Adult attachment representations predict cortisol and oxytocin responses to stress.

There are many factors contributing to individual variations in the response to stressful experiences. The present study evaluated the patterns of stress responses according to attachment representations in 28 adults from a community sample, plus 46 subjects expected to be particularly sensitive to stress, having been exposed during childhood and/or adolescence to traumatizing events such as abuse or potentially lethal illnesses. Subjects were given the Adult Attachment Interview, which provides attachment classifications, and the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), involving an experimental psychosocial challenge. Subjective responses to the TSST, as well as saliva samples (assayed for cortisol) and blood plasma samples (assayed for ACTH and oxytocin) were collected before, during and after the stress procedure. The stress responses presented specific patterns according to attachment classifications. Subjects with an autonomous attachment classification reported relatively low subjective stress, they presented a moderate response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (ACTH and cortisol), and a high level of oxytocin. Subjects with a dismissing classification reported a moderate subjective stress, they presented an elevated response of the HPA axis, and moderate levels of oxytocin. Subjects with a preoccupied classification presented moderate levels of subjective stress, and of HPA response, and a relatively low level of oxytocin. Finally, subjects with an unresolved classification reported elevated subjective stress; they presented a suppressed HPA response, and moderate levels of oxytocin. These data support the notion that attachment representations may affect stress responses, and suggest a specific role of oxytocin in both the attachment system and the stress system.

Home Bitter Home? Gender, Living Arrangements, and the Exclusion from Home-Ownership among Older Europeans

A working paper published by the Families and Societies project shows that older women in non-traditional family arrangements are most disadvantaged with regard to home-ownership. This often appears to result from a lower socio-economic status. Home Bitter Home? Gender, Living Arrangements, and the Exclusion from Home-Ownership among Older EuropeansRead the report here.

Briefing 28: NCMP data 2008/9, East of England: Gender

One in a series of six data briefings based on regional-level analysis of data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) undertaken by the National Obesity Observatory (NOO). The briefings are intended to complement the headline results for the region published in January 2010, at Quick Link 20510.

Gender differences in whole-body fat oxidation kinetics during exercise.

Discrepancies appear in studies comparing fat oxidation between men and women. Therefore, this study aimed to quantitatively describe and compare whole-body fat oxidation kinetics between genders during exercise, using a sinusoidal (SIN) model. Twelve men and 11 women matched for age, body mass index, and aerobic fitness (maximal oxygen uptake and maximal power output per kilogram of fat-free mass (FFM)) performed submaximal incremental tests (Incr) with 5-min stages and a 7.5% maximal power output increment on a cycle ergometer. Fat oxidation rates were determined using indirect calorimetry, and plotted as a function of exercise intensity. The SIN model, which includes 3 independent variables (dilatation, symmetry, translation) that account for the main quantitative characteristics of kinetics, was used to mathematically describe fat oxidation kinetics and to determine the intensity (Fatmax) eliciting the maximal fat oxidation (MFO). During Incr, women exhibited greater fat oxidation rates from 35% to 85% maximal oxygen uptake, MFO (6.6 ± 0.9 vs. 4.5 ± 0.3 mg·kg FFM-1·min-1), and Fatmax (58.1% ± 1.9% vs. 50.0% ± 2.7% maximal oxygen uptake) than men (p < 0.05). While men and women showed similar global shapes of fat oxidation kinetics in terms of dilatation and symmetry (p > 0.05), the fat oxidation curve tended to be shifted toward higher exercise intensities in women (rightward translation, p = 0.08). These results support the idea that women have a greater reliance on fat oxidation than men during submaximal exercise, but also indicate that this greater fat oxidation is shifted toward higher exercise intensities in women than in men.

Intergenerational representations of schistosomiasis in endemic area, Jaboticatubas, Minas Gerais

The analysis of the intergenerational process of disease/health representations constitutes a requisite for the construction of projects and health education interventions. The objective of this work is to describe the meaning attributed to schistosomiasis in the family context. Twenty-one residents of an endemic area were interviewed. The interviews were submitted to content analysis. The results demonstrated different representations of the disease by the children, parents and grandparents. This paper discusses the differences in these representations and its impact in schistosomiasis control programs.

Gender identity in urban poor mobilizations: evidence from Bengaluru

This paper draws on field research conducted among a group of resettled slum(1) dwellers in the west of Bengaluru, and analyzes women's collective engagement to improve the provision of urban services in low-income neighbourhoods. The paper argues the need to deepen the focus on urban poor mobilizations below the level of the urban poor as a group - to look at the various groups, and the differences, divergences and contradictions within. Using gender as a differential, the paper focuses on women who dominate local neighbourhood level initiatives within low-income settlements, and analyzes their specific opportunities and constraints as actors within the larger domain of urban poor mobilizations. It proposes that these seemingly insignificant day-to-day negotiations diverge from more individual forms of "leadership", creating a political space at the lowest level of the neighbourhood where the projects of material improvement and emancipation take place simultaneously.