Vol. 1 No. 1 (2022): Revista U-Mores

We are pleased to present issue number 1, volume 1 of the U-Mores Journal, whose publication was born as a need to integrate the field of cognitive science to the areas of education, health, social groups, institutions, and others, with a strong humanistic vision and a rigorous basis in empirical evidence. Its name - from the Latin "mores" - refers to the need for permanent revision of praxis and research standards. However, to dwell is also a "chosen voice". This mainly literary usage refers to the necessary voice that researchers must make heard in their role as founders of scientific knowledge. To dwell is also to inhabit... and this journal is an invitation to inhabit science, method and evidence from the daily university practice, in the search for excellence.

From Ecuador, and with a strong international projection, the journal focuses on current issues, with social relevance, considering the historical and social interweaving of the Ecuadorian reality, the legal framework and bioethical principles. It seeks to promote the development of critical, collaborative and competent problem-solving thinking in the scientific and community spheres.

In recent years, words such as neuroscience, neurocognition, neuropedagogy, neurodidactics and neurolearning have been of interest to the scientific community; many studies have been interested in positioning "cognitive neuroscience" as an answer to the problems that arise in educational systems, and its study has also been extended to other fields of human social behavior (Roman and Poenitz, 2018; Benavidez and Flores, 2019). Despite the various findings that science has contributed in the field of cognitive neuroscience, in diverse social scenarios and with different age populations, Ecuador -and Latin America in general-, there is still an arduous road to travel, which is not exempt from the difficulties inherent to its context.

From the editorial and scientific team of the journal, we firmly believe that empirical evidence makes possible the multiplicity of levels of analysis, the integration of epistemology(s) and the ineffable richness that comes from the viewpoint of a diversity of methods and designs.
This publication includes five articles that present interesting results at a level suitable for the target audience. These papers present the approach and the clear and pleasant exposition of the topics that, with the originality of the results presented, awaken the interest and stimulate the community in their reading.

Here are included reflections based on topics related to mental health, with evidence of experiences based on research results, theoretically grounded proposals, theoretically or empirically supported discussions, historical or biographical essays of interest to the area of sciences of integral human development and neuropsychological aspects in particular.

The published studies are briefly discussed below:

The first article, "Improvement of quality of life in patients with end-stage renal disease, based on their adherence to renal replacement therapy/hemodialysis", introduces us to the concept of "quality of life", as a state of balance of the individual with his or her family, social and spiritual environment. It describes the perception of the individual who receives a diagnosis of chronic kidney disease and the process that begins with his or her immersion in a renal replacement program.

The patient's mental health should lead to the development of mechanisms and strategies that allow him to find his point of balance again from the new reality that is projected permanently. For this, an adequate approach to the subject and his environment can make the difference, so the article deals with chronic kidney disease based on adherence to renal replacement therapy/hemodialysis. The study is based on a descriptive design, concluding in the pertinence of considering psychoeducational intervention programs that contemplate three basic aspects: education, communication and information based on strategies with which awareness of the disease and treatment can be generated.

The second paper, entitled: "Gender violence in educational settings. A look at the attitudes of managers of education district No. 07D03", seeks to investigate and analyze the attitudes on practices based on gender violence in a sample of managers of public institutions of education district 07D03 Atahualpa - Portovelo - Zzaruma, Ecuador, to determine whether such attitudes favor the eradication of gender violence, and therefore, the construction of an egalitarian society, or on the contrary, maintain the transmission and reproduction of sexist and stereotyped sociocultural patterns in the educational environment.

A descriptive and quantitative methodology was used; the instruments used for data collection were the inventory of masculinity and femininity (imafe), and the scale of attitudes towards intimate partner violence. The results indicate that managers show a favorable attitude towards the prevention of gender violence; however, there is a notable inconsistency between sexes, which would indicate that it is women who are more predisposed towards an egalitarian culture, as opposed to men, who could be conditioning their genuine attitudes with social desirability.

Thirdly, the "Psychosocial consequences in families in the cantons of Pedro Moncayo and Cayambe, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic" are addressed. In the full relevance of the investigation of the impact of the events of the last biennium, the World Health Organization has pronounced itself on the psychosocial and health consequences in the world population, due to SARS-COV-2. This article seeks to assess the psychosocial consequences in families in the cantons of Pedro Moncayo and Cayambe, Ecuador. A qualitative-quantitative study of non-experimental design is presented, with an exploratory and descriptive scope.

The conclusions reported differences in the psychosocial impact among the participating families, mediated by socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors. It was evidenced that the most affected families were those from the Cayambe canton and that the male subjects showed greater affectation in their mental health, compared to the female subjects.

In penultimate place, the work published under the title "School violence and its relationship with suicidal ideation in adolescents of the "Pedro Carbo" Educational Unit, addresses the problem of school violence and how it is related to suicidal ideation. The aim was to determine the rates of school violence and suicidal ideation in the school mentioned in the title of the article. The general objective was to analyze the relationship between school violence and suicidal ideation in the selected population, based on a descriptive and correlational cross-sectional design.

Two instruments were implemented: the Ave test (Bullying and School Violence) and the Beck Suicidal Ideation Scale. The results indicate that high levels of school violence predominate, with 66.7%, followed by 22.2% corresponding to the medium level and 11.1% to the low level. In the levels of suicidal ideation, it was found that 55.6% of the students presented a high level of ideation, 33.3% corresponded to the low level and 11.1% to the medium level.

The last article, entitled "Pilot program of psychoeducational intervention for the prevention of child sexual abuse", describes the development of a program implemented in educational institutions in the Ecuadorian highlands, with psychoeducational intervention for the prevention of child sexual abuse. It involved 264 teachers chosen according to their affinity with the program, the need for knowledge and the minimum requirements for its development.

The project addressed the historical, cultural and evolutionary perspective of child sexual abuse at national level, informed about psychosocial, legal and sexual crime definitions, incidence and prevalence at national and international level, included causal explanations and consequences of sexual abuse in an infant, exposed the bases of the explanatory framework of child sexual abuse, involved the design of strategies for the prevention of sexual abuse in children, as well as its psychological consequences. As part of the results, the development of tools for teaching work, the construction of a profile of a child abuser and an alert screen for the recognition of violated children were obtained.

Therefore, the scientific community is invited to submit their manuscripts to our journal, in order to publish their research results. The requirements of form can be consulted in our official site, in the section of instructions for authors, which must be scrupulously followed to initiate a process of selection, arbitration, correction and edition, which are in correspondence with the lines approved by the Universidad Tecnológica Israel, publisher of our journal.

In this way, we leave at the disposal of our readers this material for the transfer and dissemination of knowledge.

PhD. Ana Victoria Poenitz Boudot
Editor of U-Mores Journal