The July 2019 Issue of School Psychology delves deep into family-school engagement. Articles examine how parental engagement varies as children and adolescents development and as they attend primary and middle schools. The relationships between parents and their children as a factor is also examined. Two articles examine how parents of children with autism can be engaged successfully in school teams, Read more....
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A special issue (#3, 2015) of the Journal of Children's Services examines how families and schools can work together to enhance educational and other outcomes. Two of the articles report on the effect of two major parent education/training programs; The Incredible Years and Families and Schools Together. Both of these programs are multi-intervention in nature, seeking to influence parent and child behaviours as well as conditions in the school and home. This comprehensive approach is compatible with larger school health promotion programs. The special issue also contains three research reviews. The first is an assessment of systematic reviews on parent-school bullying prevention programs. The second is an extended review of the impact of parent-school programs on educational achievement. The third is similar but uses a meta-analysis methodology. Read more >> (An item from the ISHN Member information service)
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Three articles in June 2015 Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health seek to make the case for "risky" outdoor play for all children. The first article reported on a "systematic review to examine the relationship between risky outdoor play and health in children, in order to inform the debate regarding its benefits and harms. We identified and evaluated 21 relevant papers for quality using the GRADE framework. Included articles addressed the effect on health indicators and behaviours from three types of risky play, as well as risky play supportive environments. The systematic review revealed overall positive effects of risky outdoor play on a variety of health indicators and behaviours, most commonly physical activity, but also social health and behaviours, injuries, and aggression". The second review article examined "the relationship between outdoor time and: (1) physical activity, (2) cardiorespiratory fitness, (3) musculoskeletal fitness, (4) sedentary behaviour; or (5) motor skill development in children aged 3–12 years. We identified 28 relevant studies that were assessed for quality using the GRADE framework. The systematic review revealed overall positive effects of outdoor time on physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and cardiorespiratory fitness, although causality could not be assumed due to a lack of RCTs". The third article was a position paper based on the two articles. Read More>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #3, 2015 of the Journal of Sex research reports on a study in the Netherlands that examined the impact of parent-teen communications on sexual health behaviours. The researchers found that more frequent communications affected some but not all adolescent behaviours. "A nationally representative sample of parent–adolescent dyads (N = 2,965; mean adolescent age = 13.8 years) in the Netherlands was employed to examine the frequency of parent–adolescent sexual communication and its association with adolescent sexual behaviors (defined as sexual initiation, condom use, and contraceptive pill use). Nine communication topics in the areas of anatomy, relationships and rights, and protection and contraception were examined. In all, 75%of parents reported having discussed at least one topic multiple times with their adolescents. Romantic relationships were discussed most frequently. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses indicated that parent–adolescent sexual communication on protection and contraception was positively associated with adolescent sexual initiation and contraceptive pill use but not condom use. This may reflect that adolescents, when they become sexually active, are more likely to discuss sexuality with their parents. Findings are interpreted within the context of Dutch culture, which is generally accepting of adolescent sexuality and characterized by open sexual communication." Read more>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) A systematic review and meta-analyses of parent-based adolescent sexual health interventions reports that they have an effect on communication outcomes. The article appears in Issue #1, 2015 of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. "A systematic search of databases for the period 1998–2013 identified 28 published trials of U.S. parent-based interventions to examine theory use, setting, reach, delivery mode, dose and effects on parent–child communication. Established coding schemes were used to assess use of theory and describe methods employed to achieve behavioral change; intervention effects were explored in meta-analyses. Most interventions were conducted with minority parents in group sessions or via self-paced activities; interventions averaged seven hours, and most used theory extensively. Meta-analyses found improvements in sexual health communication: Analysis of 11 controlled trials indicated a medium effect on increasing communication (Cohen's d, 0.5), and analysis of nine trials found a large effect on increasing parental comfort with communication (0.7); effects were positive regardless of delivery mode or intervention dose. Intervention participants were 68% more likely than controls to report increased communication and 75% more likely to report increased comfort. These findings point to gaps in the range of programs examined in published trials—for example, interventions for parents of sexual minority youth, programs for custodial grandparents and faith-based services. Yet they provide support for the effectiveness of parent-based interventions in improving communication. Innovative delivery approaches could extend programs’ reach, and further research on sexual health outcomes would facilitate the meta-analysis of intervention effectiveness in improving adolescent sexual health behaviors." Read more>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) There is a well-established pattern in the research about the effects and nature of effective parenting. Many studies have told us about parent-child communications, parental supervision, parent expectations, role modeling, parenting styles and other general attributes and how they affect their children's behaviours and health status. However, several articles in Issue #3, 2014 of Social Development take us towards a deeper and more detailed understanding. The first article reports on how parenting, when combined with certain genetic traits, can increase "ego-resiliency". Another article discusses how "maternal social coaching" can affect relational aggression among children. Yet another article describes how parents can provide "support for autonomy" within their children. Another article uses values socialization theories to explain how "values emphasized in families" affects behaviour. The final article in this issue discusses how parenting can overcome economic deprivation and cumulative risk to children by building "effortful control" in their children through "warmth, limit setting, and responsiveness. Read more>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) A study reported in Volume 107, 2014 of Social Science & Medicine examined whether "Mothers' work hours are likely to affect their time allocation towards activities related to children's diet, activity and well-being. The researchers examined the suggestion that mothers who work more may be more reliant on processed foods, foods prepared away from home and school meal programs for their children's meals. A greater number of work hours may also lead to more unsupervised time for children that may, in turn, allow for an increase in unhealthy behaviors among their children such as snacking and sedentary activities such as TV watching. the study confirmed that hypothesis, even more so for higher income families. "Using data on a national cohort of children, we examine the relationship between mothers' average weekly work hours during their children's school years on children's dietary and activity behaviors, BMI and obesity in 5th and 8th grade. Our results are consistent with findings from the literature that maternal work hours are positively associated with children's BMI and obesity especially among children with higher socioeconomic status. Unlike previous papers, our detailed data on children's behaviors allow us to speak directly to affected behaviors that may contribute to the increased BMI. We show that children whose mothers work more consume more unhealthy foods (e.g. soda, fast food) and less healthy foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables, milk) and watch more television. Although they report being slightly more physically active, likely due to organized physical activities, the BMI and obesity results suggest that the deterioration in diet and increase in sedentary behaviors dominate." Read more>>
(From the ISHN Member information service) The recent international conference on physical activity in Toronto in May 2014 had several national surveys reporting sub-standard levels of physical activity in children. Walking and biking to school is potentially the best way to increase school-related PA but studies also shpw that parents are reluctant to allow their children to walk/bike to school or to play outside after school in unsupervised activities. A blog post from an unlikely source (The Microsoft Mobility Lab) helps us to understand how underlying social factors are driving parent concerns and decisions. The Communications Director for the Microsoft Lab asks the question: " Are Fearful, Lurking Parents a Reason for Uninspired Transportation Choice? He quotes from a book on the social lives of networked teens and points out that this parental concern is larger than just the trip to school. Parents are also reluctant to allow their children to go online, ride public transit, or even have much unstructured free time. The article notes how little time is now available for young people to mix socially without monitoring from their parents. He concludes that " We have to remember that when you’re younger, you always want to be older. Kids see adults in places like bars, clubs, restaurants, and even public transit where they are not allowed. Somehow within that mix, we, as a society, have to do a better job of helping our children go through the coming-of-age process in ways that will create the local and global communities for them that we once had as kids ourselves." Read more>>
From the ISHN Member information service) Walking and biking to school (active transportation or routes to school) have been shown to provide the most efficient means for increasing physical activity in the school day but only a minority of parents allow or encourage their children to do so. An analysis of the dataset from the National Evaluation of Walk to School (WTS) Project, which includes data from 4th and 5th grade children and their parents from 18 schools across the US, is reported in the May 2014 issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity. The researchers report that "Measures included monthly child report of mode of school travel during the previous week (n = 10,809) and perceived barriers and social norms around active school travel by parents (n = 1,007) and children (n = 1,219). Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with log-link functions were used to assess bivariate and multivariate associations between hypothesized correlates and frequency of active school travel, assuming random school effect and controlling for the distance to school. The final model showed that the most relevant significant predictors of active school travel were parent’s perceived barriers, specifically child resistance (Estimate = −0.438, p < 0.0001) and safety and weather (Estimate = −0.0245, p < 0.001). The researchers conclude that "Parental concerns may be impacting children’s use of active school travel, and therefore, future interventions to promote active school travel should more actively engage parents and address these concerns through programs like the Walk to School. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A recent review published by the Sutton Trust in the UK has underlined the urgent need to re-introduce or improve the family studies/home economics education provided to students so that they have the necessary parenting skills and knowledge. In a time when an ever-increasing number of children are being raised by parents who themselves have not been parented adequately, where children are bombarded by advertising aimed at increasing their purchases, where their basic cooking skills are minimal,where young adults make poor decisions about mortgage loans because of low financial literacy, where we discard more and more consumer goods rather than repair them, there is a need to focus on the third core subject: family studies/home economics. Health/Personal-Social Development and Physical Education are important but so is this strand of basic literacy for life.
The research has found that " Four in 10 babies don’t develop the strong emotional bonds – what psychologists call ‘secure attachment’ – with their parents that are crucial to success later in life. Disadvantaged children are more likely to face educational and behavioural problems when they grow older as a result". The review of international studies of attachment, Baby Bonds, by Sophie Moullin (Princeton University), Professor Jane Waldfogel (Colombia University and the London School of Economics) and Dr Elizabeth Washbrook (University of Bristol), finds infants aged under three who do not form strong bonds with their mother or father are more likely to suffer from aggression, defiance and hyperactivity when they get older. Read more>> |
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