Young people feel let down by politicians and media stereotypes, says new research

UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

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IMAGE: AN ILLUSTRATION BY ONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE GROWING UP UNDER COVID-19 RESEARCH PROJECT PORTRAYING WHAT LIFE HAS BEEN LIKE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE DURING THE PANDEMIC view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

Decision-makers are failing to harness young people's potential to help shape pandemic responses, according to a major study that features the views of young people from around the world.

The report, titled: To lockdown and back: young people's lived experience of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the impact of the virus' first wave on 14-to-18-year-olds from seven countries, including the UK, from the perspectives of young people.

The study, which includes the expertise of the University's Professor Barry Percy-Smith and researcher Dr Leanne Monchuk, is the initial report from the 18-month Growing up Under COVID-19 project.

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation and conducted with the independent research institute Ecorys, the study explores how young people experience the crisis and outlines how to promote their rights and wellbeing during and after the pandemic.

As well as arguing that their experiences could drive more inclusive, democratic COVID-19 approaches, the report shows their rights have been marginalised through lack of access to quality education, healthcare, and other services.

The international study says that political, public and media discourses feature young people as 'victims' of educational upheaval or rule-breaking 'villains'. Yet this population is overlooked in decisions about how the pandemic is handled.

Professor Percy-Smith, who is the Director of the University's Centre for Applied Childhood, Youth and Family Research, said the Centre is committed to research that makes a difference in the lives of young people and families.

"So often research messages are reported to adult decision makers in the hope they will listen and respond. But what happens when politicians don't listen to what young people are saying?", said Professor Percy-Smith.

"In this report, with their insightful observations and commentaries, young people are telling us how politicians and public officials so often are failing to act in the best interests of children and young people.

"This really is the time for us to start taking young people seriously, listen to what they are telling us, value their contributions and support their involvement as a force for change. This report and the research will contribute to that endeavour," he added.

The research involved 70 young people from the four UK nations and Italy, Singapore and Lebanon. The diverse participants, who contributed to the study between July and September 2020, included BAME, LGBTQ+ young people and teenagers with experience of care or mental health issues.

Each participant was mentored by the project team to undertake research and commentary on the crisis, according to their own priorities and terms of reference. Thus meaning, they were not seen simply as research subjects but as active 'experts by experience'.

Findings of the study

While there were differences between the seven countries, the young people shared a common frustration towards the media for dismissing younger people as irresponsible in contrast to examples of individuals embracing volunteering or greater family responsibility.

"I think there's been a lot of this about, 'oh young people feel like they're invincible so they're not socially distancing'... and I think it's quite a generalisation from unfair stereotypes about young people."

Anonymous participant

There were significant concerns about how politicians ignore younger people and why there was a lack of opportunity to speak out about their experiences in strategies decided by local schools or services. For example, participants had to be over the age of 18 to ask a question in the televised COVID-19 briefings.

There was also disappointment in participatory processes such as youth councils or surveys due to their failure to impact on a national level.

"We were saying, 'Well, young people have questions, too'; why can't we? There's been no address to us, we can't ask questions. Where are we at all in this pandemic?"

Anonymous participant

The report also discovered the polarising impact of COVID-19. Just as some teenagers experienced moments of self-reflection and resilience, others struggled with a lack of support services. The need for a holistic strategy when managing global public health emergencies was also made clear.

Lessons to be learnt

Ultimately moving forward, the report suggests government and public authorities must improve young people's representation on participatory platforms and review access to support. Furthermore, it challenges schools, youth organisations and service providers to review opportunities intended for engaging young people in decision-making.

The report highlighted the importance of the media removing negative stereotypes and said they need to balance the portrayal of young people during the pandemic, from involving them in reporting roles to covering their personal stories.

Two further reports are scheduled for spring and autumn 2021, with the project set to conclude a month later. There will also be additional outputs and communications from young people released throughout the year.

Download the full list of findings and recommendations from phase 1 of the Growing Up Under Covid-19 research project: https://www.guc19.com/pdf/resource-bank/to-lockdown-and-back-research-report.pdf

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Fit gamers challenge 'fat' stereotype, new esports research

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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VIDEO: A QUT-LED STUDY FINDS ESPORTS PLAYERS ARE UP TO 21 PER CENT HEALTHIER WEIGHT THAN THE GENERAL POPULATION, HARDLY SMOKE AND ALSO DRINK LESS. view more 

CREDIT: QUT

Esports players are up to 21 per cent healthier weight than the general population, hardly smoke and drink less too, finds a new QUT (Queensland University of Technology) study.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, were based on 1400 survey participants from 65 countries.

• First study to investigate the BMI (Body Mass Index) status of a global sample of esports players.
• Esports players were between 9 and 21 per cent more likely to be a healthy weight than the general population.
• Esports players drank and smoked less than the general population.
• The top 10 per cent of esports players were significantly more physically active than lower level players, showing that physical activity could influence esports expertise.

QUT eSports researcher Michael Trotter said the results were surprising considering global obesity levels.

"The findings challenge the stereotype of the morbidly obese gamer," he said.

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QUT researcher Michael Trotter

Mr Trotter said the animated satire South Park poked fun at the unfit gamer but the link between video gaming and obesity had not been strongly established.

"When you think of esports, there are often concerns raised regarding sedentary behaviour and poor health as a result, and the study revealed some interesting and mixed results," he said.

"As part of their training regime, elite esports athletes spend more than an hour per day engaging in physical exercise as a strategy to enhance gameplay and manage stress," he said.

The World Health Organisation guidelines for time that should be spent being physically active weekly is a minimum of 150 minutes.

"Only top-level players surveyed met physical activity guidelines, with the best players exercising on average four days a week," the PhD student said.

However, the study found 4.03 per cent of esports players were more likely to be morbidly obese compared to the global population.

Mr Trotter said strategies should be developed to support players classed at the higher end of BMI categories.

"Exercise and physical activity play a role in success in esports and should be a focus for players and organisations training esports players," Mr Trotter said.

"This will mean that in the future, young gamers will have more reason and motivation to be physically active.

"Grassroots esports pathways, such as growing university and high school esports are likely to be the best place for young esports players to develop good health habits for gamers."

The research also found esports players are 7.8 per cent more likely to abstain from drinking daily, and of those players that do drink, only 0.5 per cent reported drinking daily.

The survey showed only 3.7 per cent of esports players smoked daily, with player smoking frequency lower compared to global data at 18.7 per cent.

Future research will investigate how high-school and university esports programs can improve health outcomes and increase physical activity for gaming students.

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The study was led by QUT's Faculty of Health School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences and in collaboration with the Department of Psychology at Umeå University in Sweden.

The wily octopus: king of flexibility

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

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VIDEO: EXAMPLES OF ARM DEFORMATION TYPES IN AN OCTOPUS (O. BIMACULOIDES). FROM: E.B. LANE KENNEDY, KENDRA C. BURESCH, PREETHI BOINAPALLY, AND ROGER T. HANLON (2020) OCTOPUS ARMS EXHIBIT EXCEPTIONAL FLEXIBILITY. SCIENTIFIC... view more 

CREDIT: ROGER HANLON LAB/MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

Octopus Arm Movements [video] | EurekAlert! Science News

WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Octopuses have the most flexible appendages known in nature, according to a new study in Scientific Reports. In addition to being soft and strong, each of the animal's eight arms can bend, twist, elongate and shorten in many combinations to produce diverse movements. But to what extent can they do so, and is each arm equally capable? Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) filmed 10 octopuses over many months while presenting them with a variety of challenges, and recorded 16,563 examples of these arm movements.

Amazingly, all eight arms could perform all four types of deformation (bend, twist, elongate, shorten) throughout their length. Moreover, each type of movement could be deployed in multiple orientations (e.g. left, right, up, down, 360º, etc.). Especially noteworthy was the clockwise and counterclockwise twisting that could occur throughout each arm during bending, shortening or elongating. This twisty strong arm is exceptionally flexible by any standard.

"Even our research team, which is very familiar with octopuses, was surprised by the extreme versatility of each of the eight arms as we analyzed the videos frame-by-frame," said co-author and MBL Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon. "These detailed analyses can help guide the next step of determining neural control and coordination of octopus arms, and may uncover design principles that can inspire the creation of next-generation soft robots."

Engineers have long wished to design "soft robotic arms" with greater agility, strength and sensing capability. Currently, most robotic arms require hard materials and joints of many configurations, all of which have limitations. The octopus presents a novel model for future robotic designs. Octopus arms are similar in function to the human tongue and the elephant trunk; they are muscular hydrostats that use incompressible muscle in different arrangements to produce movement. The current study provides a basis for investigating motor control of the entire octopus arm. Soft, ultra-flexible robotic arms could enable many new applications, e.g., inspecting unstructured and cluttered environments such as collapsed buildings, or gentler medical inspection of alimentary or respiratory pathways.

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An octopus (O. bimaculoides) extends an arm to explore its environment.

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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery - exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

Gene therapy gives man with sickle cell disease the chance for a better future

Experimental treatment at UCLA has given one patient reason for optimism

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES

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IMAGE: EVIE JUNIOR view more 

CREDIT: UCLA BROAD STEM CELL RESEARCH CENTER

For Evie Junior, living with sickle cell disease has been like running a marathon.

"But it's a marathon where as you keep going, the trail gets rockier and then you lose your shoes," the 27-year-old said. "It gets harder as you get older. Things start to fail and all you can think about is how much worse it's going to get down the road."

In sickle cell disease, a genetic mutation causes the blood-forming stem cells -- which give rise to all blood and immune cells -- to produce hard, sickle-shaped red blood cells. These misshapen cells die early, leaving an insufficient number of red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Because of their sickle shape, these cells also get stuck in blood vessels, blocking blood flow and resulting in excruciating bouts of pain that come on with no warning and can leave patients hospitalized for days.

The disease affects 100,000 people in the United States and millions around the world, the majority of whom are of African or Hispanic descent. It can ultimately lead to strokes, organ damage and early death.

As a child growing up in the Bronx, New York, Junior had to have his gall bladder and spleen removed due to complications from the disease, but he refused to let his condition limit him. He played football, basketball and baseball during the day, even though on some nights he experienced pain crises so severe he couldn't walk.

"It was just really routine if I had a sickle cell crisis," he said. "Going to the emergency room, staying in the hospital, coming out in a few days and then getting back to normal life."

'I want to create a better future'

When he was 24 and living in Portland, Oregon, Junior began working as an emergency medical technician. He adopted the same mentality -- trying to treat his pain episodes the best he could, and hoping they would resolve overnight so he could get back to work. Around that time, though, the crises became harder to manage. He developed pericarditis, an inflammation in the layers of tissue around his heart, and needed six weeks to recover.

"The big worry with sickle cell disease is that you're going to die young from some type of complications or damage to your organs," he said. "In the last couple of years, I've been seeing that slowly happen to me and I can only suspect that it's going to keep getting worse. I want to create a better future for myself."

In July 2019, in pursuit of that future, Junior enrolled in a clinical trial for an experimental stem cell gene therapy for sickle cell disease. The study is led by UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center physician-scientists Dr. Donald Kohn and Dr. Gary Schiller and funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The therapy, developed by Kohn over the past 10 years, is intended to correct the mutation in patients' blood-forming stem cells to allow them to produce healthy red blood cells. Kohn has already applied the same concept to successfully treat several immune system deficiencies, including a cure for a form of severe combined immune deficiency, also known as bubble baby disease.

But sickle cell disease has proven more difficult to treat with gene therapy than those other conditions. Junior volunteered for the trial knowing there was a chance the therapy wouldn't cure him.

"Even if it doesn't work for me, I'm hoping that it can be a cure later down the road for millions of people," he said.

In July 2020, Junior received an infusion of his own blood-forming stem cells that had been genetically modified to overcome the mutation that causes his disease.

"The goal of this treatment is to give him a future, let him plan for college, family or whatever he wants without worrying about getting hospitalized because of another pain crisis," said Kohn, a distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, pediatrics, and molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Reason for optimism

Three months after his treatment, blood tests indicated that 70% of Junior's blood stem cells had the new corrected gene. Kohn and Schiller estimate that even a 20% correction would be enough to prevent future sickle cell complications. Junior said he hasn't had a pain crisis since undergoing the treatment and he has more energy and feels out of breath less often.

"I noticed a big difference in my cardiovascular endurance in general -- even going for a light jog with my dogs, I could feel it," he said.

Junior and his doctors are cautiously optimistic about the results.

"It's too early to declare victory, but it's looking quite promising at this point," Kohn said. "Once we're at six months to a year, if it looks like it does now, I'll feel very comfortable that he's likely to have a permanent benefit."

After a lifetime of dealing with the unwelcome surprises of the disease, Junior is even more cautious than his doctors. But as the weeks pass, he's slowly allowing a glimmer of hope that he could soon be someone who used to have sickle cell disease. For him, that hope feels like "a burst of happiness" that's followed by thoughts of all the things he could do with a healthy future: pursue his dream of becoming a firefighter, get married and start a family.

"I want to be present in my kids' lives, so I've always said I'm not going to have kids unless I can get this cured," he said. "But if this works, it means I could start a family one day."

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(Note to reporters: Watch a video about Evie's treatment with an experimental gene therapy for sickle cell disease here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmQJpuLx07Y)

Football-loving states slow to enact youth concussion laws

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

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PULLMAN, Wash. - States with college teams in strong conferences, in particular the Southeastern Conference (SEC), were among the last to take up regulations on youth concussions, according to a recent study. The study, which investigated the association between youth sport participation and passage of concussion legislation, uncovered the importance of SEC affiliation, and found a similar connection in states with high rates of high school football participation.

In contrast, states with higher gender equality, measured by the number of women in the labor force, were early adopters.

Washington State University sociologists Thomas Rotolo and Michael Lengefeld, a recent WSU Ph.D. now at Goucher College, analyzed the wave of youth concussion laws from 2007 to 2014, specifically looking at return-to-play guidelines: a mandated 24-hour wait period before sending a player with a possible concussion back on to the field.

"We explored a lot of different ways of measuring college football presence, and the thing that just kept standing out was SEC membership," said Rotolo, the lead author on the study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine. "Every college town thinks they have a strong college football presence, but the SEC is a very unique conference."

Co-author Lengefeld, a former high school football player from Texas, knows first-hand how important the sport is throughout the South, but the data showed a specific correlation between resistance to youth concussion regulations among SEC states in particular.

"This SEC variable was similar to the South effect, but not all southern states have an SEC school--and in SEC states the resistance to concussion laws was a bit stronger," he said.

Lengefeld added that the SEC also stands out since it has the largest number of viewers and brings in more profits than any other conference.

Scientists have known for more than a century that youth concussions were a serious health issue, but the movement to create concussion health policies for youth sports did not gain any ground until a Washington state middle school player was badly injured. In 2006, Zackery Lystedt was permanently disabled after being sent back onto the field following a concussion. The Seattle Seahawks took up the cause in the state, followed by the NFL which took the issue nationwide.

Even though the NFL advocated for youth concussion policy changes, the states responded differently. Washington state, Oregon and New Mexico were among the first to adopt the new return-to-play guidelines, while states like Georgia and Mississippi were among the last.

"There's clearly something culturally going on that was different in those states," said Lengefeld.

The researchers also investigated the role of gender equity in concussion adoption since football is often viewed as hyper-masculine. They used women's participation in the labor market as a rough indicator of a state's gender egalitarian views and found a statistically significant difference showing that states with higher levels of women's labor market participation enacted the concussion legislation more quickly.

Lengefeld said the methodology they used in this study can also be applied to analyze how many other health policies are enacted across different states.

"As we were submitting this research for publication, COVID-19 was just starting, and we noticed all the differences in the way states are behaving," Lengefeld said. "It's not new for sociologists to study the diffusion of laws at the state level, but this is another way of doing that that incorporates a set of ideas about culture."

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