School Engagement in Times of Confinement: A Stress Process Approach

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - The first COVID-19 confinement induced dramatic changes in the lives of adolescents, but little is known about the processes that affected youth engagement with...     

Global Democracy: A Symposium on a New Political Hope

The idea that the values and norms of democracy can also be applied to global politics is increasingly debated in academe. The six authors participating in this symposium are all advocates of global democracy, but there are significant differences in the way they envision its implementation. Some of the contributors discuss if and how substantial changes undertaken by states, mostly in their foreign policies, may also generate positive consequences in global politics. Other contributors address the nature of the international arena and the possible reforms it should undergo starting with the reform of international organizations. The debate combines theoretical aspects with normative proposals that could also be advanced in the political arena and offers a wide range of perspectives on the attempts to achieve a more democratic global political community.     

Widowhood,Socio-Economic Status,Health and Wellbeing in Low and Middle-Income Countries

Using data on women aged 50 and over from the WHO’s Survey of Ageing and Adult Health for China, Ghana, India, the Russian Federation and South Africa (N = 17,009), we assess associations between widowhood and socio-economic, health and quality of life deprivations. We find variations in the prevalence and timing of widowhood across the study countries, and associations between widowhood and being in the poorest wealth quintile for all five countries. For other deprivations, national experiences varied, with stronger and more consistent effects for India and China. These findings challenge generalised claims about widowhood and call for more contextualised analysis.     

Literary feature reviews

Intentions and realisation in the narratives of Nawal El‐Saadawi

Memoirs of a Woman Doctor Nawal El‐Saadawi Translated from the Arabic by Catherine Cobham London: Saqi Books. 1988. 101pp. £9.95hb/£3.50pb

The Fall of the Imam Nawal El‐Saadawi Translated from the Arabic by Sherif Hetata London: Methuen. 1988. 175pp. £10.95hb

Woman Against Her Sex: a critique of Nawal El‐Saadawi Georges Tarabishi (with a reply by Nawal El‐Saadawi) Translated from the Arabic by Basil Hatim and Elisabeth Orsini London: Saqi Books. 1988. 232pp. £20.00hb/£8.95pb

Es'kia Mphahlele: A divided self?

Renewal Time Es'kia Mphahlele London: Readers International. 1988. 215pp. £9.95hb/£4.95pb     

Combining autosomal and Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat data in paternity testing with male child: methods and application

Paternity testing is being increasingly requested with the aim of challenging presumptive fatherhood. The ability to establish the biological father is usually based on the genotyping of autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) in alleged father, mother and child, but the use of Y-chromosomal STR has gained interest in the last few years. In this work, we propose a new probabilistic approach that combines autosomal and Y-chromosomal STR data in paternity testing with father/son pairs taking into account mutation events. We also suggest a new two-stage approach where we first type Y-STRs and possibly autosomal STR for the putative father and son, conditional on Y-STR results. We applied this approach to 22 cases. Our results show that Y-STRs can identify nonpaternity cases with high accuracy but need to be validated with autosomal STR to establish paternity. Moreover, the two-stage approach is less costly than the standard approach and is very useful in motherless cases.     

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for deliberate self-harm

Patients who engage in deliberate self-harm (DSH) form a heterogeneous population. There is a need for psychotherapeutic interventions that give therapists the flexibility to tailor the treatment plan to the needs of an individual patient. To detect essential ingredients for treatment, three different cognitive-behavioral theories of DSH will be reviewed: (1) the cognitive-behavioral theory of Linehan (1993a), (2) the cognitive theory of Berk, Henriques, Warman, Brown, and Beck (2004), and (3) the cognitive-behavioral theory of Rudd, Joiner, and Rajab (2001). A review of these theories makes it possible to compare the different approaches to the essential aspects in the treatment of DSH: a trusting patient-therapist relationship, building emotion regulation skills, cognitive restructuring, and behavioral pattern breaking. An overview will be given of therapeutic techniques that can be used to address the cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems associated with DSH.     

Cultural Stressors and the Hopelessness Model of Depressive Symptoms in Latino Adolescents

Depressive symptoms in Latino youth have been related to both culturally-universal and culturally-based stressors. However, few studies have examined the unique contributions of culturally-based stressors above and beyond other types of stressors. Moreover, no past studies with Latinos have examined the role of culturally-based stressors within a hopelessness model of depressive symptoms, a cognitive model with the strongest empirical support in adolescence. The current study examined these issues in a sample of 171 Latino adolescents (7th-10th grades; mean age?=?14; 46?% male). The Latino adolescents were primarily Mexican-American (78?%) and born in the United States (60?%). Students completed measures during a school period on their experiences of parent-child conflict, economic stress, discrimination from peers, and acculturative stress as well as depressive symptoms and attributional style. The results indicated that culturally-based stressors (e.g., acculturative stress and discrimination) predicted greater depressive symptoms even when controlling for culturally-universal stressors (e.g., parent-child conflict, economic stress). Moreover, a negative attributional style moderated the relationship between culturally-universal stressors and depressive symptoms, but this was not the case for culturally-based stressors. Culturally-based stressors play an important role in depressive symptoms among Latino youth. These stressors predicted greater symptomatology even when controlling for other types of stressors and a negative attributional style. These findings suggest that there may be other cognitive risk factors associated with culturally-based stressors.     

Unaccompanied Migrant Adolescents in the Italian Context: Tailored Educational Interventions and Acculturation Stress

The migration experience is normally associated with acculturative stress; this condition assumes relevance when the migrant is a minor alone. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions about the migration process and educational interventions offered by host-community social workers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 unaccompanied migrant adolescents that had finished their educational pathways in the traditional community centers. Interview results were analyzed using NVivo 9, based on the grounded theory. The main results of the study are related to the incompatibility between the educational intervention of host communities and minors’ projects and motivations.