Trajectories of early adolescents' perceptions of school motivation and effort during the pandemic in Perú: A four time point longitudinal observational study.

In this longitudinal, observational study, following 883 adolescents (aged 11-15 years, grades 6th - 8th) we tracked changes in perceived school motivation and effort across four time points during the two years of remote education in Perú as a consequence of COVID-19 (retrospective reports before the pandemic, May 2020, July 2021, and November 2021). Compared to before the pandemic, levels of perceived school motivation and effort dropped sharply in May 2020 and continued to decrease across 2 years. Perceived school motivation was positively associated with perceived school effort at almost all time points. Furthermore, students with lower levels of perceived school motivation had a steeper decline in perceived school effort. In a subsample of 380 students in 8th grade, perceived school effort in July 2021 predicted objective math performance in November 2021. Our findings suggest that COVID-19 has further compounded decreases in subjective and objective indices of school engagement and performance that are typically observed in early adolescence. Our results from a large sample of low- to middle-class Peruvian adolescents highlight the experiences of youth in a country that had particularly long school closures, and that is under-represented in the literature.

Neural Correlates of Self-Construal Priming in the Ultimatum Game.

Research from cultural and social psychology has identified a central role of self-construal, or the way one views themselves in relation to others, in social cognition. Accordingly, it is plausible that self-construal plays an instrumental role in important aspects of decision-making relating to fairness considerations. Prior research has shown that priming methodology is a useful tool to experimentally isolate the effect of self-construal on social decision-making processes. In the current study we investigated the neural effects of self-construal priming on fairness considerations, using an Ultimatum Game setup (N = 97). Based on previous findings, we predicted an interaction between the self-construal prime and gender on Ultimatum Game behavior; males primed with interdependence would reject the offer relatively more compared to independence, and vice versa for females. As previous neuro-imaging research has established an instrumental role of the anterior insula (AI) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in the rejection of unfair offers, we expected higher rejection rates to be mirrored by increased activity in these regions. However, the analyses did not confirm these predictions. As further inspection of the data revealed a habituation effect, we performed a follow-up analysis on the first block (N = 59). This subsequent analysis revealed that priming interdependence resulted in reduced AI activity compared to priming independence, although no behavioral differences were observed. The difference was theorized to result from motivations as conflict avoidance and harmony maintenance, commonly associated with interdependence. Furthermore, the analysis revealed greater vmPFC activity for females compared to males for rejected offers, although this effect was not robust when controlled for trait self-construal. These follow-up analyses suggest that self-construal priming influences insula activity, as well as implicating an underlying role of trait self-construal in observed gender differences in vmPFC activity relating to fairness considerations.

Long-term viral suppression and immune recovery during first-line antiretroviral therapy: a study of an HIV-infected adult cohort in Hanoi, Vietnam.

INTRODUCTION: Achieving viral suppression is key in the global strategy to end the HIV epidemic. However, the levels of viral suppression have yet to be described in many resource-limited settings. METHODS: We investigated the time to virologic failure (VF; defined as a viral load of ≥1000 copies/ml) and changes in CD4 counts since starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in a cohort of HIV-infected adults in Hanoi, Vietnam. Factors related to the time to VF and impaired early immune recovery (defined as not attaining an increase in 100 cells/mm3 in CD4 counts at 24 months) were further analysed. RESULTS: From 1806 participants, 225 were identified as having VF at a median of 50 months of first-line ART. The viral suppression rate at 12 months was 95.5% and survival without VF was maintained above 90% until 42 months. An increase in CD4 counts from the baseline was greater in groups with lower baseline CD4 counts. A younger age (multivariate hazard ratio (HR) 0.75, vs. <30), hepatitis C (HCV)-antibody positivity (HR 1.43), and stavudine (d4T)-containing regimens (HR 1.4, vs. zidovudine (AZT)) were associated with earlier VF. Factors associated with impaired early immune recovery included the male sex (odds ratio (OR) 1.78), HCV-antibody positivity (OR 1.72), d4T-based regimens (OR 0.51, vs. AZT), and nevirapine-based regimens (OR 0.53, vs. efavirenz) after controlling for baseline CD4 counts. CONCLUSION: Durable high-rate viral suppression was observed in the cohort of patients on first-line ART in Vietnam. Our results highlight the need to increase adherence support among injection drug users and HCV co-infected patients.

Do individualism and collectivism on three levels (country, individual, and situation) influence theory-of-mind efficiency? A cross-country study.

This study investigated whether individualism and collectivism (IC) at country, individual, and situational level influence how quickly and accurately people can infer mental states (i.e. theory of mind, or ToM), indexed by accuracy and reaction time in a ToM task. We hypothesized that collectivism (having an interdependent self and valuing group concerns), compared to individualism (having an independent self and valuing personal concerns), is associated with greater accuracy and speed in recognizing and understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. Students (N = 207) from individualism-representative (the Netherlands) and collectivism-representative (Vietnam) countries (Country IC) answered an individualism-collectivism questionnaire (Individual IC) and were randomly assigned to an individualism-primed, collectivism-primed, or no-prime task (Situational IC) before performing a ToM task. The data showed vast differences between the Dutch and Vietnamese groups that might not be attributable to experimental manipulation. Therefore, we analyzed the data for the groups separately and found that Individual IC did not predict ToM accuracy or reaction time performance. Regarding Situational IC, when primed with individualism, the accuracy performance of Vietnamese participants in affective ToM trials decreased compared to when primed with collectivism and when no prime was used. However, an interesting pattern emerged: Dutch participants were least accurate in affective ToM trials, while Vietnamese participants were quickest in affective ToM trials. Our research also highlights a dilemma faced by cross-cultural researchers who use hard-to-reach populations but face the challenge of disentangling experimental effects from biases that might emerge due to an interaction between cultural differences and experimental settings. We propose suggestions for overcoming such challenges.

High proportion of HIV serodiscordance among HIV-affected married couples in northern Vietnam.

INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the state of HIV transmission among married couples in Vietnam. This study aims to clarify HIV serostatus in this group and elucidate risk factors for intra-marital HIV transmission. METHODS: In 2012, we enrolled a group of HIV-positive married men registered at the HIV outpatient clinic of a referral hospital in northern Vietnam, along with their wives. Sociodemographic, behavioural and clinical data were collected from men and wives. HIV serodiscordant couples were followed until March 2014 to determine seroconversion rate. A phylogenetic analysis was performed based on env V3 sequence to detail cluster formation among men. RESULTS: Of the 163 HIV-positive men enrolled in the study, 101 (62.0%) had wives testing HIV-negative. Half of men reported injecting drug use (IDU) as a likely transmission route. Couples reported a high incidence of unprotected sexual intercourse prior to diagnosis; the median (inter quartile range) was 4 (4-8) times per month. Only 17 couples (10.4%) reported using condoms during at least half these instances. Multivariable analysis revealed IDU history among men was independently associated with HIV-negative wives (adjusted OR 0.31; 95% CI 0.10-0.95, p=0.041). Phylogenetic analysis of 80 samples indicated CRF01_AE. Of these, 69 (86.3%) clustered with IDU-associated viruses from Vietnam. No HIV seroconversion was identified during a follow-up of 61 serodiscordant couples, with 126.5 person-years of observation during which HIV-infected men were on antiretroviral drug therapy (ART). CONCLUSION: High HIV serodiscordance was observed among HIV-affected married couples in northern Vietnam. A large number of at-risk wives therefore remain HIV-negative and can be protected with measures including proper use of ART if couples are made aware of the serodiscordance through screening.