The playful as a psycho-pedagogic method: one experience in preventing youth drug dependence

This participatory action research was based on a experience of educational intervention on La Cruz and Bello Oriente (Manrique-Medellin), a marginal zone in the northeastern part of the Commune 3 in Medellin,. Colombia. In this marginal sector, psychosocial problems seem to be associated to limited educational and employment opportunities, domestic violence, illegal armed forces, sexual abuse, social discrimination, and lack of adequate public services, among others.  All these are also considered as risk factors for drug dependency.  We used a structured interview designed to identify leisure tendencies, use of free time, and tendencies in recreational activities. Data from the interview were triangulated with information collected by observation and in field work and used to build a psycho-pedagogic method based on play and leisure activities. The effects of the use of this educational intervention on the satisfaction of human needs were analyzed in light of the theory of Manfred Max-Neef. Results point out the need for new educational strategies aimed to promote creativity, solidarity, mental, physical and social health, more enthusiasm and motivation and in general, positive attitudes that help prevent drug dependence.

Sleep quality perception in youth population

To assess sleep habits and sleep quality perception in a Colombian and Mexican youth sample. Materials and methods: following a sleep diary methodology with a questionnaire of 27 categorical and quantitative items, the assessment was done immediately upon awakening. Results: it was applied to 317 high school (n= 189) and undergrads (n= 128) in Bogotá, Colombia (n= 197) and México City, México (n= 120); 147 females (46,4%) and 170 males (53,6%). The mean age was 18,6 ± 2,81 years with a median and mode of 17 years. The Cronbach’s alpha obtained from 135 measurements during the study period was 0,86 and 0,57 from the mean values of 27 scale items. An inverse correlation was found between hours of sleep per night and number of naps (r= -0,12; p= 0,029); 38% of participants did not nap and slept on average 7,6 night hours or more (X2= 2,78; p= 0,047). The men took more naps than women (men 76,5%; women 55,6%; X2= 15,26; p= 0,000). A reduction of hours of sleep per night and the need for naps was significantly associated with participants’ gender. The mean and median hours of sleep per night (7,2 hours) was used to classify the population into two groups: sleep (+) 7,3 or more hours and sleep (-) 7,2 hours or less. These groups were compared. Conclusions: youth population evaluated showed a reduction of hours of sleep per night was found. This was associated to naps frequency and participant gender.

Valores del índice cintura/cadera en población escolar de Bogotá, Colombia: Estudio

Objetivo: Determinar los valores del índice cintura/cadera (ICC) en una población escolar de Bogotá, Colombia, pertenecientes al estudio FUPRECOL. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo y transversal, realizado en 3.005 niños y 2.916 adolescentes de entre 9 y 17,9 años de edad, pertenecientes a 24 instituciones educativas oficiales de Bogotá, Colombia. Se tomaron medidas de peso, talla, circunferencia de cintura, circunferencia de cadera. El estado de maduración sexual se recogió por auto-reporte. Se calcularon los percentiles (P3, P10, P25, P50, P75, P90 y P97) según sexo y edad y se realizó una comparación entre los valores del ICC observados con estándares internacionales. Resultados: De la población general (n=5.921), el 57,0% eran mujeres (promedio de edad 12,7 ± 2,3 años). En todas las edades el ICC fue mayor en los varones que en las mujeres, observándose un descenso en la media de los valores obtenidos desde los 9 hasta los 17,9 años. En varones, los valores del ICC mayores del P90 (asociados a riesgo cardiovascular) estuvieron en el rango 0,87 y 0,93 y en las mujeres entre 0,85 y 0,89. Al comparar los resultados de este estudio, por grupos de edad y sexo, con trabajos internacionales de niños y adolescentes de Europa, Suramérica, Asia y África, se observa que los valores del ICC fueron menores en este estudio en ambos sexos, con excepción de los escolares originarios de Grecia y Venezuela. Conclusiones: Se presentan percentiles del ICC según edad y sexo que podrán ser usados de referencia en la evaluación del estado nutricional y en la predicción del riesgo cardiovascular desde edades tempranas en población de Bogotá, Colombia.

Job satisfaction in a developing country: exploring the work-family rivalry

This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between familiar duties and job satisfaction in a developing country by using four different indexes. This analysis includes objective measures and subjective measures from data gathered in Colombia. In contrast to previous literature, objective measures are included through the interactive effects between the family responsibilities variables and the gender. Subjective measures are evaluated using the job-family compatibility perception. Our findings show that women tend to be less satisfied at work as the number of children increases, while men are more prone to satisfaction at work when they are single thus showing the importance given to the use of their own time. It also reveals that job- family compatibility is an important determinant of job satisfaction.

Un marco analítico de la discriminación laboral. Teorias, modalidades y estudios para Colombia

Este documento presenta un resumen de las principales corrientes teóricas que han tratado de dar una explicación a la discriminación laboral, asi como una exposición pedagógica de las principales modalidades mediante las cuales dicha discriminación se manifiesta. Se realiza un particular análisis de las consecuencias que dicha discriminación tiene, en particular para el caso de los jóvenes de América Latina, y finalmente se realiza una revisión de los estudios que sobre el tema se han realizado en Colombia, sus aspectos metodológicos y las conclusiones a las que dichos estudios han llegado.

Overcoming Gender Disadvantages. Social Policy Analysis of urban middle-class women in Colombia

The World Bank Report 2012 starts with this statement: “Gender equality matters in itself andit matters for development because, in today’s globalized worlds, countries that use the skillsand talents of their women would have an advantage over those which do not use it.” With theframe that suggest that gender equality matters, this paper describes some policy alternativesoriented to overcome gender disadvantages in the formal labor market incorporation of theurban middle class women in Colombia. On balance, the final recommendation suggest that itis desirable to adopt policy alternatives as Community Centers, which are programs orientedto a social redistribution of the domestic work as a way to encourage women participationin the formal labor market with the social support of the members of their own community.The problem that the social policy needs to address is the segregation of women in the formallabor market in Colombia. Although the evidence shows that the women overcome theeducational gap by showing better performance in education that their male peers, womenare still segregated of the labor market. The persistence of high rates of unemployment on thefemale population, the prevalence of the informal labor market as a women labor market, andthe presence of the payment difference between men and women with similar professionaltrainings are circumstances that sustain the segregation statement. These circumstances areinefficient for the society because an economic analysis shows that the cost of maintain the statuquo is externalized in the social security system that includes health, pension and maternityleave regimens. Therefore, the women segregation involves a market failure.This paper evaluates five policy alternatives each directed to the progress of a different causaldimension of the problem: (i) Quotas in the private market, (ii) Flexible working hours,(iii) replace the maternity leave with a family leave, (iv) Increase the Community Centers forredistributing the care work, and (v) Equal payment enforcement. The first alternative looksto increase women’s participation in the formal labor market. The second, third, and fourthalternatives constitute a package addressed at redistributing care work by reducing women’sresponsibility for reproductive work in the household with the help of husbands and the localgovernment. The fifth alternative intervenes to resolve the equal payment problem.After a four criteria evaluation that measure effectiveness, robustness and improbability inimplementation, efficiency and political acceptability or social opposition, the strongest alternativeis the fostering of Community Centers that promote a redistribution of care work. Thispolicy performs well in the assessment process because it combines gender focus with importantindirect effects: child support and human capabilities. The policy also shows a bottomup implementation process that overcomes the main adoption difficulties in the gender focusprograms and is supported by strong evidence of success in the Colombian context; this evidenceis produced by both transnational actors as a World Bank and also in local accountabilityreporters executed by local institutions like Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF).

Youth/youth cultures

Youth is an embodied social construct attached to people who are too young to be classified as fully adult, and yet older than children. It is a term whose meaning is sociospatially specific and shifting. Youth and young people are often perceived as troubling to society, and the earliest studies of youth were tied to attempts to control unruly young people. Studies of youth cultures often utilized ethnographic research to explore the perspectives of young people. Early youth cultural studies inadvertently reproduced some dominant representations of youth, as male and troubling to society, by focusing upon subcultural groupings, such as Punks and Mods, and by excluding accounts of those other than white, heterosexual males. Recent studies have moved beyond these accounts to consider how youth cultures are porous, differentiated rather than holistic, connected to broader sociospatial processes, and can reproduce powerful social relationships, such as gender, along with teasing out how youth cultures are played out differently in various geographical contexts.

Starting well: Gender, care and health in the family context

In this article we present a critique of a series of public policy documents that aim at improvement in health for the general population, particularly families, but fail to recognize or appreciate the implications of gender for the everyday and the long-term experiences of family members. Drawing upon considerations of gender, families, health time and space and previous theoretical work (McKie et al, 2002), we propose the concept of healthscapes to aid the analysis and development of public policies. A healthscapes approach allows analysis of health policy within the diverse and multi-dimensional notions of time, space and gender that infuse the lifecourse. We assert that consideration of the gendered and generational project of caring particularly in relation to the (re)production of health, should involve a reflective inter-play between theory research and policy.

Spectacle/gender/history: the case of Gone with the Wind

The essay asserts that, since pioneering work in the 1970s and 80s (in Screen in particular), the study of classical Hollywood cinema has failed adequately to acknowledge and understand the role of spectacle therein. This essay outlines theoretical but, even more, practical understandings of particular kinds of spectacle; they are susceptible to the practice of close analysis. Seeking to discuss spectacle in precise terms and in particular contexts, I define two kinds of spectacle associated with the historical film: ‘the decor of history’ and ‘the spectacular vista’. The example of Gone with the Wind illustrates the interrelationship between these two kinds of spectacle and their associations with particular ideas of femininity and masculinity. This gendering of spectacle is related to ‘the historical gaze’, a performative gesture that exemplifies the wider rhetoric of historical films, in their seeking to address the historical knowledge of the film spectator and to uphold a vision of history as being driven by powerful men, aware of their own destiny. Over the course of the three famous hilltop scenes in Gone with the Wind, one can plot Scarlett O'Hara's increased access to this kind of foresight and fortitude coded as ‘masculine’. This character arc can also be traced through Scarlett's shifting place within the film's use of spectacle: she begins the film wholly preoccupied with the domestic world of lavish parties and beautiful gowns; however, after her encounter with cataclysmic history visualized as a vast, terrible spectacle (the fall of Atlanta), Scarlett assumes the role occupied by her broken and emasculated father.

Sibling caringscapes: time–space practices of caring within youth-headed households in Tanzania and Uganda

This paper investigates the time–space practices of young people caring for their siblings in youthheaded households affected by AIDS in Tanzania and Uganda. Based on qualitative exploratory research with young people heading households, their siblings, NGO workers and community members, the article develops the notion of sibling ‘caringscapes’ to analyse young people’s everyday practices and caring pathways through time and space. Participatory time-use data reveals that older siblings of both genders regularly undertake substantial caring tasks at the very high end of the caregiving continuum. Drawing on rhythmanalysis, the paper explores how young people negotiate emotional geographies and temporalities of caring. The competing rhythms of bodies, schooling, work and seasonal agricultural production can result in ‘arrhythmia’ and time scarcity, which has detrimental effects on young people’s health, education,future employment prospects and mobility. Young people’s lifecourse transitions are shaped to a large extent by their caring responsibilities, resulting in some young people remaining in a liminal position for considerable periods, unable to make ‘successful’ transitions to adulthood. Despite structural constraints,however, young people are able to exercise some autonomy over their caring pathways and lifecourse transitions. The research sheds light on the ways that individuals embody the practices, routines and rhythms of everyday life and exercise agency within highly restricted broader landscapes of care.

Forest livelihoods: beekeeping as men's work in western Tanzania

This chapter takes the example of local African beekeeping to explore how the forest can act as an important locus for men's work in Western Tanzania. Here we scrutinise how beekeeping enables its practitioners to situate themselves in the forest locality and observe how the social relationships, interactions and everyday practices entailed in living and working together are a means through which beekeepers generate a sense of belonging and identity. As part and parcel of this process, men transmit their skills to a new generation, thus reproducing themselves and their social environment.

Lack of association between PCK1 polymorphisms and obesity, physical activity, and fitness in European Youth Heart Study (EYHS)

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase-1 (PCK1) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the hepatic gluconeogenic pathway. Studies have shown that overexpression of Pck1 in mice results in obesity-related traits and higher levels of physical activity (PA). Therefore, our aims were to investigate whether common genetic variation in the PCK1 gene influences obesity-related traits, PA, and fitness, and to examine whether PA and fitness attenuate the influence of the PCK1 polymorphisms on obesity in children. Analyses were undertaken on data from Danish and Estonian children (958 boys and 1,104 girls) from the European Youth Heart Study (EYHS), a school-based, cross-sectional study of children (mean ± s.d. age: 9.6 ± 0.4 years) and adolescents (15.5 ± 0.5 years). We genotyped eight polymorphisms that captured the common genetic variations in the PCK1 gene. The association between the PCK1 polymorphisms and BMI, waist circumference (WC), sum of four skinfolds, PA, and fitness was tested using an additive model adjusted for age, age-group, gender, maturity, and country. Interactions were tested by including interaction terms in the model. None of the polymorphisms were significantly associated with BMI, WC, sum of four skinfolds, PA, and fitness, and also with the risk of being overweight or obese (P > 0.05). The interactions between the polymorphisms and age-group, gender, PA, and fitness were not statistically significant. This is the first study to comprehensively examine the association of PCK1 polymorphisms with obesity, PA, and fitness. Despite strong evidence from animal studies, our study in the EYHS cohort failed to identify an association of PCK1 polymorphisms with obesity, PA, and fitness.

Absence of association between the INSIG2 gene polymorphism (rs7566605) and obesity in the European Youth Heart Study (EYHS)

The first genome-wide association study for BMI identified a polymorphism, rs7566605, 10 kb upstream of the insulin-induced gene 2 (INSIG2) transcription start site, as the most significantly associated variant in children and adults. Subsequent studies, however, showed inconsistent association of this polymorphism with obesity traits. This polymorphism has been hypothesized to alter INSIG2 expression leading to inhibition of fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis. Hence, we investigated the association of the INSIG2 rs7566605 polymorphism with obesity- and lipid-related traits in Danish and Estonian children (930 boys and 1,073 girls) from the European Youth Heart Study (EYHS), a school-based, cross-sectional study of pre- and early pubertal children. The association between the polymorphism and obesity traits was tested using additive and recessive models adjusted for age, age-group, gender, maturity and country. Interactions were tested by including the interaction terms in the model. Despite having sufficient power (98%) to detect the previously reported effect size for association with BMI, we did not find significant effects of rs7566605 on BMI (additive, P = 0.68; recessive, P = 0.24). Accordingly, the polymorphism was not associated with overweight (P = 0.87) or obesity (P = 0.34). We also did not find association with waist circumference (WC), sum of four skinfolds, or with total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, or high-density lipoprotein. There were no gender-specific (P = 0.55), age-group-specific (P = 0.63) or country-specific (P = 0.56) effects. There was also no evidence of interaction between genotype and physical activity (P = 0.95). Despite an adequately powered study, our findings suggest that rs7566605 is not associated with obesity-related traits and lipids in the EYHS.

Youth unemployment and vocational training

This paper focuses on the determinants of the labor market situation of young people in developed countries and the developing world, with a particular emphasis on the role of vocational training and education policies. We highlight the role of demographic factors, economic growth and labor market institutions in explaining young people's transition into work. Subsequently, we assess differences between the setup and functioning of the vocational education and training policies across major world regions as an important driver of differential labor market situation of youth. Based on our analysis, we argue in favor of vocational education and training systems combining work experience and general education and provide some policy recommendations regarding the implementation of education and training systems adapted to a country's economic and institutional context.