“That's What Google Is For”

Through in-depth interviews, this chapter examines the ways 25 LGB young adults (18-35 years old) used digital technologies as they do emotion work to preserve relationships with heterosexual parents. Findings demonstrate that, with the aid of technology (especially texting, Skyping, social media, YouTube, television, and various informational websites), LGB young adults engaged in personal and interpersonal forms of “preventive” and “palliative” emotion work. The former's aim was to prevent noxious feelings and the latter to preserve familial relationships despite emotional pain. These forms of emotion work allowed LGBs to maintain relationships with their parents, but by privileging the emotional wellbeing of heterosexual parents above those of LGBs. The authors conclude by suggesting that digital technology can be a dual-edged sword. Access to these technologies may allow LGBs to connect with queer communities and to obtain information about queerness, yet utilizing these technologies as a way to preserve familial relationships was an adaptation to--rather than disruption of--heterosexism and homophobia.

Loneliness, age at immigration, family relationships, and depression among older immigrants: A moderated relationship

Guided by a convoy model of social relations, this study explores the complex relationships between loneliness, age at immigration, familial relationships, and depressive symptoms among older immigrants. This study used 2010 Health and Retirement Study data from a sample of 575 immigrants (52% female, age range 65–99 years). Ordinary least squares regression models were estimated. The findings indicate that for older immigrants who came to the United States at age 45 or older, loneliness was significantly positively associated with depressive symptoms. Further, perceived negative strain and hours spent helping family moderated this relationship such that the effect of loneliness on depressive symptoms was stronger among respondents who perceived more negative family strain and spent fewer hours helping family. Familial relationships are crucial for the psychological well-being of older immigrants because they can be a source of either stress or support. The results have implications for how research and practices can support the immigrant families.

Loneliness, Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Immigrants: A Moderating Role of Familial Relationships

Objectives Immigration is a stressful life event, and immigrants commonly experience loneliness, a risk factor for depression. However, little is known about how and whether older immigrants’ perceived stress exposure/appraisals mediate the association between loneliness and depressive symptoms. Further, this study explores whether familial relationships moderate the indirect or direct effects of the mediation models. Method: This study uses the 2012 Health and Retirement Study from a sample of 719 immigrants age 57 and older. A series of moderated mediation analyses were conducted across the total number of stress exposure and eight stress appraisal domains. Results The findings indicate that the total number of stress exposure and five domains of stress appraisals (health problems in self, physical/emotional problems in spouse/child, financial strain, housing problems, and close relationships in others) mediate the association between loneliness and depressive symptoms. In addition, the perceived negative strain from family moderated the mediating effect of health problems and housing problems in the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms. Discussion This study suggests that negative relationships with family may increase upsetting in stress appraisals on health and housing problems, which turn in increased depressive symptoms for lonely older immigrants. Practitioners need to assess older immigrants’ stressors and family relationships to understand their loneliness and depressive symptoms.

Graffiti Inside Jordanian Public Transport Vehicles

Purpose. The study reported here aims to investigate the commonest communicative categories and subcategories of graffiti written inside Jordanian public transport vehicles. Method. The researchers collected 1,410 tokens of graffiti from six Jordanian cities, viz., Amman, Madaba, Irbid, Zarqa, Salt, and Jerash. The data which were collected from public transport vehicles included 1000 handwritten graffiti tokens and 410 custom-made stickers. Specifically, the data were collected from large and small buses as well as service and yellow taxis that lined up in main bus stations and bus stops available in front of hospitals, universities, malls and close to traffic circles. Then the categories and subcategories of graffiti were identified on the basis of their content. Results. The analysis reveals eight communicative categories, viz., personal, interpersonal, philosophical, religious, offensive, political, humorous, and sports. The analysis also reveals thirteen subcategories, viz., naming and self-identification, self-appraisal, love and familial relationships, philosophical perspectives, ethics of transport, decline of morals, expressions of Islamic faith, supplication, preaches, protection from the envious eye, territorial and tribal affiliation. Conclusions The study concludes that a host of societal concerns and individuals’ feelings and thoughts are transmitted through the discourse of graffiti. The passengers and drivers have expressed their self-concentration, philosophical views, affiliation with territories and tribes, hostility and anger to individuals and groups, and allegiance to religion beliefs and traditions. The study also concludes that there are socio-psychological motives that drive writing graffiti, viz., identify oneself, release emotions, criticize individuals and groups, reveal pride and admiration, advertise goods and promote business, search for contacts, post messages for the public, express attachment to educational institutions, document the occurrence of a particular occasion. The study recommends that graffiti written inside public transport vehicles in other Arab countries be examined. Thus, one could examine to what extent the communicative categories and subcategories of graffiti along with its socio-psychological tend to show a pan-Arab base.

Multigenerational Health Research using Population-Based Linked Databases: An International Review

Family health history is a well-established risk factor for many health conditions but the systematic collection of health histories, particularly for multiple generations and multiple family members, can be challenging. Routinely-collected electronic databases in a select number of sites worldwide offer a powerful tool to conduct multigenerational health research for entire populations. At these sites, administrative and healthcare records are used to construct familial relationships and objectively-measured health histories. We review and synthesize published literature to compare the attributes of routinely-collected, linked databases for three European sites (Denmark, Norway, Sweden) and three non-European sites (Canadian province of Manitoba, Taiwan, Australian state of Western Australia) with the capability to conduct population-based multigenerational health research. Our review found that European sites primarily identified family structures using population registries, whereas non-European sites used health insurance registries (Manitoba and Taiwan) or linked data from multiple sources (Western Australia). Information on familial status was reported to be available as early as 1947 (Sweden); Taiwan had the fewest years of data available (1995 onwards). All centres reported near complete coverage of familial relationships for their population catchment regions. Challenges in working with these data include differentiating biological and legal relationships, establishing accurate familial linkages over time, and accurately identifying health conditions. This review provides important insights about the benefits and challenges of using routinely-collected, population-based linked databases for conducting population-based multigenerational health research, and identifies opportunities for future research within and across the data-intensive environments at these six sites.

Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Metcalfa pruinosa and Salurnis marginella (Hemiptera: Flatidae): Genomic Comparison and Phylogenetic Inference in Fulgoroidea

The complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of two DNA barcode-defined haplotypes of Metcalfa pruinosa and one of Salurnis marginella (Hemiptera: Flatidae) were sequenced and compared to those of other Fulgoroidea species. Furthermore, the mitogenome sequences were used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships among fulgoroid families. The three mitogenomes, including that of the available species of Flatidae, commonly possessed distinctive structures in the 1702–1836 bp A+T-rich region, such as two repeat regions at each end and a large centered nonrepeat region. All members of the superfamily Fulgoroidea, including the Flatidae, consistently possessed a motiflike sequence (TAGTA) at the ND1 and trnS2 junction. The phylogenetic analyses consistently recovered the familial relationships of (((((Ricaniidae + Issidae) + Flatidae) + Fulgoridae) + Achilidae) + Derbidae) in the amino acid-based analysis, with the placement of Cixiidae and Delphacidae as the earliest-derived lineages of fulgoroid families, whereas the monophyly of Delphacidae was not congruent between tree-constructing algorithms.

COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates eating disorder by social and intrafamilial isolations: importance of familial relationships (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic makes children and their parents psychologically stressed. We present a patient with an eating disorder (ED) that rapidly worsened due to stresses and isolations and that was improved by family meeting to reconstitute their relationships, during the pandemic. Case presentation: A father found that his 9-year daughter rapidly lost her weight because of poor oral intake. Her weight had already stopped gaining before the pandemic and rapidly decreased to 22 kg during the pandemic. We diagnosed her as having an ED and administrated nasogastric tube feeding. We guessed that not only social isolations but a disruption of relationship between her and her parents, both of which occurred by the pandemic, also caused her ED. In a family meeting, she revealed that she felt anxious more during the pandemic. After the meeting, her parents rescheduled their works and have dinners together every night. She could eat sufficiently and weigh 31.8 kg. Conclusions: ED children, whose symptoms worsened during the pandemic, are increased during the pandemic since they feel loneliness by social and intrafamilial isolations. Furthermore, the parents are also stressed during the pandemic. Children including those with ED experienced stress directly from the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and indirectly from their parents. Pediatricians should be concerned that children might experience great stress during and after the pandemic.