| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Griswold, Max G., et al.
(author)
-
Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016
- 2018
-
In: The Lancet. - : Elsevier. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 392:10152, s. 1015-1035
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for death and disability, but its overall association with health remains complex given the possible protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption on some conditions. With our comprehensive approach to health accounting within the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, we generated improved estimates of alcohol use and alcohol-attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 195 locations from 1990 to 2016, for both sexes and for 5-year age groups between the ages of 15 years and 95 years and older.Methods: Using 694 data sources of individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use, we produced estimates of the prevalence of current drinking, abstention, the distribution of alcohol consumption among current drinkers in standard drinks daily (defined as 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol), and alcohol-attributable deaths and DALYs. We made several methodological improvements compared with previous estimates: first, we adjusted alcohol sales estimates to take into account tourist and unrecorded consumption; second, we did a new meta-analysis of relative risks for 23 health outcomes associated with alcohol use; and third, we developed a new method to quantify the level of alcohol consumption that minimises the overall risk to individual health.Findings: Globally, alcohol use was the seventh leading risk factor for both deaths and DALYs in 2016, accounting for 2.2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1.5-3.0) of age-standardised female deaths and 6.8% (5.8-8.0) of age-standardised male deaths. Among the population aged 15-49 years, alcohol use was the leading risk factor globally in 2016, with 3.8% (95% UI 3.2-4-3) of female deaths and 12.2% (10.8-13-6) of male deaths attributable to alcohol use. For the population aged 15-49 years, female attributable DALYs were 2.3% (95% UI 2.0-2.6) and male attributable DALYs were 8.9% (7.8-9.9). The three leading causes of attributable deaths in this age group were tuberculosis (1.4% [95% UI 1. 0-1. 7] of total deaths), road injuries (1.2% [0.7-1.9]), and self-harm (1.1% [0.6-1.5]). For populations aged 50 years and older, cancers accounted for a large proportion of total alcohol-attributable deaths in 2016, constituting 27.1% (95% UI 21.2-33.3) of total alcohol-attributable female deaths and 18.9% (15.3-22.6) of male deaths. The level of alcohol consumption that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero (95% UI 0.0-0.8) standard drinks per week.Interpretation: Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss. We found that the risk of all-cause mortality, and of cancers specifically, rises with increasing levels of consumption, and the level of consumption that minimises health loss is zero. These results suggest that alcohol control policies might need to be revised worldwide, refocusing on efforts to lower overall population-level consumption.
|
|
| 3. |
- Jackson, Carolyn, 1970-, et al.
(author)
-
"Smart students get perfect scores in tests without studying much" : Why is an effortless achiever identity attractive, and for whom is it possible?
- 2015
-
In: Research Papers in Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0267-1522 .- 1470-1146. ; 30:4, s. 393-410
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Discourses about the value of effort and hard work are prevalent and powerful inmany western societies and educational contexts. Yet, paradoxically, in these samecontexts effortless achievement is often lauded, and in certain discourses is heraldedas the pinnacle of success and a sign of genius. In this paper we interrogatediscourses about effort and especially ‘effortlessness’ in Swedish and Englisheducational contexts. Informed, in particular, by interview data generated in uppersecondary schools in Sweden and secondary schools in England, we address thequestions: why is effortless achievement attractive, and for whom is it possible tobe discursively positioned as an effortless achiever? We argue that the subjectposition of ‘effortless achiever’ is not available to all categories of studentsequally, and for some it would be almost impossible to attain; the intersections ofgender, social class, ethnicity and institutional setting are influential. We end byconsidering the problematic implications of effortless achievement discourses.
|
|
| 4. |
- Kalat, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Coping with higher educational expectations : Gender, class and challenges in prestigious contexts
- 2017
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research topic/Aim: In this paper we explore the challenges of coping with high-status and competitive HE programmes in elite contexts where top achievements are generally taken for granted. We consider how different learning and social contexts are related to students’ experiences of stress, and what kinds of coping strategies are available and used by different groups of students (e.g. class and gender).Theoretical frameworks: The analysis is informed by sociological stress research (e.g. Pearlin 1989), studies on gender, class and higher education (e.g. Reay et al. 2009) and academic self-concept (e.g. Marsh & Parker, 1984; Eccles 2009). Methodology/research design: We draw upon data from a large, ongoing, three-year (2015-2018), cross-national (Sweden and England) comparative interview project that investigates how constructions of masculinities and student identities inform strategies for coping with risks of academic failure and/or striving for success. The project focuses on three elite HE programmes: Medicine, Law and Engineering. Data are being generated by focus group interviews and individual interviews with students and staff. The interviews explored: 1) the learning/teaching contexts and cultures; 2) patterns of academic achievement and advice-seeking; 3) assessments and social comparisons; 4) stress and self-worth protecting strategies; 5) gender formations and men’s identities. Data were analyzed in Atlas.ti using a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore how male students’ identities and strategies are underpinned by the individual, interactional and institutional orders in the different contexts.Expected conclusions/Findings: Our data suggest that students knew that the programmes would be demanding and many students reporting choosing them because they wanted to be challenged academically. However, most had not anticipated the challenges they would face in terms of their academic identities. The transition to the new environment meant that most students had to negotiate a change from being a top student to being an ‘average’ or ‘low’ achiever, and many struggled with trying to find a sustainable work/rest balance. Students used a multitude of strategies which we explore in this paper; e.g. increased academic effort and withdrawal from other activities; displaying calmness and engagement in the programme communities; concealing poor test results; and also, seeking academic and emotional support from peers. While gendered discourses of ‘effortless achievement’ and detachment from studies were regarded as less prominent than in schooling, hiding stress and effort were described as especially common for men and associated with masculinity.Relevance for Nordic Educational Research: By examining undergraduate stress and well-being in prestigious contexts, we will begin to shed more light on (1) how privilege are maintained, reinforced, and might be challenged, and, also, (2) the pressures and demands on many middle-class young people and the effects on their wellbeing.
|
|
| 5. |
- Kalat, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
There’s no balance there’s only chaos’ : Men students’ experiences and expressions of negative emotions in prestigious degree programmes
- 2017
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores men students’ experiences and expressions of negative affect, especially shame and fear. We ask how these are informed by gender, social class and prestigious higher education contexts. Context and social categories inform affect-norms, which in turn inform understandings of, for example, which forms of affect are legitimate to experience and express. The importance of considering affective dimensions in education has been demonstrated beyond their effects on well-being. Previous research implies, for example, that joy and pride, as well as shame, fear of failure and test-anxiety, have implications for students’ motivation, effort and choice of educational trajectories. The paper draws on data from an ongoing qualitative, large-scale interview study about masculinity and men students in England and Sweden (2015-2018). Semi-structured interviews (approx. 1-1.5 hours) were conducted with students and staff in Law, Medicine and Physics engineering, i.e. prestigious and stressful programmes that recruit primarily top-achieving, middle-class young people. The findings suggest that experiencing (overwhelming) pressure and some degree of exam-anxiety were expected and normalized in these milieus. This applied to both men and women, although men overall were seen as more likely than women to conceal stress and anxiety. Furthermore, expectations relating to degree programme, as well as gender, were important in shaping affect-norms. For example, whereas law and engineering students were expected to conceal ‘weaknesses’, medical students had considerably more leeway to be open about difficulties, and peers were expected to respond sympathetically. Of course, men students within programmes do not constitute a homogeneous group, so we also investigate differences at an individual level about how pressures were felt and expressed.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Nyström, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Coping with Higher Education Expectations : Wellbeing and Prestige-related Stress in Medicine and Law
- 2018. - 1
-
In: Social justice in times of crisis and hope. - New York : Peter Lang Publishing Group. - 9781433163692 ; , s. 27-43
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this chapter we draw on interviews with students and staff on law and medicine programmes in two high-status universities in Sweden and England to explore (di)stress, crisis and wellbeing on these programmes. Thus, our focus is on predominantly, although not exclusively, middle- and upper-class students. There has been a tendency in educational research, and especially research that concentrates on social justice, to focus on disadvantaged groups while their privileged counterparts—who are often cast as successful and “having it all”—are seldom subject to scrutiny (Gaztambide-Fernández & Howard, 2010). While we acknowledge the tremendous importance of research on disadvantaged groups, there are strong arguments for also rendering visible the experiences of privileged, middle- and upper-class students. As Walkerdine, Lucey, and Melody (2001) argue, if we wish to explore the ways in which systems of stratification are produced, reproduced and transformed we need to analyse the production of privilege as well as the production of disadvantage. Furthermore, although middle-class students typically have many privileges relative to their working-class counterparts, it is unreasonable to assume that educational achievement is simply a celebratory success story for middle-class young people (Allan, 2010). For example, Walkerdine et al. in the UK (2001) and Holmqvist (2017) in Sweden vividly portray the anxiety, stress and profound fears of failure experienced by privileged young people who were growing up in a culture where anything less than excellence was regarded as failure. As Francis and Mills (2012) argue, schools can be damaging organisations for pupils and teachers and the implications for social justice are considerable. In this chapter, we focus on H.E. rather than schools to explore the production of stress and anxiety in two high-status programmes, and especially the ways in which stress is heightened by the prestige of the programmes: what we have termed “prestige-related stress.” We focus in particular on the ways in which stress and hard work were normalised on the programmes, how students responded, and the impacts on their wellbeing. We also explore the ways in which social comparisons and changing frames of reference impact student identities and feelings of worth. We begin by briefly outlining our research methods and contexts.
|
|
| 8. |
- Nyström, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Coping with higher educational expectations : Gender, class and unequal challenges in prestigious context
- 2016
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There has been a tendency in social science research to focus on disadvantaged groups, while their privileged counterparts - who are often cast as successful and ‘having it all’ - are seldom subject to scrutiny. Recently, however, there have been calls to focus more attention on elite groups and contexts for two main reasons. First, to shed more light on how elite cultures and spaces are maintained and reinforced, and also might be challenged. Second, because there is increasing evidence that the pressures and demands on many middle-class young people are having substantial detrimental effects on their wellbeing. Such pressures are seen to be linked to, among other things: heightening expectations about what constitutes educational and financial ‘success’; shifting economic climates and related insecurities; and the increasing importance of academic credentials.In this paper we explore the challenges of coping with high-status and competitive undergraduate programmes in elite contexts where top-achievements are generally taken for granted. We consider how different learning and social contexts are related to students’ experiences of stress, and what kinds of coping strategies are available and used by different groups of students. We discuss the extra challenges faced by disadvantaged students in these contexts, and also the implications for promoting social justice through education. We draw upon data from a large, ongoing, three-year (2015-2018), cross-national (Sweden and England) comparative interview project that investigates how constructions of masculinities and student identities inform strategies for coping with risks of academic failure and/or striving for success. The project focuses on three elite undergraduate programmes: Medicine, Law and Engineering. Data are being generated by observations, focus group interviews and individual interviews with students and staff.
|
|
| 9. |
- Nyström, Anne-Sofie, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Coping with higher educational expectations : Gender, class and unequal challenges in prestigious contexts
- 2017
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores men students’ experiences and expressions of negative affect, especially shame and fear. We ask how these are informed by gender, social class and prestigious higher education contexts. Context and social categories inform affect-norms, which in turn inform understandings of, for example, which kinds of affect are legitimate to experience and express. The importance of considering affective dimensions in education has been demonstrated beyond their effects on well-being; e.g. joy and pride, as well as shame, fear of failure and test-anxiety, have implications for students’ motivation, effort and choice of educational trajectories. The paper draws on data from an ongoing qualitative, large-scale study about masculinity and men students in England and Sweden (2015-2018). Semi-structured interviews (approx. 1-1.5 hours) were conducted with students and staff in Law, Medicine and Physics engineering, i.e. prestigious and stressful programmes that recruit primarily top-achieving, middle-class young people. This paper explore the challenges of coping with prestigious and competitive HE programmes. How do different learning and social contexts, gender and class, inform students’ experiences of stress and strategies manage these? The analysis is informed by sociological stress research and theories about self-worth and social identity. We draw upon data from a large, ongoing, three-year (2015-2018), cross-national (Sweden and England) comparative interview project that investigates student identities, masculinities and academic failure and success in Medicine, Law and Engineering physics. Data are being generated by focus group interviews and individual interviews with students and staff, and analyzed in Atlas.ti using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Our data suggest that these programmes, in part, attracted students because of being renowned as challenging. However, most had not anticipated the challenges in terms of their academic identities; many students had to negotiate a change from being a top student to being an ‘average’ or ‘low’ achiever, and many struggled with to find a sustainable work/rest balance. Students used a multitude of strategies which we explore in relation to gender and class; e.g. increased academic effort and withdrawal from other activities, displaying calmness and concealing poor test results, and, also, seeking academic and emotional support from peers. By examining undergraduate stress and well-being in prestigious contexts, we will begin to shed more light on (1) how privilege are maintained, reinforced, and might be challenged, and, also, (2) the pressures and demands on many middle-class young people and the effects on their wellbeing.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
