Does parental monitoring influence the use of alcohol and drugs among inner city 7th grade students?

Objective. To examine associations between parental monitoring and adolescent alcohol/drug use. ^ Methods. 981 7th grade students from 10 inner-city middle schools were surveyed at the 3 month follow-up of an HIV, STD, and pregnancy prevention program. Data from 549 control subjects were used for analyses. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine associations between five parental monitoring variables and substance use, coded as: low risk [never drank alcohol or used drugs (0)], moderate risk [drank alcohol, no drug use (1)], and high risk [both drank alcohol and used drugs or just used drugs (2)]. ^ Results. Participants were 58.3% female, 39.6% African American, 43.8% Hispanic, mean age 13.3 years. Lifetime alcohol use was 47.9%. Lifetime drug use was 14.9%. Adjusted for gender, age, race, and family structure, each individual parental monitoring variable (perceived parental monitoring, less permissive parental monitoring, greater supervision (public places), greater supervision (teen clubs), and less time spent with older teens) was significant and protective for the moderate and high risk groups. When all 5 variables were entered into a single model, only perceived parental monitoring was significantly associated (OR=0.40, 95% CI 0.29-0.55) for the moderate risk group. For the high risk group, 3 variables were significantly protective (perceived parental monitoring OR=0.28, CI 0.18-0.42, less time spent with older teens OR=0.75, CI 0.60-0.93, and greater supervision (public places) OR=0.79, CI 0.64-0.99). ^ Conclusion. The association between parental monitoring and substance abuse is complex and varied for different risk levels. Implications for intervention development are addressed. ^

Considering Social Factors and Potential Moderation Effects in Children’s Health Research

In light of dramatic changes in American family demography in recent decades, there is a growing recognition that family structure is one of a host of important social factors contributing to children’s health and well-being. The article by Augustine and Kimbro contributes to a growing body of research linking children’s family structure and health outcomes, focusing specifically on the association between family living arrangements and children’s risk of obesity. Their analyses are especially helpful in suggesting that family scholars should pay more attention to potential heterogeneity in relationships between family structure and children’s outcomes.

Imaginarios míticos en las prácticas agropecuarias rurales en fincas de la cuenca del rio La Vieja, Colombia

Este trabajo analiza las creencias mitológicas, agüeros o supersticiones asociadas con las actividades agropecuarias y de conservación en nueve unidades productivas rurales de la cuenca media del río La Vieja, Colombia. Plantea que las gentes de antaño reconocen la influencia de múltiples relatos sobre condiciones productivas y ambientales que redundan en el éxito o el fracaso de las actividades rurales. Las creencias se clasificaron según su funcionalidad y las actividades que regulan. Se describieron así 14 mitos que influyen en las actividades de cultivo, cría, conservación y regulación social. El principal elemento de discusión fue la funcionalidad, considerando la distribución y aplicación en los subsistemas de producción en la finca, la relación con la edad y el género y con la posición jerárquica en la estructura familiar. El flujo de información entre sistemas expertos y sistemas de creencias tradicionales ayuda a construir sistemas adaptados. A manera de ejemplo, se puede mencionar un mayordomo de un hato ganadero que combina la creencia en las fases de la luna con el empleo de la técnica genética de la inseminación artificial para asegurar no sólo la preñez de la madre sino también el género femenino de la cría.

Imaginarios míticos en las prácticas agropecuarias rurales en fincas de la cuenca del rio La Vieja, Colombia

Este trabajo analiza las creencias mitológicas, agüeros o supersticiones asociadas con las actividades agropecuarias y de conservación en nueve unidades productivas rurales de la cuenca media del río La Vieja, Colombia. Plantea que las gentes de antaño reconocen la influencia de múltiples relatos sobre condiciones productivas y ambientales que redundan en el éxito o el fracaso de las actividades rurales. Las creencias se clasificaron según su funcionalidad y las actividades que regulan. Se describieron así 14 mitos que influyen en las actividades de cultivo, cría, conservación y regulación social. El principal elemento de discusión fue la funcionalidad, considerando la distribución y aplicación en los subsistemas de producción en la finca, la relación con la edad y el género y con la posición jerárquica en la estructura familiar. El flujo de información entre sistemas expertos y sistemas de creencias tradicionales ayuda a construir sistemas adaptados. A manera de ejemplo, se puede mencionar un mayordomo de un hato ganadero que combina la creencia en las fases de la luna con el empleo de la técnica genética de la inseminación artificial para asegurar no sólo la preñez de la madre sino también el género femenino de la cría.

Imaginarios míticos en las prácticas agropecuarias rurales en fincas de la cuenca del rio La Vieja, Colombia

Este trabajo analiza las creencias mitológicas, agüeros o supersticiones asociadas con las actividades agropecuarias y de conservación en nueve unidades productivas rurales de la cuenca media del río La Vieja, Colombia. Plantea que las gentes de antaño reconocen la influencia de múltiples relatos sobre condiciones productivas y ambientales que redundan en el éxito o el fracaso de las actividades rurales. Las creencias se clasificaron según su funcionalidad y las actividades que regulan. Se describieron así 14 mitos que influyen en las actividades de cultivo, cría, conservación y regulación social. El principal elemento de discusión fue la funcionalidad, considerando la distribución y aplicación en los subsistemas de producción en la finca, la relación con la edad y el género y con la posición jerárquica en la estructura familiar. El flujo de información entre sistemas expertos y sistemas de creencias tradicionales ayuda a construir sistemas adaptados. A manera de ejemplo, se puede mencionar un mayordomo de un hato ganadero que combina la creencia en las fases de la luna con el empleo de la técnica genética de la inseminación artificial para asegurar no sólo la preñez de la madre sino también el género femenino de la cría.

Exploring public support for climate change adaptation policies in the Mediterranean region: A case study in Southern Spain.

The understanding of public perception to climate change is an essential factor in the development of adaptation policies. In the Mediterranean, agriculture, as the largest consumer of freshwater, has the highest potential to suffer adverse impacts of climate change. Future water availability predictions, conflicting interests among stakeholders and an increasing social concern about the environment further aggravate the situation. Therefore studying public support for adaptation policies can play a key role in successfully adapting the sector. The study site, approximately 36,000 hectares of rice fields in Seville (Spain), exemplifies an area in the Mediterranean where water needs to be carefully re-allocated in view of the limitations anticipated by climate change scenarios; in particular where conflicts will arise between water for agriculture and water for ‘natural’ ecosystems. This paper proposes an ex-ante evaluation of the societal support for adaptation policies. A survey of 117 respondents was conducted and a Logit model utilized to analyze which predictors positively or negatively affect people's support for adaptation policies. Results suggest that the main barriers to support these policies were economic losses and low climate change concern whereas the primary motivation factor was environmental commitment. Additionally, the main socio-demographic determinants were gender, age, education and family structure. In order to improve societal support for climate change adaptation policies, implementing educational and awareness raising initiatives will be the main challenges for policy makers to overcome.

PALI—a database of Phylogeny and ALIgnment of homologous protein structures

PALI (release 1.2) contains three-dimensional (3-D) structure-dependent sequence alignments as well as structure-based phylogenetic trees of homologous protein domains in various families. The data set of homologous protein structures has been derived by consulting the SCOP database (release 1.50) and the data set comprises 604 families of homologous proteins involving 2739 protein domain structures with each family made up of at least two members. Each member in a family has been structurally aligned with every other member in the same family (pairwise alignment) and all the members in the family are also aligned using simultaneous super­position (multiple alignment). The structural alignments are performed largely automatically, with manual interventions especially in the cases of distantly related proteins, using the program STAMP (version 4.2). Every family is also associated with two dendrograms, calculated using PHYLIP (version 3.5), one based on a structural dissimilarity metric defined for every pairwise alignment and the other based on similarity of topologically equivalent residues. These dendrograms enable easy comparison of sequence and structure-based relationships among the members in a family. Structure-based alignments with the details of structural and sequence similarities, superposed coordinate sets and dendrograms can be accessed conveniently using a web interface. The database can be queried for protein pairs with sequence or structural similarities falling within a specified range. Thus PALI forms a useful resource to help in analysing the relationship between sequence and structure variation at a given level of sequence similarity. PALI also contains over 653 ‘orphans’ (single member families). Using the web interface involving PSI_BLAST and PHYLIP it is possible to associate the sequence of a new protein with one of the families in PALI and generate a phylogenetic tree combining the query sequence and proteins of known 3-D structure. The database with the web interfaced search and dendrogram generation tools can be accessed at http://pa uling.mbu.iisc.ernet.in/~pali.

Cultural variation in Africa: role of mechanisms of transmission and adaptation.

Cultural inheritance can be considered as a mechanism of adaptation made possible by communication, which has reached its greatest development in humans and can allow long-term conservation or rapid change of culturally transmissible traits depending on circumstances and needs. Conservativeness/flexibility is largely modulated by mechanisms of sociocultural transmission. An analysis was carried out by testing the fit of three models to 47 cultural traits (classified in six groups) in 277 African societies. Model A (demic diffusion) is conservation over generations, as shown by correlations of cultural traits with language, used as a measure of historical connection. Model B (environmental adaptation) is measured by correlation to the natural environment. Model C (cultural diffusion) is the spread to neighbors by social contact in an epidemic-like fashion and was tested by measuring the tightness of geographic clustering of the traits. Most traits examined, in particular those affecting family structure and kinship, showed great conservation over generations, as shown by the fit of model A. They are most probably transmitted by family members. This is in agreement with the theoretical demonstration that cultural transmission in the family (vertical) is the most conservative one. Some traits show environmental effects, indicating the importance of adaptation to physical environment. Only a few of the 47 traits showed tight geographic clustering indicating that their spread to nearest neighbors follows model C, as is usually the case for transmission among unrelated people (called horizontal transmission).

Estigma social y adopción internacional en España. ¿Es la familia adoptiva un modelo familiar menos «auténtico» que los basados en lazos biológicos?

En España, el fenómeno de las adopciones internacionales irrumpe en la década de 1990. En 2004, se convirtió en el segundo país del mundo que las llevaba a cabo. Con el objetivo de incrementar el conocimiento sociológico sobre la familia adoptiva internacional española, se realizó la encuesta a través de web titulada Las familias adoptivas y sus estilos de vida. A partir de las respuestas ofrecidas por 230 madres y padres adoptivos, se dibuja el perfil sociodemográfico de sus hogares. Estos se caracterizarían por contar con progenitores con elevado nivel formativo, no adscritos a ninguna religión, que defienden políticas de izquierdas y que comparten un sistema de valores posmodernos respecto a la institución familiar. La identificación de la estructura doméstica según su tipo de alianza (biparental o monoparental) y su tipo de filiación (adoptiva o mixta) nos permite situar a la adopción contemporánea como una opción de filiación elegida y no, exclusivamente, como alternativa ante la imposibilidad de tener hijos biológicos. Adicionalmente, los resultados arrojados por la encuesta nos permiten adentrarnos en uno de los aspectos menos abordados en el estudio sociológico de la familia adoptiva: el papel de las actitudes sociales hacia la adopción y su impacto en aquella. La mayoría de los encuestados perciben el estigma social del que es objeto su familia adoptiva, pues, desde su punto de vista, la sociedad las considera como una forma de hogar menos satisfactoria que la basada en lazos biológicos.

Análisis sociológico de los factores de riesgo sexual en la población universitaria. Un estudio comparativo

Objetivo principal: El objetivo de la presente investigación es identificar los factores de riesgo sexual y su relación con la estructura familiar de la que forman parte los estudiantes universitarios según el grado que cursan. Metodología: Se aplicó un cuestionario a 220 alumnos de los dos títulos de grado de la Universidad de Alicante (España). Resultados principales: Los resultados muestran que el 70.1% de los estudiantes se inició en la sexualidad entre los 16-18 años. El 95.5% ha utilizado métodos anticonceptivos en su primera relación sexual. Los estudiantes de enfermería recibieron la información sexual a través de los centros educativos y los estudiantes de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ADE) la obtuvieron de los amigos. Conclusión principal: Se concluye que en la población universitaria siguen presentes conductas que conllevan riesgos para la salud, no encontrándose influenciados por la estructura familiar de origen. Actualmente, existe cierta disociación entre la información que reciben los estudiantes y las conductas inseguras que llevan a cabo.

A importância da metodologia das oficinas formativas na educação sexual na escola

Enquadramento: O interesse pelo tema Educação Sexual germinou da conscientiza-ção de que a sexualidade está na essência do homem, com o ideal de ser experimentada e vivida; procura-se cada vez mais expandir esses conhecimentos com responsabilidade e naturalidade, principalmente frente à responsabilidade de educadores por participar de uma capacitação oferecida pelo grupo do Instituto Kaplan Programa / PROJETO VALE SONHAR. Objetivo: Proposemo-nos analisar a importancia da metodologia das oficinas formati-vas na Educação Sexual na Escola;Determinar a eficácia das oficinas nos conhecimentos sobre sexualidade nos adolescentes;Construir conhecimento sobre sexualidade, desmitifi- cando conceitos. Método: Foi desenvolvida uma intervenção formativa com aplicação de 03 (três) ofi-cinas, em que foram avaliados os conhecimentos antes e após a intervenção formativa. Du-rante estas oficinas foram aplicados questionários e coleta de depoimentos dos participantes. A amostra foi constituída por adolescentes de ambos os sexos, que frequentavam o 1º ano do ensino médio na Escola Estadual de Educação Básica Costa Rêgo, no ano letivo de 2013 e 2014. Resultados: Os conhecimentos sobre planejamento familiar, infecções sexualmente transmissíveis e reprodução dos adolescentes na maioria aumentaram após a intervenção formativa no âmbito da afetividade/sexualidade na adolescência. Os conhecimentos estão relacionados com a idade no sentido em que são os mais novos que demonstram mais co-nhecimentos. Na separação dos conhecimentos por sexo são as meninas que manifestam mais conhecimentos, assim como os residentes em meio urbano. A existência de irmãos, a idade e escolaridade dos pais não influenciam os conhecimentos dos adolescentes. Obser-vou-se também que os adolescentes que já tinham iniciado relações sexuais são aqueles que detêm menos conhecimentos. Conclusão: Os dados mostram que as oficinas realizadas e os questionários servi-ram para conscientização dos alunos e contribuiu para a redução dos índices de evasão escolar por motivos de gravidez, mostrando assim a importância de se tratar de educação sexual no ambiente escolar. Palavras-chave: Adolescência, Sexualidade, Educação Sexual, Planejamento Famili-ar, Infecções Sexualmente Transmissíveis.

Trading-up on unmet expectations? Evaluating consumers’ expectations in online premium grocery shopping logistics

Geography and retail store locations are inherently bound together; this study links food retail changes to systemic logistics changes in an emerging market. The later include raising income and education, access to a wide range of technologies, traffic and transport difficulties, lagging retail provision, changing family structure and roles, as well as changing food culture and taste. The study incorporates demand for premium products defined by Kapferer and Bastien [2009b. The Luxury Strategy. London: Kogan Page] as comprising a broad variety of higher quality and unique or distinctive products and brands including in grocery organic ranges, healthy options, allergy free selections, and international and gourmet/specialty products through an online grocery model (n = 356) that integrates a novel view of home delivery in Istanbul. More importantly from a logistic perspective our model incorporates any products from any online vendors broadening the range beyond listed items found in any traditional online supermarkets. Data collected via phone survey and analysed via structural equation modelling suggest that the offer of online premium products significantly affects consumers’ delivery logistics expectations. We discuss logistics operations and business management implications, identifying the emerging geography of logistic models which respond to consumers’ unmet expectations using multiple sourcing and consolidation points.

Academic orientations of African -American adolescents in Miami-Dade County

The purpose of this research was to answer the following research questions: (a) how high-achieving African-Americans maintain a “racefull” Black identity; (b) how African-American identity affects academic orientation and achievement; (c) how the school's ethnic composition affects African-American students' identity; and (d) how family structure, specifically living in female single-parent households, affects academic orientation and achievement. ^ The data were gathered in an inner-city high school in Miami, Florida. Participants were African-American adolescents, males and females, who started their first-year of high school in the fall of 1995 until their graduation in June 1999. The number of students in the sample varied from 27 students at the beginning of the project to 24 students at the time of graduation. ^ Data were gathered through intensive ethnographic field work, which involved direct participant observation of students in natural contexts; in-depth interviewing of students, peers, teachers, and families; open-ended classroom discussions on matters about the research; and focus groups. Data on demographics, levels of self-esteem and depression, hours spent doing homework, family help with school work, aspirations, and other factors were gained through a survey. ^ African-Americans in this high school developed a racefull persona and still embraced education. They did not need to be raceless to succeed. The ethnic composition of the school where these students were a minority within a minority school resulted in their developing reactive ethnicity formation. Family structure did not affect academic orientation. What made a difference in these students lives were parental support and family ties, which affected their academic orientation. ^