Suchergebnisse

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been a neglected entity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this correspondence (letter to the editor), authors are advocating for greater research in this area in LMICs as it will help to compare and contrast prevalence rates of NSSI in these countries with high-income countries (HICs), identify context-specific risk and protective factors to better understand the pathophysiology of NSSI and devise context-specific interventions resulting in improvement in adolescent mental health worldwide.

Purpose: This study explores the depression literacy in adolescents in South Africa. Method: A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 2,050 students from disadvantaged secondary schools in Johannesburg region. Result: A total of 90.9% reported depression as an illness, and 41.4% considered it a sign of weakness. Parents and siblings followed by friends and teachers were the preferred support options. The indicators of depression identified were socialisation pattern changes (24.6%), sad mood (23.6%), sleeping and eating pattern changes (18.3%), irritable behaviour (12.5%) and other health risk behaviours (9.7%). Conclusion: The majority considered depression an illness. An improvement in adolescent mental health literacy will increase access to help when needed.

Background: Self-harm (defined here as an act of intentionally causing harm to own self, irrespective of the type, motive or suicidal intent) is one of the strongest antecedents of suicide in youth. While there have been a number of studies of youth self-harm in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is currently no systematic review of studies of prevalence rates and risk and protective factors. Aim: To systematically review the evidence relating to the prevalence rates and forms of self-harm in youth in LMICs and its relationship to family economic status, family functioning, relationship with the peer group, social relationships and academic performance. Methods: Electronic searches of three databases, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus, were performed. In total, 27 school-, community- and hospital-based studies evaluating self-harm in LMICs with youth focus (with participants between 12 and 25 years) were included. Results: The self-harm was divided into suicidal and non-suicidal depending on the nature of self-harm. The 12-month prevalence rates of non-suicidal self-harm varied from 15.5% to 31.3%, and the range of suicidal behaviour rates was from 3.2% to 4.7%. Banging and hitting were the most common in the community-based studies, followed by cutting, scratching and wound picking. Self-poisoning with pesticides was most commonly reported in hospital-based studies. Risk factors for self-harm were family conflict, peer groups with members indulging in self-harm, truancy and school absenteeism. Protective factors were having an understanding family, having friends and higher school competence. Risk factors for suicidal thoughts and attempts were lack of close friends and history of suicide by a friend. Conclusion: The 12-month prevalence rates of youth self-harm in LMICs are comparable to high-income countries (HICs). The profile of risk and protective factors suggests that family-based interventions could be useful in treatment and prevention. Future studies should aim for greater consistency in assessment methods and the constructs under evaluation.

Social Media and Social Order combines a structural analysis of the global impact of social media as contributing to the production of a datafied social order with a series of actor-focused analyses, each examining how roles structured by social media are performed at various sites: enmeshed in European cities, entangled in contested Middle Eastern borders, and embedded in provincial Indian small-town networks. The final section then arcs back to a focus on the general properties of social media networks revealed through two American cases, emphasizing the human costs for the recipients of abuse (legislators of color) and the political costs of participatory propaganda for a deliberative understanding of democracy. A central theme is how the principle of differential treatment embedded in the datafied social order is becoming increasingly widespread across social fields. The book demonstrates how social media are implicated in reshaping social order in ways which align with this principle, including creating new precarious hierarchies of esteem, reinforcing existing social, class and religious hierarchies, opening political discussion to more participants but at the cost of reinforcing local hierarchies and dominant discourses, underlining gendered constructions of national identity, amplifying the abuse received by women and people of color in leadership positions and enmeshing users in the circulation of propaganda which resonates with their preconceptions, thus deepening societal polarization.

The results leading to this publication have received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 777394 for the project AIMS-2-TRIALS. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and AUTISM SPEAKS, Autistica, SFARI. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results. Any views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the funders.