Human well-being has received increasing attention as an indicator of individual and social health and as a consideration in public policy. Gender differences in subjective well-being (SWB), a widely accepted indicator of human well-being, have long been documented. However, explanations of these gender differences remain varied and inconclusive. This study utilizes Gallup World Poll data comprising 1,911,212 observations from 2009 to 2022. Employing advanced machine-learning techniques within an Exogenous Switching Treatment Effect Model (ESTEM) framework, we decompose the gender gap in SWB into differences in characteristics and differences in regime-specific returns. Conditional on observed characteristics and under a common predictive regime, the model predicts higher SWB for men. In contrast, the regime-specific returns component is associated with lower predicted well-being under the male regime. This component also increases over time, widening the estimated gender gap in SWB, while its magnitude varies across countries. The results suggest the potential relevance of institutional flexibility and reduced gender-role pressures for addressing gender disparities in human well-being.
With the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating 720,000 deaths from suicide each year, the phenomenon of suicide is a priority in public health policy. International policy frameworks highlight the need to adopt biopsychosocial perspectives in order to understand the phenomenon of suicide; however, in practice, it is noted that social components play a minor role in policy design, with a preference for a biopsychological and clinical approach. This paper seeks to answer the question: Does Spanish public policy on suicide prevention operationalize the biopsychosocial model of suicide in its strategic implementation? To answer this question, a documentary analysis of public policies is carried out using the READ method. Current suicide policies in force in Spain are examined at three levels: transnational framework documents, national policies, and regional public policies. In the 15 policies analyzed, a lexicometric analysis is combined with a thematic qualitative policy analysis. The results show that, as one moves down to policies closer to the population, a gap emerges between the discursive use of the biopsychosocial model and its practical application. It is concluded that at the transnational and national policy levels, the biopsychosocial model predominates in the understanding of suicide, while in Spain’s autonomous communities, the psychobiological approach tends to be prioritized over social causes. This has an impact on the types of measures proposed, which have limited intersectional scope, a narrow view of the community-based approach, and prioritize healthcare resources to address the phenomenon of suicide.
The “My First Pages” project was launched by a local authority in Braga, northern Portugal, with the initial goal of fostering early contact with books and children’s literature among children aged 0 to 10, encouraging parental involvement in promoting family reading habits. Implemented through voluntary family registration, and supported by a range of public and private partners (including hospitals, health centres, libraries, and post offices) books are distributed periodically to participating children. This paper presents the initiative as a distributive public policy and critically examines its evaluation process, conducted by education researchers from the University of Minho in close collaboration with the project coordinator. Employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the evaluation draws on data from an interview with the project lead, as well as socio-cultural profiling of participating families and their reading practices, obtained through a questionnaire completed during the registration phase.
This article analyzes the infrastructure conditions of early childhood education institutions in Pernambuco through the application of the Pernambuco School Infrastructure Index (IEPE). The study combines quantitative analysis, based on factor analysis applied to data from the 2024 School Census, with exploratory qualitative evidence obtained through a questionnaire administered to school managers. The index is structured into three dimensions: essential physical and pedagogical infrastructure, support and accessibility, and basic operational infrastructure. The results indicate a predominance of intermediate and low levels of infrastructure, unevenly distributed across municipalities. Spatial analysis reveals differentiated patterns among daycare centers, preschools, and institutions offering both stages. The incorporation of qualitative evidence allows for the examination of the correspondence between administrative records and the actual conditions of space use, revealing discrepancies associated with the functional adequacy of infrastructure. The qualitative analysis, concentrated in the municipality of Recife due to low institutional participation, highlights the presence of adaptive strategies that enable the functioning of institutions but do not replace the need for planned infrastructure. The IEPE makes it possible to identify territorial variations and to inform public policy planning, provided it is interpreted in conjunction with other sources of information.
This study addresses the process of symbolic grief experienced by mothers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), considering psychological vulnerability and resilience in the face of the deconstruction of the image of the idealized child. It is based on the understanding that an ASD diagnosis may disrupt expectations developed throughout pregnancy regarding the child’s development and future, thereby affecting the maternal experience. The general objective is to analyze the process of symbolic grief experienced by mothers of children with ASD, integrating psychological vulnerability, resilience, and support networks. Specifically, the study seeks to identify factors of psychological vulnerability resulting from maternal overload; discuss the impact of symbolic grief on atypical motherhood; and evaluate the role of support networks and public policies in promoting these women’s mental health. This is a narrative literature review of a qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory nature, conducted using the BVS-Psi and SciELO databases. The results indicate that a diagnosis may trigger psychological distress, frustration, guilt, fear, and emotional overload, contributing to social isolation and mental health problems. However, psychological support, family and community assistance as part of a support network, and effective public policies contribute to strengthening resilience and reframing the experience of atypical motherhood. It is concluded that understanding the impact of symbolic grief on these mothers is essential to broadening the perspective of psychology and public policies regarding their socio-emotional needs, promoting comprehensive care and strengthening mental health.
Riverbank sanitation is a socioscientific issue that students in Indonesian river cities encounter first-hand, yet validated instruments for assessing how students perceive it are scarce. This study examined a 22-item instrument and how two dimensions, perceived sanitation conditions (KS; 8 items) and perceived government policy (KP; 14 items), constitute students' overall perception (PM) of sanitation on the Kuin River, Banjarmasin. Seven experts reviewed the items before administration. After screening 300 returned questionnaires and removing 49 duplicated records, 251 responses from students at three universities adjoining the Kuin riverbank were analysed. PM was specified as a reflective–formative higher-order construct and estimated with PLS-SEM (5,000 bootstrap resamples). Internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach's α = 0.715 for KS, 0.831 for KP and 0.866 for PM; composite reliability = 0.800 and 0.865) and discriminant validity was supported (HTMT = 0.791), but average variance extracted was below 0.50 (0.33 and 0.32). Both dimensions contributed significantly to overall perception: perceived policy (β = 0.725, 95% CI [0.677, 0.774], p < .001) and perceived sanitation conditions (β = 0.374, 95% CI [0.327, 0.420], p < .001). When the two dimensions were given equal numbers of items, however, their weights converged (0.59 vs. 0.54), indicating that much of the apparent dominance of policy reflects its larger item set. Students' overall appraisal of riverbank sanitation therefore draws on both institutional and physical appraisals, with a modest edge for perceived policy. The instrument offers a starting point for diagnosing such perceptions in place-based science education, pending further validation.
Abstract Intelligence, and the favorable life outcomes with which it is associated, are not shared equally between individuals or groups. In an endeavor to better understand the inequality, behavioral genetics (BG) have employed the classical twin design (CTD) to apportion the variability in the intelligence quotient (IQ) to genetic and environmental sources. Recent research has revealed that such parameter estimates are subject to bias: underestimating the influence of assortative mating, and nonadditive genetic effects. These biases are somewhat mitigated by the nuclear twin family design (NTFD). To date no published studies have applied the NTFD to IQ. This study addresses this limitation utilizing a meta-analysis of data comprising IQ measures from 660,365 twin, parent-child, and spousal pairs collected over more than 50 years from more than 15 countries. In a comparison of parameter estimates obtained under the CTD and NTFD, this study confirmed that the NTFD more accurately estimated the heritability of IQ. These findings will inform and guide future research, gene-mapping efforts, and public policy aimed at correcting the inequality in educational and life outcomes that are significantly associated with IQ.
هوش و پیامدهای مطلوب زندگی که با آن مرتبط است، به طور مساوی میان افراد یا گروهها تقسیم نمیشود. به منظور درک بهتر این نابرابری، ژنتیک رفتاری از طرح کلاسیک دوقلو (CTD) برای تخصیص واریانس بهره هوشی (IQ) به منابع ژنتیکی و محیطی استفاده کرده است. پژوهشهای اخیر نشان دادهاند که چنین برآوردهایی در معرض سوگیری هستند: از جمله کمبرآورد کردن تأثیر همسرگزینی مشابه و اثرات ژنتیکی غیرجمعی. این سوگیریها تا حدی با طرح خانواده هستهای دوقلو (NTFD) کاهش مییابد. تاکنون هیچ مطالعه منتشرشدهای از NTFD برای IQ استفاده نکرده است. این مطالعه با بهرهگیری از یک فراتحلیل دادههای شامل اندازهگیریهای IQ از ۶۶۰٬۳۶۵ جفت دوقلو، والد-فرزند و همسر که طی بیش از ۵۰ سال از بیش از ۱۵ کشور گردآوری شدهاند، به این محدودیت میپردازد. در مقایسه برآوردهای پارامتری بهدستآمده تحت CTD و NTFD، این مطالعه تأیید کرد که NTFD وراثتپذیری IQ را با دقت بیشتری برآورد میکند. این یافتهها پژوهشهای آتی، تلاشهای نقشهبرداری ژنی و سیاستگذاری عمومی را که با هدف اصلاح نابرابری در پیامدهای آموزشی و زندگی که به طور معناداری با IQ مرتبط هستند، راهنمایی خواهد کرد.
Behavioural science is much more than a set of techniques to influence behaviour. It represents a perspective on social reality – a perspective that is no less important than the economic or legal perspective. In this contribution, I will explain the profound consequences of taking the behavioural perspective seriously by focussing on two interrelated psychological concepts: self-control and perceived control. The research on self-control convincingly shows that there are serious limitations to people’s capacity to always act in accordance with their intentions and plans, expecially in times of setbacks and stress. The research on perceived control convincingly shows that if people lack sufficient resources and opportunities to achieve their life goals, the resulting feelings of powerlessness can be very harmful, both to themselves and to society in general. Policymakers should therefore abandon the ‘personal responsibility’ paradigm that has shaped so many public policies over the past decades, as it is based on unrealistic assumptions. This paradigm should be replaced by a new approach of ‘shared responsibility’ that is much more in line with the research findings. Given the central importance of the two related control-concepts to this new approach, one might also call it the ‘C-frame’.
علم رفتارشناسی بسیار فراتر از مجموعهای از فنون برای تأثیرگذاری بر رفتار است. این علم، دیدگاهی نسبت به واقعیت اجتماعی ارائه میدهد که اهمیتی کمتر از دیدگاه اقتصادی یا حقوقی ندارد. در این مقاله، پیامدهای عمیق اتخاذ جدی دیدگاه رفتاری را با تمرکز بر دو مفهوم روانشناختی مرتبط، یعنی خودکنترلی و کنترل ادراکشده، توضیح خواهم داد. پژوهشها درباره خودکنترلی بهطور متقاعدکنندهای نشان میدهند که ظرفیت افراد برای عمل همواره مطابق با نیتها و برنامههایشان، بهویژه در زمانهای ناکامی و استرس، با محدودیتهای جدی مواجه است. پژوهشها درباره کنترل ادراکشده نیز بهوضوح نشان میدهند که اگر افراد منابع و فرصتهای کافی برای دستیابی به اهداف زندگی خود نداشته باشند، احساس ناتوانی حاصل میتواند بسیار آسیبزا باشد؛ هم برای خود فرد و هم برای جامعه بهطور کلی. بنابراین، سیاستگذاران باید پارادایم «مسئولیت فردی» را که طی دهههای گذشته بسیاری از سیاستهای عمومی را شکل داده است، کنار بگذارند؛ چراکه این پارادایم مبتنی بر فرضهایی غیرواقعبینانه است. این پارادایم باید با رویکرد جدیدی با عنوان «مسئولیت مشترک» جایگزین شود که بسیار بیشتر با یافتههای پژوهشی همراستا است. با توجه به اهمیت محوری دو مفهوم مرتبط با کنترل در این رویکرد جدید، میتوان آن را «چارچوب C» نیز نامید.
This study assesses the rationality of public policies for the spatial allocation of primary schools in the West region of Cameroon, in the context of ongoing crises and economic shocks. Using cross-sectional data of 2022 from the Ministry of Basic Education, the Central Bureau of Censuses and Population Studies., and the National Institute of Statistics, the analysis applies Ripley’s K function to examine whether the spatial distribution of public primary schools follows a clustered, random, or dispersed pattern relative to population distribution. This spatial statistical approach is complemented by Monte Carlo simulations to test the significance of observed patterns. The results show that, while school locations are generally aligned with population concentration, some districts exhibit random spatial allocation. These findings suggest the need for more rational and demand-driven school placement policies, particularly through prioritizing densely populated areas to improve access and educational outcomes.
این مطالعه به ارزیابی عقلانیت سیاستهای عمومی در تخصیص فضایی مدارس ابتدایی در منطقه غرب کامرون، در بستر بحرانها و شوکهای اقتصادی جاری میپردازد. با استفاده از دادههای مقطعی سال ۲۰۲۲ از وزارت آموزش ابتدایی، اداره مرکزی سرشماری و مطالعات جمعیت، و مؤسسه ملی آمار، تحلیل حاضر از تابع K ریپلی برای بررسی این موضوع بهره میگیرد که آیا توزیع فضایی مدارس ابتدایی دولتی نسبت به توزیع جمعیت، الگوی خوشهای، تصادفی یا پراکنده دارد. این رویکرد آماری فضایی با شبیهسازیهای مونتکارلو برای آزمون معناداری الگوهای مشاهدهشده تکمیل میشود. نتایج نشان میدهد که اگرچه مکانیابی مدارس عموماً با تمرکز جمعیت همسو است، برخی نواحی تخصیص فضایی تصادفی را نشان میدهند. این یافتهها بر لزوم سیاستهای عقلانیتر و مبتنی بر تقاضا در مکانیابی مدارس، بهویژه با اولویتبخشی به مناطق پرجمعیت برای بهبود دسترسی و پیامدهای آموزشی تأکید دارد.
The South African Open Science Policy 2026, published by the Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation, is formally committed to the democratisation of knowledge and epistemic equity. Yet a critical reading reveals that the Policy reproduces, through its own discursive architecture, the epistemological hierarchy it claims to dismantle. This article analyses the Policy as a discursive text, drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and Foucault’s concept of the regime of truth to explain how a policy committed to democratisation can simultaneously enact epistemic exclusion. The primary argument is threefold. First, the Policy constructs “Open Science” as a nodal point around which a chain of equivalences is built from STEM-derived norms, including reproducibility, FAIR data principles, journal metrics, and natural science models of citizen science. Second, we argue that this hegemonic articulation reconstitutes a hidden antagonism between positivist and interpretivist epistemological traditions, reawakening a binary opposition that the paradigm wars of the twentieth century had ostensibly resolved. Third, the incommensurability between these traditions means that applying STEM-derived criteria universally to all research constitutes not evaluation but category error institutionalised as governance. Six dimensions of epistemological closure are examined: the reproducibility criterion, the FAIR data mandate, the marginalisation of CARE principles, the protective rather than epistemic treatment of indigenous knowledge, the structural absence of humanistic output forms, and the natural-science-centred design of the citizen science framework and its consequences for participatory research traditions. Five policy interventions are proposed through which the Policy’s stated commitment to epistemic equity could be made operational across the full disciplinary spectrum.
سیاست علم باز آفریقای جنوبی ۲۰۲۶ که توسط وزارت علوم، فناوری و نوآوری منتشر شده است، به طور رسمی متعهد به دموکراتیزهکردن دانش و برابری معرفتی است. با این حال، خوانشی انتقادی نشان میدهد که این سیاست از طریق معماری گفتمانی خود، همان سلسلهمراتب معرفتی را بازتولید میکند که مدعی برچیدن آن است. این مقاله سیاست مذکور را به عنوان یک متن گفتمانی تحلیل میکند و با بهرهگیری از نظریه گفتمان Laclau و Mouffe و مفهوم رژیم حقیقت نزد Foucault، توضیح میدهد که چگونه یک سیاست متعهد به دموکراتیزاسیون میتواند همزمان به طرد معرفتی منجر شود. استدلال اصلی مقاله سهوجهی است: نخست، سیاست «علم باز» را به عنوان نقطه گرهای میسازد که زنجیرهای از همارزیها حول هنجارهای برگرفته از STEM، از جمله معیار بازتولیدپذیری، اصول داده FAIR، شاخصهای نشریات و مدلهای علوم طبیعی از علم شهروندی ایجاد میکند. دوم، ما استدلال میکنیم که این مفصلبندی هژمونیک، خصومت پنهانی میان سنتهای معرفتی پوزیتیویستی و تفسیرگرایانه را بازسازی میکند و دوگانگیای را احیا میکند که به ظاهر جنگهای پارادایمی قرن بیستم آن را حل کرده بودند. سوم، نامقیاسی میان این سنتها به این معناست که تعمیم معیارهای برگرفته از STEM به همه پژوهشها، نه ارزیابی بلکه خطای مقولهای است که به صورت حکمرانی نهادینه میشود. شش بُعد انسداد معرفتی بررسی میشود: معیار بازتولیدپذیری، الزام داده FAIR، به حاشیهراندن اصول CARE، برخورد حفاظتی به جای معرفتی با دانش بومی، فقدان ساختاری اشکال تولیدات علوم انسانی و طراحی چارچوب علم شهروندی با محوریت علوم طبیعی و پیامدهای آن برای سنتهای پژوهش مشارکتی. پنج مداخله سیاستی پیشنهاد میشود که از طریق آنها تعهد اعلامشده سیاست به برابری معرفتی میتواند در سراسر طیف رشتهای عملیاتی شود.
