My mother-in-law does not like it: resources, social norms, and entrepreneurial intentions of women in an emerging economy

This paper provides new evidence at the intersectionality of gender, family status, and culture by focusing on a previously little researched group of middle-class women in an emerging economy. While the existing literature examines both structural and normative constraints for women entrepreneurship, little is known about the gains from relaxing structural constraints for women when compared to men. In addition to examining this new question, the paper sheds light on the binding nature of normative constraints for women entrepreneurship that persist in a patriarchal developing economy even when structural constraints are significantly eased. Using a mixed-methods approach, the empirical results suggest that higher resource availability differentially impacts the entrepreneurial intentions of women when compared to men indicating the strong presence of normative barriers that inhibit their entrepreneurship. These normative barriers emerge through the roles people play within women life spheres inhibiting their entrepreneurial intentions.

Orofacial Muscle Weakening in Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD) Patients

Background: Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy is the third most commonly found type of muscular dystrophy. The aim of this study was to correlate the D4Z4 repeat array fragment size to the orofacial muscle weakening exhibited in a group of patients with a genetically supported diagnosis of FSHD. Methods: Molecular genetic analysis was performed for 52 patients (27 female and 25 male) from a group that consisted of 36 patients with autosomal dominant pedigrees and 16 patients with either sporadic or unknown family status. The patients were tested with the southern blotting technique, using EcoRI/Avrll double digestion, and fragments were detected by a p13E-11 telomeric probe. Spearman’s correlation was used to compare the fragment size with the degree of muscle weakening found in the forehead, periocular and perioral muscles. Results: A positive non-significant correlation between the DNA fragment size and severity of muscle weakness was found for the forehead (r = 0.27; p = 0187), the periocular (r = 0.24; p = 0.232) and the left and right perioral (r = 0.29; p = 0.122), (r = 0.32; p = 0.085) muscles. Conclusions: Although FSHD patients exhibited a decrease in muscular activity related to the forehead, perioral, and periocular muscles the genotype–phenotype associations confirmed a weak to moderate non-significant correlation between repeat size and the severity of muscle weakness. Orofacial muscle weakening and its association with a D4Z4 contraction alone may not have the significance to serve as a prognostic biomarker, due to the weak to moderate association. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to determine the degree of genetic involvement in the facial growth in FSHD patients.

Impact of Workplace on the Risk of Severe COVID-19

Indiscriminate regional lockdowns aim to prevent the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection by restricting the movement of people; however, this comes with psychological, social, and economic costs. Measures are needed that complement lockdowns and reduce adverse effects. Epidemiological studies, to date, have identified high-risk populations, but not workplaces appropriate for closure. This study was conducted to provide evidence-based measures that used exact and reliable follow-up data of the PCR-positive COVID-19 cases to complement lockdowns. The data are not subjected to selection or follow-up biases, since the Japanese government, by law, must register and follow all the PCR-positive cases until either recovery or death. Direct customer exposure may affect the quantity of viral inoculum received, which, in turn, may affect the risk of the severity of disease at infection. Therefore, the professions of the cases were grouped according to their frequency of direct customer exposure (FDCE) based on subjective observations, which resulted in five workplaces; hospital, school, food service, outdoor service, and indoor office being identified. Analyzing the follow-up data, we obtained precise estimates for the risk of severe disease, defined as intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalization or death, for the workplaces adjusted for age, sex, family status, and comorbidity. Major findings are as follows: hospital and school are the lowest risk, food and outdoor services are, despite higher FDCE, safer than indoor office. Unemployed and unclear are the highest risk, despite low FDCE. These results suggest the following workplace-specific measures complementing the lockdown: school should not be closed and indiscriminate closing of food and outdoor service industries should be avoided, since it would be more effective to reinforce their efforts to promote adherence to public health guidelines among students and customers. These actions would also reduce the adverse effects of the lockdown. This study is the first to address the causality between the workplaces and severe disease. We introduce FDCE and adherence to public health guidelines (APHGs) to associate the workplace characteristics with the risk of COVID-19 severity, which provided the basis for the measures complementing lockdowns.

Transnational Parenthood and Migrant Subjective Well-Being in Italy

Transnational parents are migrant mothers and fathers who have at least one child left behind in the home country. Despite their non-negligible prevalence in many destination countries, scarcity of data on the topic has caused a lack of attention to this phenomenon in both policy and scholarship. In particular, little is known about how the interplay between migration and family relations at a distance affects the individual well-being of both migrant parents and their left-behind children, especially in a European context. This article evaluates the subjective well-being of migrant couples currently residing in Italy who have children left behind, compared with childless migrants and with migrant parents living with their children in Italy. Multivariate logistic regression applied to individual-level data from Istat's Survey on Social condition and integration of foreign citizens, 2011–2012, shows that transnational parents experienced lower levels of self-rated health compared with migrants with different family statuses and that the well-being loss associated with transnational parenthood is strongly gendered. Controlling for individual characteristics, socio-economic conditions, the presence of minor children, and migration background, our analysis demonstrates that men's subjective wellbeing did not vary based on their family status while transnational mothers experienced significantly lower well-being compared with childless migrant women. Our research suggests the need for adopting a transnational approach to migration starting from data gathering, for instance through the design and implementation of multi-sited and retrospective surveys.

Are family firms good neighbours? A spatial analysis of Italian technology-intensive firms

PurposeA burgeoning body of evidence points out the importance of spatial proximity in influencing firm efficiency besides internal characteristics. Nevertheless, the family status of the firm has been traditionally overlooked in that debate. Therefore, this study aims to investigate productivity spillovers stemming from the geographical closeness to innovators and family firms.Design/methodology/approachUsing secondary data on Italian technology-intensive manufacturing firms, the paper exploits spatial econometric models to estimate productivity spillovers across firms.FindingsAs regards the presence of spatial dependence, this study reveals that a firm's level of efficiency and productivity is influenced by that of nearby firms. Specifically, three main results emerge. First, spatial proximity to innovators is beneficial for the productivity of neighbouring firms. Second, closeness to family firms is a source of negative externalities for spatially proximate firms. However, and this is the third result, the adverse effect vanishes when the nearby family firms are also innovators.Research limitations/implicationsAs the study relies on cross-sectional data, future research should explore productivity spillovers in a longitudinal setting. Additionally, the channels through which productivity spillovers occur should be measured.Practical implicationsThe study highlights the importance of co-location for public policy initiatives to strengthen the competitiveness of firms and, indirectly, that of localities and regions. Moreover, the findings show the crucial role of innovation in mitigating the productivity gap between family and non-family firms.Social implicationsNotwithstanding the advent of the digital era, spatial proximity and localized social relationships are still a relevant factor affecting firms' performance.Originality/valueBy exploring the role of family firms in influencing the advantages of geographical proximity, this study contributes to the growing efforts to explore family enterprises across spatial settings.

Семантика регулятива мати в посланнях Андрея Шептицького

The article highlights the issue of the lexical regulative maty semantics in the epistles of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky. Since the case study material is the religious style texts, the lexeme under consideration, in addition to its basic meaning of „woman, in relation to the child she gave birth to”, expands its semantics with the meaning of „church, in relation to its believers” with its concretization through the adjective lexemes native, genuine. The frequency actualization of the regulative maty (mother) has been revealed in the names of the religious discourse Mother of God, God’s Mother, Mother of Christ, Holy Mother, Blessed Mother, used to denote the motherhood of the Virgin Mary in relation to Jesus Christ, and in the nomens the Mother of us all, the Mother of Heaven, used for the explication of her motherhood significance to all the faithful on the Earth. The secular meaning of the lexical regulative mother is determined by the style of woman’s behavior as a Christian and indicated, primarily, by the attributes of pious, Christian, native mother (a family status in relation to children). The Metropolitan’s idiostyle illustrates the use of the studied regulative in a clear family hierarchy, for example father and mother; father, mother, brother, sister, wife, husband; mother and a child, including a generalized collective image of all women, whose primary mission is the birth and upbringing of children.

Socio-psychological characteristics of convicted persons who have committed violent and self-serving violent crimes

The problem of studying the socio-psychological characteristics of criminals who have committed violent and self-serving violent crimes is extremely relevant. This is due to its insufficient study, the high prevalence of convicts of this category in the population of convicts, the ability to understand the causes and origins of their criminal behavior. The aim of the research is to study the sociopsychological characteristics of convicts who have committed violent and self-serving violent crimes. According to the results obtained, the acceptance of responsibility for the committed crime is associated with the age of the offender (young convicts are more likely to attribute the blame for the committed criminal act to external circumstances). First-time convicts tend to deny the need for social support and show less desire for social contacts; their perception of life goals is less conscious, life is less meaningful compared to repeat offenders. The greater orientation of repeat offenders to social interaction and the perception of their own life as meaningful are considered as associated with the conscious acceptance of criminal values and the commission of criminal acts. The features of the relations of convicts in the parental family are related to the parameters of their further life: constructive employment at the time of detention, the level of education, the available family status, the severity of the crime committed.

“Let’s Chat”: A qualitative study exploring intergenerational communication on social media group chats as a cancer prevention intervention opportunity among Vietnamese American families (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The adoption of mobile technology in the family context presents a novel cancer prevention opportunity. There have been few studies to our knowledge that have utilized private social media group chats as a way to promote health information. OBJECTIVE In this formative study, we investigate how family group chat platforms can be leveraged to encourage colorectal, HPV vaccination, and cervical cancer screening among intergenerational Vietnamese American families. METHODS Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with Vietnamese young adults to co-create a communication intervention for introducing cancer screening information as part of family social media group chats. RESULTS 13 of the 20 young adults (65%) reported having more than one group chat with immediate and extended family. Preventive health was not a typical topic of family conversations, while food, family announcements, personal updates, humorous videos or photos, and current events were. Young adults expressed openness to initiating conversation with family members about cancer prevention but also raised concerns that may influence family members’ receptivity to the messages. Themes that potentially could impact family members’ willingness to accept cancer prevention messages included (a) family status and hierarchy, (b) gender dynamics, (c) family relational closeness, and (d) source trust and credibility. These considerations may impact whether families will be open to receiving cancer screening information and acting on it. Participants also mentioned practical considerations for intervention and message design including the (a) Vietnamese cultural conversation etiquette of “hỏi thăm,” (b) respect for a doctor’s recommendation, (c) prevention vs. symptom orientation, (d) the FHA’s bilingual capacity, and (e) the busy lives of family members. In response to exemplar messages, participants mentioned that they would prefer to personalize template messages to accommodate conversational norms in their family group chats. CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study inform the development of a social media intervention for increasing preventive cancer screening in Vietnamese American families.

The Ideological Emancipation of Chinese Women and Its Idealistic Pursuit in the May 4th Movement

The May 4th Movement of 1919 is a significant period of ideological change in Chinese modern history, and in it is during this time that the ideological enlightenment of modern Chinese women made its debut. Led by modern intellectuals, they, from all angles, criticized the traditional social structure, traditional etiquette and feudal family system hindering the liberation and development of women, and further discussed the emancipation of women in terms of ideological education, economic independence, family status, freedom of marriage, ethics, social communication, as well as other relevant social issues. The intense exchange of ideas influenced public opinion, provoking enormous responses from all sections of society, particularly from women. Based on real educational and economic issues concerning women, combined with theories, real thoughts and practices, and carried out with a series of practical social reform activities, the ideological emancipation of women in the May 4th Movement of 1919 laid a solid foundation for the transition of traditional women to modern women, thus becoming the source of ideological emancipation of modern women in China.