Social Sciences

Black South African women are becoming thinner because of the influence of the West, including media-portrayed images of waif-like women in films and TV shows according to new research.

The findings come from a study between Northumbria University in the United Kingdom and the University of Zululand in rural South Africa. The study, which will be presented at the British Psychological Society conference in London today (Friday 16th April), revealed that young black women are becoming

At a time when growing numbers of Europeans are suffering from eating disorders that risk both their physical and mental health, the conclusion of the Salut! project has opened up a new world of solutions to these serious medical conditions.

The IST programme-funded initiative has developed online tools for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of eating disorders, including a self-help guide to treat sufferers of Bulimia, which affects up to 4 per cent of European women.

Althoug

Sexually active teenage girls who viewed an interactive sex education DVD created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were more likely to become abstinent than girls who did not see the DVD, according to a study of 300 adolescent girls in the Pittsburgh area. The study will be published this fall in the journal “Social Science and Medicine.”

The DVD, “What Could You Do?” portrays teenage girls in situations that typically lead to sex and allows the viewer to choose what actions the

Women who receive the results of their screening mammograms immediately after their examination have less stress and anxiety compared with women who have to wait several days for their test results, according to a study in the April 7 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Surprisingly, however, an educational intervention that taught skills to cope with anxiety was not associated with decreased anxiety among a similar group of women.

In the United States, 5% to 11% of all s

The simple act of requesting to sit in a nonsmoking section may have profound benefits beyond avoiding second-hand smoke, according to new findings by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Parents who routinely engage in such anti-smoking behaviors in front of their adolescent children – particularly parents who themselves smoke – appear to significantly reduce their offspring’s chances of becoming a smoker by their senior year in high school, report M. Robyn Andersen,

Many cultures view body and soul as inseparable

Requests for organ donors must be tempered by a better understanding of cultural differences, says a U of T researcher.

“We’re seeing different cultural perceptions of life and death and that affects end-of-life decisions,” says Kerry Bowman, a U of T professor with the Joint Centre for Bioethics and the clinical ethicist at Mount Sinai Hospital. Health care workers need to be aware that not all cultures consider organ donatio