Joyann Callender

University Of Toronto and University of Sao Paulo establish strong partnership

sgupta — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:40:36 +0000

University Of Toronto and University of Sao Paulo establish strong partnership sgupta Mon, 05/14/2012 - 09:40

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University of Sao Paulo main campus (Photo by Gaf.arq/Wikimedia)

Joyann Callender

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University presidents sign agreements for new collaborations

Faculty and students at the ��Ƶ (U of T) and the University of São Paulo (USP) will benefit from more research collaborations and student exchanges as a result of agreements signed by U of T President David Naylor and USP President João Grandino Rodas.

“These agreements are an opportunity to establish strong ties with USP, one of the best post-secondary institutions in the world,” says President Naylor. “This partnership also gives us an opportunity to promote the excellent academic and cultural opportunities the ��Ƶ has to offer.”

“Our University has been concentrating all of our efforts to make academic activities more international. USP’s international vocation stems from its foundation. These agreements no doubt represent an important step forward, especially with such an important higher education institution as the ��Ƶ,” says USP President João Grandino Rodas.

The two presidents signed three distinct agreements during a visit to USP by President Naylor. The first is a general memorandum of understanding (MOU) that commits the two universities to collaborating on research projects, applications for research funding from relevant agencies, faculty exchanges, and the co-hosting of lectures, meetings, seminars, symposia and conferences.

The second MOU is a student exchange agreement, while the third allows for mutual academic collaboration and research in the areas of neuroscience, oncology, global cities, international relations, and includes the exchange of faculty/researchers and graduate students. Each year, up to four projects will be selected through a joint call for proposals issued jointly by the institutions. The aim is to have joint-conferences in these areas, starting with neuroscience in 2012 at USP and oncology in 2013 at UofT.

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Childhood abuse increases risk of suicidal thoughts among adults

sgupta — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:17:22 +0000

Childhood abuse increases risk of suicidal thoughts among adults sgupta Tue, 04/24/2012 - 05:17

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Roughly one-third of adults who were physically abused as children seriously consider suicide, study finds (Bigstock photo)

Joyann Callender

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Adults who were physically abused during childhood are more likely than their non-abused peers to have suicidal thoughts, according to a new study from ��Ƶ researchers.

The study, published online this month in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, found that approximately one-third of adults who were physically abused in childhood had seriously considered taking their own life. These rates were five times higher than adults who were not physically abused in childhood. The findings suggest that children exposed to physical abuse may be at greater risk for suicidal behaviours in adulthood.

“This research provides important new knowledge about the enduring effects of abuse in childhood,” said lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Chair at ��Ƶ’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Department of Family and Community Medicine. “The findings have important clinical implications for healthcare providers, suggesting the need to screen for suicidal ideation among adults who have experienced childhood physical abuse and highlighting the importance of providing preventive treatment to childhood abuse survivors.”

Investigators examined gender specific differences among a sample of 6,642 adults, of whom 7.7 per cent reported that they had been physically abused before the age of 18. They found that a strong association between childhood physical abuse and subsequent suicidal behaviours remained even after taking into account other known risk factors, such as adverse childhood conditions, health behaviours and psycho-social stressors.

“This study is unique in that it stratified all the analyses by gender,” Fuller-Thomson said. “This method revealed some gender-based variation in the degree to which controlling for different groups of factors attenuated the abuse–suicidal ideation relation.”

For example, adjusting for adverse childhood conditions reduced the association between abuse and suicidal thoughts to a greater extent for men than for women, while the reverse was true when controlling for psychosocial stressors and chronic illnesses. These findings underline the importance of using gender-specific analysis, Fuller-Thomson said.

The finding that the association between childhood physical abuse and suicidal ideation was strong and significant even when controlling for current mood and anxiety disorders and 12-month depression was surprising, given the close relationship between mental health and suicidality, said Fuller-Thomson.

Previous studies have theorized that habituation to high levels of pain and fear through childhood abuse may contribute to adults’ ability to inflict injury or harm on themselves. Recent research suggests suicide may have developmental origins relating to abuse – that physical or sexual abuse may lead to changes in the stress response in the brain which increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

“One important avenue for future research is to investigate the bio-psycho-social mechanisms through which childhood physical abuse may translate into suicidal behaviors,” said co-author Tobi Baker, a former graduate student at the ��Ƶ.

To read the complete study visit: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1943-278X.2012.00089.x/full

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U of T student named Ontario Rhodes Scholar

sgupta — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:58:52 +0000

U of T student named Ontario Rhodes Scholar sgupta Mon, 12/12/2011 - 03:58

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Trinity College's Steven Wang has been selected for a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. (Photo courtesy of Steven Wang)

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Trinity's Wang off to study at Oxford

Steven Wang, a graduate of Trinity College at the ��Ƶ, has been named an Ontario Rhodes Scholar for 2012. Wang is one of 11 Canadians to earn one of the world’s most celebrated academic honours.

Established in 1903, the prestigious and highly competitive scholarship comes with a stipend and tuition expenses to pursue a degree or degrees at the University of Oxford.

Wang, who majored in international relations, dedicates the honour to his parents who overcame many barriers when they moved to Canada from China.

“Winning the Rhodes scholarship is in many ways a reflection of what is best about Canada – the idea that a boy from a humble background and foreign land can achieve as much academic success as someone with certain privileges and ties,” said Wang, 22, who immigrated to Canada at the age of nine.

Rhodes scholars must be well-rounded students involved in extracurricular activities and volunteer work. At 17, Wang founded Community Action by Youth, a grassroots initiative dedicated to empowering youth to address issues of poverty and climate change. He also helped start a development group in Kenya to co-ordinate projects in micro-finance, healthcare and education. Wang is currently working on a conflict resolution and global citizenship project in Toronto at the Mosaic Institute.

Wang plans on pursuing his Masters in International Relations. “I want to explore how we can ensure cooperation among competing powers and that international laws can be legitimate arbiters of conflict,” he says.

After Oxford, Wang intends to study international law and pursue a career in international politics.

“I want to help address the systemic questions facing our world. I believe real change requires reform in international institutions so they are more enforceable, representative, and able to meet the mutual challenges we face together in this century.”

The ��Ƶ has produced numerous Rhodes Scholars over the years, including President David Naylor and Liberal MP Bob Rae.

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Harsh discipline fosters dishonesty in young children

sgupta — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:38:56 +0000

Harsh discipline fosters dishonesty in young children sgupta Mon, 10/24/2011 - 08:38

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Young children who are disciplined harshly at school for lying are more likely to do so again to conceal misbehaviour, says new U of T research. (Bigstock Photo)

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Study compares lie-telling behaviour in harshly punitive, mildly punitive environments

Young children exposed to a harshly punitive school environment are more inclined to lie to conceal their misbehaviour than are children from non-punitive schools, a study of three- and four-year-old West African children suggests.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, also indicates that children in a punitive environment are able to tell more convincing lies than those in a non-punitive environment.

The research, by Professor Victoria Talwar of McGill University and Professor Kang Lee of the ��Ƶ, examined deceptive behaviours in two groups of children living in the same neighbourhood. One group was enrolled in a private school that used a traditional authoritarian discipline model, in which beating with a stick, slapping of the head, and pinching were administered publicly and routinely for offenses ranging from forgetting a pencil to being disruptive in class. In the other school, also private, children were disciplined with time-outs or scolding and, for more serious offenses, were taken to the principal’s office for further reprimand.

The study involved an experiment comparing the behaviour of children in the two schools. Children were seen individually and asked to play a guessing game by an experimenter who was born and raised locally. The children were told not to peek at a toy when left alone in a room. Most children in both schools couldn’t resist the temptation, and peeked at the toy. When the experimenter asked if they had peeked, nearly all the peekers from the punitive school lied – compared with just over half of those from the non-punitive school.

What’s more, after the initial lie, lie-tellers from the punitive school were better able to maintain their deception when answering follow-up questions about the identity of the toy – by deliberately giving an incorrect answer, for example, or by feigning ignorance, rather than blurting out the name of the toy.

The findings suggest that “a punitive environment not only fosters increased dishonesty but also children’s abilities to lie to conceal their transgressions,” Talwar and Lee concluded.

In fact, the three- and four-year-old lie-tellers in the punitive school were as advanced in their ability to tell convincing lies as six- to seven-year-old lie-tellers in existing studies. “This finding is surprising,” the authors note, as “existing studies have consistently found that children from punitive environments tend to suffer general delays in cognitive development.”

“One possibility is that the harsh punitive environment heightens children’s motivation to come up with any strategies that will help them survive in that environment,” Lee said. “Lying seems particularly adaptive for the situation.

“Our study, I think, may serve as a cautionary tale for parents who sometimes would use the harshest means of punishment when they catch their children lying. It is clear that corporal punishment not only does not reduce children’s tendency to lie, but actually improves their lying skills.”

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