Socio-ecological Environments Research Articles

“Doing our best to keep a routine:” How low-income mothers manage child feeding with unpredictable work and family schedules

Significant changes in work and family conditions over the last three decades have important implications for understanding how young children are fed. The new conditions of work and family have placed pressures on families. The aim of this study was to explore the work and family pressures shaping the ways parents feed their young children on a day-to-day basis. Twenty-two purposively recruited low-income employed mothers of 3–4 year old children from a rural county Head Start program in Upstate New York reported details about the context of their children's eating episodes in a 24-h qualitative dietary recall. Participating mothers were employed and/or in school at least 20 h a week and varied in partner and household characteristics. Interview transcripts were open coded using the constant comparative method for usual ways of feeding children. A typology of three emergent child feeding routines was identified based on mothers' accounts of the recurring ways they fed their child. Mothers' feeding routines were distinguished by a combination of four recurring key strategies – planning ahead, delegating, making trade-offs, and coordinating. Work schedule predictability and other adults helped mothers maintain feeding routines. Unexpected daily events, such as working overtime or waking up late, disrupted child feeding routines and required modifications. These findings suggest that understanding how young children are fed requires recognizing the socio-ecological environments that involve working mothers' daily schedules and household conditions and the multiple ways that mothers manage food and feeding to fit environmental constraints. There is a need to look at more than just family meals to understand parents' daily strategies for feeding young children and their implications for child nutrition.

Invasive alien species on islands: impacts, distribution, interactions and management

SUMMARYInvasive alien species (IASs) on islands have broad impacts across biodiversity, agriculture, economy, health and culture, which tend to be stronger than on continents. Across small-island developing states (SIDSs), although only a small number of IASs are widely distributed, many more, including those with greatest impact, are found on only a small number of islands. Patterns of island invasion are not consistent across SIDS geographic regions, with differences attributable to correlated patterns in island biogeography and human development. We identify 15 of the most globally prevalent IASs on islands. IAS impacts on islands are exacerbated through interactions with a number of other global change threats, including over-exploitation, agricultural intensification, urban development and climate change. Biosecurity is critical in preventing IAS invasion of islands. Eradication of IASs on islands is possible at early stages of invasion, but otherwise is largely restricted to invasive mammals, or otherwise control is the only option. Future directions in IAS management and research on islands must consider IASs within a broader portfolio of threats to species, ecosystems and people's livelihoods on islands. We advocate for stronger collaborations among island countries and territories faced with the same IASs in similar socio-ecological environments.

Plant Knowledge in Children Who Inhabit Diverse Socio-Ecological Environments in Northwestern Patagonia

In this study, we analyzed plant knowledge in children living in three environments of northwestern Patagonia. Given the differential socio-ecological circumstances of children's lifestyles that condition their daily activities and perception-action patterns, we hypothesize that their plant knowledge will differ according to their socio-ecological environments. We conducted semi-structured interviews, in which children were asked to mention which plants they knew, what they used them for, how and where they had learned about plants, and whether they gathered or cultivated plants. We interviewed 73 children who were 11 to 12 years old from urban, semi-urban, and rural contexts. Our results showed similarities in the plant knowledge of children inhabiting the same type of socio-cultural environment. Children from rural habitats mentioned a greater diversity of plants, more native species, more plants for medicinal and edible use, and more trees and herbs than children from semi-urban and urban areas. Additi...

Intergenerational transmission of violence and resilience in conflict-affected Burundi: a qualitative study of why some children thrive despite duress.

Research suggests that in environments where community conflict and violence are chronic or cyclical, caregiving can impact how children may begin to reproduce violence throughout the various stages of their lives. The aim of this study is to understand how caregiving affects processes of reproducing violence and resilience among children in conflict-affected Burundi. We combined a socio-ecological model of child development with a child-actor perspective. We operationalized the core concepts 'vulnerable household', 'resilience', and 'caregiving' iteratively in culturally relevant ways, and put children's experiences at the center of the inquiry. We carried out a comparative case study among 74 purposively sampled vulnerable households in six collines in three communes in three provinces in the interior of Burundi. Burundian field researchers conducted three consecutive interviews; with the head of the household, the main caregiver, and a child. Our findings reveal a strong congruence between positive caregiving and resilience among children. Negative caregiving was related to negative social behavior among children. Other resources for resilience appeared to be limited. The overall level of household conditions and embedment in communities attested to a generalized fragile ecological environment. In conflict-affected socio-ecological environments, caregiving can impact children's functioning and their role in reproducing violence. Interventions that support caregivers in positive caregiving are promising for breaking cyclical violence.

Implications of urbanism for the use of local news media: effects of population concentration on types of news acquisition in Japan

ABSTRACTThe Internet, a global computer network enabling people to send and receive information anywhere in the world, also functions as a local medium of communication. This study focuses on the role of the Internet in transmitting local news and examines the effects of community population concentrations as socio-ecological environments on the use of local news media consumed online and offline. Data from 1367 respondents across 156 Japanese communities were used to analyze the relationships between type of community and type of news source. The findings suggest that people who live in highly populated communities tend more often to use the Internet to access local news, whereas those in less populated communities tend to use more traditional mass media. However, the results of this study did not show a relationship between population concentrations within communities and the acquisition of international news, nor did the social features of residents adequately explain the effects of population concentration on the acquisition of local news. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions based on network externalities, urbanism, and collective action. The findings indicate that local news consumption is embedded in local social contexts in a way that international news is not, reinforcing the importance of urbanism in the information age.

Environmental Assessment in the Arctic: A Gap Analysis and Research Agenda

Environmental assessment (EA) is employed across the Arctic to assess, mitigate, and monitor the impacts of resource development. Despite the increasing pressures of resource development on Arctic communities and ecosystems and the growing demands for more efficient and effective EA processes, little is known about the needs and priorities of research that will help us to understand and improve EA and its relevance to Arctic communities. A gap analysis of EA research across eight Arctic nations, based on a review of the scholarly literature, government research and policy documents, and a questionnaire survey of Arctic EA scholars, addressed both project-based EA and strategic EA that focused on policy, planning, and regional assessment. Results indicate seven priority research themes: understanding community and stakeholder expectations about EA; assessing the efficiency and responsiveness of EA to rapidly changing socio-ecological and regulatory environments; examining the influence of EA on development decisions; addressing the capacity for meaningful engagement in EA; strengthening the relationship between EA and land-use planning and Arctic science programs; demonstrating the value of regional EA; and assessing the ability of EA to respond to the reality of climate change. These are not the only areas where further EA research is needed, but they are critical to the effectiveness of EA in the Arctic and to ensuring its relevance to Arctic communities.

Socio-ecological school environments and children’s health and wellbeing outcomes

Purpose – Attention to improving the school environment is a common activity in school health promotion. The role of the school environment in supporting improved health and wellbeing has a theoretical base, but has rarely been directly investigated empirically. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the associations between school socio-ecological environment and health and wellbeing outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaire data were collected from 231 pupils in nine primary schools: urban and rural; single and mixed gender; disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged; and health promoting schools (HPS) and non-HPS. Questionnaire items included perceptions of the school socio- ecological environment (school perception, class relationships, teacher relationships, school policy and parental participation) and health and wellbeing outcomes. Findings – Reported school perception (OR 1.21, 95 per cent CI 1.12-1.30), class relationships (OR 1.13, 95 per cent CI 1.06-1.21), relationship with teacher (OR 1.20, 95 per cent CI 1.11-1.29), perception of school policy (OR 1.25, 95 per cent CI 1.13-1.37) and parents’ participation in school life (OR 1.32, 95 per cent CI 1.15-1.51) were all significantly associated with health and wellbeing outcomes for all groups of pupils. Very few differences emerged between different school types on the measures of either school socio-ecological environment or measures of health and wellbeing. Originality/value – The socio-ecological environment is clearly related to general health and wellbeing outcomes, which underlines its relevance to school health promotion. The lack of discernable differences between HPS and non-HPS demonstrate the lack of clarity in definitions of the health promoting status of schools.

A Qualitative, Exploratory Study of Predominantly Female Parental Perceptions of Consumer Health Technology Use by Their Overweight and/or Obese Female Adolescent Participating in a Fee-Based 4-Week Weight-Management Intervention

Consumer health technologies (CHTs) are a growing part of the continuum of care for self-management of overweight and obesity. Parents positively or negatively influence adolescent weight-management efforts and are especially important throughout continuum of care settings. User-centered design (UCD) applications have been developed to assist primary users, such as adolescents, with their weight management, but less is known about the influence of parents as secondary users across many socio-ecological environments. The purpose of this study was to use the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to inform the design of a UCD application in a qualitative study that sought to determine parental views on how technology can support previously learned behaviors that require ongoing management and support beyond formal lifestyle interventions. Parents of overweight and obese adolescents (n=14) were interviewed about perceived usefulness and planned user-intent of CHT that was designed for adolescents. UTAUT provided theoretical parental constructs (intention, performance and effort expectancy, and social influence) interactions within several socio-ecological contexts, including the home food environment and restaurant dining experiences. Although generalizations of this qualitative study are limited by a small sample size with predominantly mothers (n=13) of overweight and obese daughters (n=12), the exploratory inquiry using a parent as a secondary consumer user can complement the adoption of applications designed by adolescents.

Salute, vulnerabilitÀ e fragilitÀ: fra determinanti e disposizioni

Boundary lines between medicine and social sciences have often been crossed in either direction during the course of their history. Lately the re-discovery of social determinants in health inequalities recalls the tradition of the socio-medical inquiries that that characterized the XIX and the XX century, while the epidemiological scenario of the latter has long included social daily life functioning in the evaluation, prevention and care of most important chronic diseases. Vulnerability is a new concept for the explanation of health inequalities. It is not a causal but a dispositional concept so it triggers events under certain environmental circumstances; it is systemic in its essence, being complementary to resilience; it was first applied to the socio-ecological environments of the third world. It was recently regarded as suitable for the western post-modern risk societies in health sociology in particular by describing both systems undergoing fatal shocks (i.e. pandemic/epidemic risk fatalities) as well as vulnerable trajectories throughout individual course of lives. By including basic factors such as social determinants of inequality vulnerability contends with frailty its importance in medical sciences, while, as a disposition, it is increased or decreased by socio-structural as well as individual action. Its inclusion in health sociology studies requires middle range theories such as those on coping and on social capital both at the individual and community level.

Influenza A H5N1 immigration is filtered out at some international borders.

BackgroundGeographic spread of highly pathogenic influenza A H5N1, the bird flu strain, appears a necessary condition for accelerating the evolution of a related human-to-human infection. As H5N1 spreads the virus diversifies in response to the variety of socioecological environments encountered, increasing the chance a human infection emerges. Genetic phylogenies have for the most part provided only qualitative evidence that localities differ in H5N1 diversity. For the first time H5N1 variation is quantified across geographic space.Methodology and Principal FindingsWe constructed a statistical phylogeography of 481 H5N1 hemagglutinin genetic sequences from samples collected across 28 Eurasian and African localities through 2006. The MigraPhyla protocol showed southern China was a source of multiple H5N1 strains. Nested clade analysis indicated H5N1 was widely dispersed across southern China by both limited dispersal and long distance colonization. The UniFrac metric, a measure of shared phylogenetic history, grouped H5N1 from Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam with those from southeastern Chinese provinces engaged in intensive international trade. Finally, H5N1's accumulative phylogenetic diversity was greatest in southern China and declined beyond. The gradient was interrupted by areas of greater and lesser phylogenetic dispersion, indicating H5N1 migration was restricted at some geopolitical borders. Thailand and Vietnam, just south of China, showed significant phylogenetic clustering, suggesting newly invasive H5N1 strains have been repeatedly filtered out at their northern borders even as both countries suffered recurring outbreaks of endemic strains. In contrast, Japan, while successful in controlling outbreaks, has been subjected to multiple introductions of the virus.ConclusionsThe analysis demonstrates phylogenies can provide local health officials with more than hypotheses about relatedness. Pathogen dispersal, the functional relationships among disease ecologies across localities, and the efficacy of control efforts can also be inferred, all from viral genetic sequences alone.

Elevated acute-phase protein in stunted Nepali children reporting low morbidity: different rural and urban profiles.

This study examined the associations between severity of stunting, plasma protein concentrations and morbidity of 104 Nepali boys, aged 10-14 years, living in contrasting environments. Boys from a remote village were compared with three similarly aged urban groups: poor squatters, homeless street children, and middle-class schoolchildren. All but the middle-class group were stunted, particularly village boys whose mean height-for-age z-score (-2.97, SD 0.82) indicates severe growth retardation. Stunting was significantly associated with increased plasma levels of the acute-phase protein alpha1-antichymotrypsin itself inversely related to plasma levels of albumin. Plasma ACT levels of village children (mean 1.52 g/l, SD 0.43) were three to four times higher than those of squatters and homeless street children, and five times higher than those of middle-class boys. Despite being the most severely stunted and having the most abnormal plasma protein values, village children reported the lowest burden of disease, a contradiction which may reflect exposure to sub-clinical infections or habituation to illness and low expectation of treatment. This study draws attention to the strikingly high levels of ACT and of stunting in the rural sample, and cautions on the use of uncorroborated morbidity reports across different epidemiological and socio-ecological environments. Possible mechanisms to explain the impact of illness and inflammation on growth faltering are discussed.

Society and economy of the tribal belt in Pakistan

This study investigates the relationship between the socio-ecological and economic environments of the tribal belt of Pakistan and points out the importance of an understanding of traditional society in devising socio-economic policies and implementing development programs in the area. Considering some of the problems of the social system, it suggests that development policies addressed to tribal problems should be regional in scope. Planning policies should be designed to limit the importance of resource base factors, whereas the social value system should play a significant role in restructuring the economy. Moreover, development policies should provide a means of combining the communities in an interactive system.

The Development of the Environmental Assessment Scale

The Environmental Asscssment Scale (EAS) was designed to measure the socio-ecological environments in psychiatric occupational therapy settings for the purpose of evaluating environment-person interactions in treatment. Two hundred and forty-two patients from 12 clinics participated. Levels of significance for seven of the nine subscales and the total test score ranged from .10 to .01. Test-retest correlations ranged from .59 to .84. The internal consistency correlations within subscales ranged from .45 to .73. The test was moderately correlated with the Ward Atmosphere Scale but did not duplicate it. Within clinics the EAS was not correlated with scores on the MMPI-168, thus supporting the fact that illness was not related to the EAS scores.