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The results of this study indicate that two groups of mothers share a relatively similar socioeconomic status, knowledge of health and hygiene, and have similar health-seeking behaviors. The mothers' lack of knowledge and their local view of illnesses seemed to embody questionable newborn care related to breastfeeding practices and oil applications to newborns. Three psychosocial factors that appeared to contribute to the mother's health-seeking behaviors were attitudinal factors (this consisted of favorable or unfavorable perceptions toward services based on the mother's prior experiences or familiarity with service), social pressures (opinions from others and the mother's competing responsibilities), and self-efficacies accessibility, availability, and affordability). In addition, the external factor of poverty in the slum settlements was also a significant factor which determined the mother's health seeking behaviors. The implications of these findings are discussed in further detail, which are then followed by a set of recommendations for future health interventions designed to reduce the risk of sepsis neonatorum in urban communities. This study underscores the benefits of integrating the perspectives of anthropology and public health to further the understanding of the neonatal health problem. Finally, the need for future studies is addressed as it is necessary to further understand the existing local practices and beliefs in relation to the risks of sepsis neonatorum.

The role of peer gatekeepers is crucial in connecting individuals at risk for suicide related behaviors to mental health service providers. However, limited research has focused on the role of peers as potential helpers for those at-risk. The current study utilized a mixed experimental and correlational design to examine predictors of female college students’ referral intentions following hypothetical interactions with peers at-risk for suicide related behavior. More specifically, the current project examined the utility of an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model of peer-referral intentions. In addition to the original TPB constructs of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control associated with referring a peer to a mental health professional, attitudes towards seeking professional help, perceived stigma associated with receiving professional psychological help, emotional competence, and symptom severity were incorporated into an extended TPB model. The sample included 284 female college students. Participants completed computer-based questionnaires both before and after the presentation of a theoretically and empirically informed vignette describing a peer who was characterized as low, moderate, or high risk for suicide related behavior. The results of this study suggest the utility of applying an extended TPB model to intentions to refer at-risk peers for mental health services. The final trimmed model, which included all of the aforementioned constructs except symptom severity, accounted for 78.9% of the variance in referral intentions. The findings indicate that, in particular, preventative interventions would likely benefit from emphasizing the role of attitudes towards receiving mental health services, attitudes towards peer referral, and subjective norms regarding peer referral, in order to maximize the role of peers as gatekeepers for college students in distress. Incorporating the findings from this study with findings from future research will hopefully lead to more informed, empirically-based interventions for enhancing peer referrals.

Mental health issues are widespread on college campuses. However, the majority of these individuals do not seek help. Prior research suggests many factors which may be related to mental health help-seeking including age, gender, and prior treatment experience. There has however been little work considering the context of the college campus on mental health help-seeking, specifically the influence of campus culture. Accounting for the context of mental health help-seeking may help to determine which social groups have the greatest influence on mental health treatment processes. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between perceived peer, student body, and faculty/administrator perspectives on different aspects influencing mental health help-seeking including attitudes towards treatment, stigma, and treatment barriers. Two hundred and twelve participants were recruited for the study. Data supported mediation for personal attitudes and barriers for the relationship between campus culture variables and mental health help-seeking. Implications for campus mental health policy efforts and directions for future studies are discussed.

Bakgrund: Barn och ungdomar har immigrerat ensamma i flera decennier. Antalet ensamkommande flyktingbarn har ökat de senaste åren i Europa och främst i länder som Storbritannien, Sverige, Österrike och Norge. År 2008 immigrerade 13 400 barn/ungdomar utan föräldrar till Europa och ca 80 % av dem ansökte asyl. Sverige tog enskilt emot ca 3 578 ensamkommande flyktingbarn år 2012 och det väntas öka de närmsta åren. Det har även rapporterats om att ensamkommande flyktingbarn har en ökad risk för psykisk morbiditet. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att kartlägga faktorer som inverkar på ensamkommande flyktingbarns psykiska hälsa. Metod: Denna studie är en allmän litteraturstudie baserad på åtta kvantitativa och två kvalitativa studier. Resultat: Fem teman identifierades: Traumatiska upplevelser, Migrationsprocessen, Miljön, Ålder och Genus. Traumatiska upplevelser var den mest övervägande faktorn som bidrog till den ökade risken för utveckling av psykisk ohälsa. Vidare spelade migrationsprocessen och miljön i det nya landet stor roll för dessa barn/ungdomars välbefinnande. Ytterligare identifierade faktorer var kön och ålder. Slutsats: Resultatet i denna litteraturstudie visade på att dessa barn/ ungdomar har råkat ut för olika traumatiska upplevelser och att detta var den största bidragande faktorn till att de hade högre risk att utveckla psykisk ohälsa. Vidare framkom det att migrationsprocessen och miljön i det nya landet bidrog till den ökande risken för att utveckla psykisk ohälsa.  Klinisk betydelse: Denna studie ska ge ökad förståelse om ensamkommande flyktingbarns psykiska hälsa och belysa faktorer som inverkar på deras mående. Genom att ha kunskap om dessa faktorer kan sjuksköterskan lättare identifiera dessa barns omvårdnadsbehov. / Background: Children and young adolescents have been immigrating alone for decades. However the number of unaccompanied refugee children has increased in recent years in Europe, mainly in countries such as Britain, Sweden, Austria and Norway. In 2008, 13.400 children and young adolescents, immigrated without their parents to Europe and about 80% of them applied for asylum. Sweden alone received about 3,578 unaccompanied refugee children in 2012 and it is expected to increase in coming years. It has also been reported that unaccompanied refugee children have an increased risk of psychiatric morbidity. Aims: The aim of this study was to highlight factors affecting unaccompanied refugee children's mental health. Method: This study is a literature review based on eight quantitative and two qualitative studies. Results: Five themes were identified: Traumatic experiences, the Migration Process, Environment, Age and Gender. Traumatic experiences were the most predominant factor that contributed to the increased risk of developing mental illness. Furthermore the migration process and the environment in the new country had a big impact on these children/adolescents well-being. Additional identified factors were gender and age. Conclusion: The result of this study showed that these children / adolescents have suffered from various traumatic experiences highly contributing to an increased risk of developing mental illness. It was also found that the migration process and the environment in the new country contributed to the increased risk of developing mental illness. Clinical significance: This study can provide a better understanding of unaccompanied refugee children's mental health and illuminate the factors affecting their psychological well-being. Having knowledge of these factors, may help the nurses to identify these children's care needs.

Haitians in the United States represent the fourth largest immigrant population from the Caribbean. As in the case of many immigrant populations, Haitian immigrant adaptation has been challenged by social, political and economic factors, and as a result they have had to seek legal, health, and social services. According to the literature, help-seeking behaviors among Haitian immigrants have been associated with traditional indices of socioeconomic status, namely education, occupation, or income. This study takes a more in-depth look at the influence of social class by approaching it as cultural construct in the context of historical patterns of Haitian immigrant incorporation. Most Haitians arrived during the latter half of the 20th century in four successive waves, the 1957, 1970, 1980 and 1991 wave. Each of these waves of Haitian immigration represented a distinct context of departure and social class composition. A qualitative approach was used to obtain rich information on the role of help-seeking in the immigration and incorporation experience of Haitians from the perspective of immigrants who arrived during the four distinct waves of immigration. Individual and focused group interviews were conducted in English, Creole, and French with a purposive and snowball sample of 43 Haitian immigrants currently living in south Florida. Using a grounded theory approach, the analysis generated six categories related to the Haitian immigrant experience: orientation at time of arrival, establishment of social connections, issues of trust, generational effects, cultural constructs of social class, and perspectives on the help-seeking experience. Key findings emerged that identified the importance of social connections in Haitian help-seeking behaviors in the context of a complex Haitian social class construct imbedded in historical, political, and economic positioning. Specifically, across all immigration waves, regardless of social background--from the highly educated doctor who arrived in the 1950s to the rural peasant who arrived in the 1990s--Haitian immigrants identified an individual of Haitian descent residing in the United States on whom they relied for assistance in obtaining resources. This system of social connections reflected the social constructs of class existing in Haiti and remained a significant factor in Haitian immigrants' help-seeking behaviors during resettlement. / text

China in the new millennium has witnessed the surge of the digital wave, which has played a pivotal role in reshaping the social and cultural landscapes. This dissertation employs institutional and content analysis to link the ascendance of Internet culture with the state-led marketization, commercialization, and modernization project. By systematically examining blog and Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs), two of the most dynamic online spaces in China, it brings to the fore the intertwining official, commercial, individual, and social forces conducive to the vitality, ingenuity, and diversity of Internet culture in China. The main body of this dissertation is divided into four chapters. Chapter one describes the developmental history of the Internet and blogging industry in China, and discusses how the rule of the attention economy dominates the industrial practice of commercial Internet portals. By taking Sina.com as a primary case study, this chapter elucidates how the strategic structuring of attention is paramount for Sina.com’s success in promoting celebrity blogs. In turn, celebrity blogging has fundamentally changed the social and cultural landscape of China. The following three chapters delineate three prominent cultural modes digital media have fostered: fun-seeking, trailblazing, and taboo-breaking. Each formulation epitomizes how a particular style of attention rule is implemented in online space. Chapter two investigates how the playful collective attention projected on an alternative media type fosters the birth of China’s first Internet celebrity: Furong Jiejie (Sister Lotus). Chapter three explores how the “attention-haves,” represented by such celebrities as Yang Lan and Xu Jinglei, innovatively capitalize on the attention rule and engage in new modes of cultural production via new media. In chapter four, I use blogs of Mu Zimei and Han Han as examples, and detail how their taboo-breaking practices disrupt preset parameters of social, cultural, and political norms. I contend their particular style of blogging greatly contributes to catching public attention and engaging in contentious issues, which further fosters the emergence of a literal public sphere in contemporary China. / text

One unresolved issue in early word learning research is the relationship between word learning, categorization, and attention. Two distinct cognitive processes, attentional preferences related to categorical processing and inter-modal matching are involved in this relationship. Keeping the effects of these processes separate and controlled can be a difficult task. Not doing so can potentially confound the interpretation of research in this area. In a series of four preferential looking studies, the effects of referential assignment and novelty seeking in infancy were teased apart. In Study 1, 13-month olds preferred to look toward a monitor on which the stimuli changed category on every trial, and away from a monitor on which the stimuli were drawn from a single category. This preference developed in conditions in which infants listened to labels, non-language sound, or participated in silence. In Study 2, 18-month-olds developed the same preference when listening to non-language sounds or when participating in silence, but developed no preference when listening to labels. Results of studies 3 and 4 suggest that the lack of preference by 18-month-olds in the label condition result from competing behaviors of novelty seeking and referential assignment. / text

This dissertation research utilizes anthropological methods to determine the degree to which the signs and symptoms female caregivers identify as causes of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in under-fives in rural Ecuador correspond with Western biomedical categories. By employing both a semi-structured medical history questionnaire and more open-ended ethnographic methods such as in-depth informant interviews and focus group research, the researcher identifies the factors which determine timely health care-seeking behaviors of female caregivers in this case study. Economic factors such as the cost of medications and lost work hours were determined to be the primary financial obstacles for timely health care-seeking. Other barriers included limited and inconsistent hours at the health centers and transportation issues. Families of lower socioeconomic status were also more likely to have children suffering particular respiratory ailments. Childhood respiratory illness was identified as an outcome of poverty, which had the potential to reproduce itself through the negative effect of illness on household income. However, the research determined that there was an overall lack of recognition of the biomedical signs and symptoms of serious lower respiratory infections regardless of socioeconomic status. The model of ethnomedicine supports the finding that compliance with timely health care-seeking is limited without collaboration between healthcare professionals and communities to work towards beneficial and achievable goals that are joined by a common purpose. By understanding local cultural beliefs towards ARIs, healthcare professionals are in a better position to: (1) assess the accuracy or inaccuracy of ethnomedical beliefs and determine if there is a conflict in symptom recognition and care-seeking behavior with the biomedical model; (2) determine culturally-appropriate interventions or recommendations to address the health problems of the commu nity and identify barriers; and (3) work with existing community resources in order to foster effective health communication. This research finds that public health messages regarding ARIs be informed by ethnomedical knowledge of home treatments and beliefs. Moreover, health centers need to adhere to regular hours of operation and increase staff capacity to better meet the needs of their clients.

This thesis used attachment theory and the common sense model of illness as theoretical backgrounds to examine the mechanisms that contribute to the quality of the support seeking behaviour and social interactions between patients with type 2 diabetes and their partners. Specifically, this thesis examined actor and spouse effects of working models of attachment on health outcomes, and illness perceptions on health outcomes for both patients and partners. Furthermore, it determined if support seeking, supportive interactions, and negative interactions mediated between the attachment and health outcomes and illness perception and health outcomes. At study entry, 70 patients with type 2 diabetes and their partners completed measures on attachment, illness perceptions, support seeking, receipt of supportive interactions and of negative interactions, satisfaction with support received, and health outcomes. Health outcomes included psychological distress and physical health for patients and partners, and diabetes well-being for patients only. Six months later, participants again completed measures on supportive and negative interactions, satisfaction with support received, and health outcomes. The data were examined both cross-sectionally (including mediational analyses) and longitudinally. The cross-sectional analyses revealed a number of actor and spouse effects in the relationships between attachment and health outcomes, and illness perceptions and health outcomes. Patients who scored higher on attachment-anxiety experienced higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of diabetes well-being. Also, the partners of these patients experienced higher levels of psychological well-being. Furthermore, covert support seeking behaviour and negative interactions were found to be significant mediators between patient attachment-anxiety and patient psychological distress and diabetes well-being. In addition, support satisfaction mediated the relationship between patient attachment-anxiety and patient psychological distress. Illness perceptions, specifically timeline cyclical perceptions, were also shown to be related to health outcomes, and receipt of negative interactions. Patients and partners who scored higher on timeline cyclical experienced higher levels of psychological distress. Also receipt of negative interactions mediated the relationship between timeline cyclical and psychological distress. Some significant changes over time found when the data were examined longitudinally. For example, patients who scored higher on attachment-anxiety at study entry experienced higher levels of psychological distress over time, and had a partner who also experienced higher levels of psychological distress over time. In addition, partners who scored higher on personal control and who had a spouse (patient) who scored higher on timeline cyclical at study entry experienced higher levels of psychological distress overt time. Taken together, both the cross-sectional and longitudinal findings emphasize the contribution of the partner and his or her interactions with the patient to patient well-being. In the same manner, the results also highlight the effect of the patient’s illness on the partner’s well-being. These findings have important practical implications, especially for practitioners who aim to design intervention to help patients and their partners better adapt to the patient’s illness.