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With rates of coercive control (CC) increasing, there is a need to ensure that intervention programs are underpinned by evidence-based research. Current interventions are scarce, with their efficacy rarely established. Most current interventions appear to rely on victims seeking support from formal sources/agencies, despite suggestions that victims are more likely to confide in people they know, such as their friends. Researchers suggest that a victim's friends may provide an effective source of support and intervention. The aim of this study was to fill the gap in the literature exploring whether the closeness of the relationship to the victim, bystander gender, and bystander concerns influenced attitudes toward intervening in CC situations. The study used an experimental design, whereby participants were randomly allocated to read a vignette depicting a CC scenario involving a friend, colleague, or stranger, and quantitative methods were used to examine bystanders' willingness and concerns about intervening. The sample was 340 Australian participants (229 female, 111 male), recruited from social media, namely community Facebook groups. The results indicated that friends were significantly more willing to intervene than colleagues or strangers, while strangers reported the highest concerns about intervening. Females reported significantly higher willingness to intervene than men despite also reporting higher concerns. Exploratory analysis of concerns about intervening revealed that the participants were most concerned about risk of harm and their beliefs in their ability to successfully intervene. These findings have implications for bystander intervention programs and campaigns, including offering a range of potential directions to enhance intervention program content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dermatology consultations in Québec, Canada, face accessibility challenges, with most dermatologists concentrated in urban areas. Teledermatology, offering remote diagnosis and treatment, holds promise in overcoming these limitations. However, concerns regarding patient-doctor relationships and logistical issues exist. Objectives: This article aims to introduce a dermatology patient learning pathway (PLP) developed by the Centre of Excellence on Partnership with Patients and the Public (CEPPP), focusing on knowledge, abilities, and skills mobilized by patients and their loved ones at key moments of the life course with an illness, as well as emerging educational needs. Methods: The PLP development was co-developed with dermatology patient and caregiver partners, stakeholders, and the CEPPP team. The process encompassed stakeholder engagement, exploration, recruitment of patient and caregiver partners, co-development of the PLP draft, and validation through consensus building. Results: The PLP methodology led to the creation of 44 learning objectives, comprising a total of 107 subobjectives. These objectives were organized into 8 phases of the patient life course with a dermatological condition: (1) prevention and predisposition; (2) discovery, self-examination, or observation of a change; (3) first consultation; (4) wandering; (5) consultation with a dermatologist; (6) diagnosis; (7) treatments; and (8) living with it. Conclusions: The dermatology PLP serves as a resource outlining patient competency across different stages of managing a dermatological condition throughout their life course. In the context of teledermatology, the PLP might facilitate patient and caregiver engagement by helping select appropriate information and tools to support active participation in care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous intimate partner violence research and social psychological theory have highlighted that ethnicity and level of harm are both factors that have the potential to influence bystander willingness to intervene in, as well as the acceptance of intimate partner violence between couples. Little research has been conducted on the general willingness of bystanders to intervene in, or the level of acceptance of coercive control. This is the first study to explore whether the likelihood of bystander willingness to intervene is influenced by participant gender, the ethnicity of the couple involved in a hypothetical scenario of coercive control, and by differing levels of abusive behavior. In this study, we also explored the influence of participants' acceptance of coercive control. A semi-experimental design was used, utilizing an online community sample sourced through social media of 346 adult participants across Australia. The participants were randomly allocated to read a fictional coercive control scenario detailing either low or high harm instances of coercive control. Within the online survey the ethnicity of the couple was manipulated with participants' randomly allocated to read a scenario about a couple with the same ethnicity as them (Australian of British or European descent) or a couple with Indian Australian ethnicity. The results showed the participants were significantly more willing to intervene in the coercive control scenario when the couple shared the same ethnicity as them. In response to the low harm scenarios, participants were significantly more accepting of coercive control if the couple were Indian Australian. However, males responding to high harm scenarios were more accepting of coercive control if the couple shared the same ethnic identity as them. The implications from these findings for theory and future bystander intervention programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess the role of clinical features in diagnosing seizures in children with autism spectrum disorder who present with staring spells. A 10-year retrospective chart analysis of autism spectrum disorder patients aged 3–14 years was performed at a tertiary care children's hospital. Patient demographics, clinical presentation, and epileptic seizure versus non-epileptic spell diagnosis were assessed. Target episodes of staring spells were captured during a long-term electroencephalogram monitoring record. Multilevel likelihood ratios and a receiver operating characteristic curve were determined using 8 of the 11 clinical variables. Among the cohort of 140 patients with autism spectrum disorder, 16% were diagnosed with epileptic seizures with the most common seizure being atypical absence seizures (64%). Clinical semiology differed between those diagnosed with epileptic seizures versus those diagnosed with non-epileptic spells in the average duration of episodes (42 s vs 87 s), frequency of spells per week (6 vs 11.5 spells), increase in frequency of staring spells over time (100% vs 40%), and response to verbal stimulation (0% vs 100%), respectively. Multilevel likelihood ratios based on the receiver operating characteristic curves and clinical semiology features may be helpful in differentiating epileptic seizures from non-epileptic spells in children with autism spectrum disorder. It is a common occurrence for children with autism spectrum disorder to be diagnosed with staring spells. Staring spells are defined as periods of time when children "space out" and are subcategorized as either "absence seizures" (brain activity resembling a seizure but with no physical seizure symptoms) or "non-epileptic spells" (inattentiveness or daydreaming). Due to the subtle characteristics of staring spells, they are usually diagnosed via long-term video electroencephalogram. The child is monitored for 3–5 days with an electroencephalogram which records brain waves. An electroencephalogram may be difficult to perform in children with autism spectrum disorder due to behavior, cognitive, or sensory concerns. Therefore, we wanted to investigate other clinical characteristics that may help us differentiate between epileptic seizures versus non-epileptic spells in children with autism spectrum disorder presenting with staring spells. We reviewed 140 charts retrospectively from the years of 2010–2021. We abstracted demographic and clinical information from the electronic medical record system and reviewed electroencephalogram videos to group the 140 children into epileptic seizure diagnosis group versus non-epileptic spell group. Of the 140 children in this study, 22 were diagnosed with epileptic seizures and the remaining were diagnosed with non-epileptic spells. We found that the two groups differed in certain clinical characteristics such as how long the staring spells lasted, how many staring spells the child had in 1 week, and whether they responded to verbal commands. We believe that clinical features may be helpful in differentiating epileptic seizures from non-epileptic spells in children with autism spectrum disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the concept of cultural identity styles, strategies that individuals use for decision making about identity-relevant issues, and proposes that blending and alternating are two strategies that acculturating individuals activate to manage multiple cultural identities. Drawing on diverse samples from New Zealand, Mauritius, and Israel, we present two studies. The first describes the construction of the Multicultural Identity Styles Scale (MISS) and the validation of its Hybrid Identity Style (HIS) and Alternating Identity Style (AIS) subscales. HIS was associated with greater blendedness as assessed by the Bicultural Identity Integration Scale (BIIS-1) and was more prominent in second-generation immigrants compared with their first-generation peers. AIS was associated with less BIIS harmony and was stronger in first-generation immigrants. In the second study, we propose, test, and replicate a mediational model, whereby cultural identity outcomes mediate the impact of cultural identity styles on well-being. Path analysis demonstrated that the motivation to integrate predicted the use of both HIS and AIS; however, HIS led to greater cultural identity consolidation and on to higher levels of well-being. In contrast, AIS predicted greater cultural identity conflict and poorer psychological adaptation. The studies advance our theorizing on biculturalism and integration by adopting a process-oriented approach to cultural identity negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In social psychology, the background assumption of most of the research on cultural diversity ideologies is that multiculturalism is not in the interest of majority group members while colourblindness is. However, this assumption may not hold in a context in which multiculturalism benefits the majority group. Two studies investigated the association between multiculturalism and in-group bias amongst Hindu majority members in Mauritius. In Study 1, survey data showed that those who highly identified as Hindus reported less bias when they endorsed multiculturalism. Using an experimental design, Study 2 demonstrated that higher compared to lower majority group identifiers showed stronger in-group bias in colourblindness, polyculturalism, and control conditions, but not in a multiculturalism condition. In contrast to the existing research conducted in Western countries, these findings demonstrate that multiculturalism rather than colourblindness can be reassuring for high majority group identifiers. It is concluded that the meaning and impact of cultural diversity ideologies for intergroup relations depend on the national context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Approximately 20% of patients admitted to hospital with drug overdose will require intensive care unit (ICU) admission. An understanding of the characteristics of these patients may assist with their management and identify those patients at risk of multiple hospital presentations due to drug overdose. Our aim was to examine the characteristics of patients admitted to ICU following drug overdoses and identify the predictors of multiple hospital presentations due to drug overdose.Methods: Patients admitted to a metropolitan ICU over a three-year period following drug overdoses were identified using ICU patient databases, and their medical records.Results: There were 254 admissions due to drug overdoses. The majority of overdoses were intentional (82.7%) and included multiple agents (68.1%). Two-thirds of patients had psychiatric diagnosis, and 54% had documented history of substance use disorders. In-hospital mortality was 2.8%. Over half of patients admitted had documented history of prior hospital presentation due to overdoses. Personality disorder and schizophrenia were independent predictors of multiple hospital presentations due to overdoses.Conclusion: Personality disorders or schizophrenia were independent predictors of patients with multiple overdose presentations. Preventative strategies focusing on these patients may reduce the incidence of their hospital presentations and ICU admissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiculturalism can be viewed as promoting positive intergroup relations in the public domain (neighbours, classmates) and heritage culture maintenance in the romantic domain (marriage). The present study examined this “two-sidedness” of multiculturalism by focusing on intergroup social distance in relation to endorsement of multiculturalism, group identifications, and group status. The study was conducted in Mauritius amongst 1,784 adolescents from the three main ethnic groups, Hindus (n = 844), Muslims (n = 630), and Creoles (n = 310). In agreement with the “two-sidedness,” participants made a distinction between public and romantic social distance, and intergroup differentiation in social distance was stronger in the romantic compared to the public domain. The endorsement of multiculturalism was associated to lower out-group public distance and lower in-group romantic distance. National identification predicted lower public and romantic out-group social distance. Ethnic identification was associated with higher out-group social distances and lower in-group social distances, particularly for the high-status group of Hindus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multiculturalism is on the retreat in many Western countries. As an ideology, it is criticized for failing to engender national belonging and social cohesion and thereby to encourage groups of citizens to have parallel lives. In this article, we present the case of Mauritius that is often viewed as a successful plural society. We discuss the conditions that are conducive to a working multiculturalism in Mauritius as well as the challenges. We use empirical findings from our relatively large-scale survey research among adolescents from the three main ethnic groups (i.e., Hindus, Creoles, Muslims). The metaphorical representation of the nation as a rainbow or fruit salad means that cultural diversity forms part of the national self-image, but within a secular state where individual rights prevail. Our findings show that all participants reported strong and compatible national, ethnic, and religious group identifications and that dual identity was the most chosen identity option. Furthermore, intergroup relations tended to be positive but there was a strong preference for ethnic endogamy. Additionally, there were social psychological processes that work against harmonious intergroup relations. The article concludes by discussing what can be learned from Mauritian style multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the superordinate (national)-subgroup (ethnic) association in relation to group identifications, relative ingroup indispensability, relative ingroup prototypicality and their effects on outgroup and ingroup evaluations. Survey data were collected from a large sample of Mauritian adolescents (N = 1,784) from three ethnic groups (Hindus, Muslims, Creoles). National and dual identifiers were more positive towards the outgroups than ethnic identifiers. Furthermore, relative ingroup prototypicality and relative ingroup indispensability were empirically distinguishable constructs. The Creoles, who are of lower status, had higher scores on both these measures. Also it turned out that relative ingroup indispensability and relative ingroup prototypicality were independently associated to respectively more negative outgroup evaluation and more positive ingroup evaluation. The findings give a differentiated view of the idea that a complex representation of the superordinate category fosters outgroup acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physicians-in-training feel uncomfortable coping with the grief they experience while delivering end-of-life care, and medical schools offer minimal formal curricular offerings on end of life care. Few studies have identified what experiences medical students have with death while training or what lessons they are being taught by more senior physicians at bedside. This qualitative study conducted semi-structured interviews prior to and six months into the medical school clinical year. Our goal was to identify when students were encountering seriously ill/dying patients and what informal education students received about caring for dying patients. Descriptive statistics showed the majority of the encounters the students had with seriously ill or dying patients were in the hospital-based medicine setting. A minority of students participated in debriefs about end-of-life care with their care teams after the events. Thematic analysis showed significant heterogeneity in students’ exposure and responses to patient deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]