Tanzanian Adolescent Boys’ Transitions Through Puberty: The Importance of Context

We explored the masculinity norms shaping transitions through puberty in rural and urban Tanzania and how these norms and their social-ecological context contribute to high-risk health behaviors. We conducted a qualitative case study of adolescent boys in and out of school in 2011 and 2012. Tanzania’s social and economic development is reshaping the transition into young manhood. Adolescent boys are losing traditional mechanisms of pubertal guidance, and new meanings of manhood are arising from globalization. Traditional masculinity norms, including pressures to demonstrate virility and fertility, remain strong. Adolescent boys in modernizing Tanzania receive inadequate guidance on their burgeoning sexuality. Contradictory masculinity norms from family and society are shaping their sexual expectations, with implications for their engagement in unsafe sexual behaviors.Inadequate attention has been paid to adolescent boys’ transitions through puberty in the context of the rapidly changing social norms and contexts of many sub-Saharan African countries, including Tanzania.1,2 Significant attention and resources have focused on adolescent girls aged 15 years and older because of their increased vulnerability to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancy, and gender-based violence. Adolescent boys have their own unique health needs and challenges,3 such as increased risks of injury; engagement in violence; abuse of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; and risky sexual behaviors.1,4 Adolescent boys’ and young men’s behaviors may also significantly affect the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent girls and young women.Tanzania, like other sub-Saharan African countries, has undergone significant social upheaval in recent decades. Participation in traditional practices, such as puberty rites and ceremonies, has declined; extended-family structures have changed because of migration to cities and the devastatingly high mortality toll of HIV/AIDS5; and globalization and modernization have brought an influx of new ideas and images. These factors are reshaping the contexts in which adolescent Tanzanian boys transition into young adulthood.6,7 It is important to understand how such changes influence boys’ growing-up experiences, including the masculinity norms shaping their perceptions of manhood and sexuality, to develop effective interventions that promote healthy transitions into adulthood and reduce unsafe sexual behaviors.In many sub-Saharan African countries, girls reaching puberty experience new controls imposed on their burgeoning sexuality.8,9 One reason is their perceived vulnerability to pregnancy and its implications for their marriageability and for family honor.10 By contrast, postpubescent boys are likely to be encouraged, or even expected, to demonstrate their virility (not necessarily through safe sex practices).11 The expression of any qualities that can be interpreted as feminine may be verbally if not physically suppressed.12 Heteronormativity, at least in public, is often the strongly reinforced and desired sign of manhood, and it frequently encompasses engagement in sexual relations and dominance over girls and women.13Growing evidence suggests that early adolescence may be an important window of opportunity for health interventions affecting the transition into young manhood.14,15 This is partially because of the increased intensity of gendered norms focused on young people during puberty (as compared with younger children) and the perceived possibility of reshaping norms that may play a role in high-risk health behaviors.16 Little is known about the masculinity norms and other contextual influences shaping adolescent boys’ perceptions of becoming a man in a modernizing society such as Tanzania, but these may contribute to risky behaviors that endanger health. We have even less evidence on the perspectives of adolescent boys themselves about the influences shaping their participation in and decision-making about safe or unsafe sexual behaviors.Tanzania is a large East African country with an estimated population of 48 million, of whom almost 65% are younger than 24 years.17 More than 120 ethnic groups reside in the country, and Christianity and Islam are the predominant religions. Overall, 2.0% of adolescents and young men and women (aged 15–24 years) are HIV positive, with the likelihood of infection with HIV increasing with age: among persons aged 23 to 24 years, young women are more than twice as likely as young men to be infected (6.6% vs 2.8%).18,19 The increasing prevalence rates with age emphasize the importance of improving prevention efforts with adolescents. The few prevention initiatives that have included adolescent boys have also relied on limited evidence about young people''s sexual maturation experiences in a changing society.We conducted an in-depth study with adolescent boys in rural and urban Tanzania. We sought to explore, from the perspectives of adolescent boys themselves, their experiences of puberty and their interpretations of manhood in their changing social context. We (1) compared an urban to a rural context, which was important because of expected differences in traditional practices regarding puberty; (2) examined the predominant and alternative local masculinity norms being shaped simultaneously by tradition and modernization; and (3) assessed the globalizing influences shaping adolescent boys’ perceptions of manhood and sexuality, such as mass media, the Internet, and global marketing (e.g., alcohol companies). We hypothesized that influences from globalization and modernization create experiences of adolescence that conflict with traditional expectations of young manhood, particularly in urban contexts.We used an ecological framework of adolescent health20 to assess the multiple levels of influence shaping Tanzanian adolescent boys’ transitions through puberty today, particularly those that affect high-risk behaviors.21 We examined historical and cultural norms related to manhood at the societal level, along with adolescent boys'' interpersonal interactions and individual-level experiences. The conceptual framework guided an exploration of adolescent boys'' emotional and physical experiences among their families and peers, in school and in the larger community, along with the norms shaping their perceptions of manhood. We applied the theory of the social construction of gender to better understand the ways adolescent boys’ gendered experiences within their own identities, and among their peers, families, and communities, shaped their perceptions and experiences of young manhood.22,23     

Verbal insight revisited: fMRI evidence for early processing in bilateral insulae for solutions with AHA! experience shortly after trial onset

In insight problem solving solutions with AHA! experience have been assumed to be the consequence of restructuring of a problem which usually takes place shortly before the solution. However, evidence from priming studies suggests that solutions with AHA! are not spontaneously generated during the solution process but already relate to prior subliminal processing. We test this hypothesis by conducting an fMRI study using a modified compound remote associates paradigm which incorporates semantic priming. We observe stronger brain activity in bilateral anterior insulae already shortly after trial onset in problems that were later solved with than without AHA!. This early activity was independent of semantic priming but may be related to other lexical properties of attended words helping to reduce the amount of solutions to look for. In contrast, there was more brain activity in bilateral anterior insulae during solutions that were solved without than with AHA!. This timing (after trial start/during solution) x solution experience (with/without AHA!) interaction was significant. The results suggest that (a) solutions accompanied with AHA! relate to early solution‐relevant processing and (b) both solution experiences differ in timing when solution‐relevant processing takes place. In this context, we discuss the potential role of the anterior insula as part of the salience network involved in problem solving by allocating attentional resources.     

Facile transmetallation of [SbIII(DOTA)]− renders it unsuitable for medical applications

The antimony(iii) complex of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetate (DOTA) has been prepared and its exceptionally low stability observed. The Sb(iii) ion in Na[Sb(DOTA)]·4H₂O shows an approximately square antiprismatic coordination geometry that is close to superimposable to the Bi(iii) geometry in [Bi(DOTA)]⁻ in two phases containing this anion, Na[Bi(DOTA)]·4H₂O, [H₃O][Bi(DOTA)]·H₂O for which structures are also described. Interestingly, DOTA itself in [(H₆DOTA)]Cl₂·4H₂O·DMSO shows the same orientation of the N₄O₄ metal binding cavity reflecting the limited flexibility of DOTA in an octadentate coordination mode. In 8-coordinate complexes it can however accommodate M(iii) ions with r_ion spanning a relatively wide range from 87 pm (Sc(iii)) to 117 pm (Bi(iii)). The larger Bi³⁺ ion appears to be the best metal–ligand size match since [Bi(DOTA)]⁻ is associated with greater complex stability. In the solution state, [Sb(DOTA)]⁻ is extremely susceptible to transmetallation by trivalent ions (Sc(iii), Y(iii), Bi(iii)) and, significantly, even by biologically important divalent metal ions (Mg(ii), Ca(ii), Zn(ii)). In all cases just one equivalent is enough to displace most of the Sb(iii). [Sb(DOTA)]⁻ is resistant to hydrolysis; however, since biologically more abundant metal ions easily substitute the antimony, DOTA complexes will not be suitable for deployment for the delivery of the, so far unexploited, theranostic isotope pair ¹¹⁹Sb and ¹¹⁷Sb.

The antimony(iii) complex of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetate (DOTA) has been prepared and its exceptionally low stability observed.