The Relationships Among Caregiver Culture, Caregiver Behaviours, and Infant Pain at 12 months of Age

Objectives: The study aimed to discern whether caregiver culture influenced infant pain expression at the 12-month immunization through caregiver behaviours. A moderated mediation model was developed to examine how caregiver behaviours mediate the relationship between caregiver heritage culture and infant pain. Caregiver North American acculturation was introduced as a moderator to examine how the model was impacted when heritage cultural identification and North American acculturation were congruent or incongruent. Methods: Infants (N = 393) with immunization data at 12 months of age were examined. Caregiver behaviour measures were emotional availability rating and proximal soothing behaviour frequency. North American acculturation was measured with a numeric rating scale. Heritage culture was a novel index created from an objectively derived, ‘individualism’ rating assigned to the caregiver’s self-reported heritage culture and the caregiver’s self-reported identification with their heritage culture (i.e., the Heritage Culture Identification and Individualism Index [HCIII]). Two moderated mediation models were estimated, examining infant pain at 1 and 2 minutes post-needle. Results: Regardless, North American acculturation, caregivers who had higher identification with heritage cultures that were highly individualistic (higher HCIII) tended to show greater emotional availability, which in turn predicted decreased infant pain at both 1 and 2 minutes post-needle. Next, caregivers who had higher HCIII scores showed more proximal soothing behaviours, which in turn predicted higher infant pain at 1 minute. Conclusion: The present findings further our understanding of the mechanism by which caregiver culture (and identification with that culture) impacts infant acute pain

An exploration of the impact of the Green-Schools programme on the development of sustainable behaviours in the home

Concern for the sustainability of our planet is widespread. The ever-increasing economic activity and large scale industralisation our consumer society requires has increased concerns among academics, politicians, and consumers alike on natural resource depletion, waste management, dangers of toxic chemicals, and climate change. Human consumption is causing major issues for the space we inhabit. Much work has been done over the past four decades to remedy human impact on our environment at corporate, policy and consumer level. But concerns on our ability to progress the sustainability agenda remain. Consumer behaviour plays a pivotal role in sustainable development. In light of this, we need to explore and understand the ways in which consumption occurs in consumers lives, with an aim to changing behaviours that do not support the natural environment. Questions on how to change consumer behaviour dominate much of the literature on sustainable consumption, but substantial behaviour change among individuals has not occurred as predicted. Some focus has shifted to look at upstream interventions, such as education. The Green-Schools Programme (known internationally as Eco-Schools) is one such intervention. The aim of this thesis was to explore consumption in the context of the Green-Schools Programme. The main research question asks: in the context of the Green-Schools, how are sustainable behaviour practices developed in the home? The findings presented in this thesis show that sustainable behaviour has developed in the home from both internal and external factors, the Green-Schools effect being one such factor; the programme does influence behaviour in the home context to some degree. One of the main findings of this research indicates that schoolchildren are imparting ‘positive pester power’ on household behaviour practices and the majority of households are passively practicing sustainable consumption. These findings contribute to knowledge on sustainable consumption in the home context

Transnational institution building for local development : the case of European Union cohesion policy in Ireland and Sardinia

Defence date: 22 April 2005Examining Board: Prof. Martin Rhodes (EUI, supervisor) ; Prof. Yves Mény (EUI, co-supervisor) ; Prof. John Loughlin (University of Cardiff) ; Prof. Simona Piattoni (University of Trento)First made available online on 31 January 2017

A 2300-year reconstruction of environmental change from Parc national du Mont-Orford, southeastern Québec, using high-resolution pollen, charcoal and X-ray fluorescence records

We used a high-resolution lacustrine pollen record from Étang Fer-de-Lance (45°21'21.9"N, 72°13'35.3"W), southern Québec, Canada, together with microcharcoal, to infer forest dynamics, climate and human impacts over the past 2300 years. The lake is located in the sugar maple-basswood domain of the Northern Temperate Forest. We found that Fagus grandifolia (American beech) and Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock) significantly declined over the past 700 years. Over the last millennium, Picea glauca (white spruce), Picea mariana/rubens (black and red spruce), and Pinus strobus (eastern white pine) significantly increased. Using the modern analog technique (MAT), we found a warm and dry first millennium AD, a somewhat less warm and less dry Medieval Climate Anomaly, and a cold and wet Little Ice Age. The signal for human modification of the landscape first appeared at ~AD 1550-1650 as increases in Ambrosia (ragweed) and Poaceae (grasses) from Indigenous agriculture. The signal of European settler landscape modification appeared at ~AD 1770 as the beginning of a steep, “classic” Ambrosia rise. It intensified over the subsequent 250 years as further increases in non-arboreal pollen taxa and early successional Acer (maple) species. Microcharcoal analysis showed that fire is a natural part of the sugar maple-basswood domain with a mean fire return interval of 515 years