Parental support is an important factor affecting young people’s mental well-being, but the school climate also plays an important role. However, few studies have previously examined whether the school climate serves as a mediator for adolescents’ mental health problems. This study aimed to investigate the association between parental support and students’ psychological complaints, while also examining the possible mediating role that a good school climate may have. Data derives from 5783 senior-level students (age 15–16) distributed over 152 school units in Stockholm municipality. Regression linear analysis was used for the analysis and Baron and Kenny’s four-step mediation model has been applied. Sobel’s test was conducted in order to test the significance of the mediation effect. The results show that there is a significant negative association between parental support and students’ psychological complaints, and that school climate has a mediating role in this association. It can be concluded that school climate has a partly mediating role in the association between parental support and students’ psychological complaints. Therefore, it seems important to develop the school climate in order to strengthen this source of support to reduce mental health problems among adolescents. Mental health problems and psychological complaints are common during adolescence, and the problems have increased in many countries, including Sweden, with girls in particular reporting high levels of psychological complaints ,2. ReseaPathways to good health, well-being, and positive social function later in life have their roots in childhood and adolescence ,7,8. At Based on this, increasing knowledge and efforts concerning what can make parents more supportive and involved in their children’s life emerges as important. Regardless of this, there will always be children who will grow up without parental support or with low levels of parental support, so it also appears important to look for other factors or protective environments that can counteract the effects of low or non-existent parental support. One such environment may be the school, in which the vast majority of children and adolescents spend a significant part of their time. Previous research has shown that support from both parents and adults working in the school is important for young people’s health and well-being ,11,12, aThe school’s climate has for a long time been recognized as an important factor that contributes to shaping children and young people . HoweverPsychological complaints include a variety of states of mind related to individual well-being, such as feelings of sadness, depressed mood, fear, sluggishness, anxiety, and general feelings of reduced well-being ,18. JustAdolescents usually have extensive social networks and relationships that include, for example, peers, schoolmates, school staff, siblings, and parents, who can all serve as sources of support ,25. PrevThe concept of school climate is used in slightly different ways in the literature, but the term is often used to describe the school’s quality and character, which reflects rules, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning methods, and organizational structures within a school. A good school climate also means the school provides a sense of security, and that the relationships among the various participants are functional ,36,37. IPrevious studies have shown that a good school climate is associated with several positive outcomes among students, such as the promotion of psychosocial development , and redTaken together, as stated in a literature review by Aldridge and McChesney  concerniOverall, it can be stated that both parental support and a good school climate are important factors influencing young people’s well-being for the better, but there has been less investigation of whether a good school climate serves as a mediator in this relationship.This study aims to examine the association between parental support and students’ psychological complaints, as well as to investigate the possible mediating role that a good school climate may have, while also taking a range of sociodemographic characteristics at the individual and the school level into account.The study is based on the following hypotheses:Hypothesis 1 (H1).Students’ ratings of parental support are negatively associated with psychological complaints.Hypothesis 2 (H2).This association remains when adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics at both the individual and the school level.Hypothesis 3 (H3).A good school climate serves as a mediator in the relationship between parental support and psychological complaints.The data used in this study derive from the Stockholm School Survey (SSS) of 2014 and 2016, targeting a sample of grade 9 students (aged 15–16 years) in all public and many independent schools in the Stockholm municipality. The SSS is carried out every two years by the Stockholm municipality and consists of a variety of questions on different subjects, and provides information on, for example, psychological complaints, parental support, school climate, and a range of sociodemographic characteristics. The survey was conducted during class with questionnaires administered by the teachers, with a response rate of 82.7 percent. The survey was also linked to school-level data from official records provided from the Swedish National Agency of Education (SNAE) . StudentPsychological complaints is the dependent variable used, assessed by six items capturing different psychological complaints in terms of sadness, depressed mood, fear, insufficiency, inactivity, uneasiness, and absence of enjoyment of life. All items were rated by students on a five-point Likert-type scale and values from all items were added to form a sum index in the range 6–30, with higher scores indicating more psychological complaints. By using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), factor loadings for each item representing psychological complaints were produced, and the factor loadings range between 0.63 and 0.79. The index has a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.80). All items and response options are presented in Parental support is the main independent variable and was created from five items in order to capture the overall parental support, as rated by students. The items covered issues such as praise from parents, encouragement, being noticed, care, and whether they perceive their parents as role models or not. All questions were responded to on a four-point Likert-type scale forming a sum index in the range 5–20, with higher scores indicating more parental support. The CFA showed factor loadings from 0.63 to 0.85, and the index had a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.82). All questions and response options are presented in Several variables at the individual level that may act as potential confounders were used in the analysis. Students’ grades were measured as the summation of the students’ self-reported grades in the subjects Swedish, English, and mathematics. Grades given in letters (A–F) were given numerical values (5–0), resulting in an approximately normally distributed index in the range 0–15. Gender was coded as boy or girl. Family structure was measured by asking ‘Which persons do you live with?’ where the students could mark one or several options. Those who ticked both ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ were classified as living with two custodial parents in the same household, and contrasted to all others. Parental education was created from the question ‘What is the highest education your parents have?’ with the following response options to be ticked separately for the mother and the father: ‘Compulsory’, ‘Upper secondary school’, and ‘University’. The variable was coded into those having no parent with post-secondary education and those having at least one parent with post-secondary education. Time in Sweden was measured by the question ‘How long have you lived in Sweden?’ with the response options (a) ‘All my life’, (b) ‘10 years or more’, (c) ‘5–9 years’, and (d) ‘Less than 5 years’. This variable was dichotomized into those who had lived in Sweden for less than ten years and those who had lived in Sweden for ten years or more, thus roughly distinguishing those who had attended Swedish school throughout compulsory school from all the others. Year of data collection was also adjusted for in the analysis.At the school level, several potential confounders were included in the analysis. These data were retrieved from official records from the SNAE. School type refers to public or independent school. Proportion of full-time teachers per student indicates the student–teacher ratio at the school, proportion of full-time teachers with pedagogical education indicates the proportion of teachers at the school who have a pedagogical degree, while proportion of students with foreign background refers to the proportion of students born abroad and/or whose parents were both born abroad.School climate is the potential mediator variable and consists of 18 items, rated by students, and captures dimensions such as positive attitudes towards school, involvement in decision-making, awareness of regulations and rules of procedure, praise and support from teachers, quiet working environment, and safety. All items were responded to on a four-point Likert-type scale forming a sum index in the range 18–72, with higher scores indicating a good school climate. The index had a high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.84). All questions and response options are presented in Linear regression analysis was used for the analysis and the formulated hypotheses were tested in a number of models. Model 1 targets the first hypothesis by examining the association between parental support and psychological complaints. Models 2–3 intend to answer the second hypothesis by adding potential confounders at the individual level (Model 2) and at the school level (Model 3). Finally, Model 4 examines the mediating role of school climate, while also adjusting for all potential confounders, in order to answer the last and third hypothesis. In order to assess the model improvement between the models, the Likelihood-ratio test was performed, where each model is compared to the previous one.The mediation analysis is based on Baron and Kenny’s four-step mediation model . First, p < 0.001), thus confirming the first step in Baron and Kenny’s [p < 0.001), and that living with two parents is significantly related to lower levels of psychological complaints compared to living with one parent (b = −0.10 p < 0.001). The second column on the right side of p < 0.001), which confirms step two in the mediation analysis. Furthermore, school climate is negative and statistically significantly associated with psychological complaints (b = −0.36 p < 0.001), thus confirming step three in the model for testing mediation.The first column on the right side of  Kenny’s  model foIt can also be noted that school climate is positively associated with grades and that boys rate the school climate somewhat higher than girls do. Taken together, from the bivariate analysis, it can be concluded that the first three steps in the model for testing mediation have been fulfilled, namely that the independent variable  is significantly related to the dependent variable  and the potential mediator (school climate), just as the potential mediator is significantly related to the dependent variable.p < 0.001), indicating that students’ average ratings on psychological complaints lie 0.52 units lower for every step in the parental support index. The second model adds the potential confounders at the individual level, and it can be seen that the association between parental support and psychological complaints is not affected to any noteworthy degree. It can also be noted that girls report significantly higher levels of psychological complaints than boys do, and also that living with two parents is related to lower levels of psychological complaints than living with only one parent. In Model 3, the potential confounders at the school level are taken into account, but the association between parental support and psychological complaints is not affected here either, but rather remains robust and statistically significant at the same level.Next, the linear regression analyses were performed in several steps, and presented in a series of four models, as shown in p < 0.001). At the same time, the estimate of parental support increases to –0.40, indicating a mediating effect of school climate. Furthermore, the indirect effect and the results of Sobel’s test were significant . Thus, it can be concluded that school climate has a partly mediating role in the association between parental support and students’ psychological complaints. This is further supported by the Likelihood-ratio test showing a significant model improvement when school climate is added to the analysis.Finally, in Model 4, the potential mediating variable of school climate is added, and it can be seen that school climate has an impact on students’ psychological complaints  among students. However, it is reasonable to assume that students that did not attend school while the survey was conducted would have reported higher levels of psychological complaints, lower levels of parental support, and the school climate as worse, but there is no reason to believe that such a potential non-response bias would have affected the relationships investigated. Another strength is the possibility to adjust for a number of potential confounders at the individual level, as well as the opportunity to adjust for potential confounders at the school level through the access to official records from the SNAE. The study also has some limitations to take into account. First, the study is built on data from senior-level school students in Stockholm municipality, which means that generalizations to other geographical frameworks and age groups must be made with caution. Secondly, since the data used for the study are of a cross-sectional nature, it is not possible to draw any conclusions about causality. Longitudinal data is desirable for future studies. Finally, since students who did not answer all items related to this study were excluded, there is a possibility that there is some selection bias of students.It can be concluded that there is a negative significant association between parental support and students’ psychological complaints, but that attending a school with a good school climate may reduce the effects of poor parental support. Therefore, it seems important not only to target efforts to increase parental support, but also to invest in developing a good school climate to reduce students’ experiences of psychological complaints. This could be especially important in school areas where students come from homes with generally poor parental support.


In this study, we explored how women with varying relationships to disability andaging used photographs to represent their body image experiences. Sevenmiddle-aged and older adult women with and without multiple sclerosis were askedto provide up to 10 photographs that represented their body image and complete aone-on-one interview. We used reflexive thematic analysis to develop themes andinterpret the findings. Overall, the women expressed not only complicatedrelationships with their bodies, represented through symbolism, scrutiny of bodyfeatures  but also deep reflectionlinked to positive body image and resilience. These findings revealed not onlythe nuanced experiences women have with aging, disability, and gender but alsothe commonly experienced ingrained views of body appearance as each participantillustrated a difficult negotiation with the aesthetic dimension of their bodyimage. Finally, we provide important implications of the use of visual methodsin body image research. This diversity has allowed the field to expand thepopulations studied , and aging withdisability  to help elucidate thedifferent relationships people may have with both aging and disability withoutcollapsing difference. This nexus emerges out of the assumption that creative andgenerative possibilities develop when aging is considered within disability studiesand politics. The connections people have in regard to aging with disability oraging into disability is further complicated by other intersecting identities  and positionalities with the sociocultural world. These uniqueintersections, along with powerful political forces, might be more fulsomelycaptured using a combination of qualitative methods such as photographs andinterviews. Interestingly, although the increase in qualitative research acrossvarious samples has helped advance the body image field, photo methods have beenseldom used . To date, scholarship onthe aging–disability nexus has not been comprehensively considered . Forinsdom used .Photo-elicitation, first named by researcher and photographer not femininity. The imagesaided in the participants’ articulations of gendered embodiment and helpedresearchers link these participants’ expressions with feminist and socioculturaltheories.One key difference with photo-elicitation (as opposed to photovoice) is thatphotographs can be either interviewee-produced or researcher-produced. Theresearcher-produced approach is said to be an effective deductive method fortheory-driven research . For insAs an alternative example, Pictures elicited longer and more comprehensive interviews but at the sametime helped subjects overcome the fatigue and repetition of conventionalinterviews . . . This was its compelling effect upon the informant, itsability to prod latent memory, to stimulate and release emotional statementsabout the informant’s life. (p. 858)Furthermore, through the research process, participants can engage with visualmethods  to creatively make sense of themselves and toreflect on the ways they create their identities and understand their bodies, notonly verbally  but also visually . Thus,pwith and into disability.Photo-elicitation and photovoice have also been noted as approaches that fosterparticipant empowerment, as participants have autonomy over photo choices and theinterview schedule, promoting participant agency throughout the research process inthe creation of rich narrative responses . On the This study used photo-elicitation to explore body image experiences of middle-agedand older adult women with and without multiple sclerosis. We kept recruitment opento women with multiple sclerosis because we wanted to further understand theintersectional body image experiences of gender, age, and disability. We believe themeanings of gender, disability, and aging, which are often taken for granted, can beexposed, and unraveled when considered together in one study. Photographs might be auseful medium to explore social factors, such as stigma, that have been found to betethered to the body image experiences of older adults and people with disabilitye.g., . TherefoResearch Question 1 (RQ1): How do women with and withoutmultiple sclerosis represent their body image experiences through the use ofphotographs?We used a qualitative design with in-person, semi-structured interviews tosupport a safe environment for participants to share sensitive information andtopics about themselves . Safety Seven women from Southern Ontario  were recruited from auniversity-affiliated exercise facility which is open to members of thecommunity. This facility was chosen because it has accessible programs formiddle-aged and older adults, including people with physical disability. Thefacility had the following specialized programs: Power Cord-Spinal Cord Injury,Power Cord-Multiple Sclerosis, Heart Strong, and SeniorFit. Five participantswere from SeniorFit and two were from Power Cord-Multiple Sclerosis. Twoparticipants from Power Cord and one participant from SeniorFit reported havingmultiple sclerosis (relapse remitting and secondary progressive). Allparticipants were White, community-dwelling, and active members of the centerand thus were regularly physically active. Furthermore, they had the economicmeans to join the center (they paid a monthly membership fee) as well as thecapacity to attend in-person exercise sessions.Upon university ethics clearance, recruitment posters were placed around theexercise facility and on the facility’s website. Women interested in the studyemailed the research team who provided the letter of invitation outlining studydetails. Those still interested provided written informed consent and receivedinstructions for taking photographs. At this time, they also completed thedemographic form where we asked about age, gender, race, height, weight, andprogram affiliation at the facility, as a way to describe participants andcontextualize the findings. This meeting was about 20 minutes and took place atthe facility in a private room or at their home, whichever they preferred.Participants were instructed to collect up to 10 photographs that representedtheir body image, including negative, neutral, and positive body image.Participants used their own camera device  or used photographs they already had .Participants were instructed to take/collect the photographs within 2 weeks ofthe initial meeting and then email the research team to schedule the one-on-oneinterview.Semi-structured interviews, focusing on participants’ photographs and questionsabout body image took place in a private room at the university or at their ownhome, according to their preference. At the interview, participants selected aphotograph to start the discussion and then gradually went through eachphotograph to discuss body image experiences  symbolic representationsof body image, (b) complex stigmas of disability and appearance, (c) criticalappraisal of appearance, (d) navigating difficult body image paradoxes, and (e)uncovering positive body image and resilience.. . . this ball says love, and I chose it because I think, that’s what weare all trying to do, to love ourselves. And the tape is just symbolicof the numbers on it. I think for a lot of people, it’s all about thenumbers, people want to be taller, they want to be lighter, they want tobe thinner, they want to be smaller, they want to be bigger, and thattape measurement is kind of the tell all for everything. You get wrappedup in it. And that’s why I spun it around the ball. It seems that we canonly love ourselves if the numbers are good.This theme is represented by women who used photographs to symbolize their bodyimage struggles of aging and Western beauty expectations. For example, one womanused symbolism for the majority of her photographs to represent her body image,taking direct attention away from her body (by not using photographs of herself)but still divulging interesting body image reflections. As a strategy to conveyher struggle to love her body, she staged together a ball with tape wrappedaround it see . When diAnd one of the photos you’re going to look at is the kayaks in the fog.I’m sure you’d question what that was but I’m finding that if I’m aging,if I stay in my own age group, I still feel vital and alive and all thatstuff because comparatively I’m doing alright. But if I’m in a mixedcrowd of male, female, and various ages I feel somewhat invisible. Andthat’s what that was. The vibrant colours of the kayaks and they’re in abit of fog.One woman used a photograph as an opportunity to explore a metaphor of aging andfeeling invisible  beauty products she owns and uses daily. When discussing that photo, shedescribed an exasperated sense of her body as she navigated incessant beautytrends imposed on women, which she reluctantly subscribed to.. . . if I want to do something if I want to shop or [go] somewherefurther . . . this is my life. It does not make me feel good and a lotof people look [at the scooter] and think “oh it’s because she’sfat.”In this theme, the women articulated the intricacies of their body imageexperiences as they pertained to their disability. For instance, one woman withmultiple sclerosis (relapse remitting) used a photograph of herself in amobility scooter to demonstrate the complexities of disability and weight stigmain relation to her body image see . When diAnd more than once I’ll have somebody walking past me saying to me or theperson they’re with “oh god I wish I had one of those” and it’s like isit ok for me to say “and I wish I had legs that worked!” You know, tolook at them and say can I say this without them being offended . ..?She explained feeling stigmatized when shopping or leaving her home and using hermobility scooter. She elaborated,You know they look at you and that’s what I perceive from them if I’mgetting into my van in a wheelchair parking spot I have to lift my legsup to get in and you know the people sitting next to me I want them tosee that yes there is a reason that I’m in this [scooter] I’m not in itbecause I like not having to walk. I want people to see that it’sbecause [of my disability].She also commented “people are always judging you” and “you know because you dosee people that are just lazy . . .” When asked if she has felt societalpressures or has overheard people judging her, she stated,Thus, she feared that within public settings people were assuming her use of thescooter is attributed to laziness, a common negative stereotype faced by manypeople of size . During Venous insufficiency. The purple, the lace look. It’s all MS . . . Andsome people have no filter. So if you’re sitting on the bus at Disneyand someone’s looking at you because you’re already in a wheelchair andthen they’re looking, you up and down. The way we were brought up, weare so kind to people. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t sayanything. But when you see them, you know what they’re thinking. That’ssomething I just hate, but I hate the shape, or I can deal with it alittle bit better if the shape was nicer.Another woman who also had multiple sclerosis (secondary progressive) used thephotographs to depict aspects of her body image that emphasized her appearancesee . ShehigThey [the vein doctor] tried to collapse them . . . You sit on the tableand she injected each one and it just killed. And then she said, “Ireally can’t guarantee that you won’t have an MS attack.” I said just doit. Because that was the least of my problems after seeing how theylook! But that looks . . . ugh! When she [her caregiver] took thatpicture, I was like “oh my gosh!”She also alluded to the extremes she would take to collapse her varicose veins.She said,In this profound statement, she was absorbed in how her varicose veins appeared,even at the cost of serious complications with her disability.I wanted to include it because it was something that I look at and gohmm, your legs aren’t what they used to be but on the other hand, itdoesn’t bother me that much either. But it’s part of it, it’s stillthere, it bothers me a little bit but not nearly as much [comparing towhat her legs used to look like when she was younger].This theme reflects the tendency by women to critically appraise their physicalappearance, in this case using their photographs. When describing the photographshe took of her legs, one woman said, “I’m getting those elephant knees hahalook at the wrinkles.” She also said,And that was recently, I did have shorts on and it just shows why this isnot attractive to me, crooked toes with the arthritis, see this toe iscrooked and I’ve had to change the shoes I wear too. I can’t wear aspretty shoe as I used to. I can’t wear high heels or narrow shoes. . . .And the knees, this knee is the one that bothers me the most hahabecause not only is it varicose veins but because of the veins it makesthem a bit saggy and so I would just cover this up. I would wearsomething longer, around the house or gardening I will, I can wearshorts. . .Another woman took a similar approach and shared a photograph of her legs. Whendiscussing her displeasure of her legs she said,Because that just shows you how my hands look and I am self-consciousabout that. Now, when we play bridge, because I sat and playing bridgeagain, what I see and what other people see I think they don’t, theyjust don’t notice but I am very self-conscious of it . . . I go for amanicure now and again but I am always washing my hands so they dry outbut I go and the women there, they are nicely manicured and they havethese really nice painted nails and I’m thinking, uh oh! . . . Just moreworried than I should be.Throughout much of her interview, she criticized her appearance in thephotographs, especially the appearance of her hands see . This ecThis is from a collage I have from when I retired that the staff puttogether. And it’s a, I mean I think it’s a typical picture of me atwork with the hands going and I’m very big on hands but it’s this curvethat just APPALLED me when I saw it, when I started to see some picturesand I was just appalled. Cause it’s just like, what is that allabout?Another woman with relapse remitting multiple sclerosis discussed her timeworking at a university giving presentations and lectures to students. When sheretired, her colleagues made a collage of her time working there and provided apicture of her lecturing. She was highly critical of this particular photograph,specifically her body posture see . She elaSimilarly, another woman used the photos to scrutinize specific appearancefeatures, particularly her nose. She showed a zoomed in photograph of her noseand used harsh words, such as, “That I hate. Out of everything, the most I hate.Because my sister got a little, cute nose. Hate it. Just hate it, hate theshape, hate the size, hate the point, I hate it.” The emotional disgust she felttoward her nose came across quite strongly during the interview.Now it’s not like the true skin colour or any of the rest of that but ifyou really wanted to, I could do that at any point in time and I couldportray myself as that, no problem. But that’s how little, for meanyway, how little that needs to be changed, in my mind. Considering thewhole body area, that’s the only thing I would change. So, but that’swhy I did, specifically to show that.In this theme, women had conflicting articulations of and relationships withtheir body image. One woman exemplified this experience by conversing over aphotograph that she photoshopped. Early in the interview, she demonstrated medialiteracy, saying, “. . . cause like you said with media and all that and withadvertising, it’s a joke. It’s not what people look like at all.” However, laterin the interview, she admitted to often photoshopping images she posted ofherself online. When discussing a photograph she took for this study she said,In this quotation, she describes altering the physical shape of her body see,demonstAll the media, everything you see on TV and magazines and what notencourages us to remain looking youthful. And that bothers me a lot,because of the media altering the photos and everything and the same wayit affects most women. But at the same time, I succumb to that to thedegree that I continue to dye my hair. And I’m sure, my mother hasbeautiful white hair, and I’m probably about 85 percent gray.Two women acknowledged the prevalence of beauty ideals depicted by media whilealso understanding the importance of not dwelling on unachievable appearancefeatures. For instance, one said,Another discussed an effort to appreciate her body and living with multiplesclerosis. However, for most of the interview she described her complicatedrelationship with her body weight. She took two photographs of a scale andmeasuring cups e.g.,  she usesYeah, I should get over it, I really should. Because there’s so many badthings in the world and nobody really cares. And I think that the waythings are getting, it’s easier to let go. And I listen to what otherpeople are saying about me. Like you’re so nice, and kind, and that kindof stuff, that’s the stuff that really matters. And then I go back and Isay, I wish I had nice shaped legs. But the other stuff, not too bad,but I really sort of wish I had my sister’s little tiny nose and mymother’s legs.Another woman who had multiple sclerosis also found herself straddling a paradoxbetween wishing and wanting to accept her body, while simultaneously buying intobeauty discourses. She said,She slowly came to the realization that there are characteristics such aspersonality that should be more important than superficial appearance featuresyou cannot control, yet she is unable to fully embrace that belief.And my response is be realistic, I’m supposed to look this way, and my93-year old mother reached a point where she never wanted to gosleeveless outside because of loose skin and I just repeatedly told her,mom your supposed to look like this . . . and this is what I try toconvey to my granddaughter, she’s 11, I’m supposed to look likethis.Throughout the course of some interviews, participants came to realize theiroverly critical analysis of their appearance. Upon this reflection, some womenrecognized positive body image when describing their images. For example, onewoman took a photo of her hand and her granddaughter’s hand and used this methodas a teaching moment for her granddaughter see . Her graOne woman used a photograph of her on a leg press machine at Power Cord and said,“I love the definition in the legs! I have said attractive because I couldn’tcome up with something but it just makes me feel powerful!” Although this imagewas chosen mainly for appearance reasons , sheused words such as “powerful,” demonstrating appreciation for her body.Another woman exemplified resilience when she said, “. . . it’s all about what mybody can do more than what my body looks like on the surface . . . I can feelafraid and still do it, still do things.” This quotation demonstrates a momentof appreciation for her body, rather than always criticizing her posture. Nearthe end of the interview, she came to the realization that “. . . when I reallylooked at the other photographs, I thought, you know, it’s probably not as badas I’m thinking it looks, you know? I should lighten up on that.” Thisdemonstrates the potential for photo-elicitation to lead to deep reflection andcritical insights for moments of positive body image and resilience.This study explored the body image experiences of middle-to-older age women with andwithout multiple sclerosis using the interview and photo-elicitation methods. Bodyimage scholarship has evolved substantially over the years, with increased use ofvarying qualitative and quantitative methods. One method that is less used andunderstood in body image scholarship is photo-elicitation. Photo-elicitation hasbeen argued to provide a promising opportunity for qualitative interviews to yieldricher and more evocative findings , which iwith disability such as oneparticipant’s concern about people staring at and stigmatizing her in the scooter.We can contextualize this experience within the seminal work of sability, where hinto disability, and explained the inability towear certain shoes anymore as she ages. However, her primary concerns during theinterview were about the appearance of her arthritis as seen in her photographs,which she criticized quite bluntly.Another manifestation of “staring” could be the objectifying gaze. According toobjectification theory , women . Therefore,photo-elicitation might be an ideal strategy to use for researchers who arenovice to interviewing because the photographs aided in body image discussionsthereby relieving pressure from the interviewer and evoking rich discussion. Asalient finding that was clear from using the photo method was the commonlyexperienced ingrained and normative views of the body, particularly aboutappearance. This may be partially explained by the very nature of photographsbeing a visual medium; regardless, every single participant, despite their ageor relationship with disability, explained a complicated negotiation with theaesthetic dimension of their body image—demonstrating this method can tap intoshared and differing experiences across a heterogeneous sample.Another important implication from this study was the breadth of approaches takenby participants to capture their body image experiences using photographs. Manyparticipants described difficulty in selecting photos that captured their bodyimage well. Furthermore, some participants voiced concern about doing the study“incorrectly” or selecting the “wrong” images, thereby believing they were notcontributing to the research. Also, while balancing creative freedom forparticipants, researchers may want to provide more specific instructions thanour broad approach in this study , to lessen ambiguity.Photo-elicitation could be another tool to help participants recognize how theyreflect about or treat their bodies. This may include revelations of unconsciouspervasive negative thoughts toward appearance. This type of consciousnessraising can be an effective approach for improving body image. Photo-elicitationmay also provide opportunities to enhance aspects of positive body image such asbody acceptance. Furthermore, photo-elicitation methods may provide uniqueopportunities to explore complex social identities. There has been a push forpositive body image researchers to consider the many social identities thatintersect in complicated ways with an individual’s body image e.g., . InthisEven though this study was based on a small sample of seven women, the number ofphotos they provided yielded rich dialogue, and the findings suggest somepotential for photo-elicitation being used within body imageprogram/intervention research. Albeit some participants used the method tocriticize their appearance, others also realized and reflected on this tendency.This revelation occurred for some participants during the interview process andprovided quite a powerful understanding of how they treat their bodies. Forexample, one participant was not even aware of her propensity to scrutinize herappearance, particularly her hands. Writing exercises, where participantsreflect on aspects of their body that they appreciate ,have demonstrated promising improvements in participants’ body image , symbolism may be a usefulalternative approach. In this study, some participants used symbolism to unpacktheir body image experiences in the interview. Symbolism might be another usefulstrategy in body image interventions or programs to help facilitate delving intodifficult conversations  creatively.Symbolism may act as a mechanism to initiate group discussion when the topic issensitive in nature. Body image programs utilizing an in-person group formatwith a facilitator present  have shoFinally, photo-elicitation could also be used as a psychoeducational tool. Forexample, one participant in this study talked about using her photograph of herhands and her granddaughter’s hands as a platform to teach about positive bodyimage and aging. Psychoeducation is an important component of body imageprograms e.g., , 2019, aIn conclusion, women in this study shared their dynamic, and even sometimesparadoxical, body image experiences across the aging–disability nexus whilesimultaneously contending with unrealistic youthful appearance standards.Significantly, this study highlighted the complexity of body image across multiplesocial identities  and how theintersection of these identities must be examined. Qualitative researchers shouldcontinue to explore the utility of photo-elicitation in other diversely embodiedsamples  and investigate other avenues of this approach, such as thedifference in reflection processes based on the curation of newly captured versusolder  photographs.


Improvised COVID-related verses presented resonant local and regional themes as a community response to a global crisis. Digital ethnography conducted since March 2020 revealed a regional burst of musical creativity coupled with DIY intentionality, a leveling of access to virtual community spaces, and enhanced digital intimacies established across a wide cultural diaspora in Mexico and the USA. These responses were musically, poetically, and organizationally improvisational, as was the overall outpouring of the son huasteco music inspired by the coronavirus outbreak. Son huasteco is a folk music tradition from the Huasteca, a geo-cultural region spanning the intersection of six states in central Mexico. This study examines a selection of musical responses by discussing improvisational examples in both Spanish and the indigenous language Nahuatl, and in the virtual musical communities of the Huasteca migrant diaspora in digital events such as “Encuentro Virtual de Tríos Huastecos,” the “Huapangos Sin Fronteras” festival and competition, and in the nightly gatherings on social media platforms developed during the pandemic to sustain the Huastecan cultural expression. These phenomena have served as vibrant points of transnational connection and identity in a time where physical gatherings were untenable.This article examines two interrelated aspects of Mexican regional music response to the coronavirus crisis in the música huasteca community: the growth of interactive huapango livestreams as a preexisting but newly significant space for informal community gathering and cultural participation at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and the composition of original verses by son huasteco performers addressing the pandemic. Both the livestreams and the newly created coronavirus disease (COVID) verses reflect critical improvisatory approaches to the pandemic in música huasteca. The interactive livestreams signaled an  In the middle of April 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold globally in its initial wave, a trío huasteco called Los Yolpakis from Ixcatepec, Veracruz, Mexico released a new version of a tune from the regional vernacular repertory entitled “La Muerte” (Death). Applying a strong tradition of situational improvisation to reflect on an unprecedented historical moment, Los Yolpakis included original verses written expressly to respond to the pandemic. After introducing themselves in an enthusiastic unison—a style common among son huasteco video performances—the trío sang verses in both Spanish and the indigenous language Nahuatl (the most spoken indigenous language in Mexico), delivering a timely message of warning and concern. In both languages, they sang the huapango's standard first line: “Death is looking for me/To take me away” (“La muerte me anda buscando/para poderme llevar”). A common verse in “La Muerte,” found on popular recordings by foundational trío Armonia Huasteca, personifies death as showing up at a fandango—a communal dance—where the singer knows he will be easy to find, and where he “will play a tune that will move death incarnate to dance”  This kind of improvisational verse in the tradition of música huasteca employed during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provides an example of the singular and complex regional musical response to a global crisis in the Huasteca, a geo-cultural region spanning six states in central Mexico. Música huasteca is played in a trío featuring violin, a small stringed instrument called a jarana, and an acoustic bass called a quinta huapanguera. In between expressive violin passages, musicians exchange verses, frequently articulated in falsetto. These verses are drawn from a historical canon of couplets or are situationally improvised in ways remaining topical to the theme being played  activists. Improvised COVID-related verses presented resonant local and regional themes as a community response to a global crisis. These responses arose in sudden and unplanned ways during the COVID era and represent significant and novel uses of social technologies and virtual spaces to meet the emergent interests and needs of the música huasteca community. Digital ethnography conducted since March 2020 revealed a regional burst of musical creativity coupled with DIY intentionality, a leveling of access to virtual community spaces, and enhanced digital intimacies established across a wide cultural diaspora in Mexico and the USA. These responses were musically, poetically, and organizationally improvisational, as was the overall outpouring of son huasteco music inspired by the coronavirus outbreak.This article examines two interrelated aspects of the música huasteca community response to the coronavirus crisis: the growth of interactive huapango livestreams as a preexisting but newly significant space for informal community gathering and cultural participation at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and the composition of original verses by son huasteco performers addressing the pandemic. Both the livestreams and the newly created COVID verses reflect critical improvisatory approaches to the pandemic in música huasteca. The interactive livestreams signaled the emergence of an via the comments sections and chat boxes. With the understanding that the social and cultural aspects of the pandemic era are subject to perpetual change as expectations and external conditions unfold, the authors focus on media uploaded during the early stages of the pandemic, especially the early, disorienting months of March, April, and May 2020. This paper also draws on interviews conducted between June 2020 and October 2020 with Gabino “Gabo” Vera, administrator of the YouTube channel GavBroadcast, and Francisco “Chico” Gabriel Lucas, a musician in trío Los Yolpakis. All interviews were conducted remotely via the applications WhatsApp and Telegram, which allow for encrypted, high-resolution internet calling. While some of the insights in this paper would not have been possible without these direct, one-on-one conversations with these key individuals, the primary positionality of the researchers was as observers in the mediated digital space of the YouTube chatsThis paper reflects 6 months of engaged observation of streamed and recorded videos of son huasteco performances and accompanying participant activity Boellstorff  argues tThis article characterizes and offers an early theorization of an emergent musicultural phenomenon that will doubtless continue to transform in scope and character as the pandemic continues and eventually recedes into history. The authors acknowledge the possible limitations of the research conducted and written about as an initial scholarly foray into a new phenomenon during the height of the pandemic. They are invested in the continued exploration of the intersection of COVID-19 with regional and diasporic musicking and social technologies.Over the past decade, important new research has investigated and theorized communitarian elements of the huapango huasteco and theorized translocal framings of the community oriented around música huasteca. Overall study of translocality has developed into an important subfield  cultural production and music consumption. As pointed out by Yu and Schroeder , “the st Romero, . As a pl Romero, . YouTube Romero, , 137, wh Romero, , can serMusic is a vast content category on YouTube and an excellent case study for experiencing firsthand the complexities of transnational culture industries in the 21st century. Youtube “is now a global repository for popular music and the entry point for a vast number of listeners-consumers searching for new music”  of son huasteco music. Vera's YouTube channel, GaVBroadcast, is a constantly growing repository of videos showcasing son huasteco performances. In early March 2020, the channel had roughly 190,000 subscribers. By March 2021, the subscribers had grown to 287,000. Vera, who has nearly two decades of experience working in telecommunications and network broadcasting, left his position at Televisa in January 2019 to dedicate himself fully to his YouTube channel, which generates income through ad revenue and content sponsorships. In his announcement of the virtual encuentro, Vera spoke directly to his subscribers, noting that “various huapangos have been canceled,” that “staying home is the right thing to do,” and that an online event might serve “to showcase new talents in Huastecan music” and “to help us so that our time spent at home might be more enjoyable.” This early adaptation to pandemic circumstances is a prime example of the improvisational flexibility of the online huapango community and its digital infrastructure. At a moment when governments still struggled to effectively respond to the coronavirus outbreak, community content creators such as Vera put forth solutions to a problem while also establishing a new normative connection between social responsibility and artistic engagement.While the government was slow to acknowledge the need for preventative measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, artists and cultural promoters began to organize in response to the impending crisis. On the aforementioned date of March 18, 2020 DIY archivist and promoter Gabino “Gabo” Vera put out a video announcing a virtual ad hoc content strategy actively mirrors the improvisationality of the trovadores who it documents and promotes. For years, Vera managed his channel as a hobby while working in Mexico City, recording performances in private homes on occasional return visits to his natal Huasteca. The channel was created in 2007, long before YouTube attained the prominence and ubiquity it holds today, and subsequently grew with the platform. Vera was a relatively early adopter of the livestream format as a means of broadcasting local performances to a global audience of huapango enthusiasts. The YouTube livestream platform includes a chat feature that allows for viewers to engage with the broadcaster and the performers, encouraging a dynamic informality that mimics the social ethos of in-person community performances. These casual and personalized performances cater to a diaspora that extends far beyond the geographical Huasteca. However, as the pandemic took hold and people across the globe entered into self-isolation, this digital participatory infrastructure came to serve an increasingly expansive audience of huapango enthusiasts.As a participatory DIY archive, GaVBroadcast's Multitudinous examples of mutual aid networks emerging during times of ineffectual governance can be found throughout history .Early in the pandemic, numerous tríos huastecos performed livestreamed concerts on Facebook. Trío Santuario Huasteco started their April 24, 2020 stream with a simple statement of “quédate en casa con música huasteca” (stay at home with Huasteco music) and other exhortations to “stay home with huapanguitos …it's worth asking.” Listeners discussed their hometowns and thanked public officials with comments like “greetings to ‘Toro Requesón,' who from his trench, is doing an extraordinary job with the Ministry of Health and all the staff under his leadership” .The events, which generally lasted 90 min but often went on for hours, were variously coded with hashtags such as “#huapangos,” “#QuedateEnCasa,” or, more generically, “#EnVivo.” The first two labels spoke to the pandemic moment for the Huasteco diaspora most directly, and rapidly became the descriptors of choice. Despite the different origins and timings of the livestreams from the start of the pandemic, standardization in coronavirus-era online huapangos emerged quickly and noticeably. Musicians grew to accept their evolving role of supporting community cohesion and providing entertainment in the midst of restrictions, thereby establishing a new standard of performance and audience engagement. By May 8, 2020, longer encuentros with multiple groups had become increasingly common. Groups Eco Potosino, Tordo Huasteco, Desafío Huasteco, and Santurio Huasteco shared a “Huapangos Huasteco” event, with each trío performing from their respective communities, their performances digitally stitched together .Two months into the pandemic, Trío Sentimiento Huasteco played a live set on Facebook for more than an hour, standing on a small stage. They listed their representative's phone number for potential future in-person gigs, but mostly responded to listener requests. This was a pioneering livestream version of the COVID era virtual huapangos already happening on YouTube, hosted by channels such as GaVBroadcast, QuerrequeFilms, and others. As is common at in-person huapangos, at the virtual events listeners asked for favorite sones; Antonio Emperador asked for “un huapango favor La Azucena bella.” Listeners checked in from Coyutla, Veracruz; Riverside, California; Tamazunchale, San Luis Potosí; Mexico City; Huejutla, Hidalgo; Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and numerous other places. In between the sones, a mask-wearing narrator came out and read the comments from the live chat off his phone to the trio, along with greetings and requests. All of the comments from the chat were read, signaling the egalitarian ethos of the gathering. Not all trios were immediately comfortable with this new performance model. Trío Sentimiento stood stone faced and barely responded to the list, although the quinta player did smile .Tríos huastecos delivered performances in dynamic and constant interaction with viewers sones during pandemic livestreams, each trío interacted directly with audience members by reading names, recognizing regions, and states of origin  and of current residence (often in the USA). Each group responded directly to requests for songs. These requests were listed in the chats during the stream, usually accompanying a compliment, a shout of encouragement, and a mention of the origin of the requester. The tríos then would read some, or all, of the comments to the listeners, serving to reinforce the connection between the audience and performer. Trío Amanecer Huasteco's June 13, 2020 livestreamed followed the established practice. This was a noticeably professional group, with wireless ear microphones and heavily amplified sound. They had listeners from Houston and Paris, Texas; Matamoros, Tamaulipas; Tequisquiapan and Ahuacatlán De Guadalupe, Querétaro; Puerto Rico; Georgia, Cuetzalan, Puebla, and other places. Listeners were recognized, their comments read and discussed, and their requests fulfilled .In between While the regional repertory is quite extensive, there was in fact little variety observed among the set sones performed at most live-streamed huapango events. The most commonly performed sones  were widely known and beloved within the repertory. All feature a standard stanza format that allows improvisation. Tríos also played a wide variety of requests as they came in, so it is not uncommon to hear other sones depending on the group and the origin of the listenership. The responsiveness of the groups to the viewers constituted a part of the improvisational core of the livestream space as it did in an in-person huapango. As is typical in live, in-person events before the pandemic, there were no set lists; the performances changed and could go in any direction within the boundaries of the style's conventions at any point in the night. This responsiveness and changeability were the key features of the live streams, and a draw for both viewers and performers.https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2987014701385647&ref=search). They were highly aware of the differences of this kind of performance in the new COVID era, posting a video on YouTube, which presented dancing to the song “China del Alma” at the “Feria De Las Flores 2020” festival in Huauchinango, Puebla the prior March “antes del #covid” .Trío Perlitas Queretanas kept a steady, but focused, chat in between songs. Their breaks were kept to barely a minute, during which times the musicians called out the names of listeners in long lists, along with origins of the people in the chat. Viewers and chat participants logged in from large cities such as Monterrey and Guanajuato, communities in the Huasteca region such as Aquismón and Xilitla in San Luis Potosí and locations in the USA including Dallas and Houston in Texas, Charlotte and Durham in North Carolina, and Salinas, Gilroy, Madera, Oakland, and Oxnard in California , and a duo called Toño Jimenez. These groups represent the outgrowth of a now established, concerted initiative by huapanguero musician educators to teach and encourage young women to perform as musicians. Although female musicians now play such a central role as to make the presence of all-woman groups unremarkable, their visibility nonetheless challenges patriarchal narratives that point to the old man as the archetypal son huasteco musician Muñoz, .Virtual huapango events during the COVID are distinctively informal and challenge assumptions about the necessity for extensive, diversified branding when crafting a cultural product that keeps participants engaged. The formalized, market-based approach to pandemic music holds that successful events require advance planning, novelty, and difference. For example, the CEO of a commercial streaming concert service called LoopedLive declared “‘if you do the same thing over and over again, people won't want to tune in”' , and general family gatherings. Online relationships can be far more profound, meaningful and sustainable than the uninitiated might think, as Lai and Fung  comments “the poetic verse of the son may feature classic lines of text, but singers often improvise verse while performing.” Béhague notes that “in the regional sones of Mexico, improvised Béhague, , p. 119.Béhague, , p. xix The narrative poetics of many Mexican vernacular musics situate the lyricists as both positivist purveyor of information and normative emblem of identity. This tendency has been most thoroughly explored in studies of the corrido, a type of narrative ballad from the Mexico-US borderlands. Chamberlain  presentstrovadores) are present at a huapango, they will be expected at some point in the evening to take the stage and improvise verses in reference to the event's raison d'etre. These verses can range in tone from praiseful  to deprecating . When they have earned the attention of the crowd, trovadores may also take license to use their momentary visibility as a pulpit for sharing personal news, praising the hosts, asking a question or a favor, making a pass at a romantic prospect, opining on the state of the wider world, shouting out their hometown and family, or responding to other trovadores.If skilled lyricists  or sociopolitically dissident (oblicua) double meanings have their own dedicated terms. Throughout the first global wave of the pandemic, trovadores produced volumes of improvised COVID-19 verses that applied established themes to a new phenomenon.The For their examination of verse responses to the coronavirus in digitally circulated son huasteco, the authors of this paper have selected 10 examples that showcase a variety of the techniques and approaches covered throughout this emergent body of work. All 10 examples, which are listed in This selection showcases a wide spectrum not only of response types, but also of groupings, performance styles, and identities present within the son huasteco community. Here, one can encounter performers singing in Nahuatl, groups representing rural, urban, and diasporic positionalities, male and female musicians, a wide range of ages from children to elders, outfits ranging from casual to flashy, and heterogenous levels of video resolution falling anywhere between 240 and 1,080 p. The verse responses found in these 10 examples, while original, tend to draw from similar thematic vocabularies. The following section will examine how four of these themes: (A) news sharing, and calls to collective responsibility, (B) localisms and the invocation of objects, (C) comedy and wordplay, and (D) dialog with the listener—extend the tradition of trova to the emergent crisis of COVID-19.As previously noted, various forms of Mexican son have historically been instrumentalized for the purposes of disseminating important information Heath, . Son huatrovadores were quick to instrumentalize the huapango as a format for transmitting both positive and normative information on the virus. About 4 of the 10 examples selected herald the virus' origins in China, and two make note of how challenging the illness can be to treat. Trío Juvenil Las Orquideas highlights the severity of the virus, warning that “aspirin does not cure it” (no lo cura la aspirina) and that “it could cause death” (la muerte pueda causar). Similarly, Los Venaditos note that “they tell us that (the virus) is lethal”  and that “you will end up very badly” if you don't believe in it . At a first glance, these pronouncements may not seem radical, but they stand in contrast to the positions of various leaders throughout Latin America, such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's claim that the coronavirus is “little more than a cold” and Mexican president Antonio Manuel Lopez Obrador's insistence on attending in-person events without a mask through late March I used to think similarly/but the news informed us (lo mismo pensaba yo/pero las noticias informaron)That from the analyses arose/Various confirmed cases”  , “wash hands” (lávense las manos), and to “not go out without a face mask”  are performed in contexts that corroborate the performer's role as herald of news and authority on right action. In Trío Andante Huasteco's video, the trío is seen performing in an iconic plaza in Ciudad Valles, the most populous city in the Huasteca. As people mill around in the background, the trio's jarana player and primary vocalist announces that “attention is sought from the whole little nation” (la atención se solicita a todita la nación) and that “precautions are required” (precauciones se necesitan) including “to wash your little hands with water and soap” (que se laven las manitas con aguita y con jabón). The use of diminutives , a common way of bestowing affection or signaling cuteness in Mexican vernacular Spanish, lends the performance a lightness of mood while affording the vocalist an opportunity to share a message that is deemed necessary. Trío Cenzontle de Tamalin's video, which is also highly didactic in its lyrics, is shown as part of a local news program. At the beginning of the clip, before the trio begins singing verses urging the listener to “stay in your house” (quédate en casa), an anchor announces the trio accordingly: “the theme of COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, has made its rounds across the globe. In the municipality of Tamalín in Veracruz, Trío Cenzontle Huasteco, comprising Eddie, Julián, and Victor, to the rhythm of El Querreque, sing about the coronavirus and make recommendations to the populace to observe sanitary measures”  . The plaza is a temporary market that occurs on regularized days  in town centers throughout the Huasteca. Since many municipalities in the Huasteca consist of dense, colonial ciudades surrounded by a hinterland of rural comunidades and ejidos, the día de plaza allows for families from the periphery to sell and shop for foodstuffs, artisan wares, and specialized services  in a centralized location. The plaza is an essential part of life in most municipalities throughout the Huasteca, especially those with populations too small to support a daily market or grocery store. It provides economic sustenance for rural farmers and artisans, goods and services to residents of the town, and a setting for casual socialization. However, like other stages for large gatherings, día de plaza is a potential site of mass viral spread.For example, three of the selections make reference to plaza is to the socioeconomic fabric in his community. He continues by “asking all the community” to “stay home” even though “it grieves [him] to say it”   implying that the weekly occurrence has not been canceled in all communities. In this exhortation, the trovador is encouraging his listeners to take personal responsibility for their actions. Moving beyond the mourning of closures, this message articulates the need for individuals to exercise their own agency when public policy is irresponsibly lax.The violinist of Trío Cenzontle de Tamalin acknowledges in his opening verse how “in my town there is no more plaza, and it affects my good people” , speaking to how central the trovadores speaks of changes in commodity prices that occurred congruently to (though not necessarily because of) the pandemic: “Well, the price of gasoline fell/But there is not a happy ending/The tortillas got more expensive/We're going to run out of corn”   consists of vocalists responding to one another through clips recorded on home webcams, with footage of COVID-related news reels spliced between verses. This extended improvisation session features many distinct localisms. At one point, one of the The choice of the two commodities mentioned is telling. Both of these goods serve an essential role in the local social economy, with corn a staple of the local diet and gasoline serving an essential role in the region's informal transportation system. Whether or not these price shifts were directly related to the pandemic, linking an incomprehensibly vast pandemic to a tangible change in the regional economy helps to demystify the connections between the global and local.Many examples make use of localized vocabulary and argot that very clearly situate the performance in a Central Mexican cultural space while simultaneously referring to the globalized spaces of the pandemic. The most explicit example of this phenomenon can be found in Los Yolpakis' rendition of La Muerte, in which they sing verses about the coronavirus in Spanish and Nahuatl, discussed in the opening of the article. Singing verses in Nahuatl serves several purposes: it provides legitimacy to a group professing to represent a locality with deep indigenous identity, allows for the transmission of messages to individuals whose primary language is Nahuatl, and demonstrates the flexibility of heritage languages for developing ways to discuss novel events. trovadores integrate vernacular language that is often rooted in indigenous calques. Consider the following from La Leva: “With this strange virus/A great   are distinct Mexicanisms that are not widely used or recognized throughout the rest of Latin America. In fact, the word olote again highlights the cultural centrality of corn, and can be directly traced to its antecedent, the Nahuatl word olotl, which carries the same meaning. In another clever linkage between the global and the local, this trovador employs a localism (the word for the corn cob after the husk and kernels have been removed) to make a joke about a toilet paper shortage that was experienced at the international level. Alas, New Yorkers, Parisians, and Tokyoites may all have been left with mere empty toilet paper rolls, while Huastecos were left with olotes.As noted by the olotes, many of these examples are full of humor and wordplay. Comic relief has been used as a literary tool to counterbalance tragic narrative arcs since at least Shakespeare's time  of holy death). In “La Leva,” one trovador states that the pandemic situation “ya hizo subir los huevos” , coding a lewd joke within a bit of mundane commentary. Jokes about being “trapped inside” with one's spouse, failing to adequately clean the house, and gaining weight during quarantine are also found throughout the selected videos. In “La Leva,” one trovador warns his listeners that he is growing fat from excessive drinking in quarantine (“y yo me estoy engordando/ pues yo por tanto tragar”).Several of the selected examples include instances of comedic entendre. Los Yolpakis note that the virus could bring “la corona de la muerte santa” [the crown of holy death, or the trovador acknowledges that “the musicians here are all talented, though also all unemployed”  and that “we are all anxious about this strong virus, and to top it off, the President canceled the gigs” (el virus anda bien fuerte/a todos los preocupo/y de paso el presidente/las tocadas canceló) , “my brothers,” (mis hermanos), and “my good people” (mi buena gente) when addressing the audience, establishing a relationship of conviviality and care between the performer and listener. Verses often alternate between a formal, proclamatory tone and an intimate voice that speaks directly to whoever is listening. Los Yolpakis break down this third wall even further by singing “entiendan entonces, cabrones, es tiempo para meditar” . In Mexico, the term cabrón , is technically vulgar and can be offensive in many contexts, but is also used endearingly among confidants to cajole or single out one another. By employing such a term in a public-facing video, Los Yolpakis signal that they consider the listener to be worthy of this intimate code-switch.A fourth quality of the son huasteco response to coronavirus that requires attention is the dialogic nature of the performance style. In several examples, trovadores invoke some form of collectivity. Trio Andante Huasteco proclaims that “we must take this step by step, and like a good Mexican… follow the guidelines,” (hay que irnos paso a paso/y como un buen mexicano/a las medidas hazle caso) tying the observance of sanitary measures to a sense of national pride and shared values. In “El Gustito,” Augusto San Agustín asks his listeners to “not be negligent” (que no haya negligencia) and reminds them that “we will fight this evil” and “if not, it will reach us all” . Trío Esencia Huasteca announces that “we must unite for the cause” (a la causa nos sumamos) and that individuals in the community “must take care of each other” (hay que cuidarse entre si).Calls to collectivity are also extremely prevalent in improvisations about coronavirus. In 6 of the 10 selected examples, trovadores and the online infrastructure that became their main expressive platform took on the role of trusted community voice.This deeply communitarian and highly improvisational approach to mitigating the coronavirus crisis is noteworthy for its emergence before large-scale formal responses by the political sector. At a moment when governments seemed unable to respond effectively and honestly to an unfolding crisis, ad hoc and emergent fashion, so too did musicians respond to the coronavirus by composing new verses to address the crisis. Their new verses encouraged strategies for community preservation, sought to sooth uncertainty and fear with familiar repertory, and entertained listeners with humor in the face of isolation and nascent death. This study is an initial exploration of the linkages between tradition, innovation, digital platforms, and communities finding contingent ways of responding to the global coronavirus pandemic. This case study contributes to the growing body of literature on music and COVID-19 and highlights various dimensions of the ways localism and communitarianism were articulated across an increasingly interlinked transnational mediascape.The COVID-19 pandemic and the social isolation that it produced across the world has posed an existential threat to various forms of cultural expression that, at their core, are oriented around group gatherings. During the spring of 2020, participatory media platforms constituted a means of maintaining connection during times of physical estrangement. In the transnational son huasteco community, the existing infrastructure developed by amateur archivists and DIY promoters to cater to the needs of a geographically dispersed cultural diaspora scaled to meet the needs of the community separated by the pandemic. Just as this digital community coalesced in an The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.Written informed consent was obtained from individuals interviewed for this study. Written informed consent was not obtained for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article from individual(s) speaking in openly accessible online videos or online live chats.All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are the two best-known neurodegenerative diseases. Each is associated with the excessive aggregation in the brain and elsewhere of its own characteristic amyloid proteins. Yet the two afflictions have much in common and often the same amyloids play a role in both. These amyloids need not be toxic and can help regulate bile secretion, synaptic plasticity, and immune defense. Moreover, when they do form toxic aggregates, amyloids typically harm not just patients but their pathogens too. A major port of entry for pathogens is the gut. Keeping the gut’s microbe community (microbiota) healthy and under control requires that our cells’ main energy producers (mitochondria) support the gut-blood barrier and immune system. As we age, these mitochondria eventually succumb to the corrosive byproducts they themselves release, our defenses break down, pathogens or their toxins break through, and the side effects of inflammation and amyloid aggregation become problematic. Although it gets most of the attention, local amyloid aggregation in the brain merely points to a bigger problem: the systemic breakdown of the entire human superorganism, exemplified by an interaction turning bad between mitochondria and microbiota. If we live long enough, we will degenerate; and because it demands a great deal of oxygen and energy, our brain’s decline is particularly conspicuous . The mosUnderneath, moreover, the two disorders involve broadly similar physiological processes, with a major role in both for amyloids – sticky proteins that can aggregate into nanoscale-tiny fibers (fibrils) and larger clumps. The aggregation is due to the folding of the amyloids in a way that causes similar nearby ones to fold in a similar way – a process akin to the propagation of prion amyloids in mad-cow disease and in its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease .Soluble amyloid aggregates tend to be toxic; larger insoluble ones, although quite prominent, need not be . In ParkMAPT gene, which expresses tau, is implicated in not only Alzheimer’s . If the mitochondria fail to deliver the energy the immune system needs, an unhealthy change in the gut microbiota results, known as dysbiosis (see section “Poor Mitochondria Means a Poor Microbiota”). The health of the microbiota thus depends on that of the mitochondria, but because mitochondria need nutrients and are harmed by pathogens, their health also depends on that of the microbiota. For how long the interaction between mitochondria and microbiota remains beneficial, and we can keep neurodegenerative disease at bay, depends in part on the quantity of food we eat (see section “Mitochondria’s Oxygen Consumption Benefits the Microbiota”). It also depends on how rich this food is in, for example, fibers (see section “The Microbiota’s Fatty Acids Benefit Mitochondria”), fatty acids (see section “The Microbiota’s Fatty Acids Benefit Mitochondria”), and protein (see section “The Microbiota’s Hydrogen Sulfide Can Either Benefit or Harm Mitochondria”). With age, both mitochondria and the microbiota deteriorate, and gut pathogens then have multiple options to either indirectly or directly wreak havoc on the brain (see section “Trouble in the Gut Is Trouble in the Brain”). Indeed, Alzheimer’s  and ParkIn low concentrations, amyloids are not a threat but a blessing, and serve useful physiological functions. Beta-amyloid and alpha-synuclein, for example, are involved in fat metabolism, neurotransmitter release, synaptic plasticity, learning and memory . Tau hasCandida albicans  grows less in samples taken from Alzheimer’s patients than in samples taken from people of a similar age without the disease , mice engineered to overproduce human beta-amyloid displayed a lower pathogen load in the brain , which is involved in the transport of cholesterol and other fatty acids or compounds (APOE comes in four variants: APOE1 (extremely rare and not considered further), APOE2 (rare), APOE3 (most common), and APOE4 (common)  . APOE4 ie oldest . Which An levels  and is ln levels . Most stby APOE4 . Mirroriammatory .APOE4 is a major risk factor for early-onset Alzheimer’s  or not at all (like in Africa’s Bushmen)  . The incBushmen) . And altan APOE3 . APOE4’sdementia .APOE4, beta-amyloid 42 also has a bad a reputation  genes. An important epigenetic process is methylation – the addition of a methyl group to a gene, or nearby protein, so that it can no longer be read. The methyl group is provided by S-adenosyl methionine, a chemical that in part is produced with the help of mitochondria  are protected not only from age-related inflammation and a leaky gut but also from dysbiosis . ReducinTo function well, mitochondria need to be fed. They can only metabolize food that has been digested. After having been chewed to bits, meals are first broken down with the help of acid in the stomach, and bile and enzymes in the small intestine; next, the process is taken over by the microbiota, mainly in the large intestine. The gut microbiota expands through cloning and with each of our meals; it diminishes with defecation. Among the bacteria frequently found in the gut, the majority by far use little or no oxygen (here collectively referred to as “anaerobes”), a minority can or must use larger quantities of this gas (here collectively referred to as “aerobes”) . PerhapsGut oxygen levels depend on the kind of metabolism the host engages in Whether food is catabolized or anabolized is regulated in part by hormones sent out by the hypothalamus and an adjacent organ directly under its control: the pituitary gland . In partStill, when facing pathogens, the immune system needs not only catabolism to energize immune cells but also anabolism to allow these cells to grow and multiply . DietingBacteroides  and helps prevent or delay neurodegenerative disease.Short-chain fatty acids not only benefit mitochondria and harm gut pathogens like Lactobacillus salivarius improves their mitochondrial function, raises antioxidant levels, and prevents deterioration in movement, loss of muscle mass, and loss of dopamine neurons  and prebiotics (foods rich in soluble or insoluble fibers probiotic bacteria ferment) . Fatty a neurons . A prebi neurons . ConsistA meta-analysis across several studies involving humans failed to find any benefit of probiotics on cognition . Yet thiGiven that supplementing diets with pro- or pre-biotics typically increases gut microbial fatty acid production, and that fats are fatty-acid compounds, it is interesting to note that an unsupplemented diet poor in carbohydrates, no more than adequate in protein, but high in fats, has repeatedly been found to produce similar benefits. The diet improves mitochondrial function after brain trauma  and can The highlight of a satisfying meal is typically some source of protein: meat, fish, cheese. Its component amino acids stimulate growth and reproduction at the expense of maintenance operations . Essentigut-blood barrier  of a specific kind of neuron (the type that uses dopamine as a neurotransmitter) in a specific part of the brain  is sufficient to induce progressively worsening symptoms of Parkinson’s disease that are not shared with Alzheimer’s disease . Yet in The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


This paper examines relations between econophysics and the law of entropy as foundations of economic phenomena. Ontological entropy, where actual thermodynamic processes are involved in the flow of energy from the Sun through the biosphere and economy, is distinguished from metaphorical entropy, where similar mathematics used for modeling entropy is employed to model economic phenomena. Areas considered include general equilibrium theory, growth theory, business cycles, ecological economics, urban–regional economics, income and wealth distribution, and financial market dynamics. The power-law distributions studied by econophysicists can reflect anti-entropic forces is emphasized to show how entropic and anti-entropic forces can interact to drive economic dynamics, such as in the interaction between business cycles, financial markets, and income distributions. It has long been argued as for example by Mirowski  that ecoThis freshly defined approach involving physicists in particular, sometimes in conjunction with economists, quickly became a self-conscious cottage industry, even though arguably similar efforts had been going on for a long time, if not specifically by self-identified physicists, although some econophysicists have argued that an early inspiration for their work was Ettore Majorana in 1942 , whose uWhile the emerging econophysicists identified themselves as being physicists, an important impetus to their activities came from the intense discussions between economists and physicists at the Santa Fe Institute starting in the late 1980s ,31. WhilN is the number of observations of a variable exceeding x, and A and α are positive constants, thenThis important distribution that shows so many characteristics interesting to econophysicists was initially developed by the socio-economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1897 . If N isN with the probability an observation exceeds x. The log–log form of this is conveniently linear.Scaling can be seen as:a. In 1931, Gibrat h proportion of agents type k out of r, which make transaction x out of an offer set A, of which there are mn, then multiplicity W of an assignment for n agents assigned to S actions, each of them s, which gives the probabilistic states across these possible transactions as:If there are Shannon entropy of this multiplicity involves summing over these proportions similarly to Equation (7) and is written as:This formulation maximizes entropy subject to certain non-empty feasibility constraints, thus giving the Gibbs solution:Schinkus  points o“Entropy is a measure of dispersion, uncertainty, disorder and diversification used in dynamic process, in statistics and information theory, and has been increasingly adopted in financial theory”.p is the price, Δp is the random shock, Δt is the time interval, and the second term on the right hand side is the random shock, distributed ~ N.Using the entropy law with Shannon or Boltzmann–Gibbs distributions can model distributions involving lognormality, both exhibiting normal Gaussian characteristics, Michael J. Stutzer ,129 has q as a quantity:The order-maximizing solution for the neutral density of relative entropy-minimizing conditional risk given by the integral is written as:Thus, the Black–Scholes option-pricing formula can be derived from a martingale product density arising from relative entropy minimizing conditional risk for an asset subject to IID normally distributed shocks. Stutzer understood this does not generate non-Gaussian distributions such as econophysics power law ones. He poses using Generalized Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (GARCH) processes as an alternative.More recent studies have expanded the forms of entropy used in studying financial market dynamics. Thus, transfer entropy has been used by Jizba et al.  to studyIncome and wealth dynamical systems can be driven by interactions between power-law distributions and non-power-law ones. Wealth dynamics apparently exhibit power-law distributions, while income distribution dynamics look to consist of entropy-related Boltzmann–Gibbs distributions. The former seem to drive the top 2–3 percent of income distributions, while the latter seem to drive income distributions below that level in the UK and US ,40.Entropy came to be used in generalizations of various income distribution measures as early as 1981, when Cowell and Kuga  presente“The derivation of distributions with inverse power tails from maximum entropy formalism would be a consequence only of an unconventional auxiliary condition that involves the specification of the average of a complicated logarithmic function”.It is unsurprising that both wealth and financial market distribution dynamics exhibit power-law distributions taking into account their close link, given Vilfredo Pareto’s  role in The sociologist, John Angle , revivedThe question arises as to whether we are dealing with ontological or “merely” metaphorical models in studying wealth and income distributional dynamics. Some see the stochastic elements in these distributions associated with thermodynamical processes fundamentally driving the distributional dynamics of income and wealth. However, these do not appear to be direct ontological processes as with Carnot’s steam engines. More likely, these reflect dynamics associated with no substantial changes in public distributional policies.Yakovenko and Rosser  show a mm, the Boltzmann–Gibbs entropic equilibrium distribution has probability, P, with m seen as:c is a normalizing constant, and mT is the “money temperature” thermodynamically, equaling the money supply per capita. The portion of the income distribution below about 97–98 percent seems to be well modeled by this formulation.Assuming money conservation, γ, then the Gamma distribution rather than the Boltzmann–Gibbs distribution better describes the stationary money distribution with a power-law prefactor, βm, such that:If there is a fixed rate of proportional money transfers equaling This Boltzmann–Gibbs version more simply relates to a power law equivalent than that posed by Montrell and Schlesinger . The conm grow stochastically disconnects this outcome from the maximum entropy solution [w as the wealth per person and J as the average transfer between agents, with σ being the standard deviation:Letting solution , so the solution ,142 is aThis model provides an empirical explanation of income distribution consistent with Marxist and other classical economic views of socio-economic class dynamics ,42,143.There has been further use of variations on the Gamma distribution in studying market dynamics, with Moghaddim et al.  using thFinancial market dynamics interact with income and wealth distribution dynamics during speculative bubbles following a Minsky process ,147,148.The Great Depression brought the end of the “Gilded Age” after a major financial crash that appears to have lowered the top end of the income distribution, as noted by Smeeding . The 200Support for this can be seen looking at the end of the dotcom bubble in 2000, even though somewhat weak, as indicated in The term “econophysics” is of recent vintage, barely a quarter of a century old. However, the idea behind it that ideas and even laws of physics have strongly influenced economicss in a variety of ways is certainly correct. One of such ideas that has deep connections with the newer econophysics is the concept of entropy, which has been applied to many parts of economics, including general equilibrium theory, growth theory, business cycles, ecological economics, urban and regional economics, income and wealth distribution patterns, and financial market dynamics. Some of these applications are ontological in the sense of drawing directly on the second law of thermodynamics as the actual physical driving force involved, such as understanding energy flows through the biosphere and the economy from the Sun. Others are metaphorical, as they draw on models of information theory or other non-specifically physical models using the mathematics of entropy theory. Econophysics has also long emphasized the ubiquity of power-law distributions for many economic phenomena, which in some areas arise from anti-entropic processes that conflict with entropic tendencies. This can generate an underlying dynamic, with an especially dramatic example involving the dynamics of income distribution interacting with business cycles and related financial market dynamics.