Search

This study aims to bring reproductive justice issues to a more in-depth discussion within the field of social work and to explore social work students' understandings and perspectives on these important issues. An extensive qualitative analysis of 90 academic, published, peer-reviewed articles on the topic of reproductive justice was completed. The 20 major findings and emergent themes were identified using the conventional content analysis approach and formatted in order to be used as the foundation for developing the survey questionnaire. This questionnaire was then utilized to explore 123 university students' perspectives on normative expectations regarding childbearing and reproduction. Findings indicated that those across the gender spectrum had similar levels of awareness of these expectations, demonstrating that personal experiences are not necessarily a prerequisite for awareness. Other identity markers like age, socioeconomic status, and parenting status did have some impact. Therefore, positionality and intersectionality do appear to play a role.

Older schoolchildren typically perform better on academic achievement tests than younger students in the same classes. Studies looking at an array of countries, grade spans, and subjects have found that age differences of even a few months do matter. Relative-age effects introduce an arbitrary bias that favors older students. These effects are a well-established fact as old as standardized testing itself--and they have been addressed head-on in the past. To see the path forward toward greater fairness in testing through age allowances, this article looks back at its history: describing age allowances in action, the impacts on equality, and hazards ahead. The author concludes with making the case for extending age allowances.

Parent-adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) communication plays an important role in reducing sexual risk behaviour and preventing HIV. We sought to enhance limited information about the unique barriers to parent-adolescent SRH communication in the Arab states. This mixed-methods study, using a two-phase sequential explorative design, was conducted in 15 public secondary schools (with grades 5 to 10 students aged 10 to 15 years) in Oman. In phase one, 15 parents participated in two single-sex focus group discussions and two in-depth individual interviews. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. In phase two, a convenience sample of 250 parents completed a paper-based self-administered questionnaire. Findings showed that parents rarely communicated with their children about SRH concerns, including HIV. Barriers to more open parent-adolescent SRH communication include the fear that such discussion might encourage early sexual debut; feelings of shyness, discomfort and shame; associated socio-cultural taboos; gender mismatch; and lack of SRH knowledge. Findings suggest the need for parental SRH education and training and school based SRH education programmes to improve adolescent SRH. Experience developing these may be helpful to other countries with similar religious beliefs and socio-cultural traditions seeking to improve parent-adolescent SRH communication.

While fertility is a widely studied public health issue, infertility among college students is rarely examined. Research on fertility among college students focuses primarily on pregnancy prevention. Often constructed as hyper-fertile, cohorts of women in graduate studies are struggling with fertility issues and left to suffer in silence. Objective: This study aimed to identify barriers to access and gaps in available reproductive services to college attending women. Methods: This multi-method, exploratory study employed online surveys (n = 37), semi-structured interviews (n = 5), and an assessment of fertility-related school health services available at universities nationally to understand issues related to infertility, including experience with and access to services. Results: A near absence of fertility-related care on college campuses emerged nationally, while a clear need among female graduate students emerged locally. Perceptions of poor treatment and dismissal of concerns were prominent issues. Conclusions: Findings suggest the need for self-advocacy, while highlighting the potential role of university and community supports for women suffering from the dual burden of being a student while struggling with fertility related issues.

Sexuality constitutes an important aspect of sustainable development as the concept is used by the United Nations. Education is commonly viewed as crucial to achieving sustainability, and promoting action competence is a key element in such educational efforts. This suggests that education should support individuals in actively seeking information and acting in relation to sustainability challenges. This article aims to understand the role of textbooks in promoting action competence for sustainable sexuality by analysing content about sexuality in Swedish lower secondary school textbooks in biology and religious education. Results show that sustainable development and sexuality are organised as separate topics in all the books. Textbooks in biology contain a fair amount of sexuality education content, but content in religious education textbooks is more limited. In general, sexuality is closely linked to reproduction and is marked by androcentrism, phallocentrism and ideals of monogamy. Content about sexuality is furthermore strongly normative and seldom introduces readers to different theoretical perspectives or viewpoints. Taken together, these factors limit the extent to which existing textbooks can promote action competence for sustainable sexuality.

Essentialism is the intuition that category membership relies on an invisible essence. Essentialist thinking about social categories is most evident in young children, while comparable methods do not reveal essentialist thinking about social groups in adult participants. However, previous work has found that essentialist thinking about gender was measurable in adults who experienced cognitive demand. In this paper, we studied essentialist intuitions about national identity, race, and gender, in adults under cognitive demand. We found that adults under cognitive demand essentialized national identity and gender more than adults who had time to deliberate, though cognitive demand had no effect on essentialist intuitions about race. Additionally, we found evidence that adults' essentialist intuitions were strongest for gender, followed by race, and then national identity. The asymmetry in essentialism levels across the three studies suggests that there may be different mental representations for different social categories.

The teaching of reproduction, gender and sexuality at tertiary level is often compartmentalised, separating biological components from the political, socio-cultural, psychological and ethical perspectives that influence how knowledge is understood and utilised. In parallel, educators often have specialised knowledge and can struggle to address the broader questions outside their area of expertise. This is particularly true in an era of changing constructs and terminology related to gender and sexual diversity, and strong views as to which terminology is appropriate. Recognising this need, we organised a local symposium drawing together educators (lecturers, teaching-fellows, demonstrators) from across our university campus to discuss the range and nature of courses in medicine, sciences and the social sciences taught at our institution. Here, we outline the rationale, process and the key themes discussed, which included changing models of sex and gender, associated terminology changes and the importance of appropriate framing and incorporation of indigenous (Maori) perspectives. An interdisciplinary approach is essential to integrate theories engaging with the non-binary nature of sex and gender with the largely binary process of reproduction. This cultural shift requires educationalists to counter biased opinions and misinformation with accurate and diverse content to ensure teaching is accurate and up-to-date.

Despite growing interest in the effectiveness of sexuality education, only a single systematic review regarding its evaluation has been conducted. This review aimed to systematically analyse studies that include the evaluation of sexuality education for adolescents using the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model, and summarise evidence concerning relevant theoretical and methodological issues. From inception to 2017, eleven databases were searched and additional hand searches were completed. Full text, peer reviewed articles covering the evaluation of sexuality education for adolescents were considered. After examining 832 abstracts, 64 publications were retained. Almost half of them were published after 2010; and more than a half came from Europe. Products, and specifically short-term outcomes, were the most evaluated components, while inputs and long-term outcomes were the least often evaluated. Findings reveal a detached and narrow approach to evaluation. Quantitative methodology, experimental and pre/quasi-experimental designs, and questionnaire were the gold standards. A focus on adolescents and school settings for participant selection could be observed, as well as a bias towards public health risks. In the light of the growing interest in sexuality education evaluation, current practices, perhaps constrained by funding issues, lead to an evaluation that seeks mainly to prove rather than improve. Practical recommendations are suggested.

Intellectual performance is highly heritable and robustly predicts lifelong health and success but the earliest manifestations of genetic effects on this asset are not well understood. This study examined whether early executive function (EF) or verbal performance mediate genetic influences on subsequent intellectual performance, in 561 U.S.-based adoptees (57% male) and their birth and adoptive parents (70% and 92% White, 13% and 4% African American, 7% and 2% Latinx, respectively), administered measures in 2003-2017. Genetic influences on children's academic performance at 7 years were mediated by verbal performance at 4.5 years ([beta] = 0.22, 95% CI [0.08, 0.35], p = 0.002) and not via EF, indicating that verbal performance is an early manifestation of genetic propensity for intellectual performance.

The childbirth education training course aims to help nurses establish the basic ability to care for pregnant women. However, in traditional teaching, it is often difficult for learners to distinguish the meaning of different childbirth signs. While virtual reality (VR) may be connected in most people's minds with videos designed for immersive entertainment, in fact its early purpose was for nursing education. Initial forms of Spherical Video-based Virtual Reality (SVVR) were used to prepare and train nursing students, pilots, and military personnel. In this paper, an exploratory study using social learning theory embedded in SVVR for childbirth education training is presented; moreover, the learning performances of nursing students who participated in SVVR classroom learning and those who learned with the traditional approach were compared. The experimental results show that, compared with the traditional instruction, the learning motivation and learning satisfaction of the students who learned with SVVR were better, showing the potential of this powerful medium for enhancing nursing students' learning performance in the context of childbirth education.

Ongoing disturbances in parental psychological functioning are proposed as one of the mechanisms linking maternal PPD and adverse child development. We examined the effect of maternal PPD on mothers' and fathers' parenting stress and depressive symptoms at child age five. Depressive symptoms and parenting stress were assessed using self-report questionnaires at child age five in a sample of nonclinical mothers (n = 31) and mothers previously diagnosed with PPD (n = 12) and their partners. Maternal PPD diagnosis was associated with mothers' but not fathers' depressive symptoms at child age five. Maternal PPD diagnosis was associated with more parental distress in mothers and fathers, although, for mothers, this relationship was better explained by own concurrent depressive symptoms. Finally, maternal PPD diagnosis was associated with mothers reporting more difficult parent-child interactions. Overall, the study shows that maternal PPD diagnosis has long-term negative effects on both mothers' and fathers' parenting resources.

Minority characteristic generic statements such as "ducks lay eggs" are judged to be generally true of the class, despite being true of a minority of cases, such as healthy female ducks of egg-laying age. Five studies explored the factors responsible for the acceptance of minority generic statements about biological kinds. Studies 1 and 2 found that minority generic statements about animals that are true of just 1 sex were no more likely to be accepted as true of the class than were statements true of just 1 of 2 subtypes, not differentiated by sex. Further studies showed that gender-specific properties are more often accepted when related to reproduction ("ducks lay eggs") than to appearance ("deer have antlers"). It is proposed that reproductive properties are more easily interpreted as referring to the kinds themselves, on account of their role in naïve biological theories of the kinds. The result supports the view that minority generics are accepted to the degree that they are embedded in naïve theories of a biological kind.

Objective: Rising incidence of acquired multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in South Africa suggests low knowledge and implementation of infection prevention and control strategies in household and congregate settings. This study contributes to the under-researched area of non-biomedical responses to sub-adherence to treatment. Design: The study utilises a quasi-ethnographic qualitative case study of 10 women aged 18 to 34 years to understand their treatment adherence behaviours through the lens of their sex, gender, age, cultural beliefs and socio-economic status. Setting: This study investigated reasons for young women's sub-optimal adherence to treatment for acquired MDR-TB in eThekwini Metro, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, which records high burdens of tuberculosis (TB), MDR-TB and HIV. Methods: Primary data were collected from 20 participants who were selected through criterion, purposive and snowball sampling. Data were gathered through focus group discussions with women being treated for transmitted MDR-TB and key informant interviews with their family members, health workers and KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Health personnel. Results: Anti-MDR-TB treatment affects women's sexuality, intimate relationships, family planning intentions and reproductive health. Some vulnerable women struggle to persevere on noxious and lengthy treatment regimes that affect their reproductive and psychological health. Women may skip doses or abandon treatment when high pill burdens and adverse events make intimate and sexual relations with male partners, on whom they may depend for their livelihoods, difficult. Conclusion: It is important to consider the effects of lengthy treatment on young people's social and sexual lives and self-esteem when (re)designing MDR-TB counselling approaches. This paper advances an evidence-based treatment education and counselling strategy to contribute to improving MDR-TB treatment adherence and success.

There is noticeable reversion to traditional approaches in the treatment of physical and psychosocial ailments. In part, this comes because conventional medicines are becoming ineffective and expensive and there is a feeling that traditional approaches are more dependable. Hence this study tried to find out exactly the epistemological validation methods of traditional herbals among traditional healers. The rationale for this research was that traditional approaches are not exactly the same as western approaches. In many instances, the practitioners are not aware of their methodologies, yet there is no way in modern times where people can sustain a practice without a clear understanding of its verisimilitude, hence this study was an investigation of the epistemological foundation of traditional herbal medicine. The research was conducted in Central, Western, Northern and Eastern regions of Uganda and principally used document analysis, interviews and focus group discussions. In each of the four regions, four (4) traditional birth attendants, four (4) traditional bone setters, four (4) traditional herbalists, 4 village elders, and two (2) NACOTHA officials were purposely selected. The results indicated that 98% of all the categories of traditional medical practitioners validate their knowledge using "coherence theory" while 2% employ "Piercian principle" at elementally level. The study recommended that "Bayesian theorem" be introduced in traditional herbalogy, putting herbals at a level which can be internationally accepted.

Could we combat poverty by reducing the number of unintended and nonmarital births? This article proposes a federal policy that would provide all women with information about, and free access to, a range of contraceptive services, including long-acting reversible contraceptives; reviews what it is that we do and do not know; discusses several dynamic selection mechanisms by which this policy could lead to poverty reductions; stresses the need for longitudinal randomized intent-to-treat pilots that would provide causal evidence on whether this policy would in fact reduce poverty; and provides rough estimates of take-up, costs, and benefits were such a policy to substantially increase the use of highly effective contraceptive methods.

We use the 2014 round of Burkina Faso's Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to identify and quantify the causal effect of women's education on their fertility outcomes focusing on two fertility indicators: the total number of children ever born and the age at first birth. However, women's educational attainments may reflect the difference in term of access to schooling or individual characteristics such the family wealth, causing a threat to the empirical identification. In order to achieve consistent estimation, our empirical strategy follows Imbens (2000) and uses the propensity score weighting (PSW) approach to generate an appropriate counterfactual group accounting for education levels. Results from the PSW estimation suggest that education reduces the number of children per woman and delays women's first birth in Burkina Faso. Hence, promoting girls education is an efficient policy to achieve birth control in Burkina Faso.

Cross-border education is defined as the movement of people, knowledge, programs, providers, and curriculums across national or regional jurisdictional borders. Each year, millions of students access better education by crossing their national borders from less developed or newly-industrialized countries to Western, industrialised countries. Most are tertiary education students but the numbers engaged in secondary, primary, and pre-school education are also significant. Under the implementation of "one country two systems" in Hong Kong after the transition of sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997, and a decision of a case in The Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong in 2011, babies born in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese parents are entitled to the right of abode in Hong Kong. Since then, tens of thousands of such births have occurred. More than 20,000 cross-border students travel from China to attend public schools in Hong Kong every day. This paper explores equality issues faced by these students. The paper evaluates the results of various stakeholders working together to solve important issues; for example, dedicated school zones, immigration clearance services, setting up Hong Kong classes in Chinese schools, and language, communication, and cultural support. The paper argues that inequality is prevalent.

The aim of this study is to define the changes within the social dimension of the functional status of women and their partners in the months following the birth of their child. A total of 90 participants were included in the study (45 women and 45 partners). Data were collected in two steps via face-to-face interviews. The first step involved administration of a personal information form and the functional status inventories to the women and their partners between the postpartum sixth and eighth weeks. The second step involved re-administration of the same functional status inventories to the women and their partners in the postpartum sixth month. Results from the examination of the functional status of the women and their partners in the postpartum second and sixth months showed that there was a significant increase in the areas of household activities (p=0,000), social and community activities (p=0,000) and self-care activities (p=0,000) for the women in the sixth month; similarly, for the fathers, household activities (p=0,008), social and community activities (p=0,003) and child care activities (p=0,007) rose in the sixth month. Furthermore, the study found that certain sociodemographic variables had an effect on functional status (p=0,000). It is important that nurses and/or midwives support parents during the pregnancy process, particularly during the transition into their new roles as women and their partners, and help prepare them for the changes to occur as they enter into this new period of life.

This special issue expands our understanding of literacy and language development of individuals who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/DHH), with a focus on those with a Southeast Asian background. These studies highlight the different research methodologies that can be utilized when researching a low-incidence population in a particular region (e.g., single case design, case study). With six manuscripts, this special issue provided a glimpse into research being conducted with learners who are d/DHH and multilingual in Southeast Asia and in the immigrant population within the United States and Canada.

Background: The diverse nature of parenting among people with intellectual disabilities can be affected by many factors, including stereotypes, experiencing social isolation, living in poverty, suffering from chronic diseases and limited access to health care. Because of these factors, people with intellectual disabilities are not readily viewed as potential parents by society. Method: The research was conducted using the photovoice method, which analyses photographs taken by participants--seven mothers with intellectual disabilities (aged 22-43). Results: Thematic analysis yielded six main areas: pregnancy and childbirth, household duties--everyday life, caring for children, the importance of motherhood for a woman, parenting problems and difficulties, and types and forms of assistance. Conclusion: Raising a child has become a life goal for the interviewed women. However, there were also difficulties in their lives, which have not been solved by formal and informal support. Individual support for mothers should include tailor-made sexual education, access to gynaecological care or long-term family support.

The objective is to identify obstetric and perinatal factors that could be significant predictors of ASD and may lead to early detection and intervention. A population-based case-control study including 128 children diagnosed with ASD and 311 controls was conducted. Information was collected through self-reported questionnaires. The factors retained as significant predictors for ASD in the final adjusted hierarchical logistic regression model were cesarean section and male gender. The study revealed a higher incidence of cesarean sections and male gender in children with ASD in comparison to unaffected children confirming the results of previous studies. Children born by cesarean section, especially males, should be more closely monitored for the presence of ASD traits for early diagnosis and intervention.

Maternal health-seeking behavior (MHSB) is crucial for maternal health. However, little is known about MHSB in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This study aims to evaluate the situation and socioeconomic associates of MHSB in the DRC. Based on the responses of 8,360 participants in a nationally representative survey, we adopted a K-modes cluster analysis algorithm to categorize women into three groups (i.e., infrequent service-users, partial service-users, and full service-users) according to their recent MHSB. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to identify the associated predictors of MHSB. The results show that most women (90.29%) did not receive integral maternal health services, including antenatal care, institutional delivery, and postnatal care. Compared with their counterparts, women who received higher maternal educational attainment, had good HIV-related knowledge, lived in urban regions, and lived in wealthier households were more likely to be partial service-users or full service-users. Women exposed to mass media at least once a week were more likely to be full service-users rather than infrequent service-users. The majority of participants who lived in Kasai and near provinces were infrequent service-users, indicating poor MHSB status in the region. Interventions to promote maternal health knowledge and awareness are highly recommended to improve MHSB in the DRC.

Less than half of adolescent mothers graduate from high school and fewer obtain a post-secondary degree. The purpose of this study is to understand how Latina mothers who experienced childbirth during adolescence transition to parenthood and higher education. We conducted 13 in-depth interviews with Latina mothers enrolled in higher education. We found that Latina mothers' persistence in higher education is influenced by psychosocial factors, initial commitments, academic and social experiences in college, and final commitments.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the impact of early health risks on young Aboriginal children's attendance in playgroups and their early learning outcomes. Design: The study used a cross-sectional design to identify associations between children's early health characteristics, their attendance at a Families as First Teachers (FaFT) playgroup and their early learning outcomes. Setting: A total of 128 Aboriginal children from two remote Northern Territory (NT) communities attending FaFT playgroups participated in the study. Method: Health data were coded as risk factors and associated with children's attendance and learning outcome data. Results: Children in the cohort experienced relatively high rates of health risks: ear infections (otitis media, 57%), anaemia (37%), skin infections (28%), low birthweight (22%), low weight for age (19%) and a high proportion were born to teenage mothers (26%). However, these rates were lower than previously recorded rates for Aboriginal children in remote NT communities. Despite the presence of multiple health risks, low weight for age was the only risk factor found to be negatively associated with children's learning outcomes (language skills) and only two health risks (teenage motherhood and lower child haemoglobin levels) were negatively associated with children's attendance at playgroup. Most children (65%) experienced one or two health risks during the study and no significant associations were found between the number of health risks experienced and children's attendance or learning outcomes. Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of culturally responsive, evidence-based and integrated health and education programmes within remote Aboriginal Australian communities as a means to mitigate risks to poor learning and development outcomes.

Ever since the birth of the first baby born through in vitro fertilization in 1978, advances in reproductive technologies have raised new concerns about the outcomes for children. In this article, I summarize research on children born through assisted reproduction involving a third party, that is, children born through egg donation, sperm donation, and surrogacy, with particular attention to the findings of a longitudinal study of children born to heterosexual couples in the United Kingdom. The assisted reproduction families generally showed high levels of family functioning and children's adjustment from early childhood through to adolescence, suggesting that biological relatedness is less important than positive parent-child relationships for the well-being of children conceived by third-party assisted reproduction. Similarly, studies of families created by third-party reproduction with two mothers, single mothers, two fathers, and single fathers have shown that these families function well.

This essay explores the vulnerability of enslaved African Canadian Black women by examining the death of Diana Bastian, an enslaved Black teenager who in 1792 was raped by George More, a member of the Governing Council of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Though Bastian begged for assistance during the resultant pregnancy, More denied her such aid and cast her aside. Bastian further appealed to More's brother, a local magistrate, who also denied Bastian any help, and Bastian died giving birth to the twins More sired. Bastian's owner, Abraham Cuyler, appeared to have been absent from the province at the time of Bastian's rape, pregnancy, and labour. Bastian's brief and tragic history is told in her death certificate recorded at the St. George's Anglican Church, Sydney. This very succinct document brings to light the story of racial and sexual abuse on the Canadian frontier, and helps us to understand the marginal status of Black women's lives in colonial Canada. I suggest in this essay that when we place enslaved Black women at the centre of Canada's historical and colonial past, we come to a new understanding of the power and privilege White men possessed, and the catastrophic impact it had on Black women's bodies.

Based on the responses of our sample (N = 310) of adolescents and young adults from Slovenia (students of secondary and tertiary schools, university students) to a number of tasks covering reproduction, from the molecular to organismal levels, it can be concluded that their knowledge is seriously flawed. Correlations of knowledge between individual tasks are low, or even negative, showing patchiness and missed connections between different aspects of reproduction. Our study confirms the well-known difficulties in building a consistent body of knowledge on the genetic-inheritance axis while expanding it to the anatomy and physiology of reproduction. It is crucial to stress the quality of elementary school biology, and science (biology) courses in secondary schools because, for most people, this will be the last formal contact with some important topics that could influence their life decisions.

Body mapping methods are used in sexual and reproductive health studies to encourage candid discussion of sex and sexuality, pleasure and pain, sickness and health, and to understand individuals' perceptions of their bodies. VOICE-D, a qualitative follow-up study to the VOICE trial, developed and used a body map tool in the context of individual in-depth interviews with women in South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The tool showed the outline of a nude female figure from the front and back perspective. We asked women to identify, label, and discuss genitalia and other body parts associated with sexual behaviors, pain, and pleasure. Respondents could indicate body parts without having to verbalize potentially embarrassing anatomical terms, enabling interviewers to clarify ambiguous terminology that may have otherwise been open to misinterpretation. Body maps provided women with a non-intimidating way of discussing and disclosing their sexual practices, and minimized miscommunication of anatomical and behavioral terminology.

Thirty-one children of gay single fathers and 28 children of heterosexual single fathers, all born through surrogacy, were compared with 31 children of gay partnered fathers through surrogacy and 30 children of heterosexual partnered fathers through in-vitro fertilization on their perceptions of self-worth and their father- and caregiver-reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors. For children of single fathers, the study also examined associations between aspects related to their surrogacy conception, feelings about their family arrangement, and behavioral adjustment. All children (47.5% girls) were aged 6-12 years (M[subscript months] = 97.84, SD = 20.50) and living in Italy; all fathers (M[subscript years] = 43.79; SD = 6.42) identified as cisgender, reported a medium-to-high socioeconomic status, and were White (with the exception of one gay partnered father). No differences were found across the four family groups in any behavioral outcome, with children demonstrating, on average, high levels of self-worth and low levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. In single-father families, regardless of the father's sexual orientation, children with a weaker understanding of surrogacy, lower satisfaction with their contact with the gestational carrier, and lower comfort with their family arrangement were associated with more externalizing problems. Furthermore, children's female gender and lower satisfaction with their contact with the gestational carrier were associated with more internalizing problems, whereas children's male gender and greater understanding of surrogacy were associated with higher self-worth. Taken together, these findings do not support the commonly held assumption that the combination of surrogacy conception and single fatherhood is detrimental for children's behavioral adjustment.

Understanding the role of negative emotionality in the development of executive functioning (EF) and language skills can help identify developmental windows that may provide promising opportunities for intervention. In addition, because EF and language skills are, in part, genetically influenced, intergenerational transmission patterns are important to consider. The prospective parent-offspring adoption design used in this study provides a unique opportunity to examine the intergenerational transmission of EF and language skills. Participants were 561 children adopted around the time of birth. Accounting for birth mother EF and language contributions, we examined the role of child negative emotionality in toddlerhood (age 9 to 27 months) and childhood (age 4.5 to 7 years) on child EF and language skills in first grade (age 7 years). There was continuity in EF from age 27 months to 7 years, and in language ability from age 27 months to 7 years, with no cross-lagged effects between child EF and language ability. Negative emotionality at age 9 months predicted lower EF and lower language abilities at age 7 years, and growth in negative emotionality from age 4.5 to 7 years predicted lower child EF at age 7 years. Overall, findings suggested that lower negative emotionality at age 9 months was associated with higher toddler and child EF and language skills and that preventing growth in negative emotionality from age 4.5 to 7 years may lead to improvements in child EF.

Sex education presents a major dilemma for state-minority relations, reflecting a conflict between basic rights to education and religious freedom. In this comparative ethnography of informal sex education among ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in Israel and England, we frame the critical difference between "age-appropriate" and "life-stage" (marriage and childbirth) models of sex education. Conceptualizing these competing approaches as disputes over "knowledge responsibility," we call for more context-specific understandings of how educational responsibilities are envisioned in increasingly diverse populations. "I see the Haredi community as a victim to a shady deal that was made on its back since the establishment of the [Israeli] state. Education is under state responsibility. Ilan Gilon, Israeli Member of Knesset, 2018. State interference in religious education is "possibly the most serious" issue facing Jews in the UK since the expulsion ordered by Edward I over 700 years ago. Rabbi Zimmerman, Chief Rabbi of Haredi Jews in Gateshead, England, 2018." These two statements reflect a current controversy in Israel and the UK regarding the right to autonomy over education among Haredi Jews, who constitute self-protective religious minorities otherwise known as "ultra-Orthodox."3 Education is a contested domain between religious minorities and the state in Israel and England, but current controversies have been amplified surrounding relationships and sex education (henceforth RSE). In our comparative ethnography among Haredim in both Israel and the UK, we found competing conceptualizations of "knowledge responsibility" regarding RSE between state policy makers and religious activists. Although state policy aims to deliver RSE in age appropriate ways, Haredim instead approach sex education as appropriate solely according to life stages. Although Israel and the UK have distinct political approaches and histories to education, our comparative approach traces the similarities between competing conceptualizations of "knowledge responsibility" between Haredim and state policies across these two settings. We draw on ethnographic research of Haredi relationships curricula and educators in both Israel and England to ask: What forms of informal education are advanced by Haredi educators in the absence and evasion of educational infrastructures? How do these efforts to bridge knowledge gaps create new forms of knowledge gatekeeping and power? How can ethnographic accounts of bodily and sexual education in religious minority communities contribute to anthropological and education policy debates about state intervention in religious-based curricula?

Using records from the National Insurance Institute of Israel, we recognized all children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD, N = 8072) or hearing loss (HL, N = 2231) born in Israel between 2005 and 2010. Typical developed children were taken from a random 20% sample of children born during the same years (N = 227,492). Analyses were adjusted for year of birth, population group, parental ages, parental education, child birth order and peripherality. Working women, who gave birth to children with either ASD or HL, were at increased risk of not maintaining their working status over the 5 years after birth. There is a decreased ratio between household wage after and before birth, in families with children with either ASD or HL.

In data collection process of Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys (TDHSs), only printed questionnaire in Turkish is used. Therefore, on-the-spot translation was performed during the data collection process, rather than using printed questionnaires in Kurdish or Arabic. From the item-level nonresponse perspective, this study examines the quality of birth date data with two different but interrelated angles: (1) impact of the language mismatch between language of interview and mother tongue of women; and (2) impact of on-the-spot translation from Turkish into Kurdish and Arabic. The findings suggest that interviews with language mismatch and interviews conducted with on-the-spot translations, especially translations performed by local interpreters tended to produce high item-level nonresponse when compared with matched interviews. For this reason, an organized interviewer training session for increasing the effectiveness of on-the-spot translation with explanatory documentations and/or printed questionnaires in Kurdish and Arabic may be considered as options to decrease the item-level nonresponse further.

School-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education is often reported as being inadequate and/or inconsistent. The aims of this systematic review were to synthesise teachers' perspectives on providing SRH education and their opinions about the support required to provide high-quality SRH education in primary and secondary schools. Seven international databases were searched for qualitative studies published since 2010 that reported on teachers' experiences providing SRH education in such settings. Of the 2478 studies identified, 17 met the inclusion criteria. Study quality was assessed using the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool. Meta-ethnography was used for data analyses and syntheses. Findings signal how SRH education varied within and between schools. The adequacy of SRH education was linked to i) teachers' confidence to provide such education, ii) school policies and environment, and iii) the priority given to SRH education. Within each of these themes were facilitators or barriers to the provision of good quality SRH education. Facilitators positively impacting on school-based SRH education included training (pre-service and in-service) for all teachers, supportive school environments, and the promotion of understanding of the importance of SRH within schools and in the broader context.

The objective of this study was to examine the association between sexual orientation and seeking/receiving sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information from media sources during adolescence. We analysed data from male and female participants (aged 23-35 years) from the U.S.-based Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) in 2016. Sex-stratified, multivariable log-binomial models adjusted for age, cohort and race/ethnicity were used to examine sexual orientation differences in retrospective self-reported seeking/receipt of SRH media information before age 18. Sexual minority (e.g., mostly heterosexual, bisexual, gay) men and women were more likely than same-gender individuals who identified as completely heterosexual to seek/receive SRH information about contraceptive methods (e.g., condom use), sexually transmitted infections, and HIV and AIDS. Although lesbians were more likely than completely heterosexuals to seek/receive SRH information from media about each topic, they were the sexual minority subgroup with the smallest proportion seeking/receiving SRH information. Sexual minorities may passively and/or actively receive SRH information pertaining to a wide range of topics, including skills-based sex education, from media sources more frequently than heterosexuals, which may influence safe-sex decision-making. Lesbians in particular may benefit from media information dissemination focusing on their specific SRH needs, as current media sources do not seem to be well-utilised by this group.

Secondary school biology teachers constantly face the challenge of finding ways to connect students with topics that are engaging and relevant to them. In-vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies are increasingly common medical practices that students may hear about in their lives outside of school, whether from hearing about a celebrity couple or knowing a family member that is seeking fertility treatment. This article presents a three-day case study of a young married couple facing infertility and explores the topic of human reproduction through case study and scientific argumentation. This case study is appropriate for Grades 9-12 and aligns with the "Next Generation Science Standards," which supports disciplinary core ideas for how specialized cells within organisms help them perform essential life functions (reproduction) and how feedback mechanisms play an essential role in regulating those functions. Additionally, it focuses on exemplary science practices such as engaging in argument from evidence.

The assessment of fine motor skills in preschoolers becomes a determining indicator of a child's health conditions. The objective of the present study was to determine the prenatal, perinatal and postnatal risk factors of children with delayed development of fine motor skills. The participants were 240 boys and girls from 2 to 5 years old from the Child Development Centers of Neiva Huila Colombia. Abbreviated Developmental Scale (EAD-3) was applied to assess fine motor skills at children. Sociodemographic survey was applied to mothers to collect prenatal, perinatal and post-natal background information of the boys and girls who were part of the study. The results showed that there is a correlation between fine motor skills and prenatal risk factors such as the use of psychoactive substances and signs of abortion during pregnancy. As well as perinatal risk factors such as gestation time, duration of delivery, birth weight and postnatal risk factors such as constant falls.

Providing young people and children with age and developmentally appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is important for young people in making informed decisions. There are presently few studies documenting the relationship between school grade of learning CSE and curriculum coverage. We studied this relationship using a 2015 national survey conducted in three regions of Ghana--Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo, and Northern. A sample of 2,990 adolescents in Senior High School (SHS) 2 and 3 were drawn from 82 randomly sampled secondary schools. Logistic regression was used to assess full coverage of five CSE modules--sexual and reproductive physiology, HIV/STI prevention, contraception and pregnancy prevention, gender and sexual and reproductive health, and values and interpersonal skills and classes/grades students first started learning sexuality. The results show that students were more likely to learn all modules on sexual and reproductive physiology while values and interpersonal skills were the least covered topic. Students who learned sexuality topics before Primary 6 had better chances of better content coverage on five themes. Knowledge, and perhaps behavioral outcomes on sexual and reproductive health could be better enhanced with the early introduction of CSE topics.