Helena Hurme

Culture-Level Dimensions of Social Axioms and Their Correlates across 41 Cultures

Leung and colleagues have revealed a five-dimensional structure of social axioms across individuals from five cultural groups. The present research was designed to reveal the culture level factor structure of social axioms and its correlates across 41 nations. An ecological factor analysis on the 60 items of the Social Axioms Survey extracted two factors: Dynamic Externality correlates with value measures tapping collectivism, hierarchy, and conservatism and with national indices indicative of lower social development. Societal Cynicism is less strongly and broadly correlated with previous values measures or other national indices and seems to define a novel cultural syndrome. Its national correlates suggest that it taps the cognitive component of a cultural constellation labeled maleficence, a cultural syndrome associated with a general mistrust of social systems and other people. Discussion focused on the meaning of these national level factors of beliefs and on their relationships with individual level factors of belief derived from the same data set.

Epidemiology of childhood diabetes mellitus in Finland-background of a nationwide study of type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus

SummaryA nationwide study of childhood Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus was established in 1986 in Finland, the country with the highest incidence of this disease worldwide. The aim of the project called “Childhood Diabetes in Finland” is to evaluate the role of genetic, environmental and immunological factors and particularly the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in the development of Type 1 diabetes. From September 1986 to April 1989, 801 families with a newly-diagnosed child aged 14 years or younger at the time of diagnosis were invited to participate in this study. The vast majority of the families agreed to participate in the comprehensive investigations of the study. HLA genotypes and haplotypes were determined in 757 families (95%). Our study also incorporates a prospective family study among non-diabetic siblings aged 3–19 years, and two case-control studies among the youngonset cases of Type 1 diabetes. During 1987–1989, the overall incidence of Type 1 diabetes was about 35.2 per 100,000 per year. It was higher in boys (38.4) than in girls (32.2). There was no clear geographic variation in incidence among the 12 provinces of Finland. Of the 1,014 cases during these 3 years only six cases were diagnosed before their first birthday. The incidence was high already in the age group 1–4-years old: 33.2 in boys and 29.5 in girls. Of the 801 families 90 (11.2%) were multiple case families, of which 66 had a parent with Type 1 diabetes at the time of diagnosis of the proband. The prevalence of Type 1 diabetes in the parents of these newly-diagnosed diabetic children was higher in fathers (5.7%) than in mothers (2.6%).

Natural history of preclinical IDDM in high risk siblings

SummaryTo learn more about the preclinical phase of IDDM we observed for a median period of 46.5 months (range 0.5–69 months) a group of 57 siblings positive for ICA and/or IAA when first screened within 6 months of the diagnosis of the proband. Sequential blood samples and IVGTTs were obtained at intervals of 6–12 months. Seventeen siblings (29.8%) presented with IDDM during the observation period. The duration of the known preclinical period ranged from 0.5 to 51 months (median 29 months). The converters were younger than the other siblings (P<0.05) and had higher initial ICA levels (P<0.01). In addition they had a lower FPIR in the first IVGTT (P<0.001). On all subsequent tests the converters had higher ICA levels and a lower FPIR (P<0.05 or less), a lower glucose elimination rate from the third test onwards (P<0.01 or less) and higher IAA levels at 3 years (P<0.05). Some variation could be observed in the FPIR in the converters with an initial increase and subsequent decrease (P<0.05 for both). Their levels of complement-fixing ICA increased up to 18 months (P<0.05) and IAA levels up to 3 years (P<0.01). Those high risk siblings who progress to clinical IDDM are characterized by young age, strong and increasing signs of islet-cell specific autoimmunity, reduced insulin secreting capacity and emerging glucose intolerance. The present observations seem to be incompatible with the hypothesis of beta-cell destruction occurring at a constant, predictable rate.

Traditional and New Forms of Contact Between Grandparents and Grandchildren

The article concerns factors predicting different types of both traditional and modern forms of grandparent–grandchild communication in a sample of Finnish grandparents and in a separate sample of Finnish grandchildren between 11–13 and 16–17 years of age. The data has been gathered using a New Technologies Questionnaire in both samples and the Grandparent Role Inventory in the grandparent sample. In the grandparent sample, age, gender, education, the geographical distance between the two generations, and four factor scores of grandparenting style have been used as predictors of different types of contact frequency in categorical regression analyses. The same types of analyses have been carried out in the grandchild sample with age, gender, the age of the grandparent, and proximity to the grandparent as predictors. A significant relation between the proximity between the generations (measured in time) and all forms of contact frequency is found both in the grandparent and grandchild sample. There are fewer face-to face contacts, landline phone contacts, and mobile contacts the farther away the generations live but more letters and/or cards. In the grandchild sample, the farther away the generations live, the less the grandchildren use short message service, or text messaging. The study also finds a significant relation between contact frequency and the factor of formal grandparenthood, those being high on this grandparenting style seeing their grandchildren less often.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Adolescents' Perceptions of Their Grandparents.

Partial results from a larger Finnish-Polish study on the relations between grandchildren, parents, and grandparents are presented here. The results are based on a content analysis of essays written by 731 Finnish and Polish adolescents between eleven and twenty-one. Older children used more abstract descriptions, girls mentioned more personality features and feelings than boys, and grandmothers, especially maternal grandmothers were described in the most positive terms. The central new finding was that there are highly significant cross-cultural differences in the descriptions of grandparents: the Poles describe them in more abstract terms even after controlling for age and gender. Polish adolescents make more mention of their feelings, their personality, and their skills as well as of emotional/intellectual input from them; they use more positive terms than do the Finns, but make less mention of activities and appearance. These differences between the two cultures are mediated by contact frequency, which through its working on the proximal level enables co-construction of the relationship and the transmission of interactional styles.

Representations of Grandparents in Children's Books in Britain, Italy, Greece, Finland, and Poland

Grandparenthood is changing rapidly in different societies. Assumptions about the roles and potential of grandparents may not be keeping pace. Children learn and develop attitudes toward grandparents in part through media representations. Study 1 explores how grandparents are depicted in childrens books: 149 images (87 grandmothers, 62 grandfathers) were obtained from childrens picture books in Britain, Italy, and Greece. Content analysis suggests a homogeneous image of grandparents. Seventy percent of grandfathers and 59% of grandmothers have gray/white hair. More than 50% of grandparents are in sedentary physical activities: sitting, standing, lying in bed, and reading. Study 2 investigates whether the apparent age of grandparents in childrens books differs by gender, nationality, or year of book publication in Britain, Italy, Greece, Finland, and Poland. Twelve adults in Britain and Italy and 10 adults in Finland estimated the age of each grandparent figure (from 40–44 years old to 90+). In every country, grandfathers were rated as significantly older than grandmothers. Grandparents are significantly older in Greek books than in British books and are significantly older in Polish books than in Finnish books. In Britain, Italy, Greece, and Finland, grandparents in childrens books are older than the estimated average age of grandparents with young grandchildren. Implications of these media representations are discussed.

Perception and Evaluation of Polish Cultural Femininity in Poland, the United States, Finland, and the Netherlands

Culture perception was examined in the domain of gender roles. Three video clips containing an example of typically Polish gender role behavior (displaying much respect and courtesy of men toward women) were shown to female and male university undergraduates in Poland (n = 88), the United States (n = 91), Finland (n = 60), and the Netherlands (n = 60). The Polish group was more accurate than all other groups in its recognition of the time and place of video recording; they also rated these video clips as higher in typicality for their own culture. The Dutch revealed the lowest scores in evaluation and in identification with gender roles. The question was examined to what extent the cross-cultural differences could be accounted for by some relevant cultural characteristics. It was found that by using Schwartz’s country-level measures on conservatism and mastery and the Chinese Culture Connection’s human heartedness, all differences on evaluation and identification with gender roles were statistically wiped out; heartedness in particular was a powerful predictor.

Cow's milk consumption, disease-associated autoantibodies and Type 1 diabetes mellitus

Evidence from case–control studies for the diabetogenicity of introduction of cow’s milk‐based formulas at early age in infancy is inconclusive. We followed siblings of children with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (Type 1 DM) to investigate a possible relationship between cow’s milk consumption during infancy or later in childhood and the emergence of diabetes‐associated autoantibodies and progression to clinical Type 1 DM. A cohort of 725 initially unaffected 0 to 25‐year‐old siblings of 801 index children with Type 1 DM diagnosed in 1986–1989 participated in the study (82 % of those invited). The siblings were observed for Type 1 DM associated autoantibodies at intervals of 3–12 months for 4 years, starting from the diagnosis of Type 1 DM in the index child. The follow‐up for Type 1 DM started at the same time and ended on 31 October 1995. The combined prevalence of Type 1 DM associated autoantibodies (islet cell antibodies (ICA), insulin autoantibodies (IAA), GAD autoantibodies (GADA), and/or antibodies to the insulinoma associated cDNA2 protein (IA‐2A)) was 13.6 % (95/697) at the beginning of the study. Of the initially seronegative siblings, 7.5 % (45/602) converted to antibody positivity during 4 years, and of all siblings 4.6 % (33/725) developed Type 1 DM during the total follow‐up time. The age at introduction of supplementary milk feeding was not significantly related to seroconversion to positivity for Type 1 DM associated autoantibodies or to the development of Type 1 DM in the siblings. When adjusted for age, sex, infant feeding patterns, and maternal age and education, high milk consumption in childhood (≥3 glasses daily) was associated with more frequent emergence of Type 1 DM‐associated autoantibodies than low consumption (<3 glasses daily) (adjusted odds ratio 3.97, 95 % confidence interval 1.3–11.7, p = 0.01). There was a non‐significant association between high milk consumption and progression to clinical Type 1 DM (adjusted hazard ratio 2.75, 95 % confidence interval 0.9–8.4, p = 0.07). To conclude, this study suggests that high consumption of cow’s milk during childhood may be associated both with seroconversion to positivity for diabetes‐associated autoantibodies and progression to clinical Type 1 DM among siblings of children with diabetes.

Collectivism, Individualism and Grandchild-Grandparent Relations

Since the beginning of the eighties, there has been a steady rise in the number of studies concerned with grandchild-grandparent relations. Most of the studies have been carried out in the US , but there are studies from Europe as well. Direct cross-cultural comparisons have been peculiarly rare, however, with the exception of Apple’s (1956) anthropological analysis and McCready’s (1985) article which compared Americans of, among others, Scandinavian and Polish origin. Nahemow (1984) compared two traditional societies in Africa.

LEVNADSFÖRÄNDRINGAR OCH KONTROLL

Forfattaren analyserar individens mojligheter att kontrollera levnadsforandringar. Kontrolldimensionen behandlas i forhallande tili preventiva, konstruktiva, interventiva och lindrande atgarder.