Good design as design for good: exploring how design can be ethically and environmentally sustainable by co-designing an eco-hostel within a Mayan community

Designers acknowledge that their skills can assist the visualization and materialization of a desirable future and have gone as far as proposing that design can achieve societal change. Designing for a better world is associated with decreasing environmental depletion impacts while making good for both people and the environment, if possible. Evidently, this is a space where design deals with ethical matters, defining what is good or questioning if good has a universal meaning. This paper discusses the case of Aalto LAB Mexico's (ALM) Eco-hostel project, a practical and ethical design exploration. It shares the impressions of the design team when co-designing with(in) the Mayan community of ‘20 de Noviembre’ (20 Nov), located in Calakmul, Campeche, México. The Eco-hostel project was proposed as an element which can play a central role in achieving betterment of several aspects of the community's daily life. Several of those aspects were communicated by the inhabitants of 20 Nov, and some others were identified by ALM's experts. Whereas some universal principles were applicable to the construction, the context-centred approach of ALM generated a unique proposal, conceptualized to achieve harmony with the local environmental and cultural conditions.     

Payback: Effects of relationship and cultural norms on reciprocity

This experimental investigation explores differences in reciprocal norms between friends and strangers and the effects of culture on reciprocity. Based on altruistic and strong reciprocity theories, a hybrid trust‐dictator game tested the influence of relationship (i.e. friends vs. strangers), treatment (i.e. positive vs. negative) and culture (i.e. collectivistic vs. individualistic) on reciprocation. The results show that participants reciprocated more positively when treated positively in general. However, the results demonstrate intercultural differences in reciprocal norms, specifically in the negative treatment condition. Participants from the individualistic culture provided stronger punishment to the norm violator, compared to participants from the collectivistic culture. We discuss implications of the impact of relationship and culture on reciprocation with respect to the olive branch response.     

Marital Interactions,Family Intervention,and Disagreements: A Daily Diary Study in a Low‐income Sample

Little research has examined associations between low‐income married couples’ daily interactions and severity of disagreements. Similarly, few researchers have considered how family‐strengthening interventions for low‐income couples may affect the quality of daily interactions and associations between interactions and conflict experiences. This study aims to fill these gaps in the literature by leveraging daily diary data from a random assignment study of a family‐strengthening intervention with low‐income husbands and wives 30 months postenrollment. Married couples randomly assigned to the intervention participated in 10 weeks of relationship education services. Control group couples received no services. Thirty months postrandom assignment, participants reported on the severity of daily marital disagreements over a 15‐day period, as well as their positive and negative emotions during inter‐spousal interactions. Multi‐level models demonstrated associations between reports of emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements. In addition, wives assigned to the family strengthening program reported fewer negative emotions during interactions at follow‐up than wives in the control condition. Finally, negative associations between positive emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were stronger for wives assigned to the intervention, while positive associations between negative emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were weaker for wives assigned to the intervention. Implications for future research and intervention development are discussed.     

‘I was seeing more of her’: international counselling trainees' perceived benefits of intercultural clinical practice

Counsellor education in Britain is steadily turning into a multicultural environment. The limited relevant literature focuses on the challenges that ‘culturally different’ and international trainees may encounter. The aim of this paper is to elucidate a rarely exposed aspect of international counselling trainees' training experience, namely, the benefits they identify in practising across languages and cultures during placement. The illustration of this positive perspective is pertinent to the profession, as it expands existing knowledge on international trainees' experience of clinical practice and it challenges the prevailing conceptualisation of this situation as potentially problematic. It is argued that a shift towards a more holistic understanding of this population's counselling experiences is likely to have particularly useful implications for counsellor education and the profession more broadly.     

La adquisición del lenguaje: un análisis interaccional

Resumen

El principal objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar functionalmente las interacciones verbales niño-adulto, en seis sujetos, de edades comprendidas entre los 18 y los 30 meses, y sus familias, observados en ambiente natural. Un segundo objetivo fue definir y poner a prueba un sistema de Categorías funcionales para el análisis del lenguaje infantil. También se realizó un estudio del lenguaje adulto («input parental») en cuanto a una pluralidad de características, incluyendo las similitudes y diferencias entre el lenguaje de los padres y las madres.

Los resultados ponen de relieve que el lenguaje de los niños, a pesar de las limitaciones formales de estas primeras etapas, es altamente funcional e interaccional. También se ha puesto de manifiesto que el lenguaje que el adulto dirige al niño reviste unas características (en cuanto a claridad, corrección, simplicidad, etc.) en sí mismo facilitadoras de los procesos de transmisión-adquisición del lenguaje. Al mismo tiempo se ha evidenciado la existencia de estrategias educativas no intencionales en las interacciones verbales niño-adulto. Estas estrategias poseen cierto valor explicativo respecto a los procesos de desarrollo del lenguaje.

Los niños del estudio y sus familias eran catalano-parlantes, por tanto este trabajo es asimismo un estudio longitudinal sobre la adquisición del catalán como primera lengua.     

Can a before-school physical activity program decrease bullying victimization in disadvantaged children? The Active-Start Study

Background/ObjectiveTo test the effectiveness of an 8-week before-school physical activity program to reduce bullying victimization among a group of socially disadvantaged children in the Active-Start study.MethodA non-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted in three public schools classified as highly vulnerable and located in a deprived area of Santiago (Chile). A total of 5 classes participated, totaling 170 fourth grade children. The intervention was delivered before starting the first school-class (8:00–8:30 a.m.). The program lasted for 8 weeks. Primary outcome measurement on bullying victimization was assessed by the CUBE questionnaire at baseline and post-intervention.ResultsThere was a statistically significant reduction in the probability of suffering physical bullying (OR= 0.18, 95% CI, 0.04-0.82; p= .027) and verbal bullying (OR=0.13, 95% CI, 0.02-0.97; p= .046) after the 8-week program.ConclusionsParticipation in an 8-week before-school physical activity intervention implemented in schools located in a disadvantaged district in Santiago (Chile) resulted in lower levels of bullying victimization among study participants. The Active-Start program may be a feasible and potentially scalable intervention option to improve the climate and pro-sociality environment at schools.     

Interrater agreement on behavioral executive function measures in adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Background/ObjectiveThough most children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) show difficulties in behavioral measures of executive functions (EF), few studies have examined interrater agreement in these measures.Objective: To analyze the agreement between parents, teachers and self-reports of behavioral EF in adolescents with ADHD and controls. Method: A sample of 118 adolescents (75 with ADHD and 43 controls) was rated by parents, teachers and the adolescents themselves using the Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland and Altman methods were used to evaluate agreement. Results: The ICC between parents, teachers and self-report was poor or moderate in the group with ADHD; in the control group the agreement was fair to good. The Bland and Altman graphs show that, in the control group, most of the scores are below to the clinical cut-off point, while in the group with ADHD they are above. Conclusions: Agreement between all raters was low. Parents, teachers and adolescents agreed on the absence of deficits in behavioral EF in the control group, and on the presence of deficits in the group with ADHD, although they did not agree on the frequency of these deficits.     

Predictive factors of quality of life in acquired brain injury

Background/ObjectiveThe sequelae and the disability and dependence that follow an acquired brain injury (ABI) may result in a significant reduction in the quality of life (QoL) of those affected. The objective was to assess the QoL of a sample of Spanish patients with an ABI and analyze the influence of certain sociodemographic and injury-related variables on their QoL. Method: The sample comprised 421 adults (60% male; M_age = 53.12; SD = 14.87). Professionals and relatives assessed the patients’ QoL through the CAVIDACE scale, an ABI-specific tool based on the eight-domain QoL model. Results: Univariate analyses showed statistically significant differences in the QoL scores in several sociodemographic (age, civil status, education level, prior employment status, type of home, level of supports, loss of legal capacity, recognized dependence, and degree of dependence) and injury-related (time since the injury, location of the injury, and presence of post-traumatic amnesia) variables. The multiple linear regression showed that loss of legal capacity, time since the injury, prior employment status, location of the injury, and degree of dependence were significant QoL predictors. Conclusions: These findings provide knowledge for the development of programs aimed at reducing the negative impact of ABI on QoL.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and executive dysfunction among children and adolescents: A Latent Profile Analysis

Background/ObjectiveThe current study aimed to examine the relationship between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and executive dysfunction in children and adolescents after psychological trauma.MethodParticipants were 13,438 of children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years exposed to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. PTSD and dysexecutive symptoms were assessed using the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index for Children and the Self-Report Dysexecutive Questionnaire. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was conducted using Mplus version 7.4. Subgroup differences in trauma exposure and quality of life were calculated using ANCOVA.ResultsA 4-class parallel model was found to best describe latent PTSD symptom profiles and executive dysfunction. Individuals in higher symptom groups showed more trauma exposure and lower quality of life.ConclusionsThis LPA study shed light on the relationship between PTSD and executive dysfunction symptoms in children and adolescents. The correlation between PTSD and executive dysfunction was maintained after individual differences were taken into consideration. Our findings provide a new view on how PTSD relates to executive dysfunction and several suggestions for treating child and adolescent PTSD patients.