The study examines the impacts of a project-based learning (PBL) methodology on the development of emotional skills involved in the learner’s individual and social well-being. This paper summarises the preliminary results of the case study in which the project ‘Opera as a Vehicle for Learning’ (LOVA) was implemented with a key stage 2 group in Mexico City. This project fostered the development of the students’ intra- and interpersonal skills, group decision-making, critical reasoning, active listening, oral and written expression and emotion sharing. Findings suggest that LOVA has proved to be a powerful methodological resource for the development of collaborative learning, emotional education and social interaction in groups. Findings also suggest that music learning can be used as a highly effective device for the development of social skills.

For African American emerging adult men, developmental challenges are evident in their escalating substance abuse and depressive symptoms; this is particularly true for men from low-resource communities. The present study tests a developmental model linking childhood adversity and contemporaneous contextual stressors to increases in emerging adults’ substance use and depressive symptoms, indirectly, via increases in defensive/hostile relational schemas and social developmental risk factors (e.g., risky peers and romantic partners, lack of involvement in school or work). We also advance exploratory hypotheses regarding DNA methylation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) as a moderator of the effects of stress on relational schemas. Hypotheses were tested with three waves of data from 505 rural African American men aged 19–25 years. Adverse childhood experiences predicted exposure to emerging adult contextual stressors. Contextual stressors forecast increases in defensive/hostile relational schemas, which increased social developmental risk factors. Social developmental risk factors proximally predicted increases in substance abuse and depressive symptoms. OXTR DNA methylation moderated the effects of contextual stressors on defensive/hostile relational schemas. Findings suggest that early exposures to stress carry forward to affect the development of social developmental risk factors in emerging adulthood, which place rural African American men at risk for increased substance abuse and depressive symptoms during the emerging adult years.

There has been considerable attention in recent years on the close linkages between business, ethics, and economic development and how businesses not only have responsibilities to their shareholders but also to wider society. The growing power and influence of emerging economies has resulted in increased scholarly interest in China on studying the domestic political commitments to corporate social responsibility strategies (CSR), and their potential contribution to promoting the country's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative and thereby achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article explores the factors that influence CSR strategies and performance and examines whether we are witnessing the emergence of a new form of social responsibility among Chinese businesses that prioritizes sustainable development. In order to better understand how CSR strategies in China are being potentially reshaped and realigned with the SDGs, we examined the CSR reports and practices of selected Chinese companies both before and after the adoption of the SDGs at the United Nations in 2015. By focusing on the CSR-SDG linkages in China, our study contributes to a better understanding of state advocacy aimed at influencing corporate behavior on sustainable development.

Seafood intake in pregnancy has been positively associated with childhood cognitive outcomes which could potentially relate to the high vitamin D content of oily fish. However, whether higher maternal vitamin D status (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)) in pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk of offspring suboptimal neurodevelopmental outcomes is unclear. A total of 7065 mother–child pairs were studied from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort who had data for both serum total 25(OH)D concentration in pregnancy and at least one measure of offspring neurodevelopment (pre-school development at 6–42 months; ‘Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire’ scores at 7 years; intelligence quotient (IQ) at 8 years; reading ability at 9 years). After adjustment for confounders, children of vitamin D-deficient mothers (<50·0 nmol/l) were more likely to have scores in the lowest quartile for gross-motor development at 30 months (OR 1·20; 95 % CI 1·03, 1·40), fine-motor development at 30 months (OR 1·23; 95 % CI 1·05, 1·44) and social development at 42 months (OR 1·20; 95 % CI 1·01, 1·41) than vitamin D-sufficient mothers (≥50·0 nmol/l). No associations were found with neurodevelopmental outcomes, including IQ, measured at older ages. However, our results suggest that deficient maternal vitamin D status in pregnancy may have adverse effects on some measures of motor and social development in children under 4 years. Prevention of vitamin D deficiency may be important for preventing suboptimal development in the first 4 years of life.

Although the legality of equity-based crowdfunding was determined from a judicial point of view in the “first crowdfunding financing case” in 2015, there is no formal law, regulation, or rule released to regulate the crowdfunding financing. From a micro-perspective, determining the nature and workings of equity-based crowdfunding are two preconditions for determining the legal framework for and supervision of equity-based crowdfunding. The “Open, Public, Small-sum” characteristics defined the nature of public offering to the equity-based crowdfunding; therefore, it should be distinguished from private equity financing as a different category of online equity financing. Based on the original purpose of “financing facility” and the nature of “grassroots finance,” fundraisers shall enjoy exemptions on small sums, and the threshold of investors shall also be appropriately restricted, while the intermediary platform shall be the regulatory focus. From a macro point of view, the supervision of equity-based crowdfunding should seek a balance between “financial innovation” and “risk control.” Equity-based crowdfunding should not simply be considered a financing method. Rather, its positive effects on mass entrepreneurship and innovation should be emphasized so as to make it a particularly important “booster” to promote economic and social development.

The aim of this research is to gather preliminary information from a range of countries to develop an international perspective on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Currently, there is no cohesive international statement on the minimum requirements to provide SEL in schools. By bringing together a range of international perspectives it is intended that clarity will be provided from which new approaches and initiatives can be developed and researched. International researchers familiar with SEL programs in their country were asked to answer five questions about the context and processes used to teach SEL in specific countries to begin an understanding and synthesis of best practice. These questions relate to: (1) sociocultural contexts of school systems, (2) the range of SEL programs presented in each country and what is common about these programs, (3) the effectiveness of prominent SEL programs, (4) the facilitators and barriers that exist to effectively present SEL programs within the country, and (5) recommendations for the future of SEL programs. A synthesis is followed by a discussion of the future of SEL and how the SEL Interest Group may make a contribution to the current state of the literature, curriculum, pedagogy, and research that informs SEL in schools.

Wings: Social and emotional wellbeing in the early years is a professional development programme designed to assist educators in early years services to improve outcomes for children. It uses a strengths-based approach and supports educators to understand the impact of their interactions with children and to use communication strategies, such as descriptive feedback, to develop children's capacities. These strategies are used to help children recognise their strengths and build their ability to self-regulate and manage their own social and emotional wellbeing. This paper reports on the outcomes of the Wings programme introduced into early childhood services in rural and remote south-west Queensland, Australia, through the Community Wellbeing Project run by the Pathways to Resilience Trust in partnership with Anglicare Southern Queensland. Preliminary findings indicate the Wings programme successfully enhanced the confidence and knowledge of early years educators engaged in promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing.

Information and knowledge are frequently upheld as the cornerstones of development programmes. Poverty reduction measures delivered through social policies are frequently premised on the need to ensure that both users and providers of services have access to information. In contexts where poor and marginalised groups are largely excluded from knowledge access and uptake, Southern-based civil society is called upon to act as an interlocutor to leverage knowledge on their behalf to achieve social welfare objectives. Ensuring that the greatest number of people have access to timely and relevant information, promoted as part of global-level discourses on the desirability of fostering a “knowledge society”, is presumed to contribute, for instance, to the capacity of citizens to uphold government accountability, ensure access to entitlements or protect basic rights. This paper critically analyses the capacity of knowledge, delivered primarily though not exclusively through new information and communications technologies and leveraged through Southern-based civil society acting as intermediaries, to achieve social policy objectives in development.

This article draws on recent data provided by the Asian Development Bank's Social Protection Index and uses Fuzzy Set Ideal Type Analysis to develop ideal types of welfare activity to which 29 countries in Asia and the Pacific can have varying degrees of membership. There is little evidence that the commitment to “productive” and “protective” welfare is oriented along broad geographical units or predetermined by economic affluence and the size of the informal economy. It also adds an explorative Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to test the effect of “productive” and “protective” welfare properties on human development and income equality. Here, it finds that the absence of strong income protection is most clearly linked to low human development at the macro-level; high education investment is linked to high income inequality if governments fail to invest in employment and income protection or employment protection and training, respectively.

Commercial use of group housing systems for lactating sows is limited, but the recent transition to group housing during gestation in the EU may result in a renewed interest in such systems. Therefore, this review aims to identify key factors that may contribute to the success or failure of group housing of lactating sows in comparison with individual housing by describing the variety in group housing systems and discussing animal behaviour and performance compared with individual housing. Group housing systems can be divided in multi-suckling (MS) systems, in which sows are grouped with their litters, and get-away (GA) systems, which include a separate communal area accessible to sows only. These systems differ in many aspects regarding management and layout but, compared with individual housing, generally provide more environmental complexity, more freedom of movement for the sows and more freedom to express behaviours related to, for example, maternal care and social interactions. Group housing poses several risks, such as disrupted nursing and an increased level of crushing during the MS phase, and in the GA systems there is a risk for early cessation of nursing. On the other hand, pre-weaning mingling of litters clearly benefits piglet social development and may improve adaptation to the post-weaning situation. In addition, group-housed sows may show lactational ovulation, which provides opportunities for insemination during an extended lactation period, which benefits the piglets. Gradual transitions in social and physical environment around gestation, farrowing, grouping and weaning seem to be key success factors for group housing systems during lactation. In addition, selection of suitable sows and quality of stockmanship seem important.