Ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų miego sunkumų, emocinio reaktyvumo ir tėvų taikomos miego bei naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais tvarkos sąsajos

Background. Children’s sleep problems are associated with temperament. One of the dimensions of temperament – higher emotional reactivity – is defined as a risk factor for children’s emotional, behavioral, and sleep problems. Screen-based media use is a very common phenomenon among children that relates to sleep problems. Still there is a gap of research explaining the interactions between children’s sleep problems, temperament, and parental discipline (sleep regime and rules for screen-based media use). The aim of this study is to evaluate the relations between preschool children’s sleep problems and parents’ discipline (sleep regime and rules for screen-based media use), and the role of children’s emotional reactivity. Methods. This research is a part of the longitudinal study “Electronic Media Use and Young Children’s Health” conducted in the year 2017–2018 and funded by the Research Council of Lithuanian (agreement no. GER-006/2017). Participants are 876 children aged 2 to 5 years old and their parents. Children’s sleep problems and emotional reactivity were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/1½-5). Information about rules for screen-based media use and sleep regime was obtained using the parent-report questionnaire. Results. Sleep problems are related to emotional reactivity, sleep regime, and rules for screen media use. Children without regular sleep regime and without constant rules for screen-based media use have higher sleep problems and emotional reactivity. The results of the regression analysis show that emotional reactivity, together with sleep regime and rules for screen-based media use, significantly explain one-fifth to one-third of children’s sleep problems at different ages of the preschool period. However, the prognostic value of emotional reactivity and parental discipline varies according to a child’s age, as they are significant predictors of sleep problems among two, three and four-year-olds, but no longer explain sleep problems of five-year-olds. The path analysis confirmed that emotional reactivity, directly and through mediating variables, e.g., parental reported child’s sleep regime and rules for screen-based media use, is significantly associated with children’s sleep problems. Conclusions. Emotional reactivity should be considered as a significant risk factor in the relation between children’s sleep problems, sleep regime and parental applied rules for screen-based media use. These results are important while identifying children at higher risk for sleep problems. The results also support that parental discipline, such as sleep regime and rules for screen-based media use, are significant for preventing sleep problems in children with higher emotional reactivity.Įvadas. Vaikų emocinis reaktyvumas, viena iš temperamento dimensijų, išskiriamas kaip rizikos veiksnys emocinių, elgesio ir miego sunkumų raiškai. Vaikų naudojimasis ekranus turinčiais išmaniaisiais prietaisais yra labai paplitęs reiškinys ir taip pat siejamas su vaikų miego sunkumais. Siekiant labiau suprasti vaikų miego sunkumų priežastis dar trūksta tyrimų, kurie aiškintųsi miego sunkumų, temperamento ir tėvų taikomos tvarkos (miego ir naudojimosi ekranais) tarpusavio sąveikas. Šio tyrimo tikslas – įvertinti ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų miego sunkumų ir tėvų taikomos tvarkos (miego ir naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais) sąsajas, atsižvelgiant į emocinio reaktyvumo, kaip temperamento dimensijos, vaidmenį šiose sąsajose. Metodai. Šis tyrimas yra mokslinio tyrimo „Šiuolaikinės informacinės technologijos ir mažų vaikų sveikata“, vykdyto 2017–2018 m., dalis. Tyrime naudojami duomenys apie 876 vaikus nuo 2 iki 5 metų, šiuos duomenis apklausos būdu pateikė jų tėvai. Vaikų miego sunkumai ir emocinis reaktyvumas buvo vertinti naudojant Vaiko elgesio aprašą (CBCL/1½-5). Informaciją apie miego ir naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais tvarką teikė tėvai, atsakydami į anketos klausimus. Rezultatai. Miego sunkumai siejasi su emociniu reaktyvumu ir miego bei ekranus turinčių prietaisų naudojimo tvarka. Vaikai, kurie neturi pastovios miego ir naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais tvarkos, patiria didesnių miego sunkumų ir jų emocinis reaktyvumas yra labiau išreikštas. Regresinės analizės rezultatai rodo, kad emocinis reaktyvumas kartu su miego bei naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais tvarka reikšmingai paaiškina nuo penktadalio iki trečdalio dvejų–penkerių metų vaikų miego sunkumų. Vis dėlto, atsižvelgiant į vaiko amžių, emocinio reaktyvumo ir tėvų taikomos tvarkos prognostinė reikšmė kinta – jie yra reikšmingi dvejų, trejų ir ketverių metų vaikų miego sunkumus nuspėjantys veiksniai, tačiau nepaaiškina penkerių metų vaikų miego sunkumų. Struktūrinių lygčių modeliavimas atskleidė, kad emocinis reaktyvumas tiesiogiai ir per tarpinius kintamuosius – tėvų taikomą miego ir naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais tvarką – reikšmingai siejasi su vaikų miego sunkumais. Apibendrinimas. Analizuojant vaikų miego sunkumų ir tėvų taikomos miego ir naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais tvarkos sąsajas, emocinį reaktyvumą galima traktuoti kaip rizikos veiksnį. Šie rezultatai yra reikšmingi siekiant atpažinti vaikus, turinčius didesnę miego sunkumų atsiradimo riziką ir yra svarbūs tuo, kad atskleidžia, jog net ir didesnį emocinį reaktyvumą turintiems vaikams tėvų palaikoma miego ir naudojimosi ekranus turinčiais prietaisais tvarka yra reikšmingas prevencinis vaikų miego sunkumų veiksnys

Granular Structure Determined by Terahertz Scattering

Light-scattering in the terahertz region is demonstrated for granular matter. A quantum-cascade laser is used in a benchtop setup to determine the angle-dependent scattering of spherical grains as well as coffee powder and sugar grains. For the interpretation of the form factors for the scattering from single particles one has to go beyond the usual Rayleigh-Gans-Debye theory and apply calculations within Mie theory. In addition to single scattering also collective correlations can be identified and extracted as a static structure factor.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figure

The Combination

When I first saw Druna, at a sad little makeshift refugee camp north of Mankerny on Sri Lanka’s East Coast, she was sitting in a square of hard red dirt, surrounded by a tangle of tent poles and metal stakes..

The Paradox of Power in Conflict Dynamics

In recent decades the political state has been implicated in genocide, mass violence, political oppression, and targeted deprivations. Yet, in the field of conflict analysis, the meaning of state “power over” in conflict settings is under-theorized. In this article I probe the conceptual depths of state power to show that such power is neither singular nor simple. It’s neither ahistorical nor asocial. Beneath the surface of the state’s wide-ranging practices of governing its political subjects is a fundamental paradox that juxtaposes the state’s authority as the rightful authority over its subjects against the state’s vulnerability to potentially de-stabilizing threats to such authority. Critical to the meaning of state power, this paradox is revealed in an entanglement of contrary forces of state legitimation and its de-legitimation by threatening forces. Such an entanglement is illustrated in the state’s power to protect the nation from aggressors, to enact laws, and to manage its political subjects. The paradox implies that state power is fundamentally conflictual and, as a result, suited perfectly for analysis by scholar-practitioners in our field

Introduction to the Special Issue: Power and Conflict

Excerpt This Special Issue of Peace and Conflict Studies focuses on the power dynamics that drive participants of protracted violent conflicts. Such dynamics undergird every act of brute force by militants of such conflicts, every state policy that diminishes the lives and life prospects of marginalized people, and every public speech by a political leader that degrades a segment of the population as inferior, dangerous or impure. Despite the ubiquity of power to violent conflicts generally, this subject matter lacks primacy as a central topic of prevailing conflict theories. Power is cast tacitly as secondary to the cardinal categories of violence, conflict and peacebuilding. This subordinate positioning is mistaken. A robust understanding of protracted violent conflicts requires attending to power’s complexity, its many forms, and its inseparability in the interactions and potential transformation of conflict actors

Power, Emotions, and Violent Conflicts

Hatred, fear, and disdain—these are emotions that drive conflict protagonists to commit acts of violence against their adversaries. Conventional thinking among conflict analysts holds that the private realm of negative emotions exhibited by conflict actors is distinct fundamentally from the public world of objective causal drivers of conflict, such as poverty, structural violence and proliferation of small arms. However, such conventional thinking regarding this inherent duality of emotions and power cannot for the social-psychic force of affect emotions that intersects with the conflict dynamics. In many conflict settings, the release of such a force is a political act, with the potential to induce, motivate, lure, compel or mobilize conflict actors to take up arms against their adversary. Such a force reflects a manifestation of affect power that manifests itself in the public performatives where people gather, debate, deliberate, cheer, jeer, and sometimes fight. In this paper, I examine the entanglement of certain emotions and power relations among actors immersed in protracted violence. Central to my arguments are the recent findings in social psychology regarding the complexity of moral emotions as they are experienced as a contagious force in conflict settings. Section 1 summarizes these findings. In section 2, I develop certain themes regarding the inter-linkages between the conflict actors’ emotional life and their power relations. The notion of affect power is developed. In section 3, I present two case studies of affect power, which center on elements of structurally violent systems. I conclude with a summary regarding the implications of this emotion-power entanglement for conflict analysis. I recommend that conflict analysts abandon the alleged inherent distinction between the subjectivity of social psychological constructions, such as notions of identity and difference, and the objectivity of power dynamics that represent external drivers of conflict

Government-Sponsored Systemic Character Assassination

Episodes of character association (CA) among political figures are ubiquitous in the current political landscape of the United States, where political campaigns routinely include ad hominem attacks of one’s opponent. Yet, another form of CA lies beneath the surface of political figures hurling insults at each other. CA is also situated within certain social-political systems that strategically deploy mechanisms to dominate a targeted population group by casting them inherently inferior to society’s so-called pure members. The primary objective of this article is to characterize systemic character assassination [SCA] within the United States as an insidious form of disciplinary control. After identifying certain features of governmental domination over segments of society (section 1), the author introduces the notion of SCA (section 2). A case study is provided of the systemic denigration of migrants seeking asylum in the United States (section 3). This case is followed by an analysis of SCA in terms of the power dynamics between governmental authorities and the targeted population group (section 4).  All of which indicates a fundamental tension between the state’s legitimacy as rightful rulers and its illegitimacy from the perspective of those subjected to the insidious manipulations of SCA