A theological approach to mitigating the impacts of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic

Objective:Investigate the hardships caused by the SARS CoV-2 pandemic in the social domain, and especially church life in Croatia. Additionally, the study aimed to study the guidelines for the faithful and society at large established by the Catholic Church. Further, guidelines are proposed to improve specific pastoral practices in the context of the pandemic. Methods:This paper uses the scientific research method of pastoral judgment developed by the Lateran School (Lanza, 2008;Čondić, 2013;Vranješ, 2013). Results:Following a theological and pastoral analysis of the impacts of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, particularly in the ec- clesiastical domain, as well as a study of the guidelines is- sued by both the universal and local Church and prominent theologians, guidelines for improving the existing practice were proposed in six areas: Discovering the meaning of suf-fering (life); To reject suffering is to reject love; Where am I in the era of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic?; Liberating men from fear; Paying attention to the collocutor; and The parish com- munity is a space for everyone. Conclusion:Despite being taken by surprise by the initial outbreak of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, the Catholic church in Croatia has considerable potential and has engaged in a wide scope of activities to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. This primarily has to do with bolstering the spiritual dimension in the faithful. Faith overcomes fear, gives meaning to suffering, and acts as a life force that may help heal the whole of society through fellowship and tangible support to those at-risk during the pandemic.

Characterisation of social support following incarceration among black sexual minority men and transgender women in the HPTN 061 cohort study

ObjectiveTo examine longitudinal associations between recent incarceration and subsequent social support among black sexual minority men and transgender women, and whether associations differed between those who did and did not have support prior to incarceration.DesignA secondary analysis in 2020 of data from the HIV Prevention Trials Network 061, a cohort study of black sexual minority men and transgender women recruited in 2009–2010 and followed for 12 months.SettingSix US cities (Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington DC).ParticipantsIndividuals ≥18 years of age who identified as black, reported being male or assigned male at birth, reported ≥1 unprotected anal intercourse event with a male partner in the past 6 months, and reported on incarceration at the 6-month follow-up visit.ExposureHaving spent ≥1 night in jail/prison in the past 6 months reported at the 6-month follow-up visit.OutcomeSocial support measured using a six-item scale assessing frequency of emotional/informational, affectionate and tangible support (range 6–30); and dichotomous indicators of low support for each item (ie, receiving that form of support none/little of the time).ResultsAmong participants who returned for the 6-month visit (N=1169), 14% had experienced incarceration in the past 6 months. Mean support score was 20.9; 18.9 among those with recent incarceration versus 21.2 among those without. Recent incarceration predicted lower support (adjusted β −2.40, 95% CI −3.94 to –0.85). Those recently incarcerated had increased risk of lacking emotional/informational (eg, no one to talk to adjusted risk ratio (aRR) 1.55, 95% CI 1.13 to 2.13) and affectionate (aRR 1.51, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.04) but not tangible support. Effects appeared somewhat stronger among those who had support at baseline.ConclusionsIncarceration may reduce support on re-entry among black sexual minority men and transgender women, populations unequally targeted for incarceration and at risk for low support.

An integrated mixed methods approach to clarifying delivery, receipt and potential benefits of CHW-facilitated social support in a health promotion intervention

Background Social support plays a critical role in physical and emotional health, making it an important component of community health worker (CHW) health promotion interventions. Different types of support operate in different ways, however, and the relationship between the nature of CHW support and the subsequent health benefit for their clients is not well understood. Methods This paper describes an integrated mixed methods study of the emotional, informational, appraisal and tangible support CHWs provided to Latinx community members residing in three US-Mexico border communities. Using a cohort (n = 159) from a CHW community-based intervention, we identify and describe four clusters of social support in which participants are characterized by life situations that informed the types of social support provided by the CHW. We examine the association between each cluster and client perceptions of social support over the 6-month intervention. Results CHWs provided emotional, appraisal, informational and tangible support depending on the needs of participants. Participants who received higher levels of emotional support from the CHW experienced the greatest post intervention increase in perceived social support. Conclusions Study findings suggest that CHWs may be adept at providing non-directive social support based on their interaction with a client rather than a health outcome objective. Health promotion interventions should allow CHWs the flexibility to tailor provision of social support based on their assessment of client needs.

What You Say and Where You Say It Matter: Effects of Facebook Message Publicity and Support Type on Evaluation of Support Message Quality

Guided by the masspersonal communication model, this study examined the impact of the communication channel (masspersonal vs. interpersonal) and support message type on evaluation of social support message quality in Facebook settings. An online factorial experiment with 480 participants revealed that support messages sent through interpersonal channels (e.g., private messaging) were perceived as higher in quality than those sent through masspersonal channels (e.g., status update). Regardless of channels, participants considered tangible support messages as higher quality than informational and emotional support messages. Implications for computer-mediated communication and social support theories and practices were discussed.

Assessment of feasibility and acceptability of family-centered care implemented at a neonatal intensive care unit in India

Background A family-centered care (FCC) parent participation program that ensures an infant is not separated from parents against their will was developed for the caring of their small or sick newborn at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Delhi, India. Healthcare provider sensitization training directed at psychosocial and tangible support and an audio-visual training tool for parent-attendants were developed that included: 1) handwashing, infection prevention, protocol for entry; 2) developmentally supportive care, breastfeeding, expression of breastmilk and assisted feeding; 3) kangaroo mother care; and 4) preparation for discharge and care at home. The study aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of the FCC model in a NICU in India. Methods A prospective cohort design collected quantitative data on each parent-attendant/infant dyad at enrollment, during the NICU stay, and at discharge. Feasibility of the FCC program was measured by assessing the participation of parent-attendants and healthcare providers, and whether training components were implemented as intended. Acceptability was measured by the proportion of parent-attendants who participated in the trainings and their ability to accurately complete program activities. Results Of 395 NICU admissions during the study period, eligible participants included 333 parent-attendant/infant dyads, 24 doctors, and 21 nurses. Of the 1242 planned parent-attendant training sessions, 939 (75.6%) were held, indicating that program fidelity was high, and the majority of trainings were implemented as intended. While 50% of parent-attendants completed all 4 FCC training sessions, 95% completed sessions 1 and 2; 60% of the total participating parent-attendants completed session 3, and 75% completed session 4. Compliance rates were over 96% for 5 of 10 FCC parent-attendant activities, and 60 to 78% for the remaining 5 activities. Conclusions FCC was feasible to implement in this setting and was acceptable to participating parent-attendants and healthcare providers. Parents participated in trainings conducted by NICU providers and engaged in essential care to their infants in the NICU. A standard care approach and behavior norms for healthcare providers directed psychosocial and tangible support to parent-attendants so that a child is not separated from his or her parents against their will while receiving advanced care in the NICU.

Social Support in Massive Open Online Courses: A Literature Review

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide quality higher education resourcesfor people around the world. It allows massive number of learners to gain access to free, virtual based open educational subjects offered by accredited and world recognized top ranking institutional. However, numerous studies show that MOOCs success was marred by low completion and high dropout rates.This studyintends to identify and analyse the literature on the social support related factors influencing the utilization of MOOCs. Results from the review show that the relevant and related researchesare extremely limited which call for further studies to be done on influence of social support on MOOCs usage. The review reveals that emotional support is the most identified social support factor included in MOOC studies from various perspectives followed by informational support. Tangible support and belonging support are the least to be included in the selected studies. This review reveals that more researches are required to identify the impact of social support factors in influencing the utilization of MOOCs among learners.

Parental control and support for physical activity predict adolescents’ moderate to vigorous physical activity over five years

Background Social factors are important determinants of youth physical activity (PA), but the longitudinal association between parental behaviours and adolescent PA has not been clearly assessed. This prospective study examined average and lagged associations between perceived parental support and control with adolescents’ moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA); and assessed the independent associations between specific parental support and control behaviours and adolescents’ MVPA. Methods Data from three cycles of the MATCH study, when 374 participants were 12, 16 and 17 years old, were included in this analysis. At each cycle, participants self-reported questionnaires on perceived tangible parental support, intangible support, and control behaviours as well as number of days per week attaining at least 60 min of MVPA. Mixed effect models were used to assess the longitudinal relationship between parental behaviours and MVPA. Cross-lagged panel design was used to assess the association of parental behaviours during early adolescence with MVPA during late adolescence. Results Overall parental support (coef. = 0.46, P < 0.0001), tangible support (coef. = 0.37, P < 0.0001), encouragement (coef. = 0.12, P = 0.025) and transportation (coef. = 0.25, P < 0.0001) were positively associated with MVPA, whereas parental control was a negative predictor of MVPA (coef. = − 0.18, P = 0.003). Perceived parental behaviours appeared to have long term associations (5 y.) with MVPA as parent support (coef. = 0.40, P = 0.006) and co-participation (coef. = 0.33, P = 0.017) reported around age 12 were positively associated with MVPA measured 5 years later. Conclusions Parental support for PA, particularly in the form of tangible support, may be a key factor to include in interventions aiming to promote PA during adolescence. In contrast, parents should be encouraged to avoid control behaviours as these appear to lead to lower MVPA among adolescents.

Aging Without Children: The Link between Parental Status and Tangible Support

Having children is a potential resource for care and support in later life. However, whether and, if so, under what conditions, childless older individuals risk insufficient support remains unclear. Using the Danish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2017), restricted to respondents aged 67 years to 97 years ( n = 5,006), our study analyzes the link between availability of tangible support and parental status in a Nordic welfare state. Our results confirm a negative link between childlessness and support mainly among unpartnered individuals. This combined disadvantage is stronger among men than among women, and the support gap intensifies with increased health needs. Taken together, although childlessness in itself is no major disadvantage for support in late life, childless men living alone risk insufficient support, particularly when in poor health. Our findings have important policy implications for future cohorts of older individuals, who will have less access to support from either a spouse or children.

Smartphones and Social Support: Longitudinal Associations Between Smartphone Use and Types of Support

Smartphones provide users with a vast array of tools to reach out to the world. Smartphones can be used to reach out interpersonally with family, friends, and acquaintances, they can be used to scroll through social networking platforms where one can post comments on a friend’s status update or read about the personal lives of their favorite celebrity, and they can be used to surf the web or read the news. Yet, research has also shown that problematic smartphone use (PSU) can be harmful. Of interest in the current study is whether smartphones can help or harm social bonds longitudinally via social support. Working with a sample of 221 college students who were surveyed twice over a 3-month span, this study explored whether various types of smartphone use (e.g., person-to-person, social networking, and mass-mediated) along with PSU predicted different types of social support over time. The results showed that person-to-person smartphone use was associated with greater belonging support (i.e., feeling accepted by people around you) and tangible support (i.e., feeling that you can find people to help with practical needs) over time. In addition, increased PSU was associated with less tangible support longitudinally. Lastly, there were no effects for social networking or mass-mediated smartphone use on any type of social support. These results offer important insights into how smartphones potentially affect our ability to connect with others along with greater detail about specific kinds of use are implicated.