Attending Patient Funerals as a Follow-Up Practice of Pediatric Oncologists

This study assessed pediatric oncology professionals’ attitudes and attendance at patient funerals. Many professionals endorsed some level of agreement that funeral attendance respects professional boundaries. Nearly all pediatric oncology professionals (89.2%) reported attending a patient funeral at least once, a rate significantly higher than estimates in other specialties ( p <.001). Attitudes and rates of attendance were slightly higher in older physicians. While periodic funeral attendance may have been somewhat normative in this sample, further reflection and research is needed to ensure the risks and benefits of involvement in funerals and other family rituals and practices are better understood.

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Pregnant and Puerperal Women: A Systematic Review

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused negative impacts on the physical and mental health of the population worldwide. Pregnant and puerperal women comprise the population most vulnerable to impacts on mental health. Objective: To synthesize the scientific evidence on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of pregnant and puerperal women. Methods: This systematic review focused on answering the question “what is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of pregnant and puerperal women?” In order to perform the search of the studies, we used combinations of keywords: pregnant, puerperal, prenatal, perinatal, mental health, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2. We identified 132 studies from the databases and 18 studies from preprints. In total, we elected 14 studies and another four studies by manual search, making up a total of 18 studies, to compose the final sample of this review. Results: Anxiety and depression were the main outcomes found, being shown in 15 and 11 studies, respectively. Other outcomes found in more than one study were: concerns related to several factors, loneliness, stress, and fear. Conclusion: From this review, we can infer that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of pregnant and puerperal women, with depression and anxiety being the most frequent changes. The social detachment, the media pressure, the fear of contracting the infection, the economic scenario, and the rupture of family rituals are shown as intensifying factors of psychological distress, thus causing changes in the mental health of these women.

Kurban in the Context of the Gagauz Orthodox Identity: History and Modernity

In this article, the Kurban rite (animal sacrifice), which occupies an important place in the Gagauz calendar and family rituals, is analyzed through the prism of Orthodox identity. The form and content of various varieties of this rite are considered, as well as its role and significance in the ethnocultural code of the Gagauz people. The author especially dwells on the study of the qurban of the church, in which the elements of Christian-pagan syncretism are clearly manifested. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that over time, the Kurban rite among the Gagauz people acquired the form of a ritual institution and became an important component of Orthodox rituals. The fact that it has survived is not a small merit of the Orthodox clergy. The article provides information that in the second half of the 20th – early 21st centuries. As a result, the ritual acquired a more Christianized form, but, despite this, some of its archaic features continue to be preserved. It is emphasized that in the Gagauz folk-religious culture this form of sacrifice is associated with the Old Testament tradition – the Abrahamic sacrifice, the plot of which is widely represented in the Gagauz song folklore. It is concluded that both the ethnic component of the Gagauz Orthodoxy and their characteristic Balkan cultural and regional identity are clearly expressed in private and general holiday celebrations, of which Kurban is an integral part. In conclusion, it is noted that the Kurban rite continues to remain an important part of the Gagauz Orthodox rituals and identity, being an integral component of their ethnocultural code. This is evidenced by the degree of preservation of this institution of sacrifice and its significance in the religious and folk ideas of the Gagauz people.

Maternity rituals of old believers of the Republic of Moldova

The family rituals of the Old Believers of the Republic of Moldova remain poorly studied. This is especially true of maternity rituals. In comparison with other rituals of the life cycle – wedding and funeral-memorial, – the maternity rituals are relatively weakly expressed outwardly. The maternity rituals are divided into several periods: prenatal, birth and postnatal. In accordance with this, the author compiled a special questionnaire for conducting extended interviews with informants from villages with a compact population of Lipovans (primarily Kunicha, Pokrovka, Egorovka, Staraya Dobrudzha), as well as with those who live in cities, including Chisinau, where there are a large number of Old Believers. In our opinion, there is a need to analyze the differences in family rituals, including childbirth, in different localities. But this issue requires further study. This article presents some preliminary results of the study.

The Effect of Children’s Negative Automatic Thoughts on Their Problematic Smartphone Use: The Moderating Effect of Weekend Family Rituals

Objectives: The prevalence of smartphone use among children raises concerns about the potential for problematic smartphone use. According to previous findings, it was reported that psychological factors affect children’s problematic smartphone use. However, cognitive factors affecting children’s problematic smartphone use have not been investigated enough. To find out how to mitigate and prevent their problematic smartphone use, the present study explores whether children’s negative automatic thoughts affect their problematic smartphone use. It also seeks to investigate the moderation effect of weekend family rituals on the relationship between children’s negative automatic thoughts and problematic smartphone use.Methods: The study participants included 274 fifth and sixth graders attending elementary schools in Seoul and Incheon, South Korea. Statistical analysis for the present study was conducted using SPSS 22.0 and PROCESS macro version 3.2.Results: The study found that children’s negative automatic thoughts are positively related to problematic smartphone use. In addition, children’s negative automatic thoughts are adversely related to weekend rituals, and weekends ritual are also negatively associated with children’s problematic smartphone use. Children’s negative automatic thoughts have an effect on their problematic smartphone use. It also found that weekend family rituals moderated the association between children’s negative automatic thoughts and their problematic smartphone use. That is, children who automatically perceive themselves negatively tend to be dependent on smartphones.Conclusion: Based on the results, this study suggests that it is necessary not only to design intervention programs for preventing children’s problematic smartphone use but also to support work and life balance so that families can create and maintain their weekend family rituals.

Games and rituals are the most important means of social interaction in human society

The article comprehensively investigates the phenomenon of play and its relationship with cultural and social categories such as ritual, ritual, customs, and traditions based on folklore and ethnographic materials of the Kazakh and Turkic peoples. Game culture as the most active means of cultural and social interaction in society, deeply rooted in all spheres of human life, is an integral element of the development of modern society. Folk customs and traditions are reflected in religion, arts, crafts, politics, science, military sports games, education, upbringing, economics, and entrepreneurship. The game, reflected in public life, affects socio-cultural activity, diversity in diversity, the transformation of concepts, and the future development of society. The article defines the ontological meaning and archetypal basis of the interaction of games and socio-cultural processes of our time, identifies the general attributes and originality of games. The manifestation of ancient beliefs in the games of a shaman is illustrated, their role in a specific ritual is revealed, the integration of play elements in the ritual complex, the versatility of the shaman's personality, the relationship between play elements and rituals are traced. The origins of the gaming culture go back to ancient beliefs, magic, cults, family rituals. For example, the youth games "Shivering Baba Baba", "White Storm" and "Hand Trap" recreate the opposition of winter and summer, old and new, young, the relationship between a girl and a boy. Mostly "summer", "new" and "young", "guy" win and win. These game elements, which were once an integral part of the ritual complex, were later combined and separated into a separate game. Each subsequent time they deviate from the original ritual. This tendency can be traced in many national games, the origin of which dates to the period of ritual folklore. The game "Kokpar", extremely popular among the Turkic peoples, is a national equestrian game. The name of the game comes from the "blue wolf" totem. The author of the article conclusively states that during a long hunt, a young man kidnapped a killed (wounded) wolf, the other participants in the game tried to catch him. As a result of the study, it is important to conclude that ritual and play are multifunctional, multilingual, differ not only in their symbolism, but also in how beliefs, religious motives and everyday life are reflected in them. Their ontological, epistemological, and axiological significance and ambivalence are great. The game has always been and remains a universal way of interacting with reality. Traditional ceremonies, games and holidays reflect the cultural component of the people, reveal the nature of the world. The game promotes cultural and moral priorities in the social environment, stereotypes related to age, gender, profession. Today, the game goes beyond the strictly limited framework of traditional ethnocultural phenomena, reflecting the socio-cultural situation, the system of relations and values, changes in human consciousness in the postmodern era. The game is cosmopolitan, sometimes artificial. The game culture, thus, is undergoing radical changes and is experiencing a crisis, which actualizes the need to increase moral values, moral foundations, preservation of the historical roots, and socio-communicative potential of the game culture. This, in turn, contributes to the stability and vitality of human and social life. The article was prepared within the framework of the grant project of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan AP08856460 "Great steppe games (game folklore): the role of national games in the revival of public consciousness as a special cultural phenomenon".

Microcredit Impact on Socio-Economic Development and Women Empowerment in Low-Income Countries: Evidence from Yemen

Microcredit financing is extensively considered as an effective development method for poverty mitigation and women empowerment. Nevertheless, relevant studies reflected opposing outcomes on microfinance effects consisting of positive, zero, and negative impacts. Thus, this research investigated Al-Amal Bank’s microcredit impacts on women empowerment in Yemen, one of the poorest Middle Eastern nations. A panel dataset and primary and secondary data were gathered through household surveys and propensity score matching to restrict intangible variables’ possible effects. The empirical results revealed that microcredit had a significant positive effect on monthly household incomes and accumulated asset values. Although microcredit facilitated female entrepreneurship and income generation for improved household incomes and expenditure, no influence was found on female household decisions and mobility following the patriarchal system practised in many Arabian nations, including Yemen. Hence, the study finding has theoretically and practically contributed to the body of knowledge in three ways. First, a novel proof of how microcredit interactions affected several Yemeni women empowerment elements was identified. This study also provides new insight into the empowerment theory by explaining how access to microcredit influences numerous features of women’s economic and social empowerment. Lastly, social and family traditions significantly influenced female attributes and lifestyles by reflecting how communal and family rituals affected microcredit impacts on women empowerment and vice versa. Conversely, this study guides Yemeni policymakers and those from other nations on extending financial services for self-development to reduce poverty and drive women empowerment rather than relying on government and international agencies.

Traditional family rites of the Ukrainians of Podolia: archaic elements of а cultural text

Podolia is an ethnographic region of Ukraine, which is known for active interethnic contacts for many centuries, which, on the one hand, have systematically enriched the Podolsk spiritual and material culture, and on the other hand, in various spheres of the traditional culture of the Podolians, there is a preservation of many Slavic archaic elements. The article presents the archaic elements of the traditional culture of the Ukrainians of Podolia in traditional family rituals – birthlore, wedding and funeral on the material of the verbal component of the cultural text. Field records of dialectal texts, made by the author in 2006–2014 in more than 100 villages of Vinnitsa region served as empirical basis of the study. The family rites texts attest the realization of the main semantic oppositions of the Slavic picture of the world: "top" – "bottom", "full" – "empty", "own" – "alien". The motives of the cult of ancestors, deception of death, syncretism of agrarian and family rituals are elements of the archaic, which constitute an essential part of the folk consciousness and beliefs of the Podolians. Several fragments of the folk culture of the Ukrainians of Podolia presented in the article through the prism of the comparative typological analysis, with the involvement of data from other Slavic traditions, signal the preservation of the general archaic fund of the spiritual culture of the Slavs

Family and Family Values on the Basis of Lithuanian and Polish Tatar Manuscripts

Family always was among the most important human values. Family subject became essential part of the ethnolinguistic researches. Child birth, wedding, death and funeral is the cycle of life, particularly tightly related to traditional culture. Description of family rituals and traditions highlights family relationships which is the basis of this paper. Kinship subject constantly found in stories about ethnic religiosity, rites of folk medicine, myths and legends. In her article I. A. Sedakova has noted that “any discussion on the topic of kinship has sufficiently relevant data for complex linguistic research” (Sedakova, 2009, 226).The comprehension of family and its values are reflected in a completely different way in Lithuanian Tatar manuscripts written in Slavic languages and Arabic characters. Emigrants from Golden Horde and Crimean khanate were the one of the first muslims to settle in Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 14th century. Three most important events in human life: birth, wedding, death and accompanying rites used by Lithuanian Tatars are different from the ones used by local residents. In general Lithuanian Tatar rites have common Muslim roots, even though they have traces of shamanism and perceptible influence from Christianity. One can talk about religious syncretism when the various teachings of faith and cult rites are combined in the interplay of religions and their historical development. In this article we try to reveal the whole network of connections and relationships that contain the concepts of family and family values, based on texts written in Lithuanian Tatar manuscripts in Slavic languages (Ruthenian and Polish).

Confucianism and Rituals for Women in Chosŏn Korea

This essay offers an analysis of the writing and practices of Song Siyŏl as a way to explore the philosophical concepts and philosophizing process of Confucian ritual in relation to women. As a symbolic and influential figure in Korean philosophy and politics, his views contributed to shaping the orthodox interpretation of the theory and practice of Neo-Confucian ritual regarding women. By demonstrating and analyzing what kinds of issues were discussed in terms of women in four family rituals, I delineate the ways in which Song Siyŏl positioned women in his ritualist metaphysics and to examine his philosophizing process.