Application of an egocentric social network approach to examine changes in social connections following treatment for anxiety and depression: A novel measurement tool for clinical trials research?

The epidemic of loneliness and social isolation has been recognized as a public health crisis warranting the same prioritization as other public health issues today, such as obesity, substance use disorders, and tobacco use. Social disconnection is particularly prevalent and disabling among individuals with anxiety and depression, yet it is inadequately evaluated and addressed in most clinical psychology treatment research. Studies generally employ global measures of perceived connectedness, loneliness, or relationship satisfaction, limiting understanding about elements of one's social network that may change with treatment.

Amplification of Positivity Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: A Randomized Experimental Therapeutics Trial Targeting Social Reward Sensitivity to Enhance Social Connectedness.

Background: Social disconnection is common and causes significant impairment in anxiety and depressive disorders, and it does not respond sufficiently to available treatments. The positive valence system supports social bond formation and maintenance but is often hyporesponsive in people with anxiety or depression. We conducted an experimental therapeutics trial to test the hypothesis that targeting positive valence processes through cognitive and behavioral strategies would enhance responsivity to social rewards, a core mechanism underlying social connectedness.

Associations between spousal gender equity and recent unintended pregnancy among married adolescent girls and their husbands in rural Niger.

This study in rural Niger examines if gender equity attitudes of married adolescent girls and their husbands are associated with recent unintended pregnancy (UIP) and ever-use of family planning (FP). Logistic regression models were used to calculate adjusted associations between husbands' and wives' equity (jointly and separately) and the two outcomes. UIP was less likely to be reported by adolescent girls with equitable husbands, controlling for wife's equity (adjusted odds ratio/aOR: 0.

Adolescent alcohol use: use of social network analysis and cross-classified multilevel modeling to examine peer group, school, and neighborhood-level influences.

Neighborhood-, school-, and peer-contexts play an important role in adolescent alcohol use behaviors. Methodological advances permit simultaneous modeling of these contexts to understand their relative and joint importance. Few empirical studies include these contexts, and studies that do typically: examine each context separately; include contexts for the sole purpose of accounting for clustering in the data; or do not disaggregate by sex.

Characterizing Nigerien men's social networks and their influence on family planning-related attitudes and behaviors.

This work uses data from a family planning (FP) program evaluation and social network study among men married to adolescent girls (ages 13-19) in Dosso, Niger to explore who influences their FP and through which social mechanisms. We asked men (N = 237) to nominate and describe their perceptions of key social contacts (alters). We sought to interview the most influential alter (N = 157 interviewed alters), asking them about their own FP-related attitudes and behaviors.

Associations of attitudes and social norms with experiences of intimate partner violence among married adolescents and their husbands in rural Niger: a dyadic cross-sectional study.

Background: Prior cross-sectional research suggests that both men's and women's attitudes towards intimate partner violence (IPV) are predictive of women's IPV experience, although this can vary greatly by context. In general, women who have experienced IPV are likely to report attitudes accepting of it. Men who perpetrate IPV may also report attitudes accepting of it, although some research has found that there is not always an association.

Through our own eyes and voices: The experiences of those "left-behind" in rural, indigenous migrant-sending communities in western Guatemala.

Migration from Central America to the United States has become a strategy to escape economic poverty, exclusionary state policies and violence for people of Mayan descent. Under the principles Community Based Participatory Research, we explored the health concerns of Indigenous Mayans in rural migrant-sending communities of Guatemala using their own visual images and narratives through a Social Constructivist lens. Half of households in the study region have at least one member emigrated to the United States, making many "transnational families.

The teamwork structure, process, and context of a paediatric cardiac surgery team in Mongolia: A mixed-methods approach.

Introduction: Effective teamwork in paediatric cardiac surgery is known to improve team performance and surgical outcomes. However, teamwork in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Mongolia, is understudied. We examined multiple dimensions of teamwork to inform a team-based training programme to strengthen paediatric cardiac surgical care in Mongolia.

Association of Physician Referrals with Timely Cancer Care Using Tumor Registry and Claims Data.

More Americans are being screened for and more are surviving colorectal cancer due to advanced treatments and better quality of care; however, these benefits are not equitably distributed among diverse or older populations. Differential care delivery outcomes are driven by multiple factors, including access to timely treatment that comes from high-quality care coordination. Providers help ensure such coordinated care, which includes timely referrals to specialists.

Innovative methods to analyse the impact of gender norms on adolescent health using global health survey data.

Background: Understanding how gender norms affect health is an important entry point into designing programs and policies to change norms and improve gender equality and health. However, it is rare for global health datasets to include questions on gender norms, especially questions that go beyond measuring gender-related attitudes, thus limiting gender analysis.

Methods: We developed five case studies using health survey data from six countries to demonstrate approaches to defining and operationalising proxy measures and analytic approaches to investigating how gender norms can affect health.

Mapping the patchwork: Exploring the subnational heterogeneity of child marriage in India.

Despite dramatic reductions in child marriage over the past decade, more than one in four girls in India still marry before reaching age 18. This practice is driven by a complex interplay of social and normative beliefs and values that are inadequately represented in national- or even state-level analyses of the drivers of child marriage. A geographic lens was employed to assess variations in child marriage prevalence across Indian districts, identify hot and cold spots, and quantify spatial dependence and heterogeneity in factors associated with district levels of child marriage.

Women's business? A social network study of the influence of men on decision-making regarding female genital mutilation/cutting in Senegal.

There exist two dominant but conflicting views on the role of men in the perpetuation female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). One paints men as culprits, with FGM/C viewed as a manifestation of patriarchal oppression of women. An alternative portrays men as relatively uninvolved in a practice described as 'women's business'.

Social network and social normative characteristics of married female adolescents in Dosso, Niger: Associations with modern contraceptive use.

In this study we analysed the social networks of a sample of married adolescent girls (ages 13-19 years) residing in Dosso, Niger ( = 322); data were collected for evaluation of a family planning (FP) intervention. Participants were asked to name individuals important in their lives (alters) using three name generating questions as part of a larger survey on reproductive health, social norms, and FP. One alter per girl was then recruited to be separately interviewed ( = 250).

Associations of spousal communication with contraceptive method use among adolescent wives and their husbands in Niger.

Objectives: This study aims to examine associations between spousal communication about contraception and ever use of modern contraception, overt modern contraceptive use (with husband's knowledge), and covert modern contraceptive use (without husband's knowledge) among adolescent wives and their husbands in Niger.

Study Design: Cross-sectional data, from the Reaching Married Adolescents Study, were collected from randomly selected adolescent wives (ages 13-19 years) and their husbands from 48 randomly selected villages in rural Niger (N = 1,020 couples). Logistic regression models assessed associations of couples' reports of spousal communication about contraception with wives' reports of contraception (overall, overt, and covert).

Associations between village-level norms on marital age and marital choice outcomes among adolescent wives in rural Niger.

Social norms, the often unspoken rules that dictate behavior, are increasingly understood to play a role in child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) practices, but are less frequently examined in quantitative research on CEFM. No research on this topic has focused on Niger, despite the country having the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world. This study examines the associations of community and individual-level norms on marital age and marital choice with the outcomes of girls' age at marriage and choice in marriage.

Spatial analysis of individual- and village-level sociodemographic characteristics associated with age at marriage among married adolescents in rural Niger.

Background: Niger has the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world. While child marriage in Niger is clearly normative in the sense that it is commonly practiced, the social and contextual factors that contribute to it are still unclear.

Methods: Here, we tested the importance of village-level factors as predictors of young age at marriage for a group of married adolescent girls (N = 1031) in the Dosso district of rural Niger, using multi-level and geographic analyses.

Social normative and social network factors associated with adolescent pregnancy: a cross-sectional study of 176 villages in rural Honduras.

Background: Adolescent pregnancy and childbirth are common throughout Central America. While gendered beliefs promoting motherhood are a known risk factor, their association with adolescent childbirth within the social networks of Central American communities is unknown.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study looking at adolescent childbirth amongst women ages 15-20 years (N = 2990) in rural Honduras, using reproductive health data on all individuals ≥15 years of age (N = 24 937 of 31 300 population) including social network contacts, all of whom were interviewed as part of the study.

Do village-level normative and network factors help explain spatial variability in adolescent childbearing in rural Honduras?

Adolescent childbearing rates are higher in Central America than almost anywhere else. However, in this research we discovered that adolescent childbearing exhibits variability from one village to another, and we might discover factors associated with this spatial variability that can help us understand key characteristics underlying the pattern of early childbearing. To do this, we assessed the village-level normative and network factors associated with adolescent birth (birth taking place before age 20 years) in rural Honduras and evaluated the geographic dispersion of these patterns.

Why context matters for social norms interventions: The case of child marriage in Cameroon.

Child marriage is a global health and human rights issue. In Cameroon, 30% of women are married before age 18 but little research exists on the drivers of child marriage in the country. This qualitative study contributes to understanding the role of social norms in sustaining child marriage in Far-North and East Cameroon.

Gender Norms and Weight Control Behaviors in U.S. Adolescents: A Prospective Cohort Study (1994-2002).

Purpose: The aim of this article was to determine the relationship between gender norms and weight control behaviors in U.S. adolescents.

Protocol for cluster randomized evaluation of reaching married adolescents - a gender-synchronized intervention to increase modern contraceptive use among married adolescent girls and young women and their husbands in Niger.

Background: Early marriage and early childbearing are highly prevalent in Niger with 75% of girls married before age 18 years and 42% of girls giving birth between ages 15 and 18 years. In 2012, only 7% of all 15-19-year-old married adolescents (male and female) reported use of a modern contraceptive method with barriers including misinformation, and social norms unsupportive of contraception. To meet the needs of married adolescents and their husbands in Niger, the Reaching Married Adolescents (RMA) program was developed with the goal of improving modern contraceptive method uptake in the Dosso region of Niger.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to family planning and gender equity among husbands of adolescent girls in Niger.

Despite having the highest fertility rate in the world, research on Niger men and family planning (FP) is limited. We collected survey data collected in the Dosso region of Niger in 2016 from 1136 men who are the husbands of adolescent girls. We report descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression on three dichotomous outcomes: (a) knowledge of modern contraceptives, (b) beliefs that only husbands should make FP decisions, and (c) current FP use.

Breastfeeding knowledge and health behavior among Mayan women in rural Guatemala.

Unlabelled: Guatemala has the fourth highest infant mortality rate in Latin America, which makes the support and protection of breastfeeding especially critical. Traditional health-promoting practices like breastfeeding may be protected by increasing knowledge of its benefits. Yet there is a dearth of research documenting breastfeeding knowledge (i.

Implications of gendered behaviour and contexts for social mobility in the USA: a nationally representative observational study.

Background: We constructed measures of an individual's gendered behaviour and their gendered environment to investigate the salience of gender norms during adolescence for social mobility during the next decade of life.

Methods: In this nationally representative observational study, we collected individual-level data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which enrolled a cohort of nationally representative school students aged 11-19 years from across the USA and followed them up for 14 years (ie, to age 25-33 years). We characterised gendered behaviour for adolescents in a performative sense via self-reports of behaviours and beliefs.