Leisure,Free Time and Well-Being of 10 Years Old Children Living in Buenos Aires Province,Argentina

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The study of subjective well-being in children and adolescents has had different focuses and orientations; this research paper’s approach on that theme...     

Gender’s Role in Misperceptions of Peers’ Sexual Motives

The sexual double standard influences men’s and women’s sexual attitudes and behavior, leading men and women to consider distinct sexual motives, or reasons whether or not to engage in sexual intercourse. The goal of the present paper was to document how the sexual double standard shapes perceptions of peers’ sexual motives. We build on past research by using open-ended questions and measuring perceptions of both same-gender and other-gender peers. The sample included 154 heterosexual college students (50 % female, 49 % European American, 25 % Latino American, 26 % African American) recruited via probability sampling. When we compared perceptions of men’s and women’s sexual motives, we found that participants seemed to rely on the sexual double standard. Participants were more likely to attribute a female-stereotyped motive (e.g., romantic relationship characteristics, feeling “ready”, emotional investment) and less likely to attribute a male-stereotyped motive (“easy”, arousal, physical appearance) to female peers than to male peers. However, when we compared participants’ own motives to perceptions of their peers’ motives, participants overestimated male-stereotyped motives and underestimated female-stereotyped motives in peers, regardless of peer gender, possibly in congruence with stereotypes of hookup culture. These findings demonstrate that, although individuals sometimes rely on the sexual double standard to attribute sexual motives to others, misperceptions of peers’ sexual motives may also be influenced by stereotypes of hookup culture. These misperceptions contribute to pluralistic ignorance that may influence college students’ sexual behaviors.     

Impact of outpatient non-myeloablative haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in quality of life vs. conventional therapy

The role of outpatient hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) as a therapeutic tool has been strengthened significantly because of the increasing number of patients undergoing this treatment. Due the very nature of this procedure, one of the aspects that should not be overlooked is the quality of life (QOL) of patients undergoing HSCT. Thus, one must consider not only health status after treatment, but also, the psychosocial implications for the patient. This is an observational, longitudinal, and prospective study to assess QOL in patients undergoing outpatient HSCT vs. similar patients receiving medical treatment (MxTx). By applying the COOP/WONKA charts on five occasions (pre-HSCT/initial, post-HSCT/first month, and at 3, 6, and 9 months), thirty-eight patients were analysed, 19 with HSCT and 19 with MxTx with no differences in age, gender or diagnosis. The initial survey found significant differences only in pain perception, which was higher in the HSCT group (p = .08); at the first month, there was a greater tendency for feelings of depression or anxiety in the HSCT group (p = .016), with more limitations in social (p = .003) and daily (p = .044) activities. From 3 months post-HSCT, the results were very similar. The differences persisted only in the area of social activities. Four patients developed graft-versus-host disease with no significant difference in the scores obtained compared to other transplant patients at 3, 6, and 9 months (p = .26) of follow-up.     

Mothers with Depressive Symptoms Touching Newborns

Previous research has demonstrated the positive effects of early contact on mother–infant touching behaviours. The present study investigated whether the type of maternal touching, shortly after birth, is also determined by the mother's mood state. Mothers with depressive symptoms were compared to non-depressive mothers 1 day after delivery on how they touched their newborns following an initial feeding. The results were counter-intuitive in that no differences were found between mothers with depressive symptoms and non-depressive mothers in type of maternal touching. However, mothers with depressive symptoms talked to their infants less often and talked on the phone more often. In addition, mothers with depressive symptoms showed more neutral and negative facial expressions and fewer positive and more neutral vocal expressions.     

Prologue: Quality of Life in South America

Applied Research in Quality of Life -     

Student’s Quality of Life at the University: a Qualitative Study

Since the end of the XX century the university has enlarged its traditional role focused on the production and reproduction of scientific knowledge, thus becoming a social institution, an academic reference for those whose lives are developed within its walls (Tonon 2012b, p. 4). For more than a decade, we have worked in this thematic field, and the development of three former research projects (2005–2013) has allowed us to identify a direct and positive relationship between the person’s access to university studies and their quality of life. This has reinforced the idea that access to the university is a strategy which improves people’s quality of life, generating an enhancement of their sense of well-being (Tonon 2005). The pilot study we are about to put forward has been conducted during the years 2018 and 2019, with students of different courses of study in the Faculty of Social Sciences of Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, with the object of examining their opinion regarding their quality of life at the university. It is a pilot study which provides the university authorities with a situational analysis for the construction of an institutional agenda of higher education. Furthermore, it is the first step toward generating the construction process of a new indicator development on the study of quality of university life. The abovementioned research study was conducted by the qualitative method, and carried out on the basis of a sample of 200 university students between the ages of 18 and 20.