Resting heart rate moderates the relationship between parental emotion socialization and callous-unemotional traits in children.

Although empirical findings have indicated that both familial and neurobiological risk factors contribute to the development of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in children, relatively few studies have investigated how these two factors interact to influence these traits. The current study focused on the combined effects of parental emotion socialization and child's resting heart rate on CU traits. Parents of Chinese children (N = 166) completed the Coping with Children's Negative Scale when children were 9.39 years old (SD = 0.92), while children's resting heart rate data were collected when they were 10.21 years old (SD = 0.72). When they were 11.15 years old (SD = 0.67), parents completed the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits Short-Form. Results showed that parental supportive emotion socialization was negatively associated with CU traits and Callous behaviors in particular. In addition, resting heart rate moderated the relationship between parental emotion socialization and child's CU traits. Findings provide further evidence that an interdisciplinary approach that combines both psychosocial and biological factors is essential to further our understanding of CU traits in youth.

Does epidemiological evidence support the success story of Uganda's response to COVID-19?

Uganda has received praise for its success in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. This opinion piece uses publically available data from Johns Hopkins University to suggest that it is far from clear whether the Public Health and Social Measures (PHSM) introduced in Uganda influenced the course of the first outbreak. In addition, the analysis of data from the second and third waves in Uganda suggest that government action had little or no effect on these outbreaks. The dominant narrative of successful PHSM, therefore, needs to be reconsidered, and alternative explanations for the low rates of COVID-19-related mortality in the country need to be further understood.

Leveraging biosocial methods to examine and address structural determinants of health and promote health equity.

BACKGROUND: Biosocial approaches in nursing research have largely focused on the ways that social determinants of health influence individual-level outcomes, including symptom management, family and social support, and educational interventions. PURPOSE: Theoretical, methodological, and practical strategies are needed to expand current biosocial methods for nursing science and focus on upstream, structural determinants of health and the policies that underlie health inequities. METHODS: This paper summarizes presentations given at the 2023 Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science Advanced Methods Conference, Biosocial Methods to Advance Health Equity, in a panel titled "Individual, community, systems and policy related to biosocial methods." DISCUSSION: Nurses are uniquely positioned to examine upstream, structural determinants of health by leveraging expertise in biosocial methods, collaborating with interdisciplinary researchers and community members, and advocating for policy change. By conducting theory-grounded biosocial research, nurse researchers can significantly advance scientific knowledge and promote health equity for individuals and communities. CONCLUSION: Nurse scientists are conducting research using biosocial methods and provide recommendations for expansion of this approach in the field.

The association between delinquent peer affiliation and disruptive behavior interacts with functional brain correlates of reward sensitivity: a biosocial interaction study in adolescent delinquents.

BACKGROUND: Affiliating with delinquent peers may stimulate the development of antisocial behavior, especially for adolescents who are sensitive to social rewards. The current study examines whether the association between delinquent peer affiliation (DPA) and disruptive behavior interacts with functional brain correlates of reward sensitivity in early onset male adolescents delinquents. METHODS: Childhood arrestees (n = 126, mean age = 17.7 [s.d. 1.6]) completed a DPA questionnaire, and participated in an fMRI study in which reward sensitivity was operationalized through responsiveness of the ventral striatum (VS), amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during the monetary incentive delay paradigm (reward anticipation and outcome). Symptoms of disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) were assessed through structured psychiatric interviews (Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children) with adolescents. RESULTS: DPA had a main effect on DBD symptoms. Adolescents with high VS reward responses showed a stronger significant positive association between DPA and DBD symptoms compared to low VS responders. No evidence for an interaction effect was found for the amygdala and mPFC. Post-hoc analyses revealed the positive association between DPA and DBD was only present in males, with a diminishing effect as age increased. CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence for a biosocial interaction between DPA and reward sensitivity of the VS in relation to DBD symptom severity. This study provides the first evidence of an interaction effect between a brain mechanism and an environmental factor in relation to DBD symptoms, implying that susceptibility to influences of delinquent peers may intertwine with individual biological differences.

Validating the biosocial model of borderline personality disorder: Findings from a longitudinal study.

This longitudinal study aimed to validate the biosocial theory of borderline personality disorder (BPD) by examining the transactional relationship between individual vulnerabilities and parental invalidation, and their links to BPD symptoms. We recruited a sample of 332 adolescents (mean age = 14.18 years; 58.3% female) residing in Singapore and administered self-report measures across three time-points (six months apart). Results from our path analytic model indicated that parental invalidation, impulsivity, and emotional vulnerability exhibited unique predictive associations with emotion dysregulation six months later. There was also a reciprocal prospective relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and BPD symptoms. Using random-intercepts cross-lagged panel models, we found partial evidence for a within-individual reciprocal relationship between parental invalidation and emotional vulnerability, and a unidirectional relationship of within-individual changes in impulsivity positively predicting changes in parental invalidation six months later. Overall, the study provided partial empirical support for the biosocial model in a Singaporean context.

Dietary interventions, the gut microbiome, and aggressive behavior: Review of research evidence and potential next steps.

Research in biosocial criminology and other related disciplines has established links between nutrition and aggressive behavior. In addition to observational studies, randomized trials of nutritional supplements like vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and folic acid provide evidence of the dietary impact on aggression. However, the exact mechanism of the diet-aggression link is not well understood. The current article proposes that the gut microbiome plays an important role in the process, with the microbiota-gut-brain axis serving as such a mediating mechanism between diet and behavior. Based on animal and human studies, this review synthesizes a wide array of research across several academic fields: from the effects of dietary interventions on aggression, to the results of microbiota transplantation on socioemotional and behavioral outcomes, to the connections between early adversity, stress, microbiome, and aggression. Possibilities for integrating the microbiotic perspective with the more traditional, sociologically oriented theories in criminology are discussed, using social disorganization and self-control theories as examples. To extend the existing lines of research further, the article considers harnessing the experimental potential of noninvasive and low-cost dietary interventions to help establish the causal impact of the gut microbiome on aggressive behavior, while adhering to the high ethical standards and modern research requirements. Implications of this research for criminal justice policy and practice are essential: not only can it help determine whether the improved gut microbiome functioning moderates aggressive and violent behavior but also provide ways to prevent and reduce such behavior, alone or in combination with other crime prevention programs.

Skin Tone and the Health Returns to Higher Status.

This study addresses two questions. First, why do Black Americans exhibit worse health outcomes than White Americans even at higher levels of socioeconomic status (SES)? Second, are diminished health returns to higher status concentrated among Black Americans with darker skin color? Novel hypotheses are tested with biosocial panel data from Add Health, a nationally representative cohort of Black and White adolescents who have transitioned to adulthood. We find that White and light-skin Black respondents report improved health after achieving higher SES, on average, while their darker-skin Black peers report declining health. These patterns persist regardless of controls for adolescent health status and unmeasured between-person heterogeneity. Moreover, increased inflammation tied to unfair treatment and perceptions of lower status helps to account for patterns of diminished health returns for dark-skin Black groups. Our study is the first to document skin tone heterogeneity in diminished health returns and one of few studies to identify life course stress processes underlying such disparities. We consider additional processes that could be examined in future studies, as well as the broader health and policy implications of our findings.

A Within-Subject Pilot Feasibility Study of a Gambling Specific SBIRT Intervention Delivered in an Urban HIV/Primary Clinic.

BACKGROUND: Although there are few interventions available to provide screening and brief intervention targeted toward problematic gambling, Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based intervention that has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing gambling behaviors. METHODS: The goal of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of a gambling specific SBIRT intervention in a medical setting. Fifteen participants were recruited from an urban HIV/Primary Care clinic to receive the gambling specific SBIRT intervention delivered by 3 clinicians. Process and gambling specific outcome measures were evaluated at baseline, immediately after the intervention and at 1-month follow-up. RESULTS: On average, patient participants were 49 years and self-described themselves as male (60%) and Black or African American (86.7%). Three (20%) participants met 4 or more criteria of the DSM-5 gambling disorder. Compared to baseline, those who participated in the intervention decreased both the median number of days gambled (1 days vs. 0 days), as well as the median money gambled at 1-month follow-up ($7 vs. $1). Participants with 4 or more criteria of DSM-5 gambling had the greatest reduction (days gambled: (26 days vs. 21 days); money spent: (($400 vs. $65)). Participants reported that the intervention was acceptable. Clinician participants found the intervention to be easy to deliver. CONCLUSIONS: A gambling specific SBIRT intervention was feasible to deliver and acceptable to participants. Gambling specific outcome measures were reduced at 1-month follow-up. A randomized control trial to evaluate the efficacy of the intervention is a recommended next step.

Consciously quarantined: a review of the early anthropological response to the global COVID-19 lockdown.

Whilst quarantine has been experienced in a multitude of ways around the world, for some anthropologists the quietening of public movement was met with a flurry of attentive typing. For those who were consciously quarantined, a social science response to COVID-19 was sought at University College London through a call for posts as part of the UCL Medical Anthropology blog; capturing the real-time observations and scholarly reflections on the unfolding pandemic situation as it reached its height across the globe. The global flow of coronavirus - both as a literal microbial agent and as an idea - has played out on the 'coronascape' in multiple ways since it exploded onto worldwide consciousness in early 2020. From an anthropological perspective, concerns have oscillated around a number of crucial themes, from (micro)biopolitics, governance, and sovereignty; the defence of borders from foreign bodies and post-colonial Others; a strengthening of medical pluralism and the global biomedical hegemony, and concerns over where to go from here as second-waves and the social consequences of such loom large. Such themes have often interrelated and tangoed with one another as individuals have reflected upon their significance. In this review we provide a critical overview of the first fifty-seven posts that were sent to the blog in the initial months of the pandemic; with contributors exploring the developing pandemic in over twenty countries, and with posts visited daily by over two thousand visitors from across the world during the months of the UK lockdown (March-May).

Caring for biosocial complexity. Articulations of the environment in research on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.

The research field of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) provides a framework for understanding how a wide range of environmental factors, such as deprivation, nutrition and stress, shape individual and population health over the course of a lifetime. DOHaD researchers face the challenge of how to conceptualize and measure ontologically diverse environments and their interactions with the developing organism over extended periods of time. Based on ethnographic research, I show how DOHaD researchers are often eager to capture what they regard as more 'complex' understandings of the environment in their work. At the same time, they are confronted with established methodological tools, disciplinary infrastructures and institutional contexts that favor simplistic articulations of the environment as distinct and mainly individual-level variables. I show how researchers struggle with these simplistic articulations of nutrition, maternal bodies and social determinants as relevant environments, which are sometimes at odds with the researchers' own normative commitments and aspirations.

Navigating Identity: The Intersection of Social and Biological Identity from the World War II Battle of Tarawa.

The 1943 Battle of Tarawa resulted in the loss of approximately 1,000 US service members on or around Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, Republic of Kiribati. Nearly half these casualties were accounted for after the battle. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has worked to identify the remaining ∼510 unaccounted-for service members and has successfully identified ∼160 service members to date. Demographic data pulled from historical documentation of the US losses indicate a relatively homogeneous population (99% White, 81% 17-23 years of age, and only two individuals with a documented religious preference other than Protestant or Catholic). Using this demographic data as a framework, three case studies are presented to demonstrate how a holistic biosocial approach to building identity could facilitate forensic identifications. The temporal and sociocultural contextualization of analyses enables anthropologists to navigate inconsistencies between 21st-century and historical (1940s) social identity concepts to overcome challenges to identification. The case studies demonstrate how biological evidence, genetic evidence, and material evidence (material culture) differently contribute to the social identity of an individual and can impact identification efforts when analytical conclusions are incongruent with historical documentation. The first case of US Battle of Tarawa casualties examines how morphometric biological affinity assessments are biased by the fluidity of social identity concepts when complex morphological and metric indicators of biological affinity are not represented in historical race categories. The second case demonstrates how biogeographic genetic affinity predictions, through a discussion of the G2a4 haplogroup, need to be examined holistically in the context of other lines of evidence. The third case highlights how material evidence can further define social identity beyond physicality, genetic structure, and race. The challenges of interpreting identity from human remains, as highlighted through these examples, are commonly encountered by anthropologists working in disaster victim identification and other humanitarian contexts. Thus, it is imperative for anthropologists to be self-aware of implicit biases toward the current prevailing definitions of biological and social identity and to consider historical perceptions of identity when working in these contexts.

The Microbiome Mediates Environmental Effects on Aging.

Humans' indigenous microbes strongly influence organ functions in an age- and diet-dependent manner, adding an important dimension to aging biology that remains poorly understood. Although age-related differences in the gut microbiota composition correlate with age-related loss of organ function and diseases, including inflammation and frailty, variation exists among the elderly, especially centenarians and people living in areas of extreme longevity. Studies using short-lived as well as nonsenescent model organisms provide surprising functional insights into factors affecting aging and implicate attenuating effects of microbes as well as a crucial role for certain transcription factors like forkhead box O. The unexpected beneficial effects of microbes on aged animals imply an even more complex interplay between the gut microbiome and the host. The microbiome constitutes the major interface between humans and the environment, is influenced by biosocial stressors and behaviors, and mediates effects on health and aging processes, while being moderated by sex and developmental stages.

Messengers of stress: Towards a cortisol sociology.

In 2008, Timmermans and Haas called for a 'sociology of disease' to develop and challenge the sociology of health and illness. A sociology of disease, they argued, would take seriously the biological and physiological processes of disease in theorising health and illness. Building on two decades of Science and Technology Studies and feminist work on biological actors such as hormones and genes, we propose a 'cortisol sociology' to push further at this argument. As a 'messenger of stress', cortisol is key to understanding human and non-human health as a biosocial phenomenon. We argue that sociologists should engage with cortisol through critical yet open-minded reading of the relevant science and critical triangulation studies, and by tracking cortisol's movements from science into public worlds of biosensing and self-monitoring.

Microbial Kin: Relations of Environment and Time.

Microbiome science considers human beings supraorganisms: single ecological units made up of symbiotic assemblages of human cells and microorganisms. Microbes co-evolve with humans, and microbial populations in human bodies are determined by environments/exposures including family, food and place, health care, race and gender inequities, and toxic pollution. Microbiomes are transgenerational links, disarrangements between different bodies and the outside world. This article asserts that microbes are kin-kin that are made of and making environments, across generations. Post/nonhuman theories have debated the agency, sociality, and ontologies of microbes and things like microbes, all the while appropriating and eliding Indigenous scholarship that directly address the nonhuman world. Microbial kin evokes Indigenous formulations that necessitate reciprocal, ethical accountability to more-than-human relations. This article uses fieldwork in a transnational microbiome malnutrition project in Bangladesh to explore what develops for both the biological and social sciences if we call human-microbe relations kinships, and call microbes our kin.

Neoliberal precarity and primalization: A biosocial perspective on the age of insecurity, injustice, and unreason.

In light of the observed rise in social instability and populist politics that has emerged recently even in some of the world's oldest and presumed stable democracies, this paper reappraises the role of the neoliberal political and economic consensus in fermenting popular discontent. While this is very well trodden ground the paper approaches the issues from a wholly new direction, specifically addressing how exposure to the destabilizing conditions of the present can be seen to have negatively impacted on the neurological functioning of many of the disenchanted and distressed of the current era, generating chronic negative emotional arousal and an associated impact on the capacity for rational thought and conduct. This condition of mental and emotional fugue, it is argued, has also rendered growing numbers more susceptible to marginal and radicalizing discourses, largely extended and amplified via social media, and not least the emotionally charged overtures of populist politicians. Against a backdrop of increasing insecurity, transformative changes to work and living conditions precipitated by neoliberal policy and the digital revolution, together with the epochal crisis presented by the global pandemic, it is argued that the task of understanding the deep and fundamental causes of social and political fracture have rarely been more urgent.

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.

Nurse effects on measurement error in household biosocial surveys.

BACKGROUND: Biosocial survey data are in high demand, yet little is known about the measurement quality of health measures collected by nurses in respondents' homes. Our objective was to analyze the degree to which nurses influence measurement in anthropometric and physical performance indicators collected from respondents in two nationally-representative UK biosocial surveys. METHODS: The English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing and the UK Household Longitudinal Study - Understanding Society were used to analyze fourteen anthropometric and physical performance measures covering weight, height, pulse, grip strength, and lung capacity. Cross-classified multilevel models were used to estimate "nurse effects" on measurement error. RESULTS: Overall, there is a medium effect of nurses on measurement. Across all measures collected in both studies, nurses explain around 13% of all measurement variation. Variation in specific measures range between approximately 2 and 25%. Grip strength and lung capacity are more heavily influenced by nurses than are height, weight, and pulse. Lastly, nurse characteristics explain only a very small proportion of nurse measurement variation. CONCLUSION: Objective health measures collected by nurses in household biosocial surveys are susceptible to non-trivial amounts of measurement variation. Nurse ID numbers should be regularly included in biosocial data releases to allow researchers to account for this unnecessary source of variation. Further, researchers are advised to conduct sensitivity analyses using control variables that account for nurse variation to confirm whether their substantive findings are influenced by nurse measurement effects.

The relationship between resting heart rate and aggression in males is racially variant.

Although resting heart rate is thought to be a generalizable risk factor for aggression, very little research has examined whether this relationship varies by race. We addressed this limitation using longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Current data are from 197 men who participated in a teenage biosocial study (mean age = 15.7 years) and adult follow-up study (mean age = 32.1 years). Teenage resting heart rate interacted with race to predict teenage and adult aggression. The relationship between heart rate and aggression was significant in White, but not in Black males. To our knowledge, this is the first study to find that the relationship between resting heart rate and aggression is racially variant, suggesting that resting heart rate may not be a generalizable biomarker for conduct problems. At an intervention-level, findings could contribute to the development of more accurate risk assessment tools that take into account racial variance in risk factors.

Prevalence and potential predictors of gambling disorder among people living with HIV.

Specific subsets of the adult population are at an increased risk of problem gambling behaviors. Previous research among these subsets has found increased rates of disordered gambling among those with drug use, alcohol use, mood, anxiety, and personality disorders. To what extent this may apply to the HIV population, known to have a high burden of co-occurring substance use and mental disorders, is not known The current study also examined the effectiveness of The Brief Biosocial Gambling Screen (BBGS) for the diagnosis of gambling disorder. This study examined the prevalence of gambling behaviors and disordered gambling in patients enrolled in an urban HIV clinic. 100 people living with HIV (PLWH) were assessed on gambling behaviors, impulsivity, and criterion on disordered gambling. Screening for gambling disorder using the BBGS was compared to the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 criterion. The mean age was 53, 44% were female, 60% completed high school or above, and 80% self-identified as unemployed/disabled. 13% met four or more criteria for gambling disorder according to DSM-5 criteria. Participants that met criteria were more likely to report marijuana (p = .044) and heroin (p = .002) use, and greater impulsivity (p < 0.00001) when compared to participants who did not meet criteria. The BBGS was able to effectively screen individuals for disordered gambling with a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 90.8%, positive predictive value of 56.2%, and a negative predictive value of 100%. These results suggest that urban HIV clinics may need to consider actively screening for gambling disorders, and referring to appropriate counseling and treatment for those who screen positive.

Feasibility of Brief Screening for At-Risk Gambling in Consumer Credit Counseling.

Gambling disorder and problem gambling often lead to major suffering in the form of mental health problems, interpersonal conflict, and financial crises. One potential setting for detecting at-risk gambling is credit counseling as gambling problems may manifest themselves in the form of financial distress and bankruptcy. Research studies have not considered those seeking credit counseling as individuals at risk for gambling problems even though gambling may contribute to financial distress. Therefore, the current study sought to quantify the prevalence of at-risk gambling in credit counseling compared with national estimates, to compare at-risk gamblers in this population to lower risk individuals, and to assess the feasibility of gambling screening in these settings. Using a mixed methods approach, the current study found that almost 20% of callers to a national agency reported gambling behavior, and among those who gambled, they reported higher rates of problems related to gambling than the broader U.S. population, thus supporting the idea that screening in credit counseling may help identify those at risk. Low risk gamblers were slightly younger than non-gamblers, but no other differences in sociodemographic and financial status variables were found based on gambling risk status. Results from focus groups and individual interviews suggest that credit counselors and program administrators see the benefit to brief screening within their intake and counseling processes. Our findings suggest that gambling screening is feasible in consumer credit counseling and may be acceptable to staff and administrators at these agencies.