EurekAlert! News by Subject: Social & Behavior - News by Subject: Social & Behavior

Social & Behavior

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Jun-2025 04:10 ET (30-Jun-2025 08:10 GMT/UTC)

Your stroke risk might be higher if your parents divorced during your childhood

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

People whose parents divorced during their childhood may be at a greater risk of stroke later in life, according to a new study published January 22, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Esme Fuller-Thomson of University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS One

Life satisfaction measurement tool provides robust information across nations, genders, ages, languages

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Data on almost 57,000 people from 65 countries suggests that the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)—a widely used research tool—generally holds up well when applied across diverse groups of people, underscoring its potential value in research and policymaking. Viren Swami of Anglia Ruskin University, U.K., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 22, 2025.

Journal: PLOS One

Researchers develop biomarker algorithm for noninvasive detection of Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By studying biomarkers known to be involved in gastrointestinal cancers, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a biomarker algorithm that, when combined with a noninvasive method to collect esophageal cells for study, could give clinicians insight into which patients have esophageal cancer or precancerous conditions such as Barrett’s esophagus (BE) or high-grade dysplasia.

Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, Peter Nicholl and Stuart Israelson

Fighting experience plays key role in brain chemical’s control of male aggression

NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Like humans, mice will compete over territory and mates, and show increased confidence in their fighting skills the more they win. At first, a brain chemical called dopamine is essential for young males to master this behavior. But as they gain experience, the chemical grows less important in promoting aggression, a new study shows.

Journal: Nature
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, Vulnerable Brain Project

Black kids and families are forced to overcome marked disparities in early care and education settings

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Early care and education (ECE) programs were created to support the social, emotional and academic development of young children before they enter kindergarten. Yet, there are marked disparities and inequities in how Black children and their families are perceived and treated in ECE, according to a review article published in a special issue on Racism in the Early Years in Early Childhood Research Quarterly journal from Courtney Zulauf-McCurdy, PhD (Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago), Olivia R. Nazaire (Loyola University Chicago), Tunette Powell, PhD (Arizona State University) and Iheoma Iruka, PhD (University of North Carolina).

Journal: Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Study: Civil organizing persisted during Syrian civil war

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Civil organizing persisted during Syria’s civil war but also shifted to “translocal organizations” operating in rebel-held territory inside Syria and in neighboring countries, according to research co-written by Rana B. Khoury, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies comparative and international politics, with a focus on the Middle East.

Journal: Perspectives on Politics

New study finds social programs could reduce the spread of HIV by 29%

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMHERST, Mass. — Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have quantified the impacts of a constellation of social factors on the spread of HIV. Their study, published in Health Care Management Science, found that a hypothetical 100% effective intervention addressing barriers to HIV treatment and care from depression, homelessness, individual and neighborhood poverty, education disparities, lack of insurance and unemployment could reduce the national HIV incidence by 29% over 10 years. The mathematical model, a novel integration of machine learning, probability theory and simulation, is positioned to be an important tool for decision-makers to optimize social programs and will have applications for other diseases.

Journal: Health Care Management Science
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation