Relationships between psychosocial distress and diet during pregnancy and infant birthweight in a lower-middle income country: "Healthy mothers, healthy communities" study in Vanuatu.
CONCLUSIONS: Maternal distress following a natural disaster has important implications for maternal and child health. In LMICs, low birthweight remains a pressing public health concern. Distress during pregnancy might represent one underlying risk factor.
PMID: 29606018 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Annals of Human Biology)
Source: Annals of Human Biology - April 4, 2018 Category: Biology Tags: Ann Hum Biol Source Type: research
Evidence from hunter-gatherer and subsistence agricultural populations for the universality of contagion sensitivity
Publication date: Available online 8 March 2018 Source:Evolution and Human Behavior Author(s): Coren L. Apicella, Paul Rozin, Justin Busch, Rachel Watson-Jones, Cristine H. Legare The phenomenon of magical contagion – the unobserved passage of properties between entities that come into physical contact – was described by anthropologists over a century ago, yet questions remain about its origin, function, and universality. Contagion sensitivity, along with the emotion of disgust, has been proposed to be part of a biologically-evolved system designed to reduce exposure to pathogens by increasing the avoidance of ...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - March 8, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 443: Hygiene and Health: Who Do Mothers in Vanuatu Communicate with about Health?
cLaws
Health information-seeking behaviour of mothers with children five years of age and younger in Vanuatu was examined using the structural properties of social networks. Data were collected from a rural village from two islands and an urban settlement in the capital, Port Vila, by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Sociometric data on the structure of the network, the characteristics of key informants, and associations with outside sources of health information were analysed as interpersonal predictors of health promotion and behavior change. Rural mothers preferred the health advice of biome...
Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - March 3, 2018 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Karen File Thomas Valente Mary-Louise McLaws Tags: Article Source Type: research
Ancient DNA offers clues to remote Pacific islands’ population puzzle
Ancient DNA offers clues to remote Pacific islands’ population puzzle, Published online: 01 March 2018; doi:10.1038/d41586-018-02620-yGenomic studies provide details about the complex peopling of Vanuatu — one of the last places on Earth reached by humans. (Source: Nature AOP)
Source: Nature AOP - March 1, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Ewen Callaway Source Type: research
Population Turnover in Remote Oceania Shortly after Initial Settlement.
ppenheimer SJ, Parks T, Robson K, Williams TN, Kennett DJ, Mentzer AJ, Pinhasi R, Reich D
Abstract
Ancient DNA from Vanuatu and Tonga dating to about 2,900-2,600 years ago (before present, BP) has revealed that the "First Remote Oceanians" associated with the Lapita archaeological culture were directly descended from the population that, beginning around 5000 BP, spread Austronesian languages from Taiwan to the Philippines, western Melanesia, and eventually Remote Oceania. Thus, ancestors of the First Remote Oceanians must have passed by the Papuan-ancestry populations they encountered in New Guinea, the Bi...
Source: Current Biology - February 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Lipson M, Skoglund P, Spriggs M, Valentin F, Bedford S, Shing R, Buckley H, Phillip I, Ward GK, Mallick S, Rohland N, Broomandkhoshbacht N, Cheronet O, Ferry M, Harper TK, Michel M, Oppenheimer J, Sirak K, Stewardson K, Auckland K, Hill AVS, Maitland K, O Tags: Curr Biol Source Type: research
Cross-cultural variation in the development of folk ecological reasoning
Two studies examined children's reasoning about biological kinds in populations that vary in formal education and direct experience with the natural world, a Western (urban U.S.) and a Non-Western population (Tanna, Vanuatu). Study 1 examined children's concepts of ecological relatedness between species (N = 97, 5–13-year-olds). U.S. children provided more taxonomic explanations than Ni-Vanuatu children, who provided more ecological, physiological, and utility explanations than U.S. children. Ecological explanations were most common overall, and more common among older than younger children acr oss cultures. (Source...
Source: Evolution and Human Behaviour - February 15, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Justin T.A. Busch, Rachel E. Watson-Jones, Cristine H. Legare Source Type: research
Cross-cultural variation in the development of folk ecological reasoning
Two studies examined children's reasoning about biological kinds in populations that vary in formal education and direct experience with the natural world, a Western (urban U.S.) and a Non-Western population (Tanna, Vanuatu). Study 1 examined children's concepts of ecological relatedness between species (N=97, 5 –13-year-olds). U.S. children provided more taxonomic explanations than Ni-Vanuatu children, who provided more ecological, physiological, and utility explanations than U.S. children. Ecological explanations were most common overall and more common among older than younger children across cultures. (Source: Evolut...
Source: Evolution and Human Behaviour - February 15, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Justin T.A. Busch, Rachel E. Watson-Jones, Cristine H. Legare Source Type: research
Cross-cultural variation in the development of folk ecological reasoning
Publication date: Available online 14 February 2018 Source:Evolution and Human Behavior Author(s): Justin T.A. Busch, Rachel E. Watson-Jones, Cristine H. Legare Two studies examined children's reasoning about biological kinds in populations that vary in formal education and direct experience with the natural world, a Western (urban U.S.) and a Non-Western population (Tanna, Vanuatu). Study 1 examined children's concepts of ecological relatedness between species (N = 97, 5–13-year-olds). U.S. children provided more taxonomic explanations than Ni-Vanuatu children, who provided more ecological, physiological, and u...
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior - February 14, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Assessing Diversity in Early Childhood Development in the East Asia-Pacific
AbstractThe East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales represent the first effort to create a developmental assessment tool on the basis of the diverse cultures and values of a range of countries within a world region. The Scales were administered to a representative sample of 7757 children (3869 girls), ranging in age from 36 to 71 months, from Cambodia, China, Mongolia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. In all six countries, child development scores increased with age and urban children consistently performed better than rural children. The gap between urban and rural children widened with age in Cambodi...
Source: Child Indicators Research - February 10, 2018 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Increasingly inbred and fragmented populations of < i > Plasmodium vivax < /i > associated with the eastward decline in malaria transmission across the Southwest Pacific
by Andreea Waltmann, Cristian Koepfli, Natacha Tessier, Stephan Karl, Abebe Fola, Andrew W. Darcy, Lyndes Wini, G. L. Abby Harrison, C éline Barnadas, Charlie Jennison, Harin Karunajeewa, Sarah Boyd, Maxine Whittaker, James Kazura, Melanie Bahlo, Ivo Mueller, Alyssa E. Barry
The human malaria parasitePlasmodium vivax is more resistant to malaria control strategies thanPlasmodium falciparum, and maintains high genetic diversity even when transmission is low. To investigate whether decliningP.vivax transmission leads to increasing population structure that would facilitate elimination, we genotyped samples from across the ...
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - January 26, 2018 Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Andreea Waltmann Source Type: research
Cancer epidemiology in the small nations of Pacific Islands
Conclusion Cancer incidence in the PICTs was recorded to be relatively low, with New Caledonia and French Polynesia being exceptions. Low recorded incidence is likely to be explained by incomplete cancer registration as cancer had an important contribution to mortality. Further endeavors are needed to develop and strengthen cancer registration infrastructure and practices and to improve data quality and registration coverage in the PICTs. (Source: Cancer Epidemiology)
Source: Cancer Epidemiology - November 8, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research
Scaling Theory of Mind in a Small ‐Scale Society: A Case Study From Vanuatu
Child Development, EarlyView. (Source: Child Development)
Source: Child Development - October 6, 2017 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Scaling Theory of Mind in a Small ‐Scale Society: A Case Study From Vanuatu
Although theory of mind (ToM) is argued to emerge between 3 and 5 years of age, data from non‐Western, small‐scale societies suggest diversity. Deeper investigations into these settings are warranted. In the current study, over 400 Melanesian children from Vanuatu (range = 3–14 years), growing up in either urban or rural remote environments, completed culturally tailored ToM batteries. Results show a marked delay in false belief (FB) performance, particularly among participants from rural villages. By further investigating a diverse range of concepts beyond FB, we illustrate two unique cultural sequences for a su...
Source: Child Development - September 1, 2017 Category: Child Development Authors: Henry G. W. Dixson, Aim ée F. Komugabe‐Dixson, Barnaby J. Dixson, Jason Low Tags: Empirical Article Source Type: research
Smart Conformists: Children and Adolescents Associate Conformity With Intelligence Across Cultures
The current study used a novel methodology based on multivocal ethnography to assess the relations between conformity and evaluations of intelligence and good behavior among Western (U.S.) and non‐Western (Ni‐Vanuatu) children (6‐ to 11‐year‐olds) and adolescents (13‐ to 17‐year‐olds; N = 256). Previous research has shown that U.S. adults were less likely to endorse high‐conformity children as intelligent than Ni‐Vanuatu adults. The current data demonstrate that in contrast to prior studies documenting cultural differences between adults' evaluations of conformity, children and adolescents in the Unit...
Source: Child Development - August 24, 2017 Category: Child Development Authors: Nicole J. Wen, Jennifer M. Clegg, Cristine H. Legare Tags: Empirical Article Source Type: research
