Affective School Engagement and Self-Concept: How are Irish Boys and Girls Faring?

Internationally and in Ireland, much of the research around gender and educational engagement has centred on the academic differences between boys and girls (Warrington and Younger 2000; Francis 2009; O’Connor 2007). Less is known however about the factors shaping affective school engagement and student self-concept and how this can affect participation in learning. Children and young people emphasise the affective or emotional as much as the learning aspects of school life (Alexander 2008). Drawing on data from the 9-year cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland study, this paper examines self-concept among boys and girls in Irish primary schools. The findings show important differences in terms of the affective elements of school engagement, with boys more likely than girls to score significantly lower levels on measures of ‘good’ behaviour and intellectual school status, while girls score significantly lower on freedom from anxiety than boys. The findings also illustrate that predictors of disengagement are about more than the child’s gender – in that working class children and students with special educational needs are faring less well in terms of affective engagement in school.     

Singapore Neonatal Resuscitation Guidelines 2021

Neonatal resuscitation is a coordinated, team-based series of timed sequential steps that focuses on a transitional physiology to improve perinatal and neonatal outcomes. The practice of neonatal resuscitation has evolved over time and continues to be shaped by emerging evidence as well as key opinions. We present the revised Neonatal Resuscitation Guidelines for Singapore 2021. The recommendations from the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Neonatal Task Force Consensus on Science and Treatment Recommendations (2020) and guidelines from the American Heart Association and European Resuscitation Council were compared with existing guidelines. The recommendations of the Neonatal Subgroup of the Singapore Resuscitation and First Aid Council were derived after the work group discussed and appraised the current available evidence and their applicability to local clinical practice.     

Maternal personality traits,antenatal depressive symptoms and the postpartum mother–infant relationship: a prospective observational study

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology - Maternal depression has been associated with bonding difficulties and lower maternal sensitivity in observed mother–infant interactions....     

Social and emotional factors as predictors of poor outcomes following cardiac surgery

 Open in a separate windowOBJECTIVESExisting risk prediction models in cardiac surgery stratify individuals based on their predicted risk, including only medical and physiological factors. However, the complex nature of risk assessment and the lack of parameters representing non-medical aspects of patients’ lives point towards the need for a broader paradigm in cardiac surgery. Objectives were to evaluate the predictive value of emotional and social factors on 4 outcomes; death within 90 days, prolonged stay in intensive care (≥72 h), prolonged hospital admission (≥10 days) and readmission within 90 days following cardiac surgery, as a supplement to traditional risk assessment by European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE).METHODSThe study included adults undergoing cardiac surgery in Denmark 2014–2017 including information on register-based socio-economic factors, and, in a nested subsample, self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Logistic regression analyses were conducted, adjusted for EuroSCORE, of variables reflecting social and emotional factors.RESULTSAmongst 7874 included patients, lower educational level (odds ratio 1.33; 95% confidence interval 1.17–1.51) and living alone (1.25; 1.14–1.38) were associated with prolonged hospital admission after adjustment for EuroSCORE. Lower educational level was also associated with prolonged intensive care unit stay (1.27; 1.00–1.63). Having a high income was associated with decreased odds of prolonged hospital admission (0.78; 0.70–0.87). No associations or predictive value for symptoms of anxiety or depression were found on any outcomes.CONCLUSIONSSocial disparity is predictive of poor outcomes following cardiac surgery. Symptoms of anxiety and depression are frequent especially amongst patients with a high-risk profile according to EuroSCORE.Subj collection105, 123