The Impact of Urban and Rural Contexts on Gender-Based Violence Policy Effectiveness: An Institutional Analysis

OBJECTIVE Comparing the differences in the sociodemographic, care and health profiles of elderly caregivers of the elderly living in urban, rural, and high social vulnerability contexts. METHOD A cross-sectional study developed with elderly caregivers enrolled in the Family Health Units of a municipality in the interior of São Paulo. Household interviews and evaluations were conducted on: Activities of Daily Living (ADL), self-reported pain, frailty, cognition, life satisfaction, family functionality, burden, stress and hope. RESULTS A total of 343 elderly caregivers of elderly individuals participated in the study, of which 55.1% lived in an urban context, 23.6% in rural areas, and 21.3% in a context of high social vulnerability. The majority of elderly caregivers were women across the three contexts, with a median age of 67 years and caring for their spouse. Caregivers from regions of high social vulnerability had lower education level, received less emotional and material help to care, were less satisfied with life, more fragile, in more cognitive decline, had worse family functionality and a lower level of hope when compared to caregivers of urban and rural contexts (p≤0.05). However, caregivers from areas of high vulnerability were more independent for ADL. CONCLUSION Professionals working in Primary Care should consider these differences when planning interventions aimed at the specific group of caregivers.

ABSTRACTThere is evidence that church attenders are more involved in voluntary organisations than other people in the population. Data from the SEIROS survey, conducted across the adult Australian population in 2016, showed that church attenders do more hours of work in voluntary organisations than non-attenders, in both rural and urban contexts. While many of those extra hours were done through their churches, attenders claimed that approximately 61% of those extra hours were done for the sake of the wider community rather than for the church. The survey showed that the patterns were different for mainstream and Evangelical church attenders in rural areas. Rural mainstream church attenders were more involved directly in their communities rather than through their churches than were mainstream attenders in urban areas and all Evangelicals. Evangelicals were highly involved in their communities through their churches in both rural and urban contexts. The results suggest that a major way through which churches, particularly Evangelical churches, encourage volunteering is through engagement, providing programmes and activities in which their members are involved.

These studies are framed within Social Identity Theory and the Positive Youth Development approach. The aim is: (1) to analyze the relationship between group identification at school and key positive development variables (such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, assertiveness, empathy, alexithymia, satisfaction with life, and academic performance); and (2) examine the moderator role of context (rural or urban areas of residence) and sex in these relationships. The samples were composed of 246 adolescents from a rural context (Study 1) and 156 students from rural and urban contexts (Study 2). As proposed in our hypotheses, the results show statistically significant relationships between group identification and all the variables considered, higher group identification with the class in the rural context, and a moderator role of the context in the relationships between group identification and satisfaction with life, assertiveness, and empathy. These results are relevant for designing and implementing psychoeducational programs to promote positive youth development in both rural and urban contexts.

This study investigated monthly variations of surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) and the applicability of the local climate zones (LCZ) scheme for land surface temperature (LST) differentiation within three spatial contexts, including urban, rural and their combination, in Shenyang, China, a city with a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate. The monthly SUHII and LST of Shenyang were obtained through 12 LST images, with one in each month (within the period between 2018 and 2020), retrieved from the Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS) 10 in Landsat 8 based on a split window algorithm. Non-parametric analysis of Kruskal-Wallis H test and a multiple pairwise comparison were adopted to investigate the monthly LST differentiations with LCZs. Overall, the SUHII and the applicability of the LCZ scheme exhibited spatiotemporal variations. July and August were the two months when Shenyang underwent strong heat island effects. Shenyang underwent a longer period of cool than heat island effects, occurring from November to May. June and October were the transition months of cool–heat and heat–cool island phenomena, respectively. The SUHII analysis was dependent on the definition of urban and rural boundaries, where a smaller rural buffering zone resulted in a weaker SUHI or surface urban cool island (SUCI) phenomenon and a larger urban area corresponded to a weaker SUHI or SUCI phenomenon as well. The LST of LCZs did not follow a fixed order, where in July and August, the LCZ-10 (Heavy industry) had the highest mean LST, followed by LCZ-2 (Compact midrise) and then LCZ-7 (Lightweight low-rise). In comparison, LCZ-7, LCZ-8 (Large low-rise) and LCZ-9 (Sparsely built) had the highest LST from October to May. The LST of LCZs varied with urban and rural contexts, where LCZ-7, LCZ-8 and LCZ -10 were the three built LCZs that had the highest LST within urban context, while LCZ-2, LCZ-3 (Compact low-rise), LCZ-8, LCZ-9 and LCZ-10 were the five built LCZs that had the highest LST within rural context. The suitability of the LCZ scheme for temperature differentiation varied with the month, where from July to October, the LCZ scheme had the strongest capability and in May, it had the weakest capability. Urban context also made a difference to the suitability, where compared with the whole study area (the combination of urban and rural areas), the suitability of built LCZs in either urban or rural contexts weakened. Moreover, the built LCZs had a higher level of suitability in an urban context compared with a rural context, while the land-cover LCZs within rural had a higher level of suitability.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the extent of training in multicultural assessment, intervention, and consultation of school psychologists in urban and rural contexts. Although there is greater cultural and sociodemographic diversity in urban settings as compared to rural settings, it is unknown whether school psychologists in urban settings have more training than school psychologists in rural contexts to assess, consult, or intervene in these multicultural settings. For this reason, 86 school psychologists in rural and urban contexts were surveyed about their training in multicultural assessment, consultation, and intervention. Results indicated that, overall, the school psychologists had little to no training in multicultural assessment, intervention, and consultation. However, school psychologists in urban context did indicate significantly higher level of training in multicultural intervention. Implications for multicultural training are discussed.

With high unemployment rates in South Africa, research into agribusiness entrepreneurship has become relevant. Despite their job creation dimension, agribusinesses are essential for realizing food security in both rural and urban contexts. The study aimed to explore the question: How do cultural elements affect small agribusiness entrepreneurship in rural areas? This question was prudent owing to the restrictions to open business that arose from the Covid-19 induced lockdowns and restricted movements. A rural context was the basis for the study taking note that in most rural areas in Africa, agricultural activity forms the backbone of socioeconomic life. The study followed the qualitative research approach based on the case study design of a selected rural community. The actual data collection method was based on two focus group discussions of the cultural elements that affect agribusiness entrepreneurship among members of the rural community. The findings show that culture is a strong determent of success agribusiness entrepreneurship in rural areas. Evidence collected pointed that the history of a community, family backgrounds as well as the external environment influences its culture which then affects agribusiness entrepreneurship in rural environments. These shape the beliefs, values, behaviour and values of a community. The apartheid era instilled psychological inhibitions such as the rejection of self-identities and the belief that self-employment is not possible among Blacks. It emerged that families influence the orientations of respondents especially through tales, stories and shared totems. The study shows that the external environment and its factors such as globalisation, technology and economic development also influence values, beliefs and agri-entrepreneurship behaviour.

Este trabajo tiene dos objetivos: por un lado, analizar qué percepción y valoración hacen los niños y niñas de contextos rurales y urbanos sobre la separación y/o divorcio de los padres y sus efectos en los hijos y, por otro, conocer si existen diferencias en función del entorno al que se pertenezca.Para ello, se llevó a cabo una investigación con 460 niños y niñas de contextos rurales y urbanos con edades comprendidas entre los 7 y los 17 años que cursaban estudios en niveles de Primaria y Secundaria. Para este trabajo nos centraremos exclusivamente en el análisis de la variable residencia en contextos rurales o urbanos.Los resultados nos indican que de forma significativa, los que residen en contextos urbanos hacen una valoración más negativa del divorcio frente a los que residen en contextos rurales, mientras que los de los contextos rurales consideran que se producen más efectos negativos en los hijos.Palabras clave: separación, divorcio, contexto rural, contexto urbano.

The study investigates how the territorial community can influence the individual and social well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) youth and especially the recognition of their feelings and the construction of their own identity as well as their needs to be socially recognized. This research focuses on the experiences of 30 LGB individuals (23 males and 7 females), with a mean age of 25.07 years (SD = 4,578), living in urban and rural areas of Southern Italy. Focalized open interviews were conducted, and the Grounded Theory Methodology, supported by the Atlas.ti 8.0 software, was used for data analysis. The textual material was first coded, and then codes were grouped into five macro-categories: Freedom of identity expression in the urban and rural context, identity construction and acceptance process, need of aggregation and identification with the LGB community, role of the interpersonal relationship in the process of identity acceptance, socio-cultural context, and LGB psychological well-being. The results showed a condition common to the two contexts that we can define as “ghettoization.” The young LGB is alone in the rural area due to a lack of places and people to identify with and greater social isolation. On the contrary, although there are more opportunities in the urban area, young people feel stigmatized and ghettoized because “their places” are frequented exclusively by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, queer (LGBTQ) community. The work will extensively discuss the limitations of the research, future proposals, and the practical implications of the results.

The built environment and overweight in Shanghai: Examining differences in urban and rural contexts

ABSTRACTSubstantial research has been done assessing health inequalities between rural and urban contexts in the low countries; however, fewer studies have considered the effect of urban living on non‐adults. Because dental enamel does not remodel, recording the time of dental stress insults in both deciduous and permanent teeth allows for the analysis of episodes of stress, including those occurring during the fetal period. Thus, through the analysis of dental stress markers, we can provide information about child, infant, and maternal health inequalities between urban and rural contexts. To do this, we recorded the frequency and age at formation of linear enamel hypoplasia in both permanent and deciduous teeth of 177 individuals between 0 and 35 years of age from two Dutch postmedieval sites; 64 from the city of Arnhem (1650–1829 ce) and 113 from the rural cemetery of Middenbeemster (1623–1867 ce). Results from this research reveal that urban living during Dutch postmedieval times had a negative impact specifically on infants and their gestating mothers, as deciduous teeth from urban Arnhem presented a significantly higher frequency of LEH compared with their rural counterparts (p = 0.009). However, no significant difference was found on permanent teeth between sites (p = 0.868), showing that during the following years of life (3–6), urban life did not appear to have a greater negative impact compared with rural life.

The aim of this article is to investigate the nature of information sharing via Twitter by police officers. We examine the content of Tweets in urban and rural contexts using a sample of 20 police-related Twitter accounts, comparing official and personal accounts active in Southern Sweden. Exploratory data analysis and in-depth content analysis of a sample of Tweets compose the underlying methodology. We find a distinct pattern of consistency in the content of the information shared via the official police accounts compared to the personal accounts, regardless of if they are from urban or rural areas. However, some urban–rural differences were observed between official and personal accounts regarding public engagement, operationalized as likes and Retweets. The study calls for a discussion of new models of police engagement using social media by a society that is increasingly shaped by the internet.

This paper examines the role of the place of living (rural or urban) and its socio-cultural context in determining the parent-adolescent child value similarity. We interviewed representatives of two generations: parents and adolescent children from 90 families in Moscow and 62 families in villages (n=304 people). Our findings indicate the influence of the socio-cultural context on the transmission of values. Conservation values are primarily transmitted from parents to children in more traditional, rural contexts. Openness to change, Self-Enhancement and Self-Transcendence values are transmitted from parents to children mainly in urban contexts. The perceived psychological closeness between parents and adolescents (adolescent perception) predicts value transmission in urban and rural contexts. All values of adolescents are more similar to the values of peers than parents, in both urban and rural contexts.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the impact of the pandemic on the life of the elderly in urban and rural contexts. We compared the key parameters of self-isolation in the city and the countryside. Our study concludes that the pandemic in a rural context has not increased the social exclusion of the older people at the community level. The mild regime of self-isolation in the villages made it possible to carry out the usual daily practices and maintain communication. In turn, in the urban context, the elderly faced severe spatial isolation and the inability to maintain their usual daily lifestyle, which negatively affected their physical and psychological state. In terms of health care, many older people, both urban and rural, have been forced to cancel scheduled doctor visits and check-ups, postpone surgery indefinitely, and have difficulty accessing prescription drugs and dental care. The pandemic exposed and once again emphasized the infrastructure deficit of the rural area, when, after the cancellation of bus routes, the villagers were actually cut off from large shops, banks, pharmacies and medical institutions. A feature of experiencing the pandemic in the rural area was the strengthening of public control over “strangers” and the movements of local residents. A striking trend during the pandemic has been the rapid digitalization (developing gadgets, transferring communication to an online format, searching for and consuming information on the Internet), which has affected both villagers and city dwellers. We can see the growth of intergenerational and local solidarity, which was expressed in the help from the younger generations of the family, volunteer associations in the city and the local community in the countryside.

IntroductionCommunicating bad news is common in the health care sector, especially in emergency services. The importance of formal training in giving bad news in health care and the differences in the services provided by health care units in urban and rural contexts are well-documented in the literature. However, opportunities for clinicians to develop bad news communication skills provided by the distinct contexts of the health care unit in which they are included have rarely been studied. We assume that the communication of bad news is part of the service provided in emergency departments. Therefore, it can vary across rural and urban health care units.ObjectivesThis comparative cross-sectional study aims to test whether the location of the health care unit (rural vs. urban) has a significant impact on the communication of bad news by clinicians in emergency services.MethodsData will be collected through an online questionnaire based on the literature in two purposive samples of emergency health care professionals in rural and urban contexts. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be applied to analyze data regarding work features, situational context, experience, perceived knowledge and skills in providing bad news, and training needs and preferences.ResultsRural health care units serve populations with more health disparities and poorer outcomes than non-rural, and classically have shortage of emergency medicine trained physicians. In urban areas health units have larger and more differentiated teams. The results will be discussed in the light of the literature on discrepancies between rural and urban health care units, describing professional characteristics and experience in delivering bad news of the study participants. We expect to identify specific contextual factors associated with geographic location, institutional settings, and health professionals’ training in delivering bad news in emergency medicine.ConclusionsThe results of this study can aid to differentiate bad news communication trainers and health care unit managers in rural and urban areas (a) justifying the implementation of training programs, (b) adapting training programs to the audience, and (c) improving institutional facilities, practices, and policies to support adequate communication of bad news in emergency settings.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

The research investigates how educational attainment influences women's self-efficacy, economic independence, and social status across diverse environments. It contrasts urban areas, characterized by greater access to educational resources, with rural areas, where educational opportunities are often limited and socio-cultural constraints can be more pronounced. Data was collected through surveys, interviews, and case studies involving women from both settings to assess their educational experiences and perceived autonomy. Key findings reveal that while education significantly empowers women in both rural and urban contexts, the extent and nature of this empowerment vary. In urban areas, women with higher educational levels experience greater economic and social autonomy, facilitated by better access to resources, employment opportunities, and supportive networks. Conversely, rural women often face educational barriers due to limited infrastructure, traditional gender roles, and economic constraints, which impede their autonomy despite educational advancements. The study underscores the need for targeted policies that address these disparities, emphasizing the importance of improving educational access and quality in rural areas while continuing to support and expand opportunities inurban settings. Recommendations include enhancing educational infrastructure, promoting gender-sensitive curricula, and fostering community-based initiatives to support women's education and autonomy in both environments. This research highlights the integral role of education in shaping women's autonomy and advocates for a nuanced approach to educational policy and practice that considers the diverse needs of women in varying geographic and socioeconomic contexts. Keywords: educational attainment, women’s autonomy, rural-urban disparities, economic empowerment, social participation, gender equality