Research
Adapting to living abroad
Thousands of students are to be surveyed in a far-reaching research
project studying how people adapt to living abroad.
Dr Nicolas Geeraert, from the Department of Psychology, hopes to survey
more than 4,000 young people who spend a year studying abroad to establish
how they adapt and develop greater understanding of other cultures.
Uniquely,
the three-and-a-half-year project, funded by the Economic and Social
Research Council, will track people travelling to and from all five
continents. This will enable Dr Geeraert and his team to research a wide
variety of cultural influences, such as the different impacts on people
travelling from wealthy to poorer countries and vice versa.
Dr Geeraert explained: 'More than two million students study abroad
every year, and hundreds of millions more people cross borders for work or
tourism. If we can analyse what factors enable people to adapt better to
different cultures, it can help businesses, universities and individuals,
as well as helping to improve global understanding and citizenship.'
Factors the study will track include whether people go through similar
phases as they adapt to a new environment and culture, how their attitude
and behaviour towards different cultures changes, and how their
understanding and perception of cultures and values changes.
Students will be questioned before, during and after their time abroad,
the majority in their native tongue. A control group drawn from their
non-travelling peers will also be surveyed. A pilot survey is due to be
launched early in 2009, with the main data collection period starting in
the autumn.
[top of page]
Research questions 'no booze' rule for pregnant
women
Women who drink a small amount of alcohol while pregnant do not
increase their child's risk of behavioural problems according to research
co-authored by Professor Amanda Sacker from the Institute for Social and
Economic Research (ISER).
Professor Sacker teamed up with leading epidemiologist Dr Yvonne Kelly
at from University College London to ask mothers about how much alcohol
they had drunk during pregnancy when their babies were nine months old.
While 63 per cent of the mothers had abstained from alcohol completely
during pregnancy, 29 per cent had been light drinkers, 6 per cent moderate
and 2 per cent heavy.
The researchers then went back when the children were three to ask
about their behaviour and understanding. The study found boys born to
light drinkers were 40 per cent less likely to have conduct problems and
30 per cent less likely to be hyperactive than those whose mothers had
abstained. They also scored more highly on vocabulary tests and on
identifying colours, shapes, letters and numbers.
Girls born to light drinkers were 30 per cent less likely to have
emotional problems than those born to abstainers, although the researchers
say this could be due to family and social backgrounds. The study of
12,500 three-year-olds even found a lower risk of some problems in
children of such drinkers.
Professor Sacker commented: 'The health benefits to adults of low level
alcohol consumption are well known. However, it is too soon to say whether
the same biological effects can cross the placental barrier to benefit
babies of mothers who drink a little. An alternative explanation is that
light drinking mothers have other advantages that we don't know about or
that they are more relaxed in general and this contributes to better
behavioural and cognitive outcomes in their children.'
Government advice says pregnant women, or those trying to conceive,
should avoid drinking alcohol. But if they do choose to drink, they should
drink no more than one or two units of alcohol once or twice a week and
should not get drunk.
[top of page]
Also in the printed December edition of Wyvern:
- DIY microscope transforms University research
- House price shocks and breaking up
- 'Blind' patient sees colour
- A fairer rate for the food on your plate
