Intergenerational Life Courses of Teenage Pregnancy in Ogbomosho South‐Western Nigeria

Concern that the teenage pregnancy rate in an urban community in Southwest Nigeria has doubled within the last decade prompted an intergenerational survey of a sample of 277 respondents (163 pregnant teenagers, 91 teen parents and 23 adult parents who were once teen parents) selected through snowballing and then interviewed in four group discussions in Ogbomosho, Nigeria. Findings revealed that 43.5 per cent of the female and 48.5 per cent of the male teenagers informed their parents first when they became pregnant or made someone pregnant respectively. They also showed that lack of knowledge about puberty (21.3%) was a major factor that influenced teenage pregnancy. The majority (53.4%) of the respondents believed that their parents perceived teenage pregnancy as God's blessing, while it was perceived as sign of poverty by their school teachers (36.5%). Blame for unwanted pregnancy was put on the girls by 49.5 per cent of the respondents. Focused educational enlightenment for teenagers on sexual reproductive health is needed for reshaping teenagers' risky behaviours. This is in line with 25.6 per cent of the respondents who felt that community youth forum on sex education could reduce teenage pregnancy.     

Voices of girls with disabilities in rural Iran

This paper investigates the interaction of gender, disability and education in rural Iran, which is a relatively unexplored field of research. The responses of 10 female students with disabilities from Isfahan indicated that the obstacles they faced included marginalization, difficulties in getting from home to school, difficulties within the school building itself, and discrimination by teachers, classmates and school authorities. The data collected for the study contain a wide range of conservative gendered discourses, and show how traditional gender beliefs interact with disability to aggravate the problems faced in education by young women with disabilities. It is hoped that the findings will raise awareness among policy-makers of the many formidable obstacles that make it difficult for young women with disabilities to achieve their full potential in education.     

Parenting challenges of African immigrants in Alberta,Canada

African immigrant children and youth have some of the poorest social and mental health outcomes in Canada. Although parenting challenges have been widely documented as a key driver of these outcomes, limited systematic research has investigated this phenomenon. In this paper, we report the results of a study examining parenting challenges among a sample of African immigrant parents in Alberta, Canada. We relied on the theoretical lens of transnationalism to collect and analyse data from a purposive sample of African community leaders (n = 14), African immigrant parents (n = 32), and a range of stakeholders (n = 30). Our thematic data analysis revealed several intricately intertwined parenting challenges, organized around six overarching themes, namely, cultural incompatibility, family tension, state interference, limited social supports, poor access to services, and low socioeconomic status. We present these themes and the policy and service implications of our findings.     

Parametric inference in a perturbed gamma degradation process

Abstract

We consider a degradation model which is the sum of two independent processes: an homogeneous gamma process and a Brownian motion. This model is called perturbed gamma process. Based on independent copies of the perturbed gamma process observed at irregular instants we propose to estimate the unknown parameters of the model using the moment method. Some general conditions allow to derive the asymptotic behavior of the estimators. We also show that these general conditions are fulfilled for some specific observation schemes. Finally, we illustrate our method by a numerical study and an application to a real data set.     

Gendered Representations of Male and Female Social Actors in Iranian Educational Materials

This research investigates the representations of gendered social actors within the subversionary discourse of equal educational opportunities for males and females in Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) books. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the theoretical framework, the authors blend van Leeuwen’s (Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis, Routledge, London, 2003) ‘Social Actor Network Model’ and Sunderland’s (Gendered discourses, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, 2004) ‘Gendered Discourses Model’ in order to examine the depictions of male and female social actors within this gendered discourse. The gendered discourse of equal opportunities was buttressed by such representations within a tight perspective in proportion to gender ideologies prevailing in Iran. Resorting to CDA, we can claim that resistance against such gendered discourse in Iranian EFL textbooks militates against such gender norms. These representations of male and female social actors in school books are indicative of an all-encompassing education, reinforcing that the discourse of equal opportunities is yet to be realized in the education system of Iran.     

Obstetric fistula and sociocultural practices in Hausa community of Northern Nigeria

Background

Obstetric Fistula is a childbirth injury that disproportionately affects women in sub-Saharan Africa. Although poverty plays an important role in perpetuating obstetric fistula, sociocultural practices has a significant influence on susceptibility to the condition.

Failure Time of Non Homogeneous Gamma Process

We consider the non homogeneous gamma process as a degradation model. The hitting time of a deterministic or random level is studied here. We provide its distribution (both cdf and pdf) explicitly in the first case and in the second case when the threshold is exponentially or gamma distributed. The general case for a random threshold can be approximated by considering mixtures of Erlang distributions. Aging properties are also discussed in this article.     

The Log-Normal zero-inflated cure regression model for labor time in an African obstetric population

In obstetrics and gynecology, knowledge about how women''s features are associated with childbirth is important. This leads to establishing guidelines and can help managers to describe the dynamics of pregnant women''s hospital stays. Then, time is a variable of great importance and can be described by survival models. An issue that should be considered in the modeling is the inclusion of women for whom the duration of labor cannot be observed due to fetal death, generating a proportion of times equal to zero. Additionally, another proportion of women''s time may be censored due to some intervention. The aim of this paper was to present the Log-Normal zero-inflated cure regression model and to evaluate likelihood-based parameter estimation by a simulation study. In general, the inference procedures showed a better performance for larger samples and low proportions of zero inflation and cure. To exemplify how this model can be an important tool for investigating the course of the childbirth process, we considered the Better Outcomes in Labor Difficulty project dataset and showed that parity and educational level are associated with the main outcomes. We acknowledge the World Health Organization for granting us permission to use the dataset.     

A multi-scalar critical analysis of return migration policies in Mexico

Services and resources for migrants returning to Mexico are necessary to ease their transition and “re-integration” into home communities. Policies that do not have a holistic approach can result in serious implications for the social, political, cultural, and health of returnees, receiving families, and communities. This research critically analyses return migration policies in Mexico drawing from the intersectionality-based policy analysis framework and a multi-scalar approach to critically study return migration policies in Mexico. We analysed 20 return migration policies using the principles of the intersectionality-based policy analysis framework. In 2021, we interviewed those impacted by return migration policies in Veracruz, Mexico to gain deeper insights into return migration policies. Women who stayed behind, return migrants, community leaders, and health-care providers were interviewed via phone or face-to-face in Spanish. Information was transcribed verbatim and analysed with the aid of computer-assisted data analysis software and quotes were translated into English. They shed light on two major inequities in policies: (1) the lack of acknowledgement of diversity or return migrants and (2) the exclusion of receiving families and communities from the “re-integration” process of return migrants. Based on the multi-scalar critical policy analysis, return migration policies in Mexico would benefit from a more comprehensive and inclusive approach where the needs of return migrants and community members are protected based on their diversity.