Different Levels Of Socioeconomic Status Research Articles

Gene-environment interplay in internalizing problem behavior.

Behavior genetic methods are useful for examining mechanisms underlying the interaction between genetic and family environmental factors of internalizing problem behavior (INT). Previous twin studies, however, have shown little consistency in interaction patterns, depending on type and operationalization of measured environments. The aim of the current study was to explore different gene-by-environment interaction patterns among different family-level environmental risk factors and resources known to correlate with INT. Using an empirical-based approach, we combined various indicators of the family environment to derive four dimensions: positive parenting, negative parenting, lack of parental resources, and socioeconomic status. We then used a genetically informed design of twins raised in the same family to test whether interaction patterns followed a diathesis stress or vantage sensitivity model formulation. The sample consisted of 2,089 twin pairs and their families from two twin birth cohorts (ages 11 and 17) participating in Wave 1 of the German TwinLife study of social inequalities. In line with a vantage sensitivity pattern of interaction and with the bioecological model of development (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994), evidence for a general mechanism of gene-environment interaction with increasing nonshared environmental variance for more adverse and less propitious family conditions was found. In preadolescence, parenting behavior had a greater moderating influence on INT compared to general family conditions like socioeconomic status. Interventions for INT that directly involve parents, thus, may be more important in preadolescent populations whereas individual interventions for adolescents may be more successful if they are adapted to different levels of socioeconomic status. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Problems and Tasks of Higher Pedagogical Education at the Present Stage of Country’s Development

The analysis of the reasons why numerous attempts to update the Russian education system do not lead to the desired result and cause increasing criticism is carried out. One of the main reasons is seen in the violation of the systematic approach in solving the issues of the development of education in modern conditions. It is pointed out that the educational sphere, in fact, is always based on solving three problems: “what to teach”, “how to teach”, “why to teach”.The key question, that illuminates everything else, is the main question – in what social, economic and technological structure of society a person who receives education at any level, from preschool to university, has to live and work. Violation of the sequence of solving these problems, their inconsistency and the lack of a scientific justification ahead of the decisions made, inevitably lead to internal contradictions in the system being built and reduce its effectiveness.The analysis of why the Bologna system, which is widespread in a large number of countries with different levels of socio-economic status, turned out to be ineffective in Russia was made. It is shown that this system in its origin is a system of general higher non-professional education and an attempt to adapt it for receiving professional education in our country cannot be successful by its definition. It is said about the need of building a domestic multi-level system of professional higher education in modern conditions.

"More is better" or "better near the middle"? A U.S.-based individual participant data meta-analysis of socioeconomic status and depressive symptoms.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a widely researched construct in developmental science, yet less is known concerning relations between SES and adaptive behavior. Specifically, is the relation linear, with higher SES associated with better outcomes, or does the direction of association change at different levels of SES? Our aim was to examine linear ("more is better") and quadratic ("better near the middle") associations between components of SES (i.e., income, years of education, occupational status/prestige) and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale), and to explore moderation by developmental period (adolescence, young, middle, and older adulthood), gender/sex (female, male), and race/ethnicity (Asian American, Black, Latinx, multiracial, Native American, White). We hypothesized that there would be more support for a model containing quadratic associations. We conducted a two-stage meta-analytic structural equation model of 60 data sets (27,242 correlations, 498,179 participants) within the United States, accounting for dependencies between correlations, which were identified via the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research and handled using a two-step approach. Income was quadratically associated with depressive symptoms, but the quadratic model did not explain more variance in depressive symptoms than the linear model. Developmental period and race/ethnicity moderated the associations: Income was quadratically associated with depressive symptoms among middle-aged adults, and years of education were quadratically associated with depressive symptoms among White samples. Our findings suggest that researchers and clinical practitioners should consider the elevated risk of depressive symptoms for individuals from low and high-income backgrounds in the United States. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Human Capital in Territories with Different Level of Socio-Economic Well-Being: Assessment and Influence

Introduction. In modern foreign policy problems of Russia’s development, the need to implement the formation and preservation of the human capital of the population is increasing. Formation and effective use of human capital influences the creation of new technologies and products. At the same time, for many less developed regions – the so-called depressed territories – their socio-economic condition is associated with a low level of reproduction and implementation of the human capital of the population. The accumulation of human capital can have a beneficial effect on the development of depressed territories. The purpose of the article is to assess the human capital of municipalities with different levels of socio-economic status. Materials and Methods. The study has used a database of statistical indicators of municipalities of the Perm region. To assess the human capital of the population, we have used the index method, in which statistical indicators are combined into blocks: demography, education, health and sports, economics, culture. Results. A correlation between the values of the educational and demographic indices has been revealed. We have found a relationship between the level of socio-economic status of the territory and the educational index. Territories develop most rapidly in the presence of not only the necessary infrastructure for the formation of human capital, but also a developed economy. None of the development indices of the quality of human capital (education, health and sports, culture) have a direct impact on the economic growth of territories. In some depressed municipalities, there is a high birth rate of the population in the presence of social infrastructure and the quality of human resources necessary for the development of human capital. Discussion and Conclusion. The practical significance of the study is determined by the need to influence the regional policy of human capital management in peripheral and depressed territories. It is proposed to adopt at the legislative level mechanisms for identifying depressed areas and measures to support them. This article can be used in public administration to create a strategy for the spatial development of the country.

Disasters as opportunities for enhancing sustainability values: Disaster experience and environmental awareness in rural China

AbstractThis study evaluates whether people in general alter their perception of environmental pollution after disasters and the extent to which individual and contextual characteristics moderate this relationship. Results of multilevel regression analyses of data from rural China indicate that the experience of disasters heightens awareness of environmental pollution in local communities, net of various individual‐level and community‐level factors. Additionally, well‐maintained social relationships between villagers attenuate the impact of disasters and make people less aware of environmental pollution, and environmental degradation in the village enhances the impact and increases people's environmental awareness. Furthermore, the impact is not significantly different between residents in villages of different economic levels, and between residents of different levels of socioeconomic status. The results highlight the potential for promoting sustainability after experiencing disruptive shocks and stressors triggered by disasters, and demonstrate that it is crucial to understand environmental awareness as a dynamic process in changing local contexts.

Is School Funding Unequal in Latin America? A Cross-Country Analysis of Interregional Disparities in Public Spending

Education spending has increased significantly in Latin America, but less is known about how resources are distributed. Using original data, this study measures the inequality in per-pupil spending between regions with different levels of socioeconomic status within Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. We find that Brazil has the widest funding gap due to inequalities in local revenues between high- and low-socioeconomic-status regions. However, the country’s funding gap has narrowed over time. School funding in Colombia has become more regressive, but its gap is half the size of the gap in Brazil. The distribution of school funding in Peru has changed from being regressive to progressive. Education spending in Chile and in Ecuador is consistently progressive. However, while the progressiveness of funding in Ecuador is driven by transfers targeted at disadvantaged rural areas, the funding formulas in Chile address socioeconomic inequalities beyond the rural-urban gap.

Preschool Depression and Hippocampal Volume: The Moderating Role of Family Income.

Depression and low socioeconomic status have both been associated with hippocampal volume alterations. Whether these factors interact to predict neurobehavioral outcomes has not been adequately studied. The authors investigated family income as a moderator of the relationship between depression and hippocampal volume in a longitudinal sample. Longitudinal behavioral data, beginning at preschool age, and behavioral and neuroimaging data from school age to adolescence were used to assess the impact of preschool only and total preschool to adolescent depression symptoms on hippocampal volumes using family income as a moderator (N= 176). Depression severity during the preschool period interacted with family income to predict hippocampal volumes at the intercept (ie, age 13 years; B=-0.078, p= .003). Interaction decomposition revealed that only individuals with relatively high family income exhibited smaller hippocampal volume with increasing depression severity (B=-0.146, p= .005). Family income was associated with hippocampus volumes only in individuals with low to moderate preschool depression severity (B= 0.289, p= .007 and B= 0.169, p= .030, respectively). Preschool depression severity interacts with family income to predict hippocampal volume across development, such that the effects of early depression are evident only in those with higher income. These findings suggest that hippocampal volume may not be an effective marker of risk for depression at different levels of socioeconomic status, and emphasizes the importance of the environmental context when assessing risk markers for depression. Future research should explore how socioeconomic stress may eclipse the effects of depression on hippocampal development, setting alternative neurodevelopmental risk trajectories.

A prospective cohort study on socioeconomic status and risk of all-cause mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes based on latent class analysis

Objective: To investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A total of 17 553 patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited under the National Basic Public Health Service Project in Changshu county, Qingjiangpu district, and Huai'an district in Huai'an city of Jiangsu province as participants. Latent class analysis was applied to classify the individuals based on five socioeconomic indicators. Then, Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the associations of different levels of SES with all-cause mortality, and stratified analysis was performed according to age and area. Results: Among 100 529.08 person-years of the fo1low-up, the median follow-up time was 5.7 years, and 1 829 deaths occurred during the follow-up period. According to the relevant results of the latent class model, the model of the "three classes" was the best. The related population was then divided into low SES (8 256 people, 47.0%), medium SES (4 427 people, 25.2%), and high SES groups (4 870 people, 27.8%). Compared to patients with high SES, the multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (95%CI) of all-cause mortality associated with low SES for males and females were 1.84 (1.53-2.21) and 1.41 (1.51-1.72), respectively. Stratified analysis showed that the hazard ration (95%CI) of all-cause mortality associated with low SES for males and females were 1.99 (1.12-2.95) and 2.01 (1.20-3.23), respectively, in people younger than 60 years old, and were 1.90 (1.57-2.31) and 1.40 (1.13-1.73) in people over 60 years old. The HR values (95%CI) for all-cause mortality associated with low SES for the male and females were 1.54 (1.17-2.04) and 1.27 (1.02-1.59) in the urban population with 2.11 (1.55-2.85) and 2.64 (1.17-3.35) in rural population, respectively. Conclusions: Lower SES increased the risk of all-cause mortality in type 2 diabetic patients, which is more significant in younger and rural populations.

Cross-dimensional assimilation effect in facial trustworthiness evaluation: The asymmetry of in-group favoritism under the moderation of socioeconomic status

<p indent="0mm">It is common for within-dimensional assimilation effect in the social evaluation of faces under social context. Recent studies have also found a cross-dimensional assimilation effect in the facial trustworthiness evaluation with the socioeconomic status (SES) background information as social context. However, whether the SES of evaluators moderates this cross-dimensional assimilation effect remains unclear, since the relationship between evaluators and evaluatees has largely been ignored in studies of the assimilation effect. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether the SES of evaluators moderates the impact of the SES background information for evaluated faces on facial trustworthiness evaluation, and thereby to explore the broader theoretical issue on the interaction between evaluator and evaluatee on assimilation effect. There were two phases in the experiment. In the first phase, participants completed a status-color association training task, to learn how to associate colored backgrounds (purple/blue) with different levels of SES (high-SES/low-SES). This was to enable the participants to accurately perceive the SES information of the evaluated faces based on the background color in the subsequent evaluative task. In the second phase, they completed a facial trustworthiness rating task that used a 100-point scale to evaluate the trustworthiness of the faces displayed on colored backgrounds indicating high- or low-SES (<italic>T</italic>_high-SES/<italic>T</italic>_low-SES). After that, the facial trustworthiness baseline (<italic>T</italic>₀) was also measured by presenting participants the isolated faces without the colored backgrounds. The cross-dimensional assimilation effect of SES information of evaluated faces on facial trustworthiness (<italic>T</italic>_change) was calculated as follows: <italic>T</italic>_change=<italic>T</italic>_high-SES–<italic>T</italic>₀ or <italic>T</italic>₀–<italic>T</italic>_low-SES. One-sample <italic>t</italic>-test analysis revealed that the presence of high/low SES background information for the evaluated faces led to the evaluators’ trustworthiness evaluation being closer to the faces’ SES background information. That is, both the high and low SES information for the evaluated faces led to a significant assimilation effect on facial trustworthiness evaluation. But the assimilation of low SES information among low-SES participants is non-significant. Furthermore, a 2 (SES background information for evaluated faces: High vs. low) × 2 (SES of evaluators: High vs. low) repeated-measures ANOVA of the <italic>T</italic>_change showed a significant interaction of evaluators and evaluatees’ SES. Simple effect analysis revealed that the assimilation of low-SES information on facial trustworthiness evaluation among low-SES participants is significantly smaller than that among high-SES participants, which was also supported by the item-based ANOVA analysis. In summary, the results of the experiment suggested: (1) Both high-SES and low-SES information for evaluated faces exerted an assimilation effect on facial trustworthiness evaluation; (2) the assimilation effect is moderated by the SES of evaluators with an asymmetry of the in-group favoritism among high-SES evaluators and low-SES evaluators. The present study also contributed to the literature on the assimilation effect, by showing that: (1) Assimilation effect can occur not only between context and evaluative targets in the within dimension but also in cross-dimensions; (2) the social relationship between evaluator and evaluatee should be taken into account when evaluating the assimilation effect of social context.

Differential effects of socio-economic status and family environment of adolescents on their emotional intelligence, academic stress and academic achievement

In this paper the researcher has presented the results of a study conducted to find out whether adolescents belonging to different levels of Socio-economic status and Family Environment differ in their Emotional Intelligence, Academic Stress and Academic Achievement. The study was conducted on a sample of 858 adolescents studying in various secondary schools of Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh State, India. Standardized scales were employed for data collection. Multiple Analysis of variance technique (MANOVA) was applied to observe the effect. The homogeneity of the covariance matrices was verified using the Box’s M value. Results revealed that Socio-economic Status (SES) and Family Environment have significant effect on all the said variables. Post hoc analysis (Tukey HSD Test) findings revealed that differences exist with regard to Emotional Intelligence, Academic Stress and Academic Achievement among adolescent groups with different levels of Socioeconomic Status and Family Environment.

Predictors of Academic Achievement at Different Levels of Socioeconomic Status

Success is a concept that is desired by everyone. In the Turkish education system, Anatolian high schools are considered one of the most prestigious schools which accept students via national central exams. The purpose of this study is to reveal indicators explaining the placement into Anatolian high schools, which is an important sign of success, in socioeconomically different regions. Logistic regression analyses were used as a prediction design. Data was collected from the 1049 10th grade high school students in Istanbul. According to findings, the indicators affecting the probability of studying in Anatolian high school differ between the low life quality indexed region (LLQR) and the high life quality indexed region (HLQR). In LLQR GPA, gender, number of people in the household, and mother&amp;rsquo;s monetary contribution were found as significant indicators. In HLQR GPA, father&amp;rsquo;s income and mother&amp;rsquo;s education level were found as significant indicators. These results are discussed using the main theories of educational sociology.

Health Inequality Analysis in Europe: Exploring the Potential of the EQ-5D as Outcome.

Objective: This study explored the additive value of the multi-item EuroQol 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) as an outcome measure in health inequality analyses, relative to the single-item EuroQol visual analog scale (EQ VAS).Methods: A sample comprising the general population from Italy, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom (UK) completed the EQ-5D-5L and the EQ VAS. The level of education was selected as a proxy for socio-economic status (SES). EQ-5D-5L level sum scores (LSS) were compared against EQ VAS scores. Stratified and multivariable analyses were used to study the associations between SES and the LSS/EQ VAS relative to the presence of chronic health conditions.Results: A total of 10,172 people participated in this study. In the UK and Netherlands, the LSS was worst for respondents with a low educational level and better for respondents with middle and high educational levels. For Italy, the LSS was best for respondents with a middle educational level compared to respondents with low and high educational levels. The same patterns were observed for the EQ VAS, but differences were slightly smaller. Multivariable analyses showed generally stronger predictive relations in the UK, and with the LSS. The presence of chronic health conditions and being unable to work were independent strong predictors, canceling out the effects of education.Conclusions: In three different European countries, the EQ-5D measures show the presence of education-dependent health inequalities, which are universally explained in regression analysis by independently the presence of chronic health conditions and the inability to work. In stratified analysis, the EQ-5D-5L LSS discriminates slightly better between participants with different levels of SES compared to the EQ VAS.

Entomological characterization of Aedes mosquitoes and arbovirus detection in Ibagu\xe9, a Colombian city with co-circulation of Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses

BackgroundDengue, Zika and chikungunya are arboviruses of significant public health importance that are transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. In Colombia, where dengue is hyperendemic, and where chikungunya and Zika were introduced in the last decade, more than half of the population lives in areas at risk. The objective of this study was to characterize Aedes spp. vectors and study their natural infection with dengue, Zika and chikungunya in Ibagué, a Colombian city and capital of the department of Tolima, with case reports of simultaneous circulation of these three arboviruses.MethodsMosquito collections were carried out monthly between June 2018 and May 2019 in neighborhoods with different levels of socioeconomic status. We used the non-parametric Friedman, Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests to compare mosquito density distributions. We applied logistic regression analyses to identify associations between mosquito density and absence/presence of breeding sites, and the Spearman correlation coefficient to analyze the possible relationship between climatic variables and mosquito density.ResultsWe collected Ae. aegypti in all sampled neighborhoods and found for the first time Ae. albopictus in the city of Ibagué. A greater abundance of mosquitoes was collected in neighborhoods displaying low compared to high socioeconomic status as well as in the intradomicile compared to the peridomestic space. Female mosquitoes predominated over males, and most of the test females had fed on human blood. In total, four Ae. aegypti pools (3%) were positive for dengue virus (serotype 1) and one pool for chikungunya virus (0.8%). Interestingly, infected females were only collected in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status, and mostly in the intradomicile space.ConclusionsWe confirmed the co-circulation of dengue (serotype 1) and chikungunya viruses in the Ae. aegypti population in Ibagué. However, Zika virus was not detected in any mosquito sample, 3 years after its introduction into the country. The positivity for dengue and chikungunya viruses, predominance of mosquitoes in the intradomicile space and the high proportion of females fed on humans highlight the high risk for arbovirus transmission in Ibagué, but may also provide an opportunity for establishing effective control strategies.Graphical abstract

The effect of hazard awareness training on teen drivers of varying socioeconomic status

Objective To compare the effectiveness of the Risk Awareness and Perception Training (RAPT) program among teens of various socioeconomic status (SES). Methods A secondary analysis was undertaken of data collected from 5036 teen participants for a study in 2011. They were randomly assigned to either receive RAPT or a placebo training. The total number of crashes (property damage only and injury) within the first 12 months after licensure was recorded. A Poisson regression model was employed to investigate the effectiveness of RAPT in terms of crash frequency among teens in different levels of SES, as measured by SES level (high or low) or poverty rate. Results Poverty rate was significantly associated with participants’ crash frequency within the first 12 months after licensure such that when poverty rate increased, the crash frequency increased. The interacting effect of poverty rate and training was also significant. When compared to participants who did not receive RAPT, participants who received RAPT had fewer crashes when poverty rate increased. Conclusion The RAPT program attenuated the negative effect of teen drivers’ SES on crashes. No significant effect of sex or age was found, indicating that in terms of crashes, regardless of age or sex, RAPT is equally effective at reducing crashes for lower SES teens.

Mental Health Issues among Caregivers of Young Children in Rural China: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Links to Child Developmental Outcomes.

Previous research has found that there are high rates of mental health problems among caregivers in rural China and that caregiver mental health may be a significant predictor of developmental delays among infants and toddlers in these rural areas. In this paper, we use data from a survey of 986 caregiver-child pairs in rural China to examine the risk factors of caregiver mental health and measure the association between caregiver mental health and child development outcomes. To conduct the empirical analysis, we assess caregiver mental health using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire and measure child developmental outcomes using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Developmental Third Edition (Bayley-III). The results show that 32% of caregivers have depressive symptoms, 42% have anxiety symptoms, and 30% have symptoms of stress. The data also demonstrate that caregiver identity and age as well as different measures of socioeconomic status (SES) (characterized by caregiver education, father’s education, and household wealth) are all significantly linked to symptoms of caregiver mental health problems. The analysis shows that caregiver depression, anxiety, and/or stress are significantly associated with lower early childhood development (ECD) outcomes in all areas measured (cognition, language, social-emotion, and motor skills). The heterogeneous analysis demonstrates that there are differences in the effects of caregiver mental health problems on ECD among households are from families that are endowed with different levels of SES. On the basis of the findings the study concludes that policymakers should pay more attention to caregiver mental health problems in order to improve child developmental outcomes in rural China. The study cannot, however, draw casual conclusions and cannot rule out the possibility of recall bias when measuring caregiver mental health, which may limit the external validity of the findings.

Estimates of gelotophobia and perceived stress among obese individuals.

The present research was carried out to estimate gelotophobia among obese individuals. Perceived stress and differences on socio-demographic factors were also studied. The survey design cross-sectional study was conducted from January to June in 2018. A sample of 70 consenting participants (men = 22, women = 48) with BMI ≥ 25 were recruited through purposive sampling. The instruments of Geloph<15> and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were used to assess the level of gelotophobia and level of stress in the sample. Demographic details of sample were also recorded to achieve study objectives. The estimate of gelotophobia among obese individuals in the current study showed that 45(64.2%) majority sample had moderate level of gelotophobia, while 7(10%) of the sample had high level of gelotophobia. Statistically significant differences were observed in the level of gelotophobia among individuals having different levels of socio-economic status (p < .05) and with history of being ridiculed by peers (p < .05). However, the present study did not show any significant demographic difference in perceived stress (p > .05). The findings of the study could provide evidence in favour of developing and implementing suitable intervention programmmes to help control risk of gelotophobia among obese individuals. The study could also assist in creating awareness and understanding about harmful consequences of bullying and nurturing a healthier narrative of conversations and humour among the youth.

Handling Heterogeneity in Assessing Residential Satisfaction

Residential satisfaction depends on housing and neighborhood conditions in addition to housing cost affordability. To determine the relative importance of these factors, their average effect is usually estimated using sample data, eventually split in subsamples to represent different levels of socioeconomic status. A concern about the division of households into groups is that, as groups are modified or group assignments change, results of quantitative analysis applied to such data can dramatically change. This article follows a subjective well‐being approach to study residential satisfaction. We propose a novel empirical design to estimate how the effect of drivers of residential satisfaction change across household income distribution. We apply our empirical design to investigate residential satisfaction in 23 European countries using 2012 EU‐SILC module on housing conditions. Our results show that: (i) in Europe, residential satisfaction is driven first by housing‐specific characteristics, followed by neighborhood conditions and individual/household characteristics; (ii) the probability to be satisfied or very satisfied strongly differs across countries, everything else being equal; (iii) residents with different socioeconomic status attach importance to particular factors affecting residential satisfaction.

Schoolchildren’s Body Mass Index and Dietary Practices Vary Across Socio-Economic Status in Kenya

Abstract Objectives We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity among schoolchildren at different levels of socio-economic status in Kenya. We explore children's weight status and dietary practices in the current analysis. Methods The research study was conducted in Nairobi and Kisumu, the largest and the third-largest cities in Kenya. Three public schools, catering to children from households at low, medium and high socio-economic status were purposively selected to participate in the study in each city. Data was collected among children within the ages of 10–12 years enrolled in grades 4–6 at each school. Trained enumerators measured children's weights and heights. Parents, with the help of their respective schoolchildren, completed questionnaires on schoolchildren's dietary practices including consumption of fruits, vegetables, snacks foods, confectioneries, beverages and restaurant foods. Completed sets of body measurements and dietary practices data were available for 390 children. We used Wilcoxon-Mann Whitney, Kruskal Wallis and chi-square tests to compare schoolchildren's weight status and dietary practices across cities and school income status. Results Over 15% of the schoolchildren were overweight, 5.5% were obese and 3% were stunted. Schoolchildren's weight status did not significantly differ across cities. However, % of overweight or obese children were significantly higher among children attending high-income schools compared to those in middle- and low-income schools. Frequency of consumption of red meats, fries and take-away foods, and amount of fruit juice consumed per week were significantly higher among children enrolled in high-income schools. Frequency of consumption of breakfast, eating meals in front of a screen and amount of milk consumed per week were significantly lower among children enrolled in low-income schools. Conclusions This study increases our understanding of dietary practices and overweight and obesity patterns among schoolchildren, and contributes to obesity prevention efforts in Kenya. Additional analysis will explore the relationship between dietary practices, and overweight and obesity. Funding Sources John Hopkins University.

Estimating the Heritability of Experiencing Child Maltreatment in an Extended Family Design.

Child-driven genetic factors can contribute to negative parenting and may increase the risk of being maltreated. Experiencing childhood maltreatment may be partly heritable, but results of twin studies are mixed. In the current study, we used a cross-sectional extended family design to estimate genetic and environmental effects on experiencing child maltreatment. The sample consisted of 395 individuals (225 women; M age = 38.85 years, rangeage = 7–88 years) from 63 families with two or three participating generations. Participants were oversampled for experienced maltreatment. Self-reported experienced child maltreatment was measured using a questionnaire assessing physical and emotional abuse, and physical and emotional neglect. All maltreatment phenotypes were partly heritable with percentages for h 2 ranging from 30% (SE = 13%) for neglect to 62% (SE = 19%) for severe physical abuse. Common environmental effects (c 2) explained a statistically significant proportion of variance for all phenotypes except for the experience of severe physical abuse (c 2 = 9%, SE = 13%, p = .26). The genetic correlation between abuse and neglect was ρg = .73 (p = .02). Common environmental variance increased as socioeconomic status (SES) decreased (p = .05), but additive genetic and unique environmental variances were constant across different levels of SES.

Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Trajectories Following the Fatal 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand Earthquake.

People respond differently to potentially traumatic events. To explore predictors of a chronic and delayed trajectory of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after a natural disaster, we analyzed psychometric data collected from 412 residents of Christchurch, New Zealand after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck in February 2011. Participants from suburbs with different levels of socioeconomic status (SES) and earthquake impact completed a door-to-door survey 4-7 months after the earthquake (Time 1; N = 600) and again 10-11 months after the earthquake (Time 2; N = 412). The survey included the Acute Stress Disorder Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire's nine-item Depression subscale, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale, along with single-item measures of variables including aftershock anxiety and family tension. Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory was used to guide data interpretation. High levels of depression, odds ratio (OR) = 1.24, and anxiety, OR = 1.24, at Time 1 significantly predicted membership in the chronic trajectory. Predictors of a delayed onset of symptoms included increased aftershock anxiety, OR = 1.29, and family tension, OR = 1.35, over time, as well as living in an area defined as being of low, OR = 5.36, or medium, OR = 11.39, SES. Results highlight risk factors for elevated PTSS and resources that individuals can use to offset threatened loss. These findings have implications for service providers, agencies, and the public.