Sex differences in human mate preferences vary across sex ratios.

A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attention has been directed towards the relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences, despite the importance of mate preferences in the human mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex ratio's relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness, resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a long-term mate across 45 countries (n = 14 487). We predicted that mate preferences would vary according to relative power of choice on the mating market, with increased power derived from having relatively few competitors and numerous potential mates. We found that each sex tended to report more demanding preferences for attractiveness and resources where the opposite sex was abundant, compared to where the opposite sex was scarce. This pattern dovetails with those found for mating strategies in humans and mate preferences across species, highlighting the importance of sex ratio for understanding variation in human mate preferences.

Crisis responses, opportunity, and public authority during Covid-19's first wave in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan.

Discussions on African responses to Covid-19 have focused on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, humanitarians, criminal gangs, and armed groups. This paper investigates how the pandemic provided opportunities for claims to and contests over power in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan. Ethnographic research is used to contend that local forms of public authority can be akin to miniature sovereigns, able to interpret dictates, policies, and advice as required. Alongside coping with existing complex protracted emergencies, many try to advance their own agendas and secure benefits. Those they seek to govern, though, do not passively accept the new normal, instead often challenging those in positions of influence. This paper assesses which of these actions and reactions will have lasting effects on local notions of statehood and argues for a public authorities lens in times of crisis.

Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication.

Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives-an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective-offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample (N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries.

Modernization, collectivism, and gender equality predict love experiences in 45 countries.

Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, we explored whether countries' modernization indexes are related to love experiences measured by three subscales (passion, intimacy, commitment) of the Triangular Love Scale. Analyzing data from 9474 individuals from 45 countries, we tested for relationships with country-level predictors, namely, modernization proxies (i.e., Human Development Index, World Modernization Index, Gender Inequality Index), collectivism, and average annual temperatures. We found that mean levels of love (especially intimacy) were higher in countries with higher modernization proxies, collectivism, and average annual temperatures. In conclusion, our results grant some support to the hypothesis that modernization processes might influence love experiences.

Epidemics and the Military: Responding to COVID-19 in Uganda.

The UN Security Council's response to Ebola in 2014 legitimised militarised responses. It also influenced responses to COVID-19 in some African countries. Yet, little is known about the day-to-day impacts for ordinary citizens of mobilising armies for epidemic control. Drawing on 18 months ethnographic research, this article analyses militarised responses to COVID-19 during, and following, two lockdowns at contrasting sites in Uganda: a small town in Pakwach district and a village in Kasese district. Both field sites lie close to the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the practice of health security varied between sites, the militarised response had more impact than the disease in these two places. The armed forces scaled back movement from urban conurbations to rural and peri-urban areas; while simultaneously enabling locally based official public authorities to use the proclaimed priorities of President Museveni's government to enhance their position and power. This led to a situation whereby inhabitants created new modes of mutuality to resist or subvert the regulations being enforced, including the establishment of new forms of cross-border movement. These findings problematise the widely held view that Uganda's response to COVID-19 was successful. Overall, it is argued that the on-going securitisation of global health has helped to create the political space to militarise the response. While this has had unknown effects on the prevalence of COVID-19, it has entrenched unaccountable modes of public authority and created a heightened sense of insecurity on the ground. The tendency to condone the violent practice of militarised public health programmes by international and national actors reflects a broader shift in the acceptance of more authoritarian forms of governance.

Vaccine anxieties, vaccine preparedness: Perspectives from Africa in a Covid-19 era.

Global debates about vaccines as a key element of pandemic response and future preparedness in the era of Covid-19 currently focus on questions of supply, with attention to global injustice in vaccine distribution and African countries as rightful beneficiaries of international de-regulation and financing initiatives such as COVAX. At the same time, vaccine demand and uptake are seen to be threatened by hesitancy, often attributed to an increasingly globalised anti-vaxx movement and its propagation of misinformation and conspiracy, now reaching African populations through a social media 'infodemic'. Underplayed in these debates are the socio-political contexts through which vaccine technologies enter and are interpreted within African settings, and the crucial intersections between supply and demand. We explore these through a 'vaccine anxieties' framework attending to both desires for and worries about vaccines, as shaped by bodily, societal and wider political understandings and experiences. This provides an analytical lens to organise and interpret ethnographic and narrative accounts in local and national settings in Uganda and Sierra Leone, and their (dis)connections with global debates and geopolitics. In considering the socially-embedded reasons why people want or do not want Covid-19 vaccines, and how this intersects with the dynamics of vaccine supply, access and distribution in rapidly-unfolding epidemic situations, we bring new, expanded insights into debates about vaccine confidence and vaccine preparedness.

Negotiating Intersecting Precarities: COVID-19, Pandemic Preparedness and Response in Africa.

This article shares findings on COVID-19 in Africa across 2020 to examine concepts and practices of epidemic preparedness and response. Amidst uncertainties about the trajectory of COVID-19, the stages of emergency response emerge in practice as interconnected. We illustrate how complex dynamics manifest as diverse actors interpret and modify approaches according to contexts and experiences. We suggest that the concept of "intersecting precarities" best captures the temporalities at stake; that these precarities include the effects of epidemic control measures; and that people do not just accept but actively negotiate these intersections as they seek to sustain their lives and livelihoods.

Affective Interpersonal Touch in Close Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.

Universality of the Triangular Theory of Love: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Triangular Love Scale in 25 Countries.

The Triangular Theory of Love (measured with Sternberg's Triangular Love Scale - STLS) is a prominent theoretical concept in empirical research on love. To expand the culturally homogeneous body of previous psychometric research regarding the STLS, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural study with the use of this scale. In total, we examined more than 11,000 respondents, but as a result of applied exclusion criteria, the final analyses were based on a sample of 7332 participants from 25 countries (from all inhabited continents). We tested configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance, all of which confirmed the cultural universality of the theoretical construct of love analyzed in our study. We also observed that levels of love components differ depending on relationship duration, following the dynamics suggested in the Triangular Theory of Love. Supplementary files with all our data, including results on love intensity across different countries along with STLS versions adapted in a few dozen languages, will further enable more extensive research on the Triangular Theory of Love.

Assessment of the relationship between life events with psychosocial competence of students in selected secondary schools in Northern and Central Uganda.

INTRODUCTION: As they grow, young people transit through adolescence; a particularly challenging phase. Many go through without difficulties but some experience maladaptive responses in form of conduct and adjustment problems, pubertal challenges and life stress. Published research from the developed societies demonstrates consistent associations between young people's exposure to life events, psychosocial competence (PSC) and mental health problems. However, comparable research from income-constrained societies remains scarce. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of life events in secondary school students and describe the relationship between life events and PSC in the same population. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. Participants were 2,902 randomly selected in Central and Northern Uganda. They responded to self-administered questionnaires on socio-demographics, life events and PSC. RESULTS: Northern Ugandan students were more likely to be susceptible to stress-related illness associated with major life events (p = < 0.01). Among students with a high susceptibility to stress related illness, those with low scores on self-efficacy (p = < 0.001), accurate self-assessment (p = < 0.001) and self-confidence (p = < 0.001) were mostly from the North. Students from Northern Uganda had experienced more negative events. Students with higher scores on empathy, emotional awareness, accurate self- assessment and self-confidence tended to have low distress. Students that had a low susceptibility to stress related illness (AOR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.57 - 2.48); high scores on self-efficacy (AOR 1.37; 95% CI: 1.09 - 1.74), self-confidence (AOR 1.32; 95% CI: 1.02 - 1.72), and accurate self-assessment (AOR 2.19; 95% CI: 1.70 - 2.80) were mostly from northern Uganda. CONCLUSION: It is important to help students to cope with negative life events since an association exists between negative life events and PSC domains. PSC domains of empathy, emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence seem to be associated with lower distress levels, implying that these should be reinforced.

Contrasting Computational Models of Mate Preference Integration Across 45 Countries.

Humans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across these many preference dimensions into summaries of the overall mate value of their potential mates. Here we explore the computational design of this mate preference integration process using a large sample of n = 14,487 people from 45 countries around the world. We combine this large cross-cultural sample with agent-based models to compare eight hypothesized models of human mating markets. Across cultures, people higher in mate value appear to experience greater power of choice on the mating market in that they set higher ideal standards, better fulfill their preferences in choice, and pair with higher mate value partners. Furthermore, we find that this cross-culturally universal pattern of mate choice is most consistent with a Euclidean model of mate preference integration.

The oughtness of care: Fear, stress, and caregiving during the 2000-2001 Ebola outbreak in Gulu, Uganda.

In this article we introduce the term oughtness of care to show how caring for sick relatives was experienced in the context of the Ebola outbreak in Gulu, Uganda, in 2000-2001. We conducted fieldwork over a nine month period from July 2016 to March 2017 in the suburbs of Lacor, Bardege, Pece Lukung, Kasubi, Limu, and Kanyagoga Koro Layibi, Rwot Obilo, all of which were epicenters for Ebola. In addition, we conducted interviews in the districts of Amuru, Kitgum, and Lamwo, where some interlocutors had resettled following the end of the war that was affecting Gulu at the time of the Ebola outbreak. Of the 198 interlocutors in the focus group discussions, we followed up on 98 for further group and individual interviews. Our analysis principally provides a retrospective ethnographic study of caregivers' moral experiences of the need to care for sick relatives during the outbreak. In our study, respondents argued that they would rather respond to the compelling need to offer care for intimate others at home or in a healthcare institution, rather than listen to sensitization messages not to touch sick patients. We introduce the term oughtness of care to enable us to understand how caregiving, which caregivers experienced as a moral logic draws its justification from the specific situation of radical insecurity which they were thrown into. We argue that this caregiving has its own logic, which is insufficiently captured by conventional public health approaches to containing Ebola outbreaks. Caregivers are, in consequence, not recognized as ethical subjects by such public health interventions. By providing an understanding of the moral experience of caregiving and the distinct logic of care, our analysis contributes to the development of relevant and effective public health responses to Ebola epidemics.

Alcohol, Substance Use and Psychosocial Competence of Adolescents in Selected Secondary Schools in Uganda: A Cross Sectional Survey.

AIMS: 1) To determine the nature and extent of alcohol and substance use and 2) To describe the relationship between alcohol use and psychosocial competence among secondary school youths in Northern and Central Uganda. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Departments of Mental Health, Gulu University (Northern Uganda) and Department of Psychiatry, Makerere University College of Health Sciences (Central Uganda) between September 2011 and April 2012. METHODOLOGY: Four (4) and eight (8) secondary schools located in the rural and urban areas of Gulu and Kampala districts respectively were randomly selected to participate in the survey. A total of 3,200 students aged 12 to 24 years were recruited by proportionate multistage sampling. Data was collected using a socio-demographic questionnaire that included questions about nature and frequency of alcohol and substance use. A pre-tested self-administered survey questionnaire with scales to measure components of psychosocial competence (PSC) was administered. Data was entered in Epidata, and exported to SPSS version 16.0 for analysis. Psychosocial competence was classified as high or low depending on the responses in the sub-scales of decision making, self efficacy, empathy, emotional awareness, coping with stress and emotions, and accurate self-assessment and self-confidence. RESULTS: A total of 2,902 questionnaires comprising of 2,502, (86.2%) from Kampala district and 400 (13.8%)) from Gulu district were analyzed. Male to female ratio was 1:1 with an age range of 12 to 24 years and a mean of 16.5. About 70.1% had ever used alcohol and substances. Only 39.1% used substances regularly. The commonest substance used was alcohol (23.3%), followed by kuber (10.8%), khat (10.5%), aviation fuel (10.1%), cannabis (9.2%) and cigarettes (5.9%). Respondents from the Gulu district were twice more likely to use all substances. Users and regular users from the North Northern Uganda had lower psychosocial competence. Factors significantly associated with non-use of alcohol were high levels of self-confidence, non-use of cannabis and kuber and age. In the alcohol user groups, a high level of coping was associated with discontinued and experimental use of drugs of abuse. CONCLUSION: More than two-thirds (70.1%) of young people in this study had ever used substances of abuse only once and slightly over a third had used it regularly. From the perspectives of service provision, mental health promotion and prevention of illicit substance use, school mental health programmes that target both non-users and users are recommended.

Geophagy in Northern Uganda: Perspectives from Consumers and Clinicians.

The etiology and health consequences of geophagy are still poorly understood. The consumed soil, individual motives, consumption habits, and the clinical perspective of geophagy in northern Uganda were examined. A total of 50 semistructured interviews (17 pregnant, eight nonpregnant women, 10 men, and 15 health-care professionals) were conducted. Our results suggest that geophagy is not limited to pregnancy and can also be found among nonpregnant women and men. During gestation, excessive amounts of various soil types are consumed and can replace food at times. Nonpregnant women and men consume less soil and stick to one type. When pregnant, craving and alleviating gastrointestinal upset are the main motives. In men, the main reasons for geophagy were craving, hypersalivation, and natural stimulants. If soil is craved, it can show similarities to a dependency syndrome. When picked up in childhood, geophagy is more likely to be continued throughout life. The consumption habits differ and thereby vary in their possible implications on health. Our findings suggest that men should be included in further studies. Especially nurses from the antenatal care are exposed to geophagists; however, no national guidelines exist for geophagy. Further research is necessary to create guidelines to be included in medical training and practice.

Physical Activity in People With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review of Correlates.

BACKGROUND: People with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely than the general population to be physically inactive. The present review systematically evaluated correlates of physical activity across the socioecological model for people with PTSD. METHODS: Two independent reviewers searched Embase, PubMed, PsycARTICLES, and CINAHL from inception until June 2015, combining the medical subject heading "posttraumatic stress disorder" or "PTSD," with "physical activity" or "exercise." Data were extracted by the same independent researchers and summarized according to the socioecological model. RESULTS: Eight papers involving 1368 (994 men) participants (age range = 18-70 years) were eligible and enabled evaluation of 21 correlates. The only correlate (n ≥ 4) consistently associated with lower physical activity participation in people with PTSD was symptoms of hyperarousal. No consistent facilitators were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Hyperarousal symptoms are associated with lower physical activity participation among people with PTSD and should be considered in the design and delivery of individualized exercise programs targeting this population. The role of social, environmental, and policy factors on physical activity participation among people with PTSD is unknown and should be addressed by future research.

Mental health literacy among secondary school students in North and Central Uganda: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES: There has been limited effort to explore young people's perceptions about mental illness in Uganda. For mental health programs targeting young people to succeed, it is important to incorporate their understanding of mental illness, their perceptions about causes of mental illness and their attitudes about mentally ill people. The objective of this study was to explore the mental health of young people in secondary schools in Northern and Central Uganda. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This was a qualitative study where 24 focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with young people in secondary schools. Respondents aged 14-24 years were purposively selected from 4 secondary schools in the two regions. During the FGDs, young people's perceptions and understanding of three areas listed below were explored: meaning of mental health/mental illness; causes of mental illness and attitudes toward mental illness. Data management and analysis was done with the help of Atlas.ti, a-qualitative-analysis software. Thematic analysis approach was employed. RESULTS: FGD participants used concepts like a sound and normal mind, right thinking, normal behavior and normal thoughts to define mental health. Mental illness on the other hand was defined as loss of sense of reality, malfunctioning of the brain, impaired thinking and bizarre behavior. Young people attributed mental illness to; substance abuse (Marijuana, alcohol), witnessing traumatic events (seeing ones your relatives being killed, or being forced to participate in killing-frequently mentioned by young people in Northern Uganda); witch craft, effect of physical illness e.g. HIV/epilepsy, thinking too much, accidents and genetic explanations. They had mixed opinions about interacting with mentally ill individuals. Unpredictability and dangerousness were known to be a recurrent theme among people with negative views about mentally ill. Nonetheless, some FGD participants believed that the level of interaction with mentally ill persons depended on familiarity with mental illness and the severity of the symptoms. Similarly, there were mixed opinions regarding mental illness and work. Three main clusters of responses emerged. These were: i) "mentally ill people should not work"; ii) "mentally ill people should work but.."; iii) "mentally ill people should work like everyone else". CONCLUSIONS: Findings point to key gaps in the knowledge and attitudes of young people that need to be targeted by young-people-focused-interventions for mental health. In order for such interventions to succeed, young people must be able to recognize and respond appropriately to signs of distress, reduced functioning, and other early signs of poor mental health.