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Human agency is considered a key factor in determining how individuals and society respond to environmental change. This article synthesizes knowledge on agency, capacity, and resilience across human development, well-being, and disasters literature to provide insights to support more integrated and human-centered approaches to understanding environmental change. It draws out the key areas of agreement across these diverse fields and identifies the main points of contestation and uncertainty. This highlights the need to consider subjective and relational factors in addition to objective measures of capacity and to view these as reflexive and dynamic, as well as differentiated socially and temporally. These findings can help distinguish between coping, adaptation, and transformation as responses to environmental and other stressors.
The concept of ecosystem services (ES), the benefits humans derive from ecosystems, is increasingly applied to environmental conservation, human well-being and poverty alleviation, and to inform the development of interventions. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) implicitly recognize the unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of maintaining ES, through monetary compensation from ‘winners’ to ‘losers’. Some research into PES has examined how such schemes affect poverty, while other literature addresses trade-offs between different ES. However, much evolving ES literature adopts an aggregated perspective of humans and their well-being, which can disregard critical issues for poverty alleviation. This paper identifies four issues with examples from coastal ES in developing countries. First, different groups derive well-being benefits from different ES, creating winners and losers as ES, change. Second, dynamic mechanisms of access determine who can benefit. Third, individuals' contexts and needs determine how ES contribute to well-being. Fourth, aggregated analyses may neglect crucial poverty alleviation mechanisms such as cash-based livelihoods. To inform the development of ES interventions that contribute to poverty alleviation, disaggregated analysis is needed that focuses on who derives which benefits from ecosystems, and how such benefits contribute to the well-being of the poor. These issues present challenges in data availability and selection of how and at which scales to disaggregate. Disaggregation can be applied spatially, but should also include social groupings, such as gender, age and ethnicity, and is most important where inequality is greatest. Existing tools, such as stakeholder analysis and equity weights, can improve the relevance of ES research to poverty alleviation.
Contemplative practices support transformative learning processes but can be difficult to identify in a higher education environment. Advocates of contemplative approaches to education see this void as a concern. When topics like these are ignored, especially when desired by students, staff, and faculty, the holistic, transformative, and deep learning needs of students are unfulfilled. Attention needs to be brought to the connections between contemplative practices and the pursuit of transformative education. In this qualitative study, 17 higher education professionals were asked how they integrate contemplative practices into their work and personal lives. In analyzing the data, three themes emerged, namely, awareness, integration, and interconnectedness. These themes, with accompanying stories, highlight the value and benefits of incorporating contemplative practices into a higher education setting. Using an inductive approach, suggestions for implementing practices were identified and are offered here.
Parochial schools are assumed to provide better social and academic experiences; however, few studies account for selection bias when comparing with public schools. This study contrasted public versus parochial schools using propensity score matching across a range of outcomes (e.g., perceptions of school, emotional symptoms, substance use, bullying). Using a sample of 58 public and 5 parochial high schools, the nonmatched analyses suggested a significant advantage for parochial schools students (e.g., better on 23 of 32 indicators). However, the propensity score matched analyses revealed nine differences (e.g., weapon carrying, smoking), two of which (i.e., stress and cyberbullying) favored public schools. While at first glance parochial schools generally appear to be healthier and safer learning environments, accounting for selection bias, the gap was narrowed. Students in parochial schools may struggle with issues related to social, emotional, and behavioral health risk, and thus prevention programs should also be implemented in these settings.
This book highlights current knowledge, best practices, new opportunities, and difficult challenges associated with promoting emotional intelligence (EI) and social-emotional learning (SEL) in educational settings. The volume provides analyses of contemporary EI theories and measurement tools, common principles and barriers in effective EI and SEL programming, typical and atypical developmental considerations, and higher-level institutional and policy implications. It also addresses common critiques of the relevance of EI and discusses the need for greater awareness of sociocultural contexts in assessing and nurturing EI skills. Chapters provide examples of effective EI and SEL programs in pre-school, secondary school, and university contexts, and explore innovative applications of EI such as bullying prevention and athletic training. In addition, chapters explore the implications of EI in postsecondary, professional, and occupational settings, with topics ranging from college success and youth career readiness to EI training for future educators and organizational leaders. Topics featured in this book include:Ability and trait EI and their role in coping with stress, academic attainment, sports performance, and career readiness. Implications of preschoolers' emotional competence for future success in the classroom. Understanding EI in individuals with exceptionalities. Applications of school-based EI and SEL programs in North America and Europe. Policy recommendations for social-emotional development in schools, colleges and universities. Developing emotional, social, and cognitive competencies in managers during an MBA program. Emotional intelligence training for teachers. Cross-cultural perspective on EI and emotions. Emotional Intelligence in Education is a must-have resource for researchers, professionals, and policymakers as well as graduate students across such disciplines as child and school psychology, social work, and education policy.
This book highlights current knowledge, best practices, new opportunities, and difficult challenges associated with promoting emotional intelligence (EI) and social-emotional learning (SEL) in educational settings. The volume provides analyses of contemporary EI theories and measurement tools, common principles and barriers in effective EI and SEL programming, typical and atypical developmental considerations, and higher-level institutional and policy implications. It also addresses common critiques of the relevance of EI and discusses the need for greater awareness of sociocultural contexts in assessing and nurturing EI skills. Chapters provide examples of effective EI and SEL programs in pre-school, secondary school, and university contexts, and explore innovative applications of EI such as bullying prevention and athletic training. In addition, chapters explore the implications of EI in postsecondary, professional, and occupational settings, with topics ranging from college success and youth career readiness to EI training for future educators and organizational leaders. Topics featured in this book include:Ability and trait EI and their role in coping with stress, academic attainment, sports performance, and career readiness. Implications of preschoolers' emotional competence for future success in the classroom. Understanding EI in individuals with exceptionalities. Applications of school-based EI and SEL programs in North America and Europe. Policy recommendations for social-emotional development in schools, colleges and universities. Developing emotional, social, and cognitive competencies in managers during an MBA program. Emotional intelligence training for teachers. Cross-cultural perspective on EI and emotions. Emotional Intelligence in Education is a must-have resource for researchers, professionals, and policymakers as well as graduate students across such disciplines as child and school psychology, social work, and education policy.
The impacts of the global political economy of oil and the entrenchment of underdevelopment in Africa and parts of Asia are endangering planetary resilience and making many people's livelihoods and wellbeing more precarious. In some resprects, the world has moved further away from sustainable development, not towards it.
As more and more people in the West pursue yoga in its various forms, whether at traditional centers, in the high-powered atmosphere of sports clubs, or on their own, they begin to realize that far from being just another exercise routine, yoga is a discipline of the body and the mind.The 365 meditations incluided in this book offer a way to integrate the mindfulness that yoga teaches into everyday life. Whether used in the morning to set the tone for the day, during yoga exercise itself, or at the end of the day, during evening reflection, Meditations from the Mat will support and enhance anyone’s yoga journey.
PURPOSE: Fatigue is one of the most common and bothersome refractory symptoms experienced by cancer survivors. Mindful exercise interventions such as yoga improve cancer-related fatigue; however, studies of yoga have included heterogeneous survivorship populations, and the effect of yoga on fatigued survivors remains unclear.METHODS: We randomly assigned 34 early-stage breast cancer survivors with cancer-related fatigue (≥4 on a Likert scale from 1-10) within 1 year from diagnosis to a 12-week intervention of home-based yoga versus strengthening exercises, both presented on a DVD. The primary endpoints were feasibility and changes in fatigue, as measured by the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF). Secondary endpoint was quality of life, assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapies-Breast (FACT-B).
RESULTS: We invited 401 women to participate in the study; 78 responded, and we enrolled 34. Both groups had significant within-group improvement in multiple domains of the fatigue and quality of life scores from baseline to post-intervention, and these benefits were maintained at 3 months post-intervention. However, there was no significant difference between groups in fatigue or quality of life at any assessment time. Similarly, there was no difference between groups in adherence to the exercise intervention.
CONCLUSIONS: Both DVD-based yoga and strengthening exercises designed for cancer survivors may be good options to address fatigue in breast cancer survivors. Both have reasonable uptake, are convenient and reproducible, and may be helpful in decreasing fatigue and improving quality of life in the first year post-diagnosis in breast cancer patients with cancer-related fatigue.
Undergraduate nursing students experience significant stress and anxiety, inhibiting learning and increasing attrition. Twenty-six intervention studies were identified and evaluated, updating a previous systematic review which categorized interventions targeting: (1) stressors, (2) coping, or (3) appraisal. The majority of interventions in this review aimed to reduce numbers or intensity of stressors through curriculum development (12) or to improve students' coping skills (8). Two studies reported interventions using only cognitive reappraisal while three interventions combined reappraisal with other approaches. Strength of evidence was limited by choice of study design, sample size, and lack of methodological rigor. Some statistically significant support was found for interventions focused on reducing stressors through curriculum development or improving students' coping skills. No statistically significant studies using reappraisal, either alone or in combination with other approaches, were identified, although qualitative findings suggested the potential benefits of this approach do merit further study. Progress was noted since 2008 in the increased number of studies and greater use of validated outcome measures but the review concluded further methodologically sound, adequately powered studies, especially randomized controlled trials, are needed to determine which interventions are effective to address the issue of excessive stress and anxiety among undergraduate nursing students.