Think Big: A multinational collaboration to promote children's role as coresearchers in participatory research.

The field of participatory research with children developed largely thanks to shared learning between different cultures, places, and disciplines. However, grand narratives and power relationships in academia inherited from colonialism and imperialism can threaten to obstruct the transformative value of this approach. In this article, we present the case of Think Big, a multinational collaboration for participatory research with children that involved adult and child coresearchers from Australia, Chile, Colombia, and the United Kingdom. Our aim was to explore how this project helped build solidarities between adult researchers from different countries and disciplines. We applied a methodology of diffraction to explore the processes and outcomes of this collaboration and presented our insights using the metaphor of a tree to explain the roots (knowledges and frameworks), trunk (ongoing collaboration and communication between the teams from different countries), branches (local projects), and fruits (research outcomes) of our work. Based on our experience, we proposed that multinational collaborations for participatory research offer important opportunities for adult researchers to collaborate with children to generate more democratic knowledge about their lives and to generate more egalitarian relationships between adult researchers from different places and backgrounds. However, it is important to anticipate that multinational collaborations are more likely to be affected by social and political upheavals, and language barriers must be overcome to decentralize academia. Also, the organizations involved in these collaborations need to develop strategies that facilitate funding, ethics clearance, and international research agreements.

[Anxiety, depression and self-concept among morbid obese patients before and after bariatric surgery]. / Descripción de manifestaciones ansiosas, depresivas y autoconcepto en pacientes obesos mórbidos, sometidos a cirugía bariátrica.

BACKGROUND: There is conflicting evidence about the emotional impact of bariatric surgery among obese individuals. AIM: To evaluate anxiety, depression and self-concept, before and after bariatric surgery among patients with morbid obesity. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifteen males and 5 females aged 28 to 61 years with a mean body mass index of 42.6 ± 5 kg/m(2), were studied. Grid Technique (TR), Personal Self Evaluation Questionnaire (OQ-45.2) and Anxiety Sate-Trait Inventory (STAI) were applied before and six months after bariatric surgery. RESULTS: After surgery, the scores of self-esteem, well-being, flexibility, attraction, self-acceptance, confidence and guilt improved significantly. STAI and OQ-45.2 anxiety and depressive symptoms assessment were in the normal range before and after surgery. However, after surgery, there was a significant decrease in these sub scales in the OQ-45.2. No significant changes in anxiety measured using the STAI, were observed after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Six months after bariatric surgery, positive changes were found in self-concept, and overall well-being.

Descripción de manifestaciones ansiosas, depresivas y autoconcepto en pacientes obesos mórbidos, sometidos a cirugía bariátrica / Anxiety, depression and self-concept among morbid obese patients before and after bariatric surgery

Background: There is conflicting evidence about the emotional impact of bariatric surgery among obese individuals. Aim: To evaluate anxiety, depression and self-concept, before and after bariatric surgery among patients with morbid obesity. Material and Methods: Fifteen males and 5 females aged 28 to 61 years with a mean body mass index of 42.6 ± 5 kg/m², were studied. Grid Technique (TR), Personal Self Evaluation Questionnaire (OQ-45.2) and Anxiety Sate-Trait Inventory (STAI) were applied before and six months after bariatric surgery. Results: After surgery, the scores of self-esteem, well-being, flexibility, attraction, self-acceptance, confidence and guilt improved significantly. STAI and OQ-45.2 anxiety and depressive symptoms assessment were in the normal range before and after surgery. However, after surgery, there was a significant decrease in these sub scales in the OQ-45.2. No significant changes in anxiety measured using the STAI, were observed after surgery. Conclusions: Six months after bariatric surgery, positive changes were found in self-concept, and overall well-being.