Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Human Development (human + development)
Terms modified by Human Development Selected AbstractsDESTINATION EFFECTS: RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY AND TRAJECTORIES OF ADOLESCENT VIOLENCE IN A STRATIFIED METROPOLIS,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 3 2010PATRICK SHARKEY Two landmark policy interventions to improve the lives of youth through neighborhood mobility,the Gautreaux program in Chicago and the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiments in five cities,have produced conflicting results and have created a puzzle with broad implications: Do residential moves between neighborhoods increase or decrease violence, or both? To address this question, we analyze data from a subsample of adolescents ages 9,12 years from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a longitudinal study of children and their families that began in Chicago,the site of the original Gautreaux program and one of the MTO experiments. We propose a dynamic modeling strategy to separate the effects of residential moving across three waves of the study from dimensions of neighborhood change and metropolitan location. The results reveal countervailing effects of mobility on trajectories of violence; whereas neighborhood moves within Chicago lead to an increased risk of violence, moves outside the city reduce violent offending and exposure to violence. The gap in violence between movers within and outside Chicago is explained not only by the racial and economic composition of the destination neighborhoods but also by the quality of school contexts, adolescents' perceived control over their new environment, and fear. These findings highlight the need to simultaneously consider residential mobility, mechanisms of neighborhood change, and the wider geography of structural opportunity. [source] Does controlling for comorbidity matter?AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 3 2010DSM-oriented scales, violent offending in chicago youth Abstract Mental health problems have long been linked to antisocial behaviors. Despite an impressive body of literature demonstrating this relationship and claims that comorbidity matters, few studies examine comorbidity using multiple distinct mental health indicators, with most studies instead adopting single or composite mental health measures. This study tested separate and comorbid effects of five DSM-oriented mental health issues on self-reported violence using a community-based sample of Chicago youths from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Moreover, it utilized both primary caregiver and youth self-reports of psychopathology across four developmental stages of childhood and adolescence. When examined separately, the results indicated affective/depressive, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity, and oppositional defiant/antisocial personality problems independently predicted violence. When considering comorbidity, however, only oppositional defiant and antisocial personality problems significantly predicted violence at any stage, regardless of informant type. Implications for future studies and policy are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 36:141,157, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Intimate partner violence relationship dissolution among couples with children: the counterintuitive role of "Law and Order" neighborhoodsJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Clifton R. Emery This study examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) relationship dissolution and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability, collective efficacy, and legal cynicism. Data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) Longitudinal survey were used to identify 658 cases of IPV in Wave 1. A generalized boosting model (GBM) was used to determine the best proximal predictors of relationship dissolution from the longitudinal data. Controlling for these predictors, logistic regression of neighborhood characteristics from the PHDCN community survey was used to predict IPV relationship dissolution in Wave 2. Counterintuitively, the authors find that neighborhoods high in legal cynicism have a greater likelihood of IPV relationship dissolution, controlling for other variables in the logistic regression model. However, analyses did not find that IPV relationship dissolution was related to neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability, and collective efficacy. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Uses and Misuses of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory of Human DevelopmentJOURNAL OF FAMILY THEORY & REVIEW, Issue 4 2009Jonathan R. H. Tudge This paper evaluates the application of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory as it is represented in empirical work on families and their relationships. We describe the "mature" form of bioecological theory of the mid-1990s and beyond, with its focus on proximal processes at the center of the Process-Person-Context-Time model. We then examine 25 papers published since 2001, all explicitly described as being based on Bronfenbrenner's theory, and show that all but 4 rely on outmoded versions of the theory, resulting in conceptual confusion and inadequate testing of the theory. [source] Explaining Family Change and Variation: Challenges for Family DemographersJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 4 2005Judith A. Seltzer Twenty years ago, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) issued a request for proposals that resulted in the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a unique survey valuable to a wide range of family scholars. This paper describes the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of family demographers to build on the progress enabled by the NSFH and many other theoretical and methodological innovations. Our work, also supported by NICHD, will develop plans for research and data collection to address the central question of what causes family change and variation. We outline the group's initial assessments of orienting frameworks, key aspects of family life to study, and theoretical and methodological challenges for research on family change. Finally, we invite family scholars to follow our progress and to help develop this shared public good. [source] The 2008 National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Workshop Report on Electronic Fetal Monitoring: Update on Definitions, Interpretation, and Research GuidelinesJOURNAL OF OBSTETRIC, GYNECOLOGIC & NEONATAL NURSING, Issue 5 2008George A. Macones MD ABSTRACT In April 2008, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine partnered to sponsor a 2-day workshop to revisit nomenclature, interpretation, and research recommendations for intrapartum electronic fetal heart rate monitoring. Participants included obstetric experts and representatives from relevant stakeholder groups and organizations. This article provides a summary of the discussions at the workshop. This includes a discussion of terminology and nomenclature for the description of fetal heart tracings and uterine contractions for use in clinical practice and research. A three-tier system for fetal heart rate tracing interpretation is also described. Lastly, prioritized topics for future research are provided. [source] Socialization Ambiguity in Samoan Adolescents: A Model for Human Development and Stress in the Context of Culture ChangeJOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, Issue 1 2004Thomas W. McDade Rapid globalization is forcing youth around the world to confront new developmental challenges, and conceptual models are needed that can capture this experience and its developmental implications. Exposure to nontraditional lifestyles opens up new socialization opportunities and raises the possibility of stress-inducing dissonance between participating socializing agents and the messages they deliver. Socialization ambiguity is introduced as a model for culture change and adolescent stress, and it is applied to a sample of 10- to 20-year-olds (N=295) in the islands of Samoa. A physiological marker of stress (antibodies against the Epstein-Barr virus) is employed to overcome some of the difficulties associated with measuring stress outcomes. Socialization ambiguity is found to be a significant source of stress on the remote island of Savai'i and the transitional area of rural Upolu, although the direction of the association is different, possibly reflecting divergent socialization goals in these two regions. [source] Does Political Democracy Enhance Human Development in Developing Countries?AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2006A Cross-National Analysis Despite the considerable progress of human development (HD) in developing countries (DCs) during recent decades, vast differences still remain among such countries. The question thus arises of why these divergences persist. This cross-national study uses a larger sample of DCs to offer necessary testing of the impact of democracy on HD. This study adopts new measures of democracy featuring majority rule and political contention to estimate their correlation with three physical well-being indicators as well as with three school enrollment indicators. After controlling for several macro-level political and economic characteristics (state revenue and economic growth), the regression modeling for recent data from the 1980s and 1990s showed that democracies indeed achieved higher levels on the HD indicators used here. However, democracy was not a powerful predictor of changes in HD scores during the analysis period. Neither central government health or educational spending significantly altered HD. The conclusions offer a plausible explanation of why democracy in DCs failed to sustain its momentum in improving HD. [source] Thinking as Communication: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and Mathematizing , By Anna SfardANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2009Amanda Walker JohnsonArticle first published online: 9 SEP 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances the quality of investigative interviews with alleged victims of child sexual abuse in Britain,APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Michael E. Lamb One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (aged 4,13; M,=,9.3 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) structured interview Protocol, whereas the other children, matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses, were interviewed by investigators following the Memorandum of Good Practice. Protocol-guided interviews elicited more information using free-recall invitations and less information using directive, option-posing and suggestive questions than did standard Memorandum interviews. There were no age differences in the proportion of total information provided in response to open-ended invitations in either condition, but there was a significant increase with age in the proportion of central information provided in response to open-ended invitations. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Does Amount of Time Spent in Child Care Predict Socioemotional Adjustment During the Transition to Kindergarten?CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2003Early Child Care Research Network, Human Development, National Institute of Child Health To examine relations between time in nonmaternal care through the first 4.5 years of life and children's socioemotional adjustment, data on social competence and problem behavior were examined when children participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were 4.5 years of age and when in kindergarten. The more time children spent in any of a variety of nonmaternal care arrangements across the first 4.5 years of life, the more externalizing problems and conflict with adults they manifested at 54 months of age and in kindergarten, as reported by mothers, caregivers, and teachers. These effects remained, for the most part, even when quality, type, and instability of child care were controlled, and when maternal sensitivity and other family background factors were taken into account. The magnitude of quantity of care effects were modest and smaller than those of maternal sensitivity and indicators of family socioeconomic status, though typically greater than those of other features of child care, maternal depression, and infant temperament. There was no apparent threshold for quantity effects. More time in care not only predicted problem behavior measured on a continuous scale in a dose-response pattern but also predicted at-risk (though not clinical) levels of problem behavior, as well as assertiveness, disobedience, and aggression. [source] Biological and environmental initial conditions shape the trajectories of cognitive and social-emotional development across the first years of lifeDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2009Ruth Feldman Human development is thought to evolve from the dynamic interchange of biological dispositions and environmental provisions; yet the effects of specific biological and environmental birth conditions on the trajectories of cognitive and social-emotional growth have rarely been studied. We observed 126 children at six time-points from birth to 5 years. Intelligence, maternal sensitivity, and child social engagement were repeatedly tested. Effects of neonatal vagal tone (VT) and maternal postpartum depressive symptoms on growth-rates were assessed. Cognitive development showed a substantial growth-spurt between 2 and 5 years and social engagement increased rapidly across the first year and more gradually thereafter. VT improved cognitive and social-emotional growth-rates across the first year, whereas maternal depressive symptoms interfered with growth from 2 to 5 years. Differences between infants with none, one, or two non-optimal birth conditions increased with age. Findings shed light on the dynamics of early development as it is shaped by biological and environmental initial conditions. [source] Wildfire Policy and Public Lands: Integrating Scientific Understanding with Social Concerns across LandscapesCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2004MICHAEL P. DOMBECK administración de bosques; fuego no controlado; política; Servicio Forestal Estados Unidos; tierras públicas Abstract:,Efforts to suppress wildfires have become increasingly problematic in recent years as costs have risen, threats to firefighter safety have escalated, and detrimental impacts to ecosystems have multiplied. Wildfires that escape initial suppression often expand into large, high-intensity summer blazes. Lost is the legacy of smaller fires that likely burned outside extreme weather and fuel conditions and resulted in less severe impacts. Despite the recognized need for modifications to existing policies and practices, resource agencies have been slow to respond. The spread of exotic species, climate change, and increasing human development in wildlands further complicates the issue. New policies are needed that integrate social and ecological needs across administrative boundaries and broad landscapes. These policies should promote a continuum of treatments with active management and reduction of fuel hazard in wildland-urban interface zones and reintroduction of fire in wildlands. Management goals should focus on restoration of the long-term ecological health of the land. Projects that reduce fuel loads but compromise the integrity of soil, water supplies, or watersheds will do more harm than good in the long run. Despite significant ecological concerns, learning to live with fire remains primarily a social issue that will require greater political leadership, agency innovation, public involvement, and community responsibility. Resumen:,En años recientes, los esfuerzos para suprimir los fuegos no controlados se han vuelto cada vez más problemáticos por el incremento de costos, el aumento de las amenazas a la seguridad de bomberos y se la multiplicio, de los impactos perjudiciales a los ecosistemas. Los incendios que escapan la supresión inicial a menudo se expanden a grandes conflagraciones estivales de alta intensidad. Se ha perdido el legado de fuegos menores que probablemente se llevaban a cabo en condiciones climáticas y de combustible extremas que tenían impactos menos severos. A pesar del reconocimiento de la necesidad de modificaciones a las políticas y prácticas actuales, las agencias han respondido lentamente. La expansión de especies exóticas, el cambio climático y el incremento del desarrollo humano en áreas silvestres complican el problema aún más. Se requieren políticas nuevas que integren necesidades sociales y ecológicas más allá de límites administrativos y en paisajes amplios. Estas políticas deben promover un continuo de tratamientos con gestión activa y reducción de riesgo de combustión en la interfase área silvestre-urbana y la reintroducción de fuego en áreas silvestres. Las metas de la gestión deben enfocar en la restauración de la salud ecológica a largo plazo. Los proyectos que reducen la carga de combustible pero que comprometen la integridad del suelo, las reservas de agua o cuencas hidrológicas no serán de mucha utilidad en el largo plazo. A pesar de preocupaciones ecológicas significativas, aprender a vivir con fuego seguirá siendo un aspecto social que requerirá de mayor liderazgo político, innovación de agencias, participación del público y responsabilidad comunitaria. [source] Innovations to Make Markets More Inclusive for the PoorDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2008Ronald U. Mendoza Market failures, government failures and some of the characteristics of both the poor and business actors as well as their environment can act as barriers preventing the poor from participating more actively in markets, both as consumers and as producers. Private actors - including for-profit and not-for-profit entities, often in partnership with the public sector - have been able to mitigate some of these constraints through innovations that have helped to make markets more inclusive for the poor, enabling them not just to gain access, but also to participate in ways that enhance their economic empowerment and human development. This article identifies the strategies and innovations used and devises a possible typology for them. [source] Neurobehavioral assessment from fetus to infant: The NICU network neurobehavioral scale and the fetal neurobehavior coding scaleDEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES RESEARCH REVIEW, Issue 1 2005Amy L. Salisbury Abstract This review provides an overview and definition of the concept of neurobehavior in human development. Two neurobehavioral assessments used by the authors in current fetal and infant research are discussed: the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale and the Fetal Neurobehavior Coding System. This review will present how the two assessments attempt to measure similar processes from pre to post-natal life by examining three main components of neurobehavior: neurological, behavioral and stress/reactivity measures. Assessment descriptions, strengths and weaknesses, as well as cautions and limitations are provided. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MRDD Research Reviews 2005;11:14,20. [source] Vascular gene expression and phenotypic correlation during differentiation of human embryonic stem cellsDEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS, Issue 2 2005Sharon Gerecht-Nir Abstract The study of the cascade of events of induction and sequential gene activation that takes place during human embryonic development is hindered by the unavailability of postimplantation embryos at different stages of development. Spontaneous differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can occur by means of the formation of embryoid bodies (EBs), which resemble certain aspects of early embryos to some extent. Embryonic vascular formation, vasculogenesis, is a sequential process that involves complex regulatory cascades. In this study, changes of gene expression along the development of human EBs for 4 weeks were studied by large-scale gene screening. Two main clusters were identified,one of down-regulated genes such as POU5, NANOG, TDGF1/Cripto (TDGF, teratocarcinoma-derived growth factor-1), LIN28, CD24, TERF1 (telomeric repeat binding factor-1), LEFTB (left,right determination, factor B), and a second of up-regulated genes such as TWIST, WNT5A, WT1, AFP, ALB, NCAM1. Focusing on the vascular system development, genes known to be involved in vasculogenesis and angiogenesis were explored. Up-regulated genes include vasculogenic growth factors such as VEGFA, VEGFC, FIGF (VEGFD), ANG1, ANG2, TGF,3, and PDGFB, as well as the related receptors FLT1, FLT4, PDGFRB, TGF,R2, and TGF,R3, other markers such as CD34, VCAM1, PECAM1, VE-CAD, and transcription factors TAL1, GATA2, and GATA3. The reproducibility of the array data was verified independently and illustrated that many genes known to be involved in vascular development are activated during the differentiation of hESCs in culture. Hence, the analysis of the vascular system can be extended to other differentiation pathways, allocating human EBs as an in vitro model to study early human development. Developmental Dynamics 232:487,497, 2005. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Animal models of early life stress: Implications for understanding resilienceDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2010David M. Lyons Abstract In the mid-1950s, Levine and his colleagues reported that brief intermittent exposure to early life stress diminished indications of subsequent emotionality in rats. Here we review ongoing studies of a similar process in squirrel monkeys. Results from these animal models suggest that brief intermittent exposure to stress promotes the development of arousal regulation and resilience. Implications for programs designed to enhance resilience in human development are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 52: 402,410, 2010. [source] Essentialism in the absence of language?DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2010Evidence from rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) We explored whether rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) share one important feature of human essentialist reasoning: the capacity to track category membership across radical featural transformations. Specifically, we examined whether monkeys , like children (Keil, 1989) , expect a transformed object to have the internal properties of its original category. In two experiments, monkeys watched as an experimenter visually transformed a familiar fruit (e.g. apple) into a new kind of fruit (e.g. coconut) either by placing a fruit exterior over the original, or by removing an exterior shell and revealing the inside kind of fruit. The experimenter then pretended to place an inside piece of the transformed fruit into a box which the monkey was allowed to search. Results indicated that monkeys searched the box longer when they found a piece of fruit inconsistent with the inside kind, suggesting that the monkeys expected that the inside of the transformed fruit would taste like the innermost kind they saw. These results suggest that monkeys may share at least one aspect of psychological essentialism: They maintain category-specific expectations about an object's internal properties even when that object's external properties change. These results therefore suggest that some essentialist expectations may emerge in the absence of language, and thus raise the possibility that such tendencies may emerge earlier in human development than has previously been considered. [source] Peer Commmentaries on Neural plasticity and human development: the role of early experience in sculpting memory systems By Charles A. NelsonDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2000Article first published online: 28 JUN 200 Olivier Pascalis and Michelle de Haan, Subcortical lesion-cortical lesion: what about the hippocampus?, p. 131 J. Steven Reznick, Biology versus experience: balancing the equation, p. 133 [source] Neural plasticity and human development: the role of early experience in sculpting memory systemsDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2000Charles A. Nelson The concept of sensitive or critical periods in the context of memory development is examined in this paper. I begin by providing examples of the role of experience in influencing sensory, linguistic and emotional functioning. This is followed by a discussion of the role of experience in influencing cognitive functioning, particularly memory. Based on this discussion, speculation is offered that the infant's proclivity for novelty, which makes its appearance shortly after birth, provides critical input into a nervous system that will eventually be set up to learn and remember for the entire lifespan. Because learning and memory are fundamental to the survival of our species, those aspects of the nervous system that permit the encoding and retention of new information are remarkably malleable from the outset, even in the face of some types of neural trauma. This flexibility is retained for many years so long as the learning and memory ,system' is challenged. The implications of this model are discussed in the context of those life events that might undermine the longevity of memory systems. [source] Changing household responses to drought in Tharaka, Kenya: vulnerability, persistence and challengeDISASTERS, Issue 2 2008Thomas A. Smucker Drought is a recurring challenge to the livelihoods of those living in Tharaka District, Kenya, situated in the semi-arid zone to the east of Mount Kenya, from the lowest slopes of the mountain to the banks of the Tana River. This part of Kenya has been marginal to the economic and political life of Kenya from the colonial period until the present day. A study of more than 30 years of change in how people in Tharaka cope with drought reveals resilience in the face of major macro-level transformations, which include privatisation of landownership, population growth, political decentralisation, increased conflict over natural resources, different market conditions, and environmental shifts. However, the study also shows troubling signs of increased use of drought responses that are incompatible with long-term agrarian livelihoods. Government policy needs to address the challenge of drought under these new macro conditions if sustainable human development is to be achieved. [source] Recapturing the Universal in the UniversityEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 6 2005Ronald Barnett Abstract The idea of ,the university' has stood for universal themes,of knowing, of truthfulness, of learning, of human development, and of critical reason. Through its affirming and sustaining of such themes, the university came itself to stand for universality in at least two senses: the university was neither partial (in its truth criteria) nor local in its significance (at least, the university was an institution of the nation state and even had global significance). Now, this universalism has been shot down: on the one hand, universal themes have been impugned as passé in a postmodern age; in the ,knowledge society', knowledge with a capital ,K' is giving way to multiple and even local knowledges (plural). On the other hand, the very process of globalization has been accused of being a new process of colonization. Global universities, accordingly, may be seen as a vehicle for the imposition of Western modes of reason (often suspected in turn of being no more than Western economic reason at that). Diversity is the new watchword, a term that,we may note,has come to be part of the framing of the contemporary policy agenda for higher education. Accordingly, in such a situation of multiple meanings, both within and across institutions, the university becomes an institutional means for developing the capacities,at both the personal and the societal levels,to live with ,strangeness': perhaps here lies a new universal for the university? But, then, if that is the case, if strangeness is the new universal for the university, some large challenges await those who would claim to lead and manage universities. [source] The theory of human development: A cross-cultural analysisEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2003CHRISTIAN WELZEL This article demonstrates that socioeconomic development, emancipative cultural change and democratization constitute a coherent syndrome of social progress , a syndrome whose common focus has not been properly specified by classical modernization theory. We specify this syndrome as ,human development', arguing that its three components have a common focus on broadening human choice. Socioeconomic development gives people the objective means of choice by increasing individual resources; rising emancipative values strengthen people's subjective orientation towards choice; and democratization provides legal guarantees of choice by institutionalizing freedom rights. Analysis of data from the World Values Surveys demonstrates that the linkage between individual resources, emancipative values and freedom rights is universal in its presence across nations, regions and cultural zones; that this human development syndrome is shaped by a causal effect of individual resources and emancipative values on freedom rights; and that this effect operates through its impact on elite integrity, as the factor which makes freedom rights effective. [source] Knowing who likes who: The early developmental basis of coalition understandingEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Lara Platten Group biases based on broad category membership appear early in human development. However, like many other primates humans inhabit social worlds also characterised by small groups of social coalitions which are not demarcated by visible signs or social markers. A critical cognitive challenge for a young child is thus how to extract information concerning coalition structure when coalitions are dynamic and may lack stable and outwardly visible cues to membership. Therefore, the ability to decode behavioural cues of affiliations present in everyday social interactions between individuals would have conferred powerful selective advantages during our evolution. This would suggest that such an ability may emerge early in life, however, little research has investigated the developmental origins of such processing. The present paper will review recent empirical research which indicates that in the first 2 years of life infants achieve a host of social-cognitive abilities that make them well adapted to processing coalition-affiliations of others. We suggest that such an approach can be applied to better understand the origins of intergroup attitudes and biases. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] ParentLink: A Model of Integration and Support for Parents,FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 3 2000Carol Mertensmeyer ParentLink represents a collective of Missouri organizations and agencies striving to simplify parents' access to research-based information, services, and problem-solving support pertaining to parenting. It is based on systems theory (von Bertalanffy, 1981) and, more specifically, the ecology of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). A comprehensive array of technologies augments ParentLink professionals' outreach to parents and other citizenry. For parents, the access can be as simple as a telephone call to ParentLink's WarmLine professionals. Other doorways for information and support include ParentLink's Web site, other Web applications, media campaigns, and forthcoming neighborhood-based Parenting Corners. Information gathered from parents and communities about parenting issues will in turn shape future programs and policies. [source] Medieval environmental impacts and feedbacks: The lowland floodplains of England and WalesGEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010John Lewin Because of their varying channel styles (braided, meandering, and anastomosing) medieval lowland floodplains in England and Wales provided varying opportunities for defense, settlement, river crossing, and resource exploitation. In turn, these activities altered the character of channels and floodplains, with medieval and later development obscuring the former variety of floodplains themselves. The changing nature of river floodplains is reviewed using archaeological, documentary, and geomorphological evidence. Anastomosing channels and floodplain wetlands have now all but disappeared but were formerly of considerable significance; also discussed are interactions involving flooding, fording, bridging, modifications to channels and their dimensions, and those arising from accelerated soil erosion,most of which peaked in the medieval period when floodplains were significantly transformed. Deliberately or inadvertently, dynamic floodplain landforms were interactively involved with human development during a critical time period in a totality of ways not previously fully identified. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Women's rights in Peru: insights from two organizationsGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 4 2009ROSA ALAYZA MUJICA Abstract In this article we explore the appropriation of ideas about women's rights in Lima, Peru through an ethnographic study of two non-governmental organizations. SEA is a local NGO grounded in the Catholic Church's liberation theology movement, which seeks to promote integrated human development, and is linked to the worldwide Catholic Church. DEMUS, the second NGO, with feminist roots, actively fights gender discrimination and belongs to networks of international women's human rights movements and UN organizations. We argue that the struggle for women's rights is part of a broader struggle for recognition and equality for the poor, shaped by changing notions of national identity, citizenship and diversity. Our research revealed clear examples of vernacularization, whereby local context, values and culture played a decisive role in the adoption of women rights ideas. Encounters with other concepts and movements, including social justice, family violence and women's mobilization, intimately shaped the vernacularization of women's rights. Ultimately, the adoption of rights ideas involved changes in women's individual and collective empowerment. [source] A developmental fMRI study of self-regulatory controlHUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 11 2006Rachel Marsh Abstract We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of self-regulatory control across development in healthy individuals performing the Stroop interference task. Proper performance of the task requires the engagement of self-regulatory control to inhibit an automatized response (reading) in favor of another, less automatic response (color naming). Functional MRI scans were acquired from a sample of 70 healthy individuals ranging in age from 7 to 57 years. We measured task-related regional signal changes across the entire cerebrum and conducted correlation analyses to assess the associations of signal activation with age and with behavioral performance. The magnitude of fMRI signal change increased with age in the right inferolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area [BA] 44/45) and right lenticular nucleus. Greater activation of the right inferolateral prefrontal cortex also accompanied better performance. Activity in the right frontostriatal systems increased with age and with better response inhibition, consistent with the known functions of frontostriatal circuits in self-regulatory control. Age-related deactivations in the mesial prefrontal cortex (BA 10), subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24), and posterior cingulate cortex (BA 31) likely represented the greater engagement of adults in self-monitoring and free associative thought processes during the easier baseline task, consistent with the improved performance on this task in adults compared with children. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that age-related changes in reading ability or in the strategies used to optimize task performance were responsible for our findings, the correlations of brain activation with performance suggest that changes in frontostriatal activity with age underlie the improvement in self-regulatory control that characterizes normal human development. Hum Brain Mapp, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The second generation of human security: lessons from the UN and EU experienceINTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2010MARY MARTIN The concept of human security, while much contested in both academic and policy debates, and highly fragmented across different meanings and forms of implementation, offers a potential locus around which global security discourse might converge, particularly in light of current shifts in US security thinking. However, key pioneers of human security, such as the United Nations and Canada, appear to be losing their enthusiasm for the concept, just at the moment when others such as the European Union, are advancing a human security agenda. This article examines the divergence of human security narratives between the UN and the EU. It argues that the UN's use of the concept ran aground owing to a triple problematic of lack of clarity, confusion between previously distinct policy streams on human rights and human development and conceptual overstretch. After assessing the EU experience with the concept to date, the article argues that future use of human security will require greater focus on how it deepens ideas of individual security, rather than treating it as an agenda for broadening security. As well as a need to project clarity on the conceptual definition of human security, there is also a need to associate human security with greater clarity of intent. If successful, this would contribute to establishing second generation human security as a new policy paradigm. [source] The transitional object in dementia: clinical implicationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES, Issue 2 2007Sheila LoboPrabhu Abstract The concept of the transitional object in human development was first proposed by Winnicott, and it has been extensively discussed in the child psychoanalytic literature. However, there are very few empirical studies on the transitional object in adult development. The transitional object has been discussed in relation to medical illness, medication, aggression, dreams, spirituality and religion, borderline personality disorder, anxiety disorder, fetishes, medication, and body image. There is very little literature on the transitional object in dementia. Dementia is a process of transition from a healthy, active state to a dependent state with progressive loss of memory, functional skills, and independence. Patients and families experience grief, loss, fear, anxiety, guilt, and anger. In this article, we address the role of the transitional object in dementia. We discuss the concepts of the transitional object and precursor object, and their possible role in interventions with patients and caregivers. We discuss various aspects of the therapeutic process and treatment setting, which may serve as transitional objects in various stages of dementia. The therapeutic relationship serves as the "holding environment" in which various transitions may be safely accomplished. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||