to governance, intersectoral linkages, ASHA solidarity, and community capacity to provide support and oversight

Inhabiting an “Un-common” Space: Health Promotion in the Area of Pescarola, Bologna

This article reports on a community-based action-research project initiated in July 2014 by the Centre for International and Intercultural Health. The project aims at promoting health through empowerment and community participation in a low-income suburban area of the city of Bologna (Pescarola). Based on an in-depth analysis of the ethnographic material collected (field notes, interviews, focus groups, meeting transcripts), this article focuses on critical moments of the action-research process, which made us reflect on our role and status in relation to other actors in the field, particularly community members. Specifically, we focus on the opening and development of a community space and on the potential and critical issues inherent to the action-research methods we used, such as community care, creative workshops, and theatre. These methods constitute both answers to the needs that emerged from the initial phase of the research (loneliness and lack of social connections), and strategies to investigate health needs together with the community. Our work shows how, in contexts of marginalisation, the material and symbolic conditions for people’s participation in a collective space, and the very presence of a ‘community’, cannot be assumed, rather they need to be constructed with the people as a central part of the health promoting action

Stress-inducible-stem cells:a new view on endocrine, metabolic and mental disease?

In general terms we all use the word“stress”to describe ourdiscomfort in coping with challenges of daily life. This ismostly related to our subjective perceptions of workloadand/or other unexpected physical or mental efforts we areexposed to. The term is derived from the concept of stress asa reaction to internal and external stimuli requiring acute orchronic adaptations, as introduced by Hans Selye in thesecond half of the last century [1–3].Published versio