Family Context and ADHD Symptoms in Middle Childhood: an Explanatory Model

Recent research suggests that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may be influenced by interactions between the individual and their social context. This study examined the predictive value of family context variables and attentional control levels on child ADHD symptoms. A new explanatory model of the relationship amongst these variables was also tested. A sample of 754 families with children aged 7 to 11 was assessed through the Conners Parent Rating Scale, the Haezi-Etxadi Family Assessment Scale, and the Attention Network Test. Path analysis models showed a predictive association between children ADHD symptoms and Social Support Network, Parental Stress, Parental Self-efficacy, Attentional Control and being male. Furthermore, a stronger Social Support Network was associated with greater Parental Self-efficacy, a variable that predicted Parental Stress levels and children ADHD symptoms. In conclusion, a new multi-influence model of variables linked to ADHD symptomatology during mid-childhood is provided, which may be useful to support the design of family interventions.

Creative Destinations and the Rooster of Barcelos (“Galo de Barcelos”)

This chapter aims at understanding the Rooster of Barcelos (Galo de Barcelos) as local intangible cultural heritage, being the case study of a research leading to the proposal of this explanatory model for developing and implementing tourism creative destinations. The Barcelos Rooster is the result of two ancestral customs of this territory, namely handicrafts and the Jacobin legend of the miracle of the rooster. These two customs, eternalized in time, were associated by the intervention of tourism. In addition, handicrafts, the Camino de Santiago, gastronomy (roast rooster from this legend), wine (vinho verde) and the traditional market, and heritage associated with the Rooster of Barcelos emerge as the main tourist attractions of this territory. It might be concluded that the Rooster of Barcelos, as one of the main symbols of Portuguese tourism, local heritage, and tourism product honey pot has the potential to leverage the sustainable development of this territory as a creative tourist destination.

Digital school: Searching for Explanatory Models. Part 2

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to consider the consequences of the virtual shift or virtual inversion, which has led to blurring the structure of the act of development proposed within the framework of cultural-historical psychology. In this regard, the problem is the need to develop an alternative to this phenomenon of inversion, and returning a person (both a school student and an adult mediator) their basic roles as subjects of development. Materials and Methods. The conceptual ideas of cultural-historical psychology including the idea of mediation, objective action, the semantic field, the role of an adult as a mediator in an act of development, were used as a methodological background of the research. Results. The article is the second part of the author’s previous publication. The paper considers the concept derived from L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology, which is proposed to be adopted as a basic one in order to build an explanatory model used by the author to describe and comprehend the phenomenon of transformation of the human development process in the new reality of the digital environment. The article introduces the basic principles and provisions, the explanatory model is built on, concerning the role of symbolic-instrumental mediation in human development, the role of an adult as a mediator, the structure of the act of thinking and the act of development, the basic mechanism of mastering a person's behavior, which permeates the formation of higher mental functions. The author compares this explanatory model and the behavioral model used in most modern research investigations that examine the impact of digital technologies on schoolchildren and students. The language of the model of cultural-historical psychology is used to clarify the reality of the current virtual shift (virtual inversion), according to which the main provisions that play the role of supports in the cultural-historical model are subjected to radical revision and transformation, due to which the process of human cultural development is called into question. In this regard, the author proposes to use the resource and project potential of cultural-historical psychology in order to develop new models on its basis, build a new research and project agenda that returns the main ideas of cultural-historical psychology within the framework of a new mixed hybrid reality, where digital technologies are becoming the tools of personal development. Conclusions. In conclusion, the work offers a cultural task for the further development of cultural-historical psychology. It is proposed to restore the adult-student relationship, restore the idea and the role of the semantic field for teaching a subject action, restore children's communities within the new social-digital hybrid reality, where digital technologies do not act as means enslaving students, but as smart mediators-assistants.

Digital school: Searching for Explanatory Models. Part 1

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to analyze L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology from the perspective of distinguishing the structure of the act of development within its framework and understanding its explanatory potential as a whole. This analysis enables to clarify and understand the essence of the digital and virtual shift. Moreover, it is required in order to overcome the limitations associated with the currently dominant behavioral models, which are used by researchers in their attempts to explain and describe the phenomenon of the influence of digital technologies on people, in particular, on schoolchildren and students. Materials and Methods. The paper considers the concept derived from L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology, which is proposed to be adopted as a basic one in order to build an explanatory model used by the author to describe and comprehend the phenomenon of transformation of the human development process in the new reality of the digital environment. Results. The article introduces the basic principles and provisions, the explanatory model is built on, concerning the role of symbolic-instrumental mediation in human development, the role of an adult as a mediator, the structure of the act of thinking and the act of development, the basic mechanism of mastering a person's behavior, which permeates the formation of higher mental functions. The author compares this explanatory model and the behavioral model used in most modern research investigations that examine the impact of digital technologies on schoolchildren and students. Conclusions. The findings show that the student is presented in the behavioral model as a passive reactive being that reacts to external stimuli. In this sense, a human being is not treated as a personality with highest abilities, but is considered as a function. The proposed model cannot be used to explain and comprehend modern development processes.

Transforming Conditions of Feminist and LGBTI+ Activism

This chapter provides an in-depth understanding of the conditions for feminist and LGBTI+ activism in Russia, Turkey, and Scandinavia, including legislative frames, access to resources and funding, employment conditions, and geographical and geopolitical locality. Instead of taking the relations between the state, civil society, and feminist and LGBTI+ activists for granted as an overarching explanatory model for comparative analysis, the chapter examines the multifaceted nature of the relations between the state, civil society and feminist and LGBTI+ activists in Russia, Turkey, and Scandinavia. Further, the chapter scrutinizes transnational, national, and local scales that influence the conditions of activism across the three research contexts. The discussions in the chapter are wrapped up by an interrogation of how donor politics influence the activist agenda in Russia, Turkey, and Scandinavia and of what resistant practices activists lean on in their everyday work.

Ecological constraints and trait conservatism drive functional and phylogenetic structure of amphibians larvae assemblages in the Atlantic Forest

Investigate how ecological and/or evolutionary factors could affect the structure of ecological communities is a central demand in ecology. In order to better understand that we assessed phylogenetic and functional structure of 33 tadpole communities in the Atlantic Forest coastal plains of Southeastern Brazil. We tested the assumption that phylogenetic conservatism drive tadpole traits. We identified 32 communities with positive values of phylogenetic structure, with 18 of those being significantly clustered. Twelve of 33 communities showed aggregated functional structure. Trait diversity was skewed towards the root, indicating phylogenetic trait conservatism and evolutionary factors as important drivers of tadpoles community structure. Six out of 11 environmental variables were selected in the best explanatory model of phylogenetic structure. Water conductivity, external and internal diversity of vegetation structure, canopy cover, and dissolved oxygen were negatively related with phylogenetic clustering, whereas presence of potential fish predators was positively related. Four of those environmental variables and area were also included in the best explanatory model of functional structure. All variables represent factors related to performance, survivorship, and distribution of anuran communities. From the 12 functionally structured communities, 10 were also phylogenetically structured. Thus, environmental factors may be acting as filters, interacting with phylogenetically conserved species traits, and driving linage occurrence in tadpole communities. Our study provides evidence that phylogenetic and functional structure in vertebrates are a result of interacting ecological and evolutionary agents, resulting in structured anuran assemblages.

“I put a stone on my heart and kept going”: An explanatory model of how distress is generated and regulated among Indian women from slums reporting gender-based violence

Clinical variation in the expression of panic disorder, depression and anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has have been documented across cultures. However, local (emic) cultural models that explain how people make sense of their illness experiences remain relatively understudied in India among trauma-exposed populations. Further, the integration of emic findings into clinical care is limited, underscoring the need for emic perspectives following trauma to improve the development or adaptation of trauma-focused treatments in India. This study describes an emic explanatory model of distress, which includes idioms of distress, perceived causes of distress, and coping/help-seeking behaviors among Indian women from slums reporting gender-based violence. This explanatory model can be used as a culturally grounded way to develop clinical case conceptualizations to adapt and deliver psychological treatments for this under-served population.

Weapon Sets of the Kushulevsky III Burial Ground of the Pyanobor Archaeological Culture

One of the important directions in the study of military affairs of the Pyanobor culture is the study of weapon sets. A set of weapons means armaments in a specific closed complex. Their study allows us to understand the degree of the population’s armament, its diversity, the demand for certain types of weapons. The problem of the research lies in the fact that such conclusions were made on the basis of an analysis of complexes with weapons from only one burial ground. It was for this reason that the decision was made to analyze the larger-scale necropolis of the Pyanobor culture, in which the number of those buried with items of weapons significantly exceeds those previously studied. This was the Kushulevsky III burial ground. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze sets of weapons for male burials at the Kushulevsky III burial ground. It is also necessary to compare the data obtained on the weapon sets of the Kushulevsky III burial ground with the necropolises already studied in a similar way: the Okhlebininsky Kara-Abyz culture and the Yuldashevsky Pyanobor culture. It will be fundamentally important to identify the types of arrowheads from the burials of the Kushulevsky III burial ground.An explanatory model for reducing the number of horse bridle sets in military burials of the Pyanobor culture is also presented. In the specialized literature, these theoretical conclusions are described for the first time, which determines the novelty of this work. This work was made possible by the use of statistical calculations, the comparative historical method, as well as the methods of chronology and typology. The use of these techniques made it possible to establish the number of weapons items, their types, types of weapon sets, chronology, etc. The result of the work performed was a demonstration of the proximity of the weapon sets of the Pyanobor and Kara-Abyz cultures. In some cases, certain categories of weapons predominate, for example, bone arrowheads. In bladed weapons, the single-edged combat knife is the most used. In the same category of weapons, there is an electiveness and singularity of swords hitting the drunken population. The combination of a combat knife with a bow or spear forms a standardized complex of weapons of the Pyanobor culture.