title: Just take a second to breathe: Empowering youth through mindfulness at Atawhai 2019

authors: McAllister, Suzanne Maree

subjects: Mindfulness

abstract: This research was an evaluation of The Kindness Institute’s 2019 Atawhai programme. It examined the effects that exposure to mindfulness-based skills, Māori cultural practices, mentoring, and the creative arts had on a cohort of marginalised youth. Specifically, the research aimed to determine (1) if learning mindfulness-based skills helped the youth to positively deal with challenges, (2) what effect learning mindfulness-based skills has on their positive and negative emotions and (3) were youth empowered to share the skills they learned within their homes, families and communities to enable a wider benefit from the mindfulness-based skills. Participants included 12 youth who attended the Atawhai programme during 2019. They all completed shortened versions of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Adolescent Self-Regulatory Inventory (ASRI), The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) and Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) at seven stages over a nine-month period from March 2019 to December 2019. Self-report debrief questionnaires and researcher observations were recorded during the October 2019 residential intensive of 5 days. Inferential statistics (repeated measures ANOVA and post-hoc paired t-tests) indicated a statistically significant increase in positive emotions (p<0.01) with a large effect 1.07 over the duration of the evaluation period from March 2019 to December 2019; the October 2019 intensive, p<0.01, d=1.37; and the April 2019 intensive, p<0.01, d=1.89. Statistically significant decreases in anxiety (p<0.01) with a large effect d=1.99 were indicated over the duration of the evaluation period from March 2019 to December 2019; the October 2019 intensive, p=0.07, d=0.57; and the April 2019 intensive, p≤0.01, d=1.19. Self-report measures indicated the youth; found the mindfulness-based skills beneficial, preferred a particular skill over others, and found their mentors supportive in helping them incorporate the skills into their daily lives. Youth reported they had continued their mindfulness-based practice outside Atawhai and were regularly sharing the skills within their homes, families and communities including their schools. These findings suggest the Atawhai programme has a profound and significant positive effect on the wellbeing of the young people it serves.

text: Just take a second to breathe: Empowering youth through mindfulness at Atawhai 2019 This research was an evaluation of The Kindness Institute’s 2019 Atawhai programme. It examined the effects that exposure to mindfulness-based skills, Māori cultural practices, mentoring, and the creative arts had on a cohort of marginalised youth. Specifically, the research aimed to determine (1) if learning mindfulness-based skills helped the youth to positively deal with challenges, (2) what effect learning mindfulness-based skills has on their positive and negative emotions and (3) were youth empowered to share the skills they learned within their homes, families and communities to enable a wider benefit from the mindfulness-based skills. Participants included 12 youth who attended the Atawhai programme during 2019. They all completed shortened versions of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Adolescent Self-Regulatory Inventory (ASRI), The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) and Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) at seven stages over a nine-month period from March 2019 to December 2019. Self-report debrief questionnaires and researcher observations were recorded during the October 2019 residential intensive of 5 days. Inferential statistics (repeated measures ANOVA and post-hoc paired t-tests) indicated a statistically significant increase in positive emotions (p<0.01) with a large effect 1.07 over the duration of the evaluation period from March 2019 to December 2019; the October 2019 intensive, p<0.01, d=1.37; and the April 2019 intensive, p<0.01, d=1.89. Statistically significant decreases in anxiety (p<0.01) with a large effect d=1.99 were indicated over the duration of the evaluation period from March 2019 to December 2019; the October 2019 intensive, p=0.07, d=0.57; and the April 2019 intensive, p≤0.01, d=1.19. Self-report measures indicated the youth; found the mindfulness-based skills beneficial, preferred a particular skill over others, and found their mentors supportive in helping them incorporate the skills into their daily lives. Youth reported they had continued their mindfulness-based practice outside Atawhai and were regularly sharing the skills within their homes, families and communities including their schools. These findings suggest the Atawhai programme has a profound and significant positive effect on the wellbeing of the young people it serves.

year: 2020

title: Paremias xeocosmolóxicas de predición do tempo en galego e maorí (Geocosmologic paroemias of weather prediction in Galician and Maori)

authors: Lopez-Fernandez, Laura

abstract: This comparative study collects phraseological units -dictons- (Rodegem 1984 e Sevilla Muñoz 1988; 1992) related to the semantic field of weather forecast from two cultures, which have not been in contact, and which are located in the antipodes of the planet: Galician and Maori. The methodology used utilizes a diachronic analysis (although not diastratic), of geocosmological proverbs, that can be or not in use nowadays, which include dictons about atmospheric phenomena, observation of the stars and star lore, and weather forecast through observation of animals, especially birds. The dictons collected in Maori do not come from informants but from the few books and digital sources available at the moment and this represents only a fragment of their traditional oral culture, thought and legacy of the different iwis. The collected dictons in Galician have been collected from a variety of digital corpus and resources.

text: Paremias xeocosmolóxicas de predición do tempo en galego e maorí (Geocosmologic paroemias of weather prediction in Galician and Maori) This comparative study collects phraseological units -dictons- (Rodegem 1984 e Sevilla Muñoz 1988; 1992) related to the semantic field of weather forecast from two cultures, which have not been in contact, and which are located in the antipodes of the planet: Galician and Maori. The methodology used utilizes a diachronic analysis (although not diastratic), of geocosmological proverbs, that can be or not in use nowadays, which include dictons about atmospheric phenomena, observation of the stars and star lore, and weather forecast through observation of animals, especially birds. The dictons collected in Maori do not come from informants but from the few books and digital sources available at the moment and this represents only a fragment of their traditional oral culture, thought and legacy of the different iwis. The collected dictons in Galician have been collected from a variety of digital corpus and resources.

year: 2015

title: Social interaction affects acquisition of lithium chloride-induced conditioned taste aversion: identification of underlying changes in neuronal activation in key forebrain areas

authors: Brunton, Chloe

subjects: aversion

abstract: A conditioned taste aversion (CTA) develops when exposure to a novel tastant is followed by sickness/malaise. Recently, it has been shown that a CTA can be reduced if the animal is placed in a social environment, i.e., in the presence of a conspecific, during the CTA acquisition phase. The current project was aimed to expand on our understanding of this phenomenon by (a) identifying the magnitude of an aversive response to a saccharin solution induced by lithium chloride (LiCl), a known emetic agent, in mice maintained in the social versus non-social setting; and (b) defining differences in LiCl-induced neuronal activation in the key CTA-related forebrain areas of animals in the social and non-social scenario. In mice lacking social stimulation, LiCl at a dose of 1 mEq induced a mild CTA to saccharin and the 6-mEq dose produced a profound aversive response. On the other hand, 6 mEq was the lowest effective dose in mice kept in the social setting. Immunohistochemical analysis of a neuronal activity marker, c-Fos, showed that alteration of activity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) and central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA) is associated with the observed changes. In LiCl-injected mice subjected to social stimulation, also the percentage of Fos-positive oxytocin (OT), but not vasopressin neurons in the PVN was higher than in LiCl-treated single-housed mice. These results are discussed in context of the effects that sociality has on the magnitude of responses to adverse associative stimuli and an involvement of specific elements of brain circuitry in mediating these effects.

text: Social interaction affects acquisition of lithium chloride-induced conditioned taste aversion: identification of underlying changes in neuronal activation in key forebrain areas A conditioned taste aversion (CTA) develops when exposure to a novel tastant is followed by sickness/malaise. Recently, it has been shown that a CTA can be reduced if the animal is placed in a social environment, i.e., in the presence of a conspecific, during the CTA acquisition phase. The current project was aimed to expand on our understanding of this phenomenon by (a) identifying the magnitude of an aversive response to a saccharin solution induced by lithium chloride (LiCl), a known emetic agent, in mice maintained in the social versus non-social setting; and (b) defining differences in LiCl-induced neuronal activation in the key CTA-related forebrain areas of animals in the social and non-social scenario. In mice lacking social stimulation, LiCl at a dose of 1 mEq induced a mild CTA to saccharin and the 6-mEq dose produced a profound aversive response. On the other hand, 6 mEq was the lowest effective dose in mice kept in the social setting. Immunohistochemical analysis of a neuronal activity marker, c-Fos, showed that alteration of activity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) and central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA) is associated with the observed changes. In LiCl-injected mice subjected to social stimulation, also the percentage of Fos-positive oxytocin (OT), but not vasopressin neurons in the PVN was higher than in LiCl-treated single-housed mice. These results are discussed in context of the effects that sociality has on the magnitude of responses to adverse associative stimuli and an involvement of specific elements of brain circuitry in mediating these effects.

year: 2016