An article in Issue #5, 2015 of Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport reports a systematic review of physical activity and cognition in adolescents. The results are described as positive but, in fact, the reviews appear to be mixed. "The purpose is to perform a systematic review of the evidence on the associations between physical activity and cognition by differentiating between academic and cognitive performance measures.A total of 20 articles met the inclusion criteria, 2 of them analyzed both cognitive and academic performance . Four articles (18%) found no association between physical activity and academic performance, 11 (50%) found positive association and one showed negative association (5%). Five articles (23%) found positive association between physical activity and cognitive performance and one showed negative association (5%). The findings of these studies show that cognitive performance is associated with vigorous physical activity and that academic performance is related to general physical activity, but mainly in girls". The authors suggest that "Results of the review support that physical activity is associated with cognition, but more research is needed to clarify the role of sex, intensity and type of physical activity and some psychological variables of this association." While there is likely little doubt, based on common sense, that we are all alert and functioning better when we are active, especially immediately after taking an activity break, the real question is how much activity makes a difference for young people (who are usually quite active on average) and how much impact is created from increased moderate activity achieved in schools (which other studies often measure in marginal gains of a few minutes in multiple activities such as recess, walking to school, increased activity in PE classes, PA breaks in classrooms etc. Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
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As the realization that physical activity alone does not significantly affect body weight or obesity gradually grows in the research, policy-making and practice, it is important to note that there are other real and important physical benefits from increased levels of activity. An article in the September 2015 Issue of International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity highlights some of those benefits. "Physical activity (PA), weight-bearing exercises (WBE) and muscle strength contribute to skeletal development, while sedentary behaviour (SB) adversely affects bone health. Previous studies examined the isolated effect of PA, SB or muscle strength on bone health, which was usually assessed by x-ray methods, in children. Little is known about the combined effects of these factors on bone stiffness (SI) assessed by quantitative ultrasound. We investigated the joint association of PA, SB and muscle strength on SI in children. This study suggests that already an additional 10 min/day of MPA or VPA or the participation in WBE may result in a relevant increase in SI in children, taking muscle strength and SB into account. Our results support the importance of assessing accelerometer-based PA in large-scale studies. This may be important when deriving dose–response relationships between PA and bone health in children." Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
Several articles in Issue #5, 2015 of Youth & Society examine how school are organized, the norms and attitudes of teachers and their goals concerning student well-being have an impact on student health and social development. The first article notes that "There are few areas of school organization that reflect more dissatisfaction than how to structure the education of adolescents in the middle grades." A study from the Netherlands reported on how ethnic minority students in vocational high schools were often expelled from those schools to attend "rebound" schools. A third article reported that the number of middle and high schools in a community were predictive of higher levels of drug crime in New Mexico, USA. A fourth article made the argument for schools incorporating student well-being as an essential indicator of their effectiveness as a school. A Quebec study reported that ethnicity and teacher-perceived signs of disadvantage in kindergarten predicted that visible minority children were far less likely to have a positive relationship with their Grade Four teachers. Read More>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
Two articles in Volume 53, 2015 of Social Science Research examine residential mobility during adolescence and housing instability. The first article reports that "Controlling for major predictors of housing mobility, students experiencing at least one move over a 12-month period have a roughly 50% decreased likelihood of obtaining a high school diploma by the age of 25. These associations are identified regardless of whether students move to a poorer or less-poor neighborhood". The second study "investigated the longitudinal effects of family structure changes and housing instability in adolescence on functioning in the transition to adulthood. Findings suggested housing mobility in adolescence predicted poorer functioning across outcomes in young adulthood, and youth living in multigenerational homes exhibited greater likelihood to be arrested than adolescents in single-generation homes. However, neither family structure changes nor its interaction with residential instability or ethnicity related to young adult outcomes. Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
Adolescent substance use following participation in a universal drug prevention program is reported in an article in Issue #3, 2015 of Substance Abuse. "The study examined whether adolescents receiving a universal, school based, drug prevention program in Grade 7 varied, by student profile, in substance use behaviors post program implementation. Profiles were a function of recall of program receipt and substance use at baseline." Students who had no baseline substance use and had program recall were significantly less likely to use substances. For other students, including those who had no recall of the program but were not using at the start of the program and those who were using before participating in the program, the universal program had no impact. Read more>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
Several articles in Issue #8-9, 2015 of Substance Use & Misuse are part of a special Issue describing progress (and not) in substance abuse. The title of the issue says it well "Fifty Years Later: Ongoing Flaws and Unfinished Business". The articles include some great insights into the debates, many ongoing, within this filed. They include a discussion of the politics in dropping the term "addiction" and turning to problematic or misuse; the failure to address discrimination as a cause of substance abuse; the clever marketing that underlies "evidence-based practices" and how the concept of "gateway drug" needs to be retired. Another article likes drug use by young people in Hong Kong to the profound economic and social changes that have occurred there in the past five decades. One not to be missed is an article discussing how negative (focus on risk and problems) and positive (focus on assets and youth development) models in adolescent substance abuse prevention are found wanting. The over reliance on RCT studies as the "gold standard" in knowledge development is also debated. Another article describes the ongoing challenges associated with implementation and maintenance of effective programs. Other deal with context, the challenges of integrated programming, evidence-based vs local programs, and community-school cooperation. n brief, the special issues captures much of the recent history and challenges in substance abuse prevention but it also offers insight into prevention and promotion more generally. Read More>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Two articles in Volume 183, 2015 of Journal of Affective Disorders report on the use of the Delphi method (used to develop consensus) to list and assess the value of interventions to reduce the risk of adolescent depression and on parenting strategies to reduce childhood depression and anxiety. The first article used a literature search to identify 194 potential interventions. "These were presented over three questionnaire rounds to panels of 32 international research and practice experts and 49 consumer advocates, who rated the preventive importance of each recommendation and the feasibility of their implementation by adolescents. 145 strategies were endorsed as likely to be helpful in reducing adolescents׳ risk of developing depression by ≥80% of both panels. Endorsed strategies included messages on mental fitness, personal identity, life skills, healthy relationships, healthy lifestyles, and recreation and leisure. " The second article used a literature search identified 289 recommendations for parents which were then presented to a panel of 44 international experts over three survey rounds, who rated their preventive importance. "171 strategies were endorsed as important or essential for preventing childhood depression or anxiety disorders by ≥90% of the panel." Some researchers contributed to both articles. The ISHN web site (www.schools-for-all.org) uses a similar combination of research-based evidence and the views of experienced practitioners, descition-makers and advocates and publishes the content in a Wikipedia style web site. Read more>>
Multiple Intelligences: A Part of Curriculum Design in Health-Personal-Social Development Education9/21/2015 (An item from the ISHN Member information service) Most of the discussion and debates about curriculum design in health-personal-social development education has revolved around teaching knowledge (facts) and/or skills. In fact, the design and delivery of HPSD education is far more sophisticated than these two elements. They include attitudes, health beliefs/self-efficacy, normative beliefs, functional knowledge, behavioural intentions, perceptions of risk and more. An article in Issue #3, 2015 of Global Health Promotion reminds us yet another element, multiple intelligences (MI). The concept of MI recognizes that students learn in a variety of ways, through verbal, logical, spatial, bodily, interpersonal, naturalistic and existentialist intelligences. The article reports on a Nigeria study where a programme of drug education based on the Multiple Intelligences Teaching Approach (MITA) was developed. "An experimental group was taught using this programme while a control group was taught using the same programme but developed based on the Traditional Teaching Approach. Pupils taught with the MITA acquired more drug refusal skills than those taught with the Traditional Teaching Approach." Note: The ISHN description of HPSD education can be found here. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) This blog advocates use of ecological analysis and action (comprising an ecological approach) so that the complex, inter-related factors in the real world can be considered when identifying and implementing interventions to influence both individual behaviours as well as conditions that influence those behaviours. An article in Issue #3, 2015 of Health Promotion International got our attention when it called for more attention to " time, a dimension beyond the socio-ecological model, is a critical factor of families' busy lives". We have no quarrel with the argument presented in the article. "Physical activity and healthy eating have long been promoted as key strategies in tackling the ‘wicked problem’ of obesity. Both practices are assumed to go hand-in-hand, but whether one dominates the other has largely remained unexamined. ". The study conducted 47 family interviews as part of a mixed methods study examining environmental influences on youth obesity. "Time pressure to meet the demands associated with scheduled physical activity for youth was the dominant theme across interviews from all neighborhoods. Physical activity and healthy eating were valued differently, with greater value placed on physical activity than healthy eating. The pressure to engage youth in organized physical activity appeared to outweigh the importance of healthy eating, which led to neglecting family meals at home and consuming fast food and take out options. Our findings further reinforce the need to move beyond the socio-ecological model to integrate critical dimensions such as ‘time’, to allow for a more nuanced understanding of contemporary healthy living." Our quarrel rests with the interpretation of the ecological model. Surely that is the purpose of examining the ecology of the situation, including all relevant factors such as time, transportation, economics and much more. Note: The ISHN definition of an ecological approach can be found here. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Many of the national and provincial mental health strategies announced in recent years have included schools as a primary component, with teachers being critical, especially their "mental health literacy". An article in Issue #3, 2015 of School Mental Health reports on a small scale study that describes teacher perceptions of their role(s). It is noteworthy that teacher competence in MH is only one of the six factors identified as barriers by teachers. "This paper explores the teacher role in inter-professional collaboration in mental health promotion and identifies teachers’ perceived challenges to collaborative work in this field. Data are derived from a mixed method design, with three focus group interviews (n = 15) and survey research (n = 771) conducted with Norwegian K-12 teachers. The findings show that teachers perceive their gatekeeping role to be prominent, in that they are front line professionals to identify students’ mental health problems and, if necessary, make referrals to mental health services. However, teachers realize that mental health promotion encompasses more than the assessment of difficulties, and they call for more support and information through inter-professional collaboration in order to extend their engagement in student mental health beyond the gatekeeping role. Based on this, six main challenges to inter-professional collaboration are identified. These are the challenges of: (1) communication and confidentiality, (2) time constraints, (3) contextual presence and understanding, (4) cross-systems contact, (5) school leadership and (6) teacher competence in mental health." Read more>>
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