Katholische Hochschule Nordrhein-Westfalen, Köln
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- Antisemitismus (2)
- COVID-19 (2)
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- Attentional bias (1)
- Aufmerksamkeitstest (1)
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Background
Reduced birthweight is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes later in life. Children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk for reduced birthweight. The current study aimed to identify the key risk factors affecting birthweight in a well-characterized sample of adolescent mothers to inform preventive public health efforts.
Methods
Sixty-four adolescent mothers (≤ 21 years of age) provided detailed data on pregnancy, birth and psychosocial risk. Separate regression analyses with (1) birthweight and (2) low birthweight (LBW) as outcomes, and pregnancy complications, prenatal care, maternal age, substance abuse during pregnancy, socioeconomic risk, stressful life events and the child’s sex as independent variables were conducted. Exploratively, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to investigate the quality of the discriminatory power of the risk factors.
Results
The following variables explained variance in birthweight significantly: prenatal care attendance (p = .006), pregnancy complications (p = .006), and maternal substance abuse during pregnancy (p = .044). Prenatal care attendance (p = .023) and complications during pregnancy (p = .027) were identified as significant contributors to LBW. Substance abuse (p = .013), pregnancy complications (p = .022), and prenatal care attendance (p = .044) showed reasonable accuracy in predicting low birthweight in the ROC analysis.
Conclusions
Among high-risk adolescent mothers, both biological factors, such as pregnancy complications, and behavioural factors amenable to intervention, such as substance abuse and insufficient prenatal care, seem to contribute to reduced birthweight in their children, a predisposing factor for poorer health outcomes later in life. More tailored intervention programmes targeting the specific needs of this high-risk group are needed.
Childhood adversity has been suggested to affect the vulnerability for developmental psychopathology, including both externalizing and internalizing symptoms. This study examines spontaneous attention biases for negative and positive emotional facial expressions as potential intermediate phenotypes. In detail, typically developing boys (6–13 years) underwent an eye-tracking paradigm displaying happy, angry, sad and fearful faces. An approach bias towards positive emotional facial expressions with increasing childhood adversity levels was found. In addition, an attention bias away from negative facial expressions was observed with increasing childhood adversity levels, especially for sad facial expressions. The results might be interpreted in terms of emotional regulation strategies in boys at risk for reactive aggression and depressive behaviour.
Objective: The current study explored the role of maternal depressive symptoms in the intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment and developmental psychopathology. Based on the sensitive window hypothesis, the effects of earlier versus later maternal depression symptoms on child development were analysed.
Method: Ninety-nine mother-child dyads, 65% of which had high-risk teenage mothers, participated in a longitudinal study with three assessments in the first 18 months of the child’s life (T1–T3) and a 4th reassessment (T4) at the child’s preschool age. Using serial mediation analyses, we tested whether the relationship between the mother’s own maltreatment history (Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire) and the child’s psychopathological outcome at preschool age was mediated in a causal effect chain by maternal depression in the first 2 years of life, by current maternal depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II) and by current maternal child abuse potential (Child Abuse Potential Inventory). The children’s emotional problems and externalizing symptoms were assessed at preschool age by parent or teacher Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire ratings.
Results: The results indicated that especially later maternal depression mediated the relationship between maternal childhood maltreatment and negative developmental outcomes in the next generation. The effects of maltreatment type on maternal depression were rather nonspecific. However, mental abuse affected existing risk factors more directly over time compared to physical and sexual abuse. Additionally, the impact of early life maltreatment and maternal depression on child psychopathology varied by rater. The pathway to externalizing symptoms was significant only in teacher ratings and for the pathway to emotional problems only in maternal ratings.
Conclusions: The present findings suggest that early maternal depression followed by ongoing maternal depression plays a mediating role in the intergenerational cycle of maltreatment. Therefore, in the future, interventions should be offered at an early stage, but also extend well beyond the first 2 years of a child’s life, addressing maternal depression and trauma.
Background: The measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have led to significant changes in people’s daily lives. This paper examines changes in substance use during the first lockdown (March–July 2020) and investigates mental health burdens in substance users with increased consumption of alcohol, nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in Germany compared to users with unchanged or reduced consumption. Method: In a cross-sectional online survey, 2369 people were asked about their mental health and their substance use during the first lockdown in Germany. Results: Of the participants, 28.5% increased their alcohol use, 28.8% their use of tobacco products, and 20.6% their use of THC-containing products during the pandemic. The groups with increased alcohol, nicotine, and THC use during the first lockdown reported more depressive symptoms and anxiety. Individuals who reported increased consumption of alcohol or nicotine were also more likely to experience loneliness and have suicidal thoughts and were more often stressed due to social distancing. Conclusion: Alcohol, nicotine and THC increased in a subgroup of consumers who reported to have more mental health problems compared to individuals who did not increase their consumption. This increased substance use could, therefore, be understood as a dysfunctional strategy to cope with negative emotions during the lockdown.
This paper will present in broad strokes the professional lifespan and philosophical doctrine of Israeli educational philosopher Ilan Gur-Ze’ev (1955-2012). Major attention will be devoted to his articulation of the concept of “new antisemitism,” which seeks to capture the uniqueness of the contemporary form of antisemitism. Compared to “older” forms of antisemitism, which situated the Jews in opposition to western civilization, as its ultimate “other,” contemporary progressive thinkers identify “Jewishness” and Jewish ideas such a “chosenness,” “elitism” and “uniqueness,” as the innate evil embedded deep within the “suppressing, white, colonial patriarchy” of the Judo-Christian civilization. Thus, the redemption of the soul of the new progressive thinker from the historical sins of western civilization, involves cleansing it from its “Jewishness.” It also involves an attack on the physical representation of everything that is wrong in western civilization – the Jewish state.
Background
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic not only threatens physical health, but also affects the mental health of people. Yet, health consequences of the pandemic do not affect all members of society equally. We therefore assessed the mental health burden of individuals who are at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 compared to individuals who are at low risk of severe illness during the first lockdown (March, 2020) in Germany. Furthermore, we investigated variables mediating the effect of being an individual at increased risk of serve illness on depression.
Methods
Adult German residents (n = 2.369) provided responses to a cross-sectional online survey about risk factors for of severe illness from Covid-19 and various aspects of mental health during the first lockdown in Germany. For data collection, standardized and validated self-report measures were used and for data analysis Mann-Whitney U-tests as well as regression and mediation analyses were performed.
Results
The results clearly show that the mental health burden is higher among individuals at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 compared to individuals at low risk of severe illness from Covid-19. Moreover, our findings indicate that the association between Covid-19 risk status and depressive symptoms is mediated by concerns about mental health, anxiety and loneliness in a causal effect chain.
Conclusions
Individuals at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 have an increased need for psychosocial support during times of lockdown. Future public health policies should pay special attention to these individuals and support them by targeted offers. More research, however, is needed on possible long-term consequences of social distancing on mental health.
In order to make justice work, participation and reconciliation is needed within and between societies, peoples, and nations. In this compilation, authors - senior academics as well as students from Bethlehem University, Israel, and the Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany – contribute to this important field. Thus, to some extent, the book in itself is an example of the subjects it deals with.
Combating antisemitism is a young policy field with regard to structured state action. The article presents the relevance of combating antisemi-tism and its emergence as a decided state task in order to show exemplarily, using the Berlin model of combating antisemitism as an example, how it is concretely implemented in state action. Berlin is chosen for three reasons: First, the state of Berlin is the first and only federal state to have a cross-departmental concept for combating an-tisemitism. Second, the Berlin model is based on integrative cooperation between state and civil society agencies. Third, looking at Berlin allows for the perspective of interlocking different ver-tical differentiations of administration, since the state of Berlin is at the same time a large city, which with its twelve districts has administrative dimensions that correspond to those of other large German cities, in each case and in them-selves. In the absence of a federal comparative perspective, the focus of the article is descrip-tive-explorative.
Background: The present study examined the extent to which grit, self-efficacy, and resilience are present in newly immigrated adolescents and how they differ from the norm population. The data was also examined for gender differences and correlations with the variables.
Methods: The study examined newly immigrated adolescents (n=55) while using RS-13 (Resilience Scale), GSE (General Self-efficacy Scale) and the Grit-Scale. Furthermore, sociodemographic variables like age, religion and gender were collected. The study variables were self-reported and t-tests, asymptotic Mann-Whitney- U -Test and Bravais-Pearson correlation analysis were performed.
Results: The participants showed a lower score regarding grit and general self-efficacy compared to the norm population, but they exhibited a higher resilience-score. Female participants demonstrated a lower resilience-score than male participants. Male participants showed lower general self-efficacy compared to female participants. There were no gender differences with regard to grit. The data revealed a negative correlation between resilience and grit and resilience and general self-efficacy.