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Internet and social media participation open doors to a plethora of positive opportunities for the general public. However, in addition to these positive aspects, digital technology also provides an effective medium for spreading hateful content in the form of cyberbullying, bigotry, hateful ideologies, and harassment of individuals and groups. This research aims to investigate the growing body of online hate research (OHR) by mapping general research indices, prevalent themes of research, research hotspots, and influential stakeholders such as organizations and contributing regions. For this, we use scientometric techniques and collect research papers from the Web of Science core database published through March 2019. We apply a predefined search strategy to retrieve peer-reviewed OHR and analyze the data using CiteSpace software by identifying influential papers, themes of research, and collaborating institutions. Our results show that higher-income countries contribute most to OHR, with Western countries accounting for most of the publications, funded by North American and European funding agencies. We also observed increased research activity post-2005, starting from more than 50 publications to more than 550 in 2018. This applies to a number of publications as well as citations. The hotbeds of OHR focus on cyberbullying, social media platforms, co-morbid mental disorders, and profiling of aggressors and victims. Moreover, we identified four main clusters of OHR: (1) Cyberbullying, (2) Sexual solicitation and intimate partner violence, (3) Deep learning and automation, and (4) Extremist and online hate groups, which highlight the cross-disciplinary and multifaceted nature of OHR as a field of research. The research has implications for researchers and policymakers engaged in OHR and its associated problems for individuals and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal motivation is a key factor in the service of foster care, impending both on the welfare of the child and on the satisfaction of the carer. This paper explores the benefits, challenges and dilemmas involved in the job of professional (i.e. state-supported) foster carer in Romania–a country where the issue of child protection has drawn a great deal of international attention over the last thirty years. The principal hypothesis concerns whether the benefits, challenges and dilemmas identified by foster carers are influenced by the factors that led to their taking up this kind of work. Quantitative research was conducted using a questionnaire as the main tool. The paper takes a descriptive, cross-sectional and multifactorial approach. Sampling was carried out by self-selecting method, and the study involved 51 participants. The research project identified a statistically significant variation in the challenges and dilemmas reported by foster carers. Thus, the results of the study show that the majority of the carers indicate a primarily intrinsic motivation for their work. By way of conclusion, it is argued that social workers, operating in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, can offer carers support in managing more difficult periods in the child–carer relationship, thus enhancing the sustainability of the foster care service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been increased attention to child neurodevelopment in studies on medication safety in pregnancy. Neurodevelopment is a multifactorial outcome that can be assessed by various assessors, using different measures. This has given rise to a debate on the validity of various measures of neurodevelopment. The aim of this review was twofold. Firstly we aimed to give an overview of studies on child neurodevelopment after prenatal exposure to central nervous system acting medications using psychotropics and analgesics as examples, giving special focus on the use and validity of outcome measures. Secondly, we aimed to give guidance on how to conduct and interpret medication safety studies with neurodevelopment outcomes. We conducted a systematic review in the MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane databases from inception to April 2019, including controlled studies on prenatal exposure to psychotropics or analgesics and child neurodevelopment, measured with standardised psychometric instruments or by diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorder. The review management tool Covidence was used for data-extraction. Outcomes were grouped as motor skills, cognition, behaviour, emotionality, or “other”. We identified 110 eligible papers (psychotropics, 82 papers, analgesics, 29 papers). A variety of neurodevelopmental outcome measures were used, including 27 different psychometric instruments administered by health care professionals, 15 different instruments completed by parents, and 13 different diagnostic categories. In 23 papers, no comments were made on the validity of the outcome measure. In conclusion, establishing neurodevelopmental safety includes assessing a wide variety of outcomes important for the child’s daily functioning including motor skills, cognition, behaviour, and emotionality, with valid and reliable measures from infancy through to adolescence. Consensus is needed in the scientific community on how neurodevelopment should be assessed in medication safety in pregnancy studies. Review registration number: CRD42018086101 in the PROSPERO database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Up to 1.45 billion people currently suffer from soil transmitted helminth infection, with the largest burden occurring in Africa and Asia. Safe and cost effective deworming treatment exists, but there is a debate about mass distribution of this treatment in high prevalence settings. While the World Health Organization recommends mass administration of anthelmintic drugs for preschool and school-aged children in high (>20%) prevalence settings, and several long run follow up studies of an influential trial have suggested large benefits that persist over time, recent systematic reviews have called this recommendation into question. Methods and findings: This paper analyzes the long-term impact of a cluster-randomized trial in eastern Uganda that provided mass deworming treatment to preschool aged children from 2000 to 2003 on the numeracy and literacy skills of children and young adults living in those villages in 2010-2015. This study uses numeracy and literacy data collected seven to twelve years after the end of the deworming trial in a randomly selected subset of communities from the original trial, by an education-focused survey that had no relationship to the deworming study. Building on an earlier working paper which used data from 2010 and 2011 survey rounds, this paper uses an additional four years of numeracy and literacy data (2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015). Aggregating data from all survey rounds, the difference between numeracy scores in treatment versus control communities is 0.07 standard deviations (SD) (95% CI -0.10, 0.24, p = 0.40), the difference in literacy scores is 0.05 SD (95% CI -0.16, 0.27, p = 0.62), and the difference in total scores is 0.07 SD (95% CI -0.11, 0.25, p = 0.44). There are significant differences in program impact by gender, with numeracy and literacy differentially positively affected for girls, and by age, with treatment effects larger for the primary school aged subsample. There are also significant treatment interactions for those living in households with more treatment-eligible children. There is no evidence of differential treatment effects on age at program eligibility or number of years of program eligibility. Conclusions: Mass deworming of preschool aged children in high prevalence communities in Uganda resulted in no statistically significant gains in numeracy or literacy 7-12 years after program completion. Point estimates were positive but imprecise; the study lacked sufficient power to rule out substantial positive effects or more modest negative effects. However, there is suggestive evidence that deworming was relatively more beneficial for girls, primary school aged children, and children living in households with other treated children. Research approval: As this analysis was conducted on secondary data which is publicly available, no research approval was sought or received. All individual records were anonymized by the data provider prior to public release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In order to make informed decisions about how best to support children and young people with disabilities, effective strategies that facilitate active and meaningful participation in school are required. Clinical factors, diagnosis or impairments somewhat helpful in determining what should be provided in interventions. However, clinical factors alone will not offer a clear view of how to support participation. It is helpful then to look at wider psychosocial and environmental factors. The aim of this review was to synthesise evidence of psychosocial and environmental factors associated with school participation of 4–12 year old children with disabilities to inform the development of participation-fostering interventions. Methods: A systematic search and synthesis using realist methods was conducted of published research. Papers had to include consideration of psychosocial and/or environment factors for school participation of children with disabilities. The review was completed in accordance with the Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards (RAMESES) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Papers were identified via Boolean search of the electronic databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, PhycINFO and ERIC (January 2006-October 2018). Appraisal focussed on contributions in terms of whether the articles are appropriate for the review (relevance) and research quality (rigour). Data were analyzed using content and thematic analysis methods using a realist framework. A narrative synthesis of results was reported. Results and implications: We identified 1828 papers in the initial search. Seventy two papers were included in the final synthesis. Synthesis of findings led to three overarching mechanisms representing psychosocial factors for children (1) identity (2) competence and (3) experience of mind and body. Environmental aspects (context) compromised five interrelated areas: (1) structures and organization, (2) peers, (3) adults, (4) space and (5) objects. Our synthesis provides insights on how professionals may organize efforts to improve children’s participation. Consideration of these findings will help to proactively deal with suboptimal participation outcomes. Development of theoretically determined assessments and interventions for management of school participation are now required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) is high (54%) in Bangladesh. Moreover, female garment workers report higher rates of IPV and are also vulnerable to workplace violence (WPV). Experience of violence puts women at increased risk of developing depressive symptoms, which are related with low self-esteem, lower life satisfaction and lower productivity. To our knowledge, there has been no previous research on depression among female garment workers and its connections to IPV and WPV in Bangladesh. This paper aims to address this gap by studying the relationship of IPV, WPV and depression among female garment workers. Methods: The data for this paper comes from a cross-sectional survey of female garment workers (n = 800) conducted as baseline survey of a quasi-experimental study known as HERrespect. Survey data were collected during September-December, 2016 among randomly selected female garment workers from eight garment factories in and around Dhaka city. Structural equation modelling was conducted to explore the relationship among IPV, WPV and depression. Results: The findings show high rates of any IPV (69%); WPV (73%, experienced or witnessed) and depressive symptomatology (40%) among female garment workers. The analysis of pathways shows that IPV impacts a woman’s experience of WPV and work related stress leading to the development of depression; while WPV had direct and mediated pathways to depression. Experience of controlling by their husband leads to WPV and increased work related stress, and thus leads to depression. It also reveals that a worker’s ability to mobilize resources in emergency, however, increased self-esteem and reduced work related stress. Conclusion: This study shows the pathways through which experience of IPV and WPV lead to development of depressive symptoms among female garment workers. The link between women’s ability to mobilize resources with self-esteem and work related stress indicates the need for socio-economic empowerment of women and may suggest that combined intervention to address IPV and women’s empowerment could be successful in dealing with WPV and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longitudinal designs provide a strong inferential basis for uncovering reciprocal effects or causality between variables. For this analytic purpose, a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) has been widely used in medical research, but the use of the CLPM has recently been criticized in methodological literature because parameter estimates in the CLPM conflate between-person and within-person processes. The aim of this study is to present some alternative models of the CLPM that can be used to examine reciprocal effects, and to illustrate potential consequences of ignoring the issue. A literature search, case studies, and simulation studies are used for this purpose. We examined more than 300 medical papers published since 2009 that applied cross-lagged longitudinal models, finding that in all studies only a single model (typically the CLPM) was performed and potential alternative models were not considered to test reciprocal effects. In 49% of the studies, only two time points were used, which makes it impossible to test alternative models. Case studies and simulation studies showed that the CLPM and alternative models often produce different (or even inconsistent) parameter estimates for reciprocal effects, suggesting that research that relies only on the CLPM may draw erroneous conclusions about the presence, predominance, and sign of reciprocal effects. Simulation studies also showed that alternative models are sometimes susceptible to improper solutions, even when reseachers do not misspecify the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Self-regulation is the capacity to regulate attention, emotion, and behaviour to pursue long-term goals. The current study examined the associations between role model presence and self-regulation during early adolescence, controlling for hopefulness, using a large population-based data set from the Tokyo Teen Cohort study. Methods: Adolescents, aged 12 years, identified a role model using a single item on a paper questionnaire: ‘Who is the person you most look up to?’ Level of hopefulness was also assessed using a single question: ‘To what extent do you feel hopeful about the future of your life?’ Trained investigators evaluated self-regulation. Results: Of 2550 adolescents, 2279 (89.4%) identified a role model. After adjusting for level of hopefulness, identifying a role model was associated with higher levels of self-regulation in comparison to indications of no role model. Hopeful future expectations were also associated with higher self-regulation; however, the beta coefficient was smaller than role model presence in the multivariate linear regression analysis. Conclusions: Role model presence was significantly associated with higher self-regulation among early adolescents. Educational environments should focus on support for adolescents with no role models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The Norwegian randomized controlled trial Early Food for Future Health provided parental anticipatory guidance on early protective feeding practices from child age 6 to 12 months through an eHealth intervention. Previously published outcomes at child age 12 months indicated that the eHealth intervention increased daily vegetable/fruit intake and promoted more beneficial mealtime routines. The objective of the current paper is to evaluate the effects of the intervention at child age 24 months, one year after cessation. Methods: Parents of infants aged 3–5 months were recruited via social media and child health clinics during spring 2016. At child age 5.5 months, 715 mothers were randomized to either control (n = 358) or intervention (n = 360) arm. Primary study-outcomes were child eating behaviors, dietary intake, mealtime routines and maternal feeding practices and feeding styles. Secondary outcome was child anthropometry. Results: In total 295 mothers (41%) completed the follow-up questionnaire at child age 24 months. Regarding fruit intake, 54.3% in the intervention group had a high score compared with 48.3% of the control group (p = 0.29). For intake of vegetables, 54.5% in the intervention group had a high score compared with 50.7% in the control group (p = 0.49). A total of 65.7% of the children in the intervention group were eating breakfast together with family ≥ 4 times per week, compared with 57.3% of the children in the control group (p = 0.12). There was no difference between the groups for child anthropometric outcomes at child age 24 months. Conclusions: At child age 24 months, we found no evidence of sustained intervention-effects. Although dietary patterns and mealtime routines at child age 24 months were reasonably consistent and in the same directions as at child age 12 months, the between-group differences were not significant. The large loss to follow-up may have limited power and validity and makes it difficult to draw overall conclusions. Future research is needed to improve knowledge of how short-time effects could be retained over longer term, taking into account that larger samples are necessary when planning longer-term follow-up studies. Trial registration: ISRCTN, . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol use and abuse constitute a major public health problem and identifying their determinants is a priority. Social network analysis can indicate how characteristics of social networks are related to individual health behaviors. A growing number of studies have used social network analysis to examine how social network characteristics influence adult alcohol consumption, but this literature has never been systematically reviewed and summarized. The current paper systematically reviews empirical studies that used social network analysis to assess the influence of social network characteristics on drinking behaviors in adults. Methods: A literature search of PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and Web of Science databases and a review of the reference lists of retrieved articles was conducted in March 2019. Two reviewers independently screened 5,510 non-duplicate records, and further screened the full text of 150 articles to determine their eligibility for inclusion. Seventeen articles were judged eligible and included. Results: Most studies were conducted among young adults (mean age<30), in university settings or follow up visits with adolescent networks moving into adulthood. The objectives and methods of the included studies were heterogeneous. All included studies reported a statistically significant association between a social network characteristic and an alcohol consumption-related outcome. Social network members drinking behaviors were associated with participants’ drinking behaviors in multiple ways. Discussion: In young adults, among whom the majority of identified studies were conducted, with whom they socialize and how they socialize appears to be associated with alcohol consumption; this was observed across methodologies and settings. We still know very little about the relationship of social networks to drinking in older age groups, and in populations most impacted by alcohol. As social networks appear to play a role in the consumption of alcohol in young adulthood, interventions that utilize social networks to help reduce harmful alcohol consumption should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Against a backdrop of more than four decades of war, conflict and insecurity, Afghanistan is recognised as suffering from endemic violence and children are exposed to multiple forms of violence, including at the family and school levels. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of school-based peace education and a community-based intervention to change harmful social norms and practices related to gender and the use of violence in conflict resolution, implemented in Afghanistan with the aim of reducing violence against and between children. Methods: The evaluation consisted of a cross-sectional, interrupted time series design with three data collection points over 12 months. Data was collected from students in 11 secondary schools (seven girls’ and four boys’ schools) in Jawzjan province of Afghanistan, with a total of 361 boys and 373 girls sampled at endline. All children were interviewed with a questionnaire developed for the study. Key outcomes included children’s experience of peer violence (both perpetration and victimization) at school, corporal punishment both at home and at school, and observation of family violence. Other outcomes included children’s gender equitable attitudes, attitudes towards child punishment, depression and school performance. Results: Between baseline and endline evaluation points, there were significant reductions in various forms of violence at the school level, including both boys’ and girls’ past month experience of peer violence victimization, peer violence perpetration, and corporal punishment by teachers. There were also significant reductions in boys’ and girls’ experience of corporal punishment at home and observation of family violence, with a particularly strong effect observed among girls. Both boys and girls had significantly more equitable gender attitudes and significantly less violence-supportive attitudes in relation to children’s punishment, and significantly fewer symptoms of depression. Girls’ school attendance was also significantly higher at endline. Discussion: To our knowledge this is the first time that a peace education program has been evaluated in Afghanistan, with or without a community intervention to change harmful social norms and practices related to gender and the use of violence for conflict resolution. The evaluation suggests that the intervention may have led to a reduction in various forms of violence, including children’s peer violence, corporal punishment of children both at school and at home, and in children’s reports of domestic violence against women at the household level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been conclusively established that folic acid supplementation prior to and during early pregnancy (up to 12 weeks of gestation) can prevent neural tube defects (NTDs). We hypothesized that folate effects may extend from neuro-structural defects to alterations in neuro-behavioural and emotional skills including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and other developmental disorders. The objective of this review was to comprehensively evaluate evidence on the impact of folic acid on neurodevelopment other than NTDs. We conducted an online search of relevant literature compiled by the National Library of Medicine from Medline and EMBASE (searched on Dec 31, 2014: and ). We first created 3 files (search restricted to English literature) using the following key words: 1) folate or folic acid (171322 papers identified by this search); 2) maternal or pregnancy or pregnant or gestation or gestational or prenatal or antenatal or periconception or periconceptional (1349219 papers identified by this search); and 3) autism or autism spectrum disorders or developmental delay or development or neurodevelopment or mental or cognitive or language or personal-social or gross motor or fine motor or behaviour or intellectual or intelligence or Bayley Scale (8268145 papers identified by this search). We then merged the 3 files and reviewed the papers that addressed these three issues simultaneously. A total of 22 original papers that examined the association between folic acid supplementation in human pregnancy and neurodevelopment/autism were identified after the screening, with 15 studies showing a beneficial effect of folic acid supplementation on neurodevelopment/autism, 6 studies showed no statistically significant difference, while one study showed a harmful effect in > 5 mg folic acid supplementation/day during pregnancy. Folic acid supplementation in pregnancy may have beneficial effects on the neurodevelopment of children beyond its proven effect on NTDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are connected by various social networks, resulting in the interdependence of consumer choice. Therefore, it is very important and realistic to assume choice interdependence in private car ownership modeling. In this paper, we investigate the interdependence of private car ownership choice using a spatial autoregressive binary probit model estimated by the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. Constructing the autoregressive matrix demographically shows that the private car ownership choice of a household is dependent on other household choices. Compared with the pure binary probit model estimated by the MCMC method, the spatial autoregressive model achieves a significant improvement both in loglikelihood value and log marginal density value, which are calculated using the importance sampling method of Newton and Raftery, from approximately -202 to approximately -63 and from -208 to -145, respectively. Moreover, the results indicated by the spatial autoregressive probit model suggest that the number of children, the ownership of an apartment or the availability of a parking lot are positively and significantly associated with the private car ownership level. To test the out-of-sample performance of the model, we estimate the model using 600 data points and test it using another 148 data points. The results indicate that the predictive power is greatly improved. Finally, we analyze the augmented parameter and discover that it is associated with the parking variable in addition to the license variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the development and baseline data of a vignettes-based measure of gender equality. Methods: Vignettes were developed through 3-day long focus groups. After piloting in 13 sites and repiloting a revised version in 6 countries, responses were categorized by the construct tapped and a scoring system developed. Finalized vignettes were then tested in DR Congo, Ecuador and China. Results: Young adolescents can successfully respond to vignettes; and can differentiate self from hypothetical protagonists of same and opposite sex. Response differences by sex of respondent and protagonist were statistically significant across a range of scenarios and settings. Conclusion: This is the first vignettes-based measure for young adolescents assessing young adolescent perceptions of relationships differentiated by sex of the protagonist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 5Rights Youth Juries are an educational intervention to promote digital literacy by engaging participants (i.e. jurors) in a deliberative discussion around their digital rights. The main objective of these jury-styled focus groups is to encourage children and young people to identify online concerns and solutions with a view to developing recommendations for government policy-makers and industry chiefs. The methodology included a series of dramatized scenarios that encourage jurors to deliberate about their digital rights. This paper compares two formats for these scenarios: live actors and professionally recorded and edited videos of the same actors. Results failed to show any major differences between formats indicating the cost-effectiveness of the video-recorded format and the possibility for others to run the 5Rights Youth Juries with the support of an online open educational resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent study shows that 617 million children and adolescents–or six out of 10 globally- are not acquiring minimum levels in literacy and mathematics, indicating the magnitude of the learning acquisition problem. For children with disabilities in context of conflict, the situation is arguably even worse: the literature shows that they face difficulties to access the education system due to multiple barriers, and when they do access, they are not learning. Our paper examines if an active education policy promoting inclusion since 2005 in Afghanistan, a protracted crisis context, has been effective. Using two cross sectional household surveys carried out eight years apart (2005–2013), our study shows that access to school and literacy did not improve between 2005 and 2013 for children and youth with disabilities. Both access and literacy outcomes were worse for girls with disabilities, those with a mental, learning or associated disability and those living in household where the head was uneducated. Finally, odds of being mentally distressed significantly declined between 2005 and 2013 indicating that schools might play a protective role for children with disabilities in Afghanistan. Our findings suggest that a multilevel multi-pronged adaptation of the existing system to improve the learning experience and promote children’s resilience, particularly for children with disabilities, in conflict context such as Afghanistan, is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human populations show rich cultural diversity. Underpinning this diversity of tools, rituals, and cultural norms are complex interactions between cultural evolutionary and demographic processes. Most models of cultural change assume that individuals use the same learning modes and methods throughout their lives. However, empirical data on ‘learning life histories’—the balance of dominant modes of learning (for example, learning from parents, peers, or unrelated elders) throughout an individual’s lifetime—suggest that age structure may play a crucial role in determining learning modes and cultural evolutionary trajectories. Thus, studied in isolation, demographic and cultural evolutionary models show only part of the picture. This paper describes a mathematical and computational framework that combines demographic and cultural evolutionary methods. Using this general framework, we examine interactions between the ways in which culture is spread throughout an individual’s lifetime and cultural change across generations. We show that including demographic structure alongside cultural dynamics can help to explain domain-specific patterns of cultural evolution that are a persistent feature of cultural data, and can shed new light on rare but significant demographic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early-age exposure to noise may have long-term health implications of which we have little knowledge of today. Age-specific hearing, learning inadequate coping strategies, and alterations in biological stress regulatory responses could play a role in the long-term health impacts. In Sweden about half a million children in the age between 1–5 years attend preschool. The noise exposure at preschools is intermittent and unpredictable and levels reach up to 84 dB LAeq (time indoors) with maximum levels of 118 dB LAF, mostly due to child activity. To increase the overall understanding of the possible implications of preschool noise environments for children, this paper describes children’s behavioral and emotional reactions to and coping with their everyday sound environment from a teachers perspective. A postal questionnaire study performed in 2013–2014 with answers from 3,986 preschool teachers provided the data. Content analysis was combined with quantitative analysis. Eighty-two percent of the personnel considered that children’s behavior was affected rather or very much by preschool noise. The most prevalent behaviors were categorized into: be heard, be distracted, show negative internal emotions, crowd, avoid, withdraw, be exhausted, and learning. The quantitative analyses confirmed an association between the perceived loudness and noise annoyance at preschool and affirmative reporting on noise affecting the children´s behavior. Age of the personnel, with the youngest age group reporting noise related behavior less often, and age distribution of the class, with 1–5 years old seeming less affected by noise, were also indicated, while pedagogic orientation was not a significant factor. Future studies should address the long-term health effects of these behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Globally, nearly 250 million children (43% of all children under 5 years of age) are at risk of compromised neurodevelopment due to poverty, stunting, and lack of stimulation. We tested the independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) on early child development (ECD) among children enrolled in the Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) trial in rural Zimbabwe.Methods and Findings: SHINE was a cluster-randomized community-based 2×2 factorial trial. A total of 5,280 pregnant women were enrolled from 211 clusters (defined as the catchment area of 1-4 village health workers [VHWs] employed by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and Child Care). Clusters were randomly allocated to standard of care, IYCF (20 g of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement per day from age 6 to 18 months plus complementary feeding counseling), WASH (ventilated improved pit latrine, handwashing stations, chlorine, liquid soap, and play yard), and WASH + IYCF. Primary outcomes were child length-for-age Z-score and hemoglobin concentration at 18 months of age. Children who completed the 18-month visit and turned 2 years (102-112 weeks) between March 1, 2016, and April 30, 2017, were eligible for the ECD substudy. We prespecified that primary inferences would be drawn from findings of children born to HIV-negative mothers; these results are presented in this paper. A total of 1,655 HIV-unexposed children (64% of those eligible) were recruited into the ECD substudy from 206 clusters and evaluated for ECD at 2 years of age using the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT) to assess gross motor, fine motor, language, and social skills; the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) to assess vocabulary and grammar; the A-not-B test to assess object permanence; and a self-control task. Outcomes were analyzed in the intention-to-treat population. For all ECD outcomes, there was not a statistical interaction between the IYCF and WASH interventions, so we estimated the effects of the interventions by comparing the 2 IYCF groups with the 2 non-IYCF groups and the 2 WASH groups with the 2 non-WASH groups. The mean (95% CI) total MDAT score was modestly higher in the IYCF groups compared to the non-IYCF groups in unadjusted analysis: 1.35 (0.24, 2.46; p = 0.017); this difference did not persist in adjusted analysis: 0.79 (-0.22, 1.68; p = 0.057). There was no evidence of impact of the IYCF intervention on the CDI, A-not-B, or self-control tests. Among children in the WASH groups compared to those in the non-WASH groups, mean scores were not different for the MDAT, A-not-B, or self-control tests; mean CDI score was not different in unadjusted analysis (0.99 [95% CI -1.18, 3.17]) but was higher in children in the WASH groups in adjusted analysis (1.81 [0.01, 3.61]). The main limitation of the study was the specific time window for substudy recruitment, meaning not all children from the main trial were enrolled.Conclusions: We found little evidence that the IYCF and WASH interventions implemented in SHINE caused clinically important improvements in child development at 2 years of age. Interventions that directly target neurodevelopment (e.g., early stimulation) or that more comprehensively address the multifactorial nature of neurodevelopment may be required to support healthy development of vulnerable children.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01824940. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Centile curves and standard scores are common in epidemiological research. However, standardised norms and centile growth curves for language disorder that reflect the entire UK local school population do not exist. Methods: Scores on six language indices assessing receptive and expressive functioning of children were obtained from the SCALES population survey. Monolingual English speaking participants were aged between five and nine years. Children who attended special schools at study intake, or who were learning English as an additional language were excluded. We constructed language norms using the LMS method of standardisation which allows for skewed measurements. We made use of probability weights that were produced from a two-step logistic model. Distributions of estimated standard scores from an intensively assessed sub-population and from the full population were contrasted to demonstrate the role of weights. Results: Non-overlapping centile curves and standardised scores at each age were obtained for the six language indices. The use of weights was essential at retrieving the target distribution of the scores. An online calculator that estimates standardised scores for the measures was constructed and made freely available. Conclusions: The findings highlight the usefulness and flexibility of the LMS method at dealing with the standardisation of linguistic and educational measures that are sufficiently continuous. The paper adds to the existing literature by providing population norms for a number of language tests that were calculated from the same group of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nutrition outcomes among young children in Nigeria are among the worse globally. Mother’s limited knowledge about food choices, feeding, and health care seeking practices contributes significantly to negative nutrition outcomes for children in most developing countries. Much less is known about the relationship between mother’s nutrition-related knowledge and child nutritional outcomes in rural Nigeria. This paper investigates therefore: (i) the association of mother’s nutrition-related knowledge with nutrition outcomes of young children living in rural Nigeria, where access to education is limited, and (ii) whether mother’s education has a complementary effect on such knowledge in producing positive child nutrition outcomes in such settings. Methods: Using the Demographic and Health Survey data for Nigeria, we employ both descriptive and regression analyses approaches in analyzing the study’s objectives. In particular, we apply ordinary least square (OLS) to investigate the association of mother’s nutrition-related knowledge with child HAZ and WHZ while controlling for maternal, child, household and regional characteristics. An index was constructed for mother’s nutrition-related knowledge using information on dietary practices, disease treatment and prevention, child immunization, and family planning. Results: We found that mother’s knowledge is independently and positively associated with HAZ and WHZ scores in young children. Higher levels of mother’s education, typically above primary, have a significant, positive association with child HAZ and WHZ scores. We argue that mother’s knowledge of health and nutrition may substitute for education in reducing undernutrition in young children among populations with limited access to formal education. However, the present level of mother’s education in rural Nigeria appears insufficient to reinforce knowledge in producing better nutrition outcomes for children. Conclusions: This study suggests promotion of out-of-school (informal) education, such as adult literacy and numeracy classes where women without formal education can gain health and nutrition knowledge, and practices that could enhance child nutrition outcomes in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the psychometric properties of four child care quality instruments administered in 404 child care centers in Ecuador: the Classroom Assessment Scoring System for Toddlers, the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised Edition, the Child Care Infant/Toddler Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment, and the Missouri Infant/Toddler Responsive Caregiving Checklist. We examined their internal consistency, tested the underlying subscale structure by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), verified construct validity by testing associations with quality-related factors (e.g., child-caregiver ratio), and checked concurrent validity of the instruments’ total scores. We found high internal consistency of the instruments at the full scale level and moderate to high at the subscale/domain level. CFA showed high factor loadings, but goodness of fit statistics were low. Construct validity results varied from low to very low depending on the quality-related factor, and concurrent validity from low to very high depending on the instruments compared. This validity exercise provides useful information for policy-makers and researchers interested in using these instruments in the Ecuadorian context or elsewhere in the region. The findings will also inform future research and development of affordable and culturally-appropriate tools for monitoring process quality in child care centers in Latin American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for district level statistics has increased tremendously in Bangladesh due to existence of decentralised approach to governance and service provision. The Bangladesh Demographic Health Surveys (BDHS) provide a wide range of invaluable data at the national and divisional level but they cannot be used directly to produce reliable district-level estimates due to insufficient sample sizes. The small area estimation (SAE) technique overcomes the sample size challenges and can produce reliable estimates at the district level. This paper uses SAE approach to generate model-based district-level estimates of diarrhoea prevalence among under-5 children in Bangladesh by linking data from the 2014 BDHS and the 2011 Population Census. The diagnostics measures show that the model-based estimates are precise and representative when compared to the direct survey estimates. Spatial distribution of the precise estimates of diarrhoea prevalence reveals significant inequality at district-level (ranged 1.1–13.4%) with particular emphasis in the coastal and north-eastern districts. Findings of the study might be useful for designing effective policies, interventions and strengthening local-level governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: We aimed to identify and evaluate the quality and evidence of the motor learning literature about intervention studies regarding the contextual interference (CI) effect (blocked vs. random practice order) in children with brain lesions and typically developing (TD) children. Method: Eight databases (Cinahl, Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, Pedro, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Knowledge) were searched systematically with predefined search terms. Controlled studies examining the CI effect in children (with brain lesions or TD) were included. Evidence level, conduct quality, and risk of bias were evaluated by two authors independently. A best evidence synthesis was performed. Results: Twenty-five papers evaluating TD children were included. One of these studies also assessed children with cerebral palsy. Evidence levels were I, II, or III. Conduct quality was low and the risk of bias high, due to methodological issues in the study designs or poor description thereof. Best evidence synthesis showed mainly no or conflicting evidence. Single tasks showed limited to moderate evidence supporting the CI effect in TD children. Conclusion: There is a severe limitation of good-quality evidence about the CI effect in children who practice different tasks in one session, especially in children with brain lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a critical need for fast, inexpensive, objective, and accurate screening tools for childhood psychopathology. Perhaps most compelling is in the case of internalizing disorders, like anxiety and depression, where unobservable symptoms cause children to go unassessed–suffering in silence because they never exhibiting the disruptive behaviors that would lead to a referral for diagnostic assessment. If left untreated these disorders are associated with long-term negative outcomes including substance abuse and increased risk for suicide. This paper presents a new approach for identifying children with internalizing disorders using an instrumented 90-second mood induction task. Participant motion during the task is monitored using a commercially available wearable sensor. We show that machine learning can be used to differentiate children with an internalizing diagnosis from controls with 81% accuracy (67% sensitivity, 88% specificity). We provide a detailed description of the modeling methodology used to arrive at these results and explore further the predictive ability of each temporal phase of the mood induction task. Kinematical measures most discriminative of internalizing diagnosis are analyzed in detail, showing affected children exhibit significantly more avoidance of ambiguous threat. Performance of the proposed approach is compared to clinical thresholds on parent-reported child symptoms which differentiate children with an internalizing diagnosis from controls with slightly lower accuracy (.68-.75 vs. .81), slightly higher specificity (.88–1.00 vs. .88), and lower sensitivity (.00-.42 vs. .67) than the proposed, instrumented method. These results point toward the future use of this approach for screening children for internalizing disorders so that interventions can be deployed when they have the highest chance for long-term success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The reasons for the persistence of risky sexual behaviours among adolescents and young adults in sub-Saharan Africa despite the increasing knowledge about the associated risks continue to attract scholarly debates. Drawing from a cross-sectional study conducted among male and female Nigerian university students, we examined the relationship between family structure, family support and transactional sex. Methods: A pre-validated questionnaire was administered to 800 male and female students selected using stratified sampling; however, we performed the analysis on 630 participants who had ever engaged in sex. Transactional sex was operationalised as self-reporting of giving or receiving money, gifts or favour in exchange for sex. We fitted a list-wise logistic regression model to examine the relationship between family structure, family support and transactional sex while controlling for essential covariates. Results: Of the 630 participants included in the analysis, 17.9% had given and 23.8% had received money, gift or favour in exchange for sex. Our bivariate analysis shows that individuals from polygamous families had higher odds of reporting that they have ever given (AOR: 1.89; CI: 1.05–3.39) or received (AOR: 1.85; CI: 1.85–3.19) money, gift or favour in exchange for sex; however, the relationship was not statistically significant after controlling for relevant covariates. After controlling for essential covariates, the odds of giving or receiving money, gift or favour in exchange for sex was 56% lower in individuals who received adequate family support compared to those who received no or insufficient family support. Conclusion: In conclusion, this paper lends support to the assertion that family structure and family support are protective factors against transactional sex among adolescents and young adults. Future surveys need to include a larger sample in order to explore the effect of single-parent and polygamous family on transactional sex in Nigeria where family formation is changing rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes distributional properties that facilitate the categorization of words into lexical categories. First, word-context co-occurrence counts were collected using corpora of transcribed English child-directed speech. Then, an unsupervised k-nearest neighbor algorithm was used to categorize words into lexical categories. The categorization outcome was regressed over three main distributional predictors computed for each word, including frequency, contextual diversity, and average conditional probability given all the co-occurring contexts. Results show that both contextual diversity and frequency have a positive effect while the average conditional probability has a negative effect. This indicates that words are easier to categorize in the face of uncertainty: categorization works best for words which are frequent, diverse, and hard to predict given the co-occurring contexts. This shows how, in order for the learner to see an opportunity to form a category, there needs to be a certain degree of uncertainty in the co-occurrence pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitudes and beliefs about menstruation can place restrictions on menstruating women and girls, limiting their ability to fully participate in community life, education and employment. This paper presents evidence on menstruation-related beliefs contributing to restrictive practices in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands (SI) and Fiji. Focus group discussions and interviews were undertaken with 307 adolescent girls, women and men in a rural and urban site in each country. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. Participants described a range of attitudes and beliefs that restrict the behaviour of menstruating women and girls. Themes include the belief that menstrual blood is ‘dirty’; that when menstruating, girls and women can bring ‘bad luck’ to men; secrecy and shame associated with menstruation; and beliefs about the impact of certain behaviours on menstruation and health. Restrictive practices were more frequently reported in PNG and SI than Fiji, and more common in rural compared with urban sites. Some restrictions, such as avoidance of household chores, were perceived as desirable or driven by women themselves. However participants identified other restrictions, such as not being able to attend church or hygienically wash menstrual hygiene materials, as unwanted, in some cases impacting on participation in school, work and community life. Education initiatives guided by women and girls, implemented by local stakeholders and grounded in a sound understanding of specific contexts are needed to address discriminatory attitudes and beliefs that contribute to unwanted restrictions, and to support enabling attitudes and beliefs regarding menstruation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a non-parametric extension of the conditional logit model, using Gaussian process priors. The conditional logit model is used in quantitative social science for inferring interaction effects between personal features and choice characteristics from observations of individual multinomial decisions, such as where to live, which car to buy or which school to choose. The classic, parametric model presupposes a latent utility function that is a linear combination of choice characteristics and their interactions with personal features. This imposes strong and unrealistic constraints on the form of individuals’ preferences. Extensions using non-linear basis functions derived from the original features can ameliorate this problem but at the cost of high model complexity and increased reliance on the user in model specification. In this paper we develop a non-parametric conditional logit model based on Gaussian process logit models. We demonstrate its application on housing choice data from over 50,000 moving households from the Stockholm area over a two year period to reveal complex homophilic patterns in income, ethnicity and parental status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the effects of childhood experiences of parental corporal punishment (CP) and neglectful parenting (NP) on Japanese university students’ endorsement of parental CP (EPP) to discipline children, in relation to subjective happiness (SH). A total of 536 undergraduate students who showed no physical symptoms completed anonymous paper-based questionnaires addressing demographic characteristics, undergraduate classes, and recent health conditions on SF-8 (PCS, MCS). It was found that the proportions of participants who experienced pervasive CP and NP were larger in men than in women (36.5% vs. 19.4% for CP; 22.1% vs. 9.7% for NP). Multiple regression analyses (n = 346) revealed that the CP score was associated with positive EPP (β = 0.310, p < 0.001). Further, students whose major was nursery education reported significantly lower level of EPP; however, neither SH nor good recent health conditions significantly reduced EPP. The NP score was inversely associated with the SH score (β = -0.253, p < 0.001) (n = 346). In conclusion, childhood experiences of parental CP may affect adolescents’ views related to their own parenting. Further investigation using internationally comparable methodologies, especially in prospective cohort studies, is warranted, not only in Japan but also in other Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of two studies on the invariance of the Profile of Mood States questionnaire across response time frames and circumstances of administration. We applied Spanish versions of the instrument to gather data from 1146 athletes. In the first study (N = 700), we tested the factor structure of the questionnaire in training sessions by using two different time frames: ‘right now’ (n = 350) and ‘past week’ (n = 350). In the second study (N = 446), we compared the factor structure of the questionnaire with data collected using the instruction ‘right now’ at two different circumstances: ‘training’ (n = 223) and ‘competition’ (n = 223). Data analysis was similar in both studies. We conducted multi-group confirmatory factor analyses and applied the scaled difference chi-square statistic to examine whether discrepancies in successive constrained models were significant. We observed configural equivalence between the two time frames. Furthermore, we observed metric equivalence but not scalar invariance between the different circumstances of measurement. The findings highlight the need for studies of equivalence before using a single self-report with more than one set of instructions, or under diverse circumstances. Invariance of mood scores should be examined and taken into account when interpreting individual and group mood state assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the known benefits of a physically active lifestyle, there are few examples of interventions that have been successfully implemented at a population level over a long period of time. One such example is The Daily Mile, a school based physical activity initiative, where a teacher takes their class out daily during class time for a short bout of ambulatory activity. At one school, this activity appears has been sustained over a long period (6 years), has the whole school participating and is now incorporated into its daily routine. The aim of this paper was to understand how The Daily Mile was implemented in primary schools and to assess factors associated with its successful implementation. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with school staff who had a significant role in implementing The Daily Mile were conducted at four primary schools in central Scotland. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and descriptive analysis and interpretation of data undertaken. Details regarding the school grounds and facilities were also noted during the interviews. Results: Having simple core intervention components, flexible delivery that supports teacher autonomy and being adaptable to suit the specific primary school context appear to be key aspects of The Daily Mile that are related to its implementation success. Other factors relating to how The Daily Mile was developed, trialled and rolled out might also have contributed towards its successful implementation. Conclusion: The Daily Mile appears to have several factors which may relate to its implementation success. These are important considerations for others looking to implement The Daily Mile effectively in their primary school or in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem Solving (PS) skills allow students to handle problems within an educational context. PS is a core competence of Computer Science education and affects programming success. In this vein, this paper aims to investigate PS ability performance in primary school pupils of a computer course, implemented according to the Neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development. The study included 945 Slovenian pupils, ranging from fourth to sixth grade. The effects of gender, age and consecutive years of attending the course were examined on pupils’ PS ability at the pre-operational and concrete operational stages. Pupils completed a survey questionnaire with four types of tasks (a series of statements, if-statements, loops and variables) at both stages. The analysis revealed three findings: the performance of PS ability in all tasks was, at the pre-operational stage, associated positively with performance at the concrete operational stage; there were no gender differences in PS performance at both stages, and both the grade and consecutive year of taking the computer course had an effect on PS ability performance at both stages. Those in the lowest grade and those taking the course for the first year reported lower performances than their older counterparts. These findings may help curriculum designers across the world develop efficient approaches to teaching computer courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As digital devices, such as smartphones, are becoming ever more absorbed in the daily lives of adolescents, a major assumption is that they start taking over basic functions of the human mind. A main focus of current debate and research is therefore on investigating adolescents’ use of digital technologies. However, the lack of an instrument measuring the degree to which adolescents offload cognitive and social functions to technology hinders debate and research. This paper tests the reliability and validity of the Extended Mind Questionnaire (XMQ) which measures the degree to which digital technology is used to offload cognitive and social functions. In a first study on young adults (n = 63), we constructed a 12-tem scale, which proved to be highly reliable. A large-scale study on teenagers (n = 947) demonstrated the high structural validity, reliability, and construct and criterion validity of the XMQ. In sum, these studies provide evidence that the XMQ is psychometrically sound and valid, and can be useful in future research on the consequences of digital technology in the daily lives of adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult illiteracy is a major problem worldwide especially in developing countries. Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs working in this context are not very effective due to lack of motivation for the people who are not literate. The reason is inadequate learning content and content delivery methods. This situation calls for developing novel learning content and a learner-directed content delivery approach. This paper presents an exploratory study investigating the use of the Environmental Print Material (EPM) as learning content for the non-literate population of Pakistan. The EPM content is presented to the adult non-literate population in two ethnographic studies. The most frequently recognized content is selected and utilized as learning content in a Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) application. An empirical study is conducted upon two groups with 107 participants to compare the EPM-based learning content with Traditional Learning Content (TLC). As many as 54 participants participated in the experimental group (presented with EPM-based learning content), whereas 53 participants took part in the control group (presented with TLC content). The results reveal that the experimental group performed significantly better compared to the control group in recognition, pronunciation, and recall of the presented content. The meta-analysis of the results shows a large effect size of (1.05) with confidence interval in the range (0.798–1.315). The results claim that the EPM has potential to be considered as learning content in the ABE programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflective functioning or mentalizing is the capacity to interpret both the self and others in terms of internal mental states such as feelings, wishes, goals, desires, and attitudes. This paper is part of a series of papers outlining the development and psychometric features of a new self-report measure, the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), designed to provide an easy to administer self-report measure of mentalizing. We describe the development and initial validation of the RFQ in three studies. Study 1 focuses on the development of the RFQ, its factor structure and construct validity in a sample of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Eating Disorder (ED) (n = 108) and normal controls (n = 295). Study 2 aims to replicate these findings in a fresh sample of 129 patients with personality disorder and 281 normal controls. Study 3 addresses the relationship between the RFQ, parental reflective functioning and infant attachment status as assessed with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) in a sample of 136 community mothers and their infants. In both Study 1 and 2, confirmatory factor analyses yielded two factors assessing Certainty (RFQ_C) and Uncertainty (RFQ_U) about the mental states of self and others. These two factors were relatively distinct, invariant across clinical and non-clinical samples, had satisfactory internal consistency and test–retest stability, and were largely unrelated to demographic features. The scales discriminated between patients and controls, and were significantly and in theoretically predicted ways correlated with measures of empathy, mindfulness and perspective-taking, and with both self-reported and clinician-reported measures of borderline personality features and other indices of maladaptive personality functioning. Furthermore, the RFQ scales were associated with levels of parental reflective functioning, which in turn predicted infant attachment status in the SSP. Overall, this study lends preliminary support for the RFQ as a screening measure of reflective functioning. Further research is needed, however, to investigate in more detail the psychometric qualities of the RFQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research investigating cognition and behaviour in Sotos syndrome has been sporadic and to date, there is no published overview of study findings. Method: A systematic review of all published literature (1964–2015) presenting empirical data on cognition and behaviour in Sotos syndrome. Thirty four journal articles met inclusion criteria. Within this literature, data relating to cognition and/or behaviour in 247 individuals with a diagnosis of Sotos syndrome were reported. Ten papers reported group data on cognition and/or behaviour. The remaining papers employed a case study design. Results: Intelligence quotient (IQ) scores were reported in twenty five studies. Intellectual disability (IQ < 70) or borderline intellectual functioning (IQ 70–84) was present in the vast majority of individuals with Sotos syndrome. Seven studies reported performance on subscales of intelligence tests. Data from these studies indicate that verbal IQ scores are consistently higher than performance IQ scores. Fourteen papers provided data on behavioural features of individuals with Sotos syndrome. Key themes that emerged in the behavioural literature were overlap with ASD, ADHD, anxiety and high prevalence of aggression/tantrums. Conclusion: Although a range of studies have provided insight into cognition and behaviour in Sotos syndrome, specific profiles have not yet been fully specified. Recommendations for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper reports long-term treatment impact estimates for a randomized evaluation of an early childhood intervention designed to promote children's developmental outcomes and improve the quality of Head Start centers serving high-violence and high-crime areas in inner-city Chicago. Initial evaluations of end-of-preschool data reported that the program led to reductions in child behavioral problems and gains in measures of executive function and academic achievement. For this report, we analyzed adolescent follow-up data taken 10 to 11 years after program completion. We found evidence that the program had positive long-term effects on students’ executive function and grades, though effects were somewhat imprecise and dependent on the inclusion of baseline covariates. Results also indicated that treated children had heightened sensitivity to emotional stimuli, and we found no evidence of long-run effects on measures of behavioral problems. These findings raise the possibility that developing programs that improve on the Head Start model could carry long-run benefits for affected children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also a dynamic contributor to poverty through its effects on children’s cognitive development. This paper examines the degree to which malaria in early childhood impacts on educational achievement in later childhood. The substantial decline in malaria in the region over recent years allows an assessment of its impact to be made. Focusing on Tanzania, we combine data from the Malaria Atlas Project and the 2010–2014 Uwezo household surveys (N = 246,325). We relate the district-level risk of malaria in a child’s year of birth to his/her performance in tests of acquired cognitive skills (literacy and numeracy). For causal identification, we rely on differences across districts in the pace of decline in malaria prevalence occurring over the last 15 years. We control for time-invariant district level, age, birth cohort and survey year effects, as well as district-level trends and individual and household-specific factors. In addition, we use sibling variation in birth-year exposure to malaria to strengthen our identification. A ten percentage-point decrease in malaria prevalence in birth year is associated with a 0.06 standard deviation (p = 0.000) increase in English literacy achievement. This estimate is comparable in magnitude to education intervention programs with very large effects. Our results are robust to a large number of sensitivity analyses. We find no statistically significant effects of birth-year malaria exposure on attainments in numeracy and Kiswahili, and we argue that this is probably attributable to strong ceiling effects in these test scores. We conclude that in Tanzania malaria is an important factor in geographical variation in English literacy. This indicates that malaria is a significant public health challenge to educational achievement in this country, and probably in other regions with malaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bangladesh reports one of the highest rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the world. Despite wide recognition of IPV as an important public health and human rights issue, evidence for IPV prevention is still inadequate. Lack of guidance on effective IPV prevention in Bangladesh resulted in targeting only women in most of the programmes. Methods: This paper assesses impact of SAFE, a 20-month intervention (March 2012 to October 2013) in slums of Dhaka on IPV and tests effectiveness of female only groups vs. no groups; and female + male groups vs. female only groups on IPV in the community using a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. SAFE’s core activities included interactive group sessions, community mobilisation, and services. The last two activities were common across arms. Findings: Regression analyses (female survey: baseline n = 2,666; endline n = 2,670) showed no effect of SAFE on IPV against women aged 15–29. However, sub-group analyses demonstrated 21% risk reduction of physical IPV against adolescent girls aged 15–19 in the female + male group intervention arm. A consistent reduction in sexual violence was observed in both female and female + male arms for both groups of women, but the results were not statistically significant. Interpretation: The findings emphasise the importance of combining male and female interventions for reducing physical IPV against adolescent girls. Implications for future research have been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report data on the development of Korean infants’ perception of a rare fricative phoneme distinction. Korean fricative consonants have received much interest in the linguistic community due to the language’s distinct categorization of sounds. Unlike many fricative contrasts utilized in most of the world’s languages, Korean fricatives (/s*/-/s/) are all voiceless. Moreover, compared with other sound categories, fricatives have received very little attention in the speech perception development field and no studies thus far have examined Korean infants’ development of native phonology in this domain. Using a visual habituation paradigm, we tested 4‒6-month-old and 7‒9-month-old Korean infants on their abilities to discriminate the Korean fricative pair in the [a] vowel context, /s*a/-/sa/, which can be distinguished based on acoustic cues, such as the durations of aspiration and frication noise. Korean infants older than 7 months were able to reliably discriminate the fricative pair but younger infants did not show clear signs of such discrimination. These results add to the growing evidence that there are native sound contrasts infants cannot discriminate early on without a certain amount of language exposure, providing further data to help delineate the specific nature of early perceptual capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child homicide is the most extreme form of violence against children. Within South Africa, children face the highest risk of homicide by parents/caregivers. It is suggested that prolonged exposure to adverse relationships with one’s own parents may be linked to committing child homicide as it may lead to psychological damage and disturb neurological functioning. This paper explores the adverse parent-child relationships of 22 men and women incarcerated for the murder of either a biological child, a stepchild or a child in their care and draws on 49 in-depth interviews with these participants. We illustrate that traumatic parent-child experiences in the form of absent parents, neglect and abuse have a profound impact on establishing unhealthy attachment styles and emphasize the importance of early adverse parent-child bonds in setting the tone for future bonds as adults. The pathway to adopting an adverse attachment with one’s own child is argued to be influenced by these early traumatic emotional experiences within the home. This study highlights the need to acknowledge the impact that adverse parent-child experiences have on the formation of violent forms of parental behavior. It is imperative to reduce children’s emotional vulnerabilities by implementing strategies to strengthen current parenting practices, to promote the development of less violent parent-child relationships and to work towards resolving parents’ experiences of trauma in reducing child homicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of children under the age of 5 appear to show spontaneous enjoyment of singing, being exposed to music and interacting with musical instruments, but whether variations in engaging in such activities in the home could contribute to developmental outcomes is still largely unknown. Critically, researchers lack a comprehensive instrument with good psychometric properties to assess the home musical environment from infancy to the preschool years. To address this gap, this paper presents two studies that describe the development and validation of the Music@Home questionnaire, which comprises two versions: Infant and Preschool. In Study 1, an initial pool of items was generated and administered to a wide audience of parents (n = 287 for the Infant, n = 347 for the Preschool version). Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify different dimensions comprising the home musical environment of both infants and pre-schoolers, and to reduce the initial pool of items to a smaller number of meaningful items. In Study 2, convergent and divergent validity and internal and test-retest reliability of the new instrument were established, using data from a different sample of participants (n = 213 for the Infant, n = 213 for the Preschool version). The second study also investigated associations between the Music@Home and musical characteristics of the parents, such as their musical education and personal engagement with music. Overall, the Music@Home constitutes a novel, valid and reliable instrument that allows for the systematic assessment of distinct aspects of the home musical environment in families with children under the age of 5. Furthermore, the Infant and Preschool versions of the Music@Home present differential associations with musical characteristics of the parents opening a new area of inquiry into how musical exposure and interaction in the home may vary across different developmental stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the formation of infant attachment types within the context of active inference: a holistic account of action, perception and learning in the brain. We show how the organised forms of attachment (secure, avoidant and ambivalent) might arise in (Bayesian) infants. Specifically, we show that these distinct forms of attachment emerge from a minimisation of free energy—over interoceptive states relating to internal stress levels—when seeking proximity to caregivers who have a varying impact on these interoceptive states. In line with empirical findings in disrupted patterns of affective communication, we then demonstrate how exteroceptive cues (in the form of caregiver-mediated AMBIANCE affective communication errors, ACE) can result in disorganised forms of attachment in infants of caregivers who consistently increase stress when the infant seeks proximity, but can have an organising (towards ambivalence) effect in infants of inconsistent caregivers. In particular, we differentiate disorganised attachment from avoidance in terms of the high epistemic value of proximity seeking behaviours (resulting from the caregiver’s misleading exteroceptive cues) that preclude the emergence of coherent and organised behavioural policies. Our work, the first to formulate infant attachment in terms of active inference, makes a new testable prediction with regards to the types of affective communication errors that engender ambivalent attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the skills related to the early reading acquisition in two countries that share language. Traditionally on reading readiness research there is a great interest to find out what factors affect early reading ability, but differ from other academic skills that affect general school learnings. Furthermore, it is also known how the influence of pre-reading variables in two countries with the same language, affect the development of the reading. On the other hand, several studies have examined what skills are related to reading readiness (phonological awareness, alphabetic awareness, naming speed, linguistic skills, metalinguistic knowledge and basic cognitive processes), but there are no studies showing whether countries can also influence the development of these skills.Our main objective in this study was to establish whether there were differences in the degree of acquisition of these skills between Spanish (119 children) and Peruvian (128 children), five years old children assessed in their own countries and after controlling Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS). The results show that there are significant differences in the degree of acquisition of these skills between these two samples. It's especially relevant, in these results, that the main predictor in a regression study was the country of origin, explaining a higher percentage of variance than other variables such as age differences, in months, or gender. These findings corroborate the results obtained in other studies with migrant population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Child peer violence is a global problem and seriously impacts children’s physical and psychological health, and their education outcomes. There are few research studies on children’s peer violence available in South Asian countries, particularly in Afghanistan. This paper describes the prevalence of children’s peer violence perpetration and victimization and associated factors among school children in Afghanistan. Methods: A total of 770 children were recruited into a baseline study conducted as part of an intervention evaluation in 11 schools (seven girls’ and four boys’ schools). All children were interviewed with a questionnaire developed for the study. The main outcome is a three-level peer violence variable consisting of (a) no violence, (b) victimization only, or (c) perpetration (with or without victimization). Peer violence victimization was measured through the Multidimensional Peer-Victimization Scale, and peer violence perpetration was measured through an adjusted version of the same scale with wording changed to measure perpetration. Results: 49.7% of boys and 43.3% of girls reported having experienced more than one instance of violence victimization in the past month, and 31.7% of boys and 17.6% of girls disclosed perpetration of more than one instance of violence in the past month, with considerable overlap found between experience of victimization and perpetration, particularly among boys. Multinomial models of factors associated with peer violence show that for boys, food insecurity was associated with perpetration of peer violence but not with victimization, and experiencing corporal punishment at school in the last month was significantly associated with both peer victimization and perpetration. For girls, food insecurity, more depressive symptoms and experiencing any beating at home were associated with both violence victimization and perpetration. Having a disability was associated with victimization only, and having witnessed their father fighting and experiencing any kind of corporal punishment were associated with peer violence perpetration only. Discussion: Peer violence in Afghanistan is linked to food insecurity, exposure of children to witnessing family violence, and children’s experience of physical violence at home and corporal punishment at school. School-based settings provide an important platform for interventions to reduce and prevent peer violence; however, such interventions may benefit from broader violence-prevention initiatives conducted at the community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Ambivalence in pregnancy intentions is well-documented in sub-Saharan African (SSA) settings and has been associated with inconsistent use of contraception, thereby exposing women using contraception to the possibility of unintended pregnancies. A better understanding of the potential role for client counseling interventions in enabling women to achieve their pregnancy intentions is essential for aiding program efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies. Objective: To measure ambivalence in pregnancy intentions longitudinally and determine its association with the quality of care received, controlling for demographic, socio-economic and contextual factors among a cohort of family planning (FP) clients in Kenya. Methods: This paper uses data drawn from a prospective cohort study of FP clients to investigate the relationship between the quality of care received during FP service delivery and the decisiveness of their pregnancy intentions over time. The study tests the hypothesis that higher quality of care enables women to be less ambivalent about their pregnancy intentions. Binary logistic regression with random effects and multinomial logistic regression were used to assess the predictive effect of the quality of care received by a woman on the decisiveness or ambivalence of her pregnancy intentions, and on any shifts in ambivalence over time, controlling for background characteristics. The study recruited 1,957 women aged 15–49 years attending twelve family planning clinics in four counties in Central Kenya; of these, 1,053 women were observed for four rounds of data collection over a period of 24 months and form the sample for analysis. Findings: A substantial proportion (43%) of women expressed ambivalence about their intentions to become pregnant at some point during the study period, while over half (57%) remained unequivocal throughout the study. Almost one third of women (31%) shifted from being unequivocal to ambivalent and 12% shifted from ambivalence to being unequivocal. Women experiencing higher quality of care have lower odds of ever expressing ambivalence and higher odds of remaining unequivocal over time, net of other factors. Quality of care was not associated with a shift in ambivalence over time. Conclusion: FP programs offering higher quality of care are likely to support women to be more decisive in their pregnancy intentions. Improving the quality of care can contribute to reduced ambivalence and consequently reduced likelihood of unintended pregnancy among contraceptive users. This study provides further evidence of the benefits gained through providing high quality services. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young children not only need to learn how to perform isolated actions, but also temporally and spatially coordinated actions such as using a knife and fork. Routes to learning such coordinated actions include imitation and participation in joint action. However, little is known about the mechanisms guiding transmission of coordinated actions through observation and joint action performance. This paper reports an experiment comparing children’s tendency to imitate multiple, coordinated actions following demonstration by a single model acting bimanually (Bimanual Observation condition), two models performing the same actions jointly with one performing each hand action (Joint Observation condition) and a condition in which the child actively takes part in the joint action demonstration by performing one part in coordination with a partner (Joint Action condition). When children were subsequently left alone to perform the task independently, they were more likely to imitate both coordinated actions in the two observation conditions than in the Joint Action condition, with no difference between performance in Bimanual and Joint Observation conditions. It is argued that this is due to children being more able to form a global representation of both actions and the relations between the two when observing from a distance than when actively involved in the task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health can affect young people’s sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction, their ability to participate in employment and education, and their onward opportunities in life. This paper offers a rare opportunity to longitudinally examine mental health in a population-representative study of children aged 4–5 years to 14–15 years. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), this study examined maternally-reported child mental health over a 10 year period, in order to understand their initial mental health status early in life and its change over time, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Longitudinal models were fitted from ages 4–5 to 14–15 years. Results showed that child sex, maternal mental health, socio-economic status (family income, maternal education, neighbourhood disadvantage), maternal hostility, and child temperament (persistence, sociability, reactivity) are all independent contributors to child mental health at age 4. These effects largely persist over time, with the effects of maternal mental health increasing slightly over time. Persistence of these effects suggests the need for early intervention and supports. The independent contribution of these factors to child mental health suggests that multi-faceted approaches to child and maternal mental health are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to investigate the role of parental education in child disability in China. We used nationally representative data from China’s National Sample Survey on Disability, iterated twice, in 1987 and 2006, with data of 764,718 children aged 0–14 years. Logit models were used for statistical analysis. Results showed that the prevalence of child disability was significantly associated with each parent’s education. Maternal education was more important than paternal education in child disability in both surveys. The analysis of marginal effect indicated a one-year increase in maternal and paternal schooling led to an average decrease of 0.121% and 0.091% in the probability of child disability in 1987, and 19 years later, these figures had dwindled to 0.091% and 0.072%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]