news 2018

Whether idolised as heroes or demonised and labelled terrorists, throughout history people have been willing to die for their groups and the causes they believe in. But why?  Previous theories of extreme self-sacrifice have revealed that a range of factors fuel the decision, including collective identity, hostility from others outside of the group, kin psychology and in some cases diminished mental health and depression.

School-based healthy lifestyle interventions alone are not effective in the fight against childhood obesity, researchers at the University of Birmingham have warned. The warning comes after one of the largest childhood obesity prevention trials undertaken to date has found that a healthy lifestyle intervention carried out in dozens of schools did not lead to significant changes in pupils' weight.

Oxford University have collaborated with the Prison Reform Trust to create new resources, including films and briefings, to help criminal justice professionals improve their understanding of the impacts of maternal imprisonment. Image credit: Shutterstock Oxford University has collaborated with the Prison Reform Trust to create new resources, including films and briefings, to help criminal justice professionals improve their understanding of the impacts of maternal imprisonment.

Adolescents who have experienced some form of racism between the ages of 11 and 23 are more likely to take up smoking than those who have not, according to a new study led by King's College London involving UCL. The study, analysed questionnaire and interview data from the Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH) study, the UK's largest longitudinal study of ethnically diverse young people.

Adolescents who have experienced some form of racism between the ages of 11 and 23 are more likely to take up smoking than those who have not, according to a new study led by King's College London. Published in PLOS ONE , the study analysed questionnaire and interview data from the Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH) study, one of the UK's largest longitudinal studies of ethnically diverse young people.

Political pledges to reduce immigration are splitting up families, according to new research which urges the Government to revise its policies in order to reduce 'collateral damage' inflicted on partners and children. In the first study of its kind, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), researchers at the University of Bristol explored how a precarious immigration status impacts on family life.

Violence against women could become significantly less visible in police-recorded crime figures when a new counting method comes into effect, warn researchers at Lancaster University. Plans for Home Office Counting Rules to count coercive and controlling behaviour as 'non-injurious violent crime' capped at one crime per victim - even though statistics show one in 20 victims can experience more than 10 domestic violence crimes a year - will mask the true extent of the problem.

New research from the University of Bristol is calling for an urgent review into how populations of giraffes are managed in the wild when living alongside lions. It is commonly accepted that lions are the only predators to pose a risk to giraffes on an individual basis but there has never been a study to investigate how the presence of lions impacts on the population as a whole.