Wanderings: An intergenerational collaborative autoethnography on young women’s journeys to activism in Jos, Nigeria

Introduction: Addressing the vulnerability of young women and girls to stop the HIV epidemic in southern Africa

THE FEMALE ATHLETE TRIAD

Body Image and Televised Images of Thinness and Attractiveness: A Controlled Laboratory Investigation

Depression is a prevalent and debilitating mental illness affecting young women worldwide. This study aimed to identify psychosocial determinants of major depressive disorder (MDD) among young women in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India. Data from "Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults" (UDAYA) study (2018-19) for young women aged 12-23 years, both married and unmarried was used for this paper. MDD was evaluated using the Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ-9 with a cut-off score of ≤10. The determinants of MDD were identified through multilevel binary logistic regression analysis. The prevalence of MDD was 13.6% (95% CL 12.2-15.2) and 5.1% (95% CL 4.2-6.1) for young married women and unmarried girls, respectively. Among the young married women, community-level variables like dowry-related humiliation (1.74, 95% CI 1.15-2.64), and sexual assaults (2.15, 95% CI 1.24-3.73) were significantly associated with MDD. For unmarried girls, reporting of family violence <10% of participants (0.45, 95% CI 0.24-0.85), family violence (≥10% of participants) % (0.35 95% CI 0.19-0.68) and interpartner violence (>25% of participants) (0.42; 95% CI 0.23-0.74) remain significant predictors of MDD. At individual level, for both the groups, age, participation in decision making (on education), social capital (currently attending school/educational course and number of friends), self-efficacy, telephonic harassment, and physical activity were associated with MDD. Wealth index, job seeking, participation in decision making (on health-seeking), parental interactions and physical abuse (for unmarried girls only) and education, reported last sexual intercourse, pressure from the in-laws' to conceive (for young married women only) were associated with MDD. For young married women, community level targeted interventions should focus on the social ecology to foster a sense of safe community environment. For unmarried girls, additionally, interventions should aim to optimize their family environment for effective mental health outcomes.

IntroductionDepression is a prevalent and debilitating mental illness affecting young women worldwide. This study aimed to identify psychosocial determinants of major depressive disorder (MDD) among young women in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India.MethodsData from "Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults" (UDAYA) study (2018-19) for young women aged 12-23 years, both married and unmarried was used for this paper. MDD was evaluated using the Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ-9 with a cut-off score of ≤10. The determinants of MDD were identified through multilevel binary logistic regression analysis.ResultsThe prevalence of MDD was 13.6% (95% CL 12.2-15.2) and 5.1% (95% CL 4.2-6.1) for young married women and unmarried girls, respectively. Among the young married women, community-level variables like dowry-related humiliation (1.74, 95% CI 1.15-2.64), and sexual assaults (2.15, 95% CI 1.24-3.73) were significantly associated with MDD. For unmarried girls, reporting of family violence <10% of participants (0.45, 95% CI 0.24-0.85), family violence (≥10% of participants) % (0.35 95% CI 0.19-0.68) and interpartner violence (>25% of participants) (0.42; 95% CI 0.23-0.74) remain significant predictors of MDD. At individual level, for both the groups, age, participation in decision making (on education), social capital (currently attending school/educational course and number of friends), self-efficacy, telephonic harassment, and physical activity were associated with MDD. Wealth index, job seeking, participation in decision making (on health-seeking), parental interactions and physical abuse (for unmarried girls only) and education, reported last sexual intercourse, pressure from the in-laws’ to conceive (for young married women only) were associated with MDD.ConclusionsFor young married women, community level targeted interventions should focus on the social ecology to foster a sense of safe community environment. For unmarried girls, additionally, interventions should aim to optimize their family environment for effective mental health outcomes.

This book covers the stories of African American women chemists who entered the field before the civil rights era or shortly thereafter. The women in this book were swimming against the tide. They chose to enter a career in which they were among the first persons of their gender and race. There are many young American women currently active in the profession of chemistry. Young girls are still interested in becoming scientists; however, they still have to fight to make sure they receive a good education in science. This need for good education is discussed in a book titled, Swimming against the Tide: African American Girls and Science Education, by Dr. Sandra L Hanson. Dr. Hanson studied young African American girls in high school and their attitudes toward science, which has traditionally been a male profession. One of Dr. Hanson’s conclusions is that these young girls had never seen a role model, African American women chemists, either in books or in person. She also discovered that the young women were still interested in science, even though they received little encouragement from their teachers. Dr. Hanson found that the parents of the girls encouraged their interest in science, with mothers being their biggest cheerleaders. Dr. Hanson would like to see more science teachers encourage young African American girls to study science. One of the women in this book, Allene Johnson, served as a high school chemistry teacher and made a career both of mentoring science teachers and of encouraging African Americans, both male and female, to enter careers in chemistry. Most of the other women in this book also have mentored women who wanted to become chemists either in academia or in industry. What resources are available to young people if they are interested in chemistry as a career? There are many organizations that are focused on careers in chemistry. The major one is the American Chemical Society (ACS). However, one should first consider this question: What is chemistry? Chemistry is a varied profession.

The HIV and AIDS pandemic is among the existential challenges of the 21st century and has resulted in ineffable suffering across the world. Africa is currently enduring high burdens of the HIV and AIDS pandemic, with the highest concentration in sub-Saharan Africa, including Zimbabwe. Young women and girls are more susceptible to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Young women between the ages of 15–24 are four times more likely to be infected with HIV than their male counterparts of the same age group. Much effort has been channelled towards mitigating the pandemic, and some measure of progress has been achieved. Regardless of the interventions available to people, including the use of contraceptives, new cases of infection, particularly among girls, and HIV-related deaths continue to escalate. This calls for alternative intervention measures towards curbing the pandemic. This article seeks to investigate the utilisation of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in HIV and AIDS prevention among girls as a possible alternative. The study uses a qualitative research design and corroborates insights from the phenomenological method. The article argues that IKS can be adopted as a valuable resource for curbing the spread of HIV among young girls in Zimbabwe. Using the Varemba as a case study, the article explores the use of IKS by women to prevent HIV transmission among young women and girls. Data was collected through personal interviews with research participants in Mberengwa district. The findings revealed that virginity testing as an indigenous cultural practice can be used for HIV and AIDS prevention among young women and girls. The study proposes the adoption of Indigenous Knowledge Systems as a mitigating strategy for the prevention of HIV and AIDS among girls and suggests their use in addressing existential crises, and more pronounced, the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

The main objective was to assess knowledge, practices, and restrictions faced by young women regarding their menstrual hygiene. The views of adult women having young daughters were also included and both views were compared. In addition, the factors influencing the menstrual hygiene practices were also studied. The study was carried out during 2008 in Mumbai, India. The mixed methods approach was followed for the data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect the data. For quantitative survey, totally 192 respondents (96 adult and 96 younger women) were selected. While young women were asked about questions related to their menstruation, adult women were asked questions to find out how much they know about menstrual history of their daughters. The qualitative data helped to supplement the findings from the quantitative survey and to study the factors affecting menstrual practices in young women. The mean age at menarche reported was 13.4 years and 30–40% of young girls did not receive any information about menstruation before menarche. It is thus seen that very few young girls between the age group 15 and 24 years did receive any information before the onset of menstruation. Among those who received some information, it was not adequate enough. The source of information was also not authentic. Both young and adult women agreed on this. Due to the inadequate knowledge, there were certain unhygienic practices followed by the young girls resulting in poor menstrual hygiene. It also leads to many unnecessary restrictions on young girls and they faced many health problems and complaints, which were either ignored or managed inappropriately. The role of health sector was almost negligible from giving information to the management of health problems of these young girls. This paper reemphasizes the important, urgent, and neglected need of providing correct knowledge to the community including adolescent girls.

Good Wives and Unfaithful Men: Gender Negotiations and Sexual Conflicts in the Chilean Agrarian Reform, 1964 –1973

5578 Background: Endometrial cancer at this time is predominantly being looked at as a disease of postmenopausal population. Increased obesity has been identified as an important risk factor for endometrial cancer. An overall increase incidence of endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma in obese premenopausal women has been reported. A close examination of the relationship between trends in endometrial cancer incidence and obesity prevalence in young women will provide important information for prevention and early screening of the disease and its precursors. This study was to assess current trends in endometrial cancer incidence in women ages 20-29 and 30-39 years in relationship to obesity in the US. Methods: We used data on US adult women 20-39 years old from the National Program for Cancer Registries and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Incidence–U.S. Cancer Statistics 2001–2017 database. This database covered essentially all young female population between 2001 and 2017 in the US (Puerto Rico not included). Incidence was age adjusted to the 2020 U.S. standard population. We also examined the trends in obesity prevalence among females 18-34 years old using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III and NHANES 1999-2014. Results: There were 24,446 cases of endometrial cancer among young adult women aged 20-39 years during 2001-2017. Endometrial cancer incidence increased from 0.6 per 100,000 in 2001 to 1.2 per 100,000 in 2017 (APC 3.6, 95% CI 2.9-4.4) among young women 20-29 years old, and increased from 4.6 per 100,000 in 2001 to 7.5 per 100,000 in 2017 (APC 3.0, 95% CI 2.7-3.3) among women 30-39 years old. Obesity prevalence also increased significantly from 1988-2014 among females 18-34 years old. Incidence of endometrial cancer and obesity prevalence were both higher in Hispanics than in other racial/ethnic groups. Conclusions: The significant increasing incidence in endometrial cancer among young adult women is in accordance with the concurrent increasing prevalence in obesity in young girls and women in the US. This indicates that endometrial cancer screening might need to be considered at much earlier age among patients with abnormal bleeding and certain ethnic populations.

Biomedical and behavioral interventions have led to significant success in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. However, in rural communities, structural violence persists and continues to create barriers to the uptake and utilization of health services, especially among young women. To overcome these barriers, community-led initiatives have provided a range of interventions, including safe spaces (i.e., vetted meeting venues where girls come together to discuss issues affecting their wellbeing and access health services, such as PreP) for young women. Although these spaces provide a safe haven for at-risk girls and young women, the role of community safe spaces in overcoming structural violence remains under-explored in literature. Using the structural violence framework, this study explored how community-led safe spaces for HIV prevention programs can overcome structural forces - policies, norms, or practices - that perpetuate structural violence and prevent access to healthcare services among young girls and women in Kisumu, Kenya. We purposively recruited young women (n = 36) enrolled in the Pamoja Community-Based Organization's DREAMS program in Kisumu, Kenya. Data were collected from the 2022-2023 cohort between June and July 2023 using semi-structured, in-depth interviews (n = 20) and two focused group discussions (n = 16). Guided by thematic analysis, data were analyzed in Atlas.Ti and organized into themes. This study found that community approaches such as safe spaces are instrumental in overcoming structural violence among young women by addressing three forms of barriers - institutional, sociocultural, and economic barriers - that limit HIV support service access. Institutional barriers encompassed distance and time to health facilities and provider attitude, while sociocultural barriers included knowledge gaps, stigma, cultural norms, beliefs, and practices, limiting health service access. Lastly, the socioeconomic barriers highlighted inadequate income, financial literacy, and financial dependency. Community safe spaces are vital for decreasing vulnerability and serve as critical points for accessing services and building capacity for young women. This is particularly important in rural areas where retrogressive societal norms create obstacles to obtaining essential health services. To effectively overcome structural violence, however, government support and a suitable policy environment are essential for implementing interventions to address the underlying root causes of structural violence and sustaining community-based safe spaces.

Evidence showing a positive link between Islamic practices and rituals at the everyday level with civic participation is on the rise (Harris & Roose, 2014; Patton, 2014; Vergani, Johns, Lobo, & Mansouri, 2017). Yet, character building to produce women and men of adab (Al-Attas, 1980) for active and confident engagement with society, has always been the raison d’etre of Islamic schools (Buckley, 1997). What remains unexplored is how these schools and their educational practitioners intervene and actively engage with their central purpose in the minutiae of everyday life (Apple, 2006). Specifically, how the racialised Islamic schools (Gulson & Webb, 2012, 2013) and their leaders mediate the “pluri-cultural” life (Said, 1977, p. xvii), articulating, embodying and defending alternative educational possibilities for parity of educational outcomes, lacks analytical consideration. This study explored the construction of the espoused purpose of Islamic schools in Australia. Grounded in a critical race position (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) and a faith-centred epistemology (Zine, 2004), it employed a collective case study methodology (Stake, 1995; Merriam, 1998; Yin, 2012) to understand how a disenfranchised community understands and experiences its everyday lived realities, and how leaders speak back to authoritarianism (Said, 2004; Apple, 2006) to achieve their aspirations in a diverse marketised Australian society (Walsh, 2014). An analysis of the promotional materials (Symes, 1998) and an online survey of stakeholders of Islamic schools in Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane were conducted in the exploratory phase of this inquiry, followed by an in-depth analysis of documents and a leadership qualitative questionnaire. The findings revealed, firstly, that neoliberal technologies have worked to influence the schools’ educational practices, creating possibilities that are bounded with limitations. By enabling choice—and as a consequence, the physical space where schools and their educational practitioners provide an education that aligns school values with those of students’ homes; religious practice that can be freely exercised and instituted; and, support mechanisms to mitigate the harm arising from students’ external social realities—neoliberalism has been productive for this disenfranchised community, allowing for its aspirations to provide the tools for achieving its purpose. Islamic schools therefore play a vital role in contributing to social cohesion. Yet, substance has been compromised and remains unresolved by a formal curriculum that prioritises the dominant “excellence” discourse alongside an appended imitation Islamic curriculum model (Ramadan, 2004). Secondly, negotiation of key tensions arising from the external and internal contexts, primarily the prevalence of persisting dichotomies, summons leadership practices that not only draw on the schools’ ethical frameworks and own personal values (Striepe, 2016) but full engagement in intellectual activity: persistence, critique and pushing through (Said, 1994). Thirdly, any attempts made by schools and leaders to engage with Islamic education must stem from learning and the collective creation and alignment of the “right” aims (Merry, 2015, p. 147). By persisting and pushing, schools and leaders who operate by faith (Dantley, 2005) focus on helping students negotiate their identities and connect with their worlds (Ramadan, 2004).

Introduction: Breakfast is often referred to as the most important meal of the day. Evidence suggests that breakfast contributes to wellbeing in a number of areas. First, it is a central component of nutritional wellbeing, contributing to total daily energy and nutrient intake. Nearly 15% of college girls rarely or never ate breakfast, and those who ate breakfast almost every day (and did not often eat between meals) reported slightly but significantly better physical health than skippers. Eating breakfast is important for the health and development of young women. From clinical experience, there is great evidence that the frequency of irregular menstruation and intensity of dysmenorrhea was increased in young women, who were currently skipping meals, suggesting that diet in adolescence has long-lasting adverse effects on reproductive function in young women. Menstrual disorders frequently affect the quality of life of adolescents and young adult women. Breakfast as a part of healthful diet and lifestyle can positively impact children’s and young adults’ health and wellbeing. Daily eating habits significantly influence menstrual function in young women. We conducted the study to explore the association of skipping breakfast on menstruation. Objectives • To find out the proportion of girls with menstrual irregularity in those skipping breakfast; • To find out effect of breakfast skipping on menstruation among girls of age group 17–22 years. Method and Material: A cross-sectional study was used. The studied sample consisted of 90 female students of a selected college of Bhopal city. Data were collected by using an interviewing questionnaire. Analysis of the findings was done using Epi Info 7 software. Results: Mean age of the study participants was 20+3.66 years. Out of 90 students, 82% were found to have been skipping breakfast for more than 3 days a week. The study also revealed that dysmenorrhea was more in girls who skipped breakfast than in those who had breakfast (P=0.0001). Conclusion: From the above finding, we can conclude that episodes of dysmenorrhea occurred more in female students who skipped the breakfast meal more than those who took breakfast regularly.

Purpose The ubiquitous edited selfies on social networking sites (SNSs) demonstrate self-objectification, as young women begin to perceive themselves based on how they appear to others while taking, editing and posting their selfies. Our study proposes and tests a model that outlines two pathways through which viewing selfies on SNSs can influence young women's self-objectification and intention to undergo cosmetic surgery. Design/methodology/approach A survey company in China was commissioned to conduct a web-based survey of 604 young Chinese women using its national online panel of adult Internet users. Findings Young women's frequency of viewing sexually objectifying selfies on SNSs was positively associated with their internalization of beauty ideals and their perception that women tend to be objectified in social reality. The internalization and perceived social reality are positively associated with these young women's self-objectification, posting edited selfies and cosmetic surgery intention. Originality/value This study examines how young women's active engagement with edited selfies, including both viewing and posting them on SNSs, reinforces a culture of self-objectification, reshaping the traditional notions of objectification in digital space. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-12-2024-0805

This Girl Can, can’t she? Perspectives from physical activity providers and participants on what factors influence participation