(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A controversial article published in Issue #1, 2014 of the European Physical Education Review suggests that students who have been excused from PE classes byb a note from their parents should still be required to change into their PE uniforms or clothes and attend the classes. The author suggests that "The notion of power as a theoretical construct emerged as a result of constant comparison between the testimonies of the parents, pupils, teachers and trainee teachers, highlighting the seemingly ‘agreed acceptance’ of excuse notes by those key stakeholders involved in pupil participation. It is perceived that the policy of excuse notes attributes power to parents and pupils to self-exempt from participating in PE". The author also notes that "Parents will provide an excuse note for their child if they do not believe PE holds much value. The condoning of pupil self-exemption by parents is influenced by their values towards PE, embedded by their own school experiences and dispositions." The controversy arises from this analysis of power that assumes that the school has the power and the right to over-ride parental wishes on participation in a certain type of education. Imagine the reaction if parents wishes about sex education or religious education were also discounted. Rather than imposing a form of mild coercion, it might be better if deeper analysis of the parent and child negative experiences in PE were addressed. Read more>>
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(From Drug & Alcohol Findings) The featured review brought together the findings of three reviews conducted for the Cochrane collaboration, each concerned with the effectiveness of ‘universal’ programmes aiming to prevent the development of drinking or drink-related problems in young people aged 18 or younger. As opposed to programmes for high-risk groups, universal programmes target large groups such as an entire age range, whether or not they are known to be specially prone to substance use or problems.The reviewed evidence supports the effectiveness of some but not all universal programmes for alcohol misuse prevention among young people. Given the variability in the results, particular attention should be paid to the content of programmes and the context in which they are delivered, including the setting, key personnel and target age. A programme may for example be effective where adolescent alcohol drinking is rare, but ineffective where it is the norm and reflects powerful social and cultural pressures to drink. Specifically in the school setting, some studies found no effects of preventive programmes, others statistically significant effects. Most commonly observed positive effects were for drunkenness and binge drinking, and it seems that certain generic psychosocial and developmental prevention programmes can be effective and could be considered as policy and practice options.
Main findings School-based programmes Of the 53 trials, 41 were conducted in North America. Relative to a standard curriculum, six of the 11 trials of alcohol-specific interventions found some statistically significant reductions in drinking. Another 39 studies tested more generic programmes. Of these, 14 found some statistically significant reductions in drink-related outcomes relative to a standard curriculum. Some apparently positive results may have been due to inadequate adjustment for ‘clustering’ effects (eg, of children in a class and of classes in schools), and in some studies results were confined to certain subgroups and/or some measures of drinking but not others. Most commonly, significant effects related to drunkenness and binge drinking. Impacts tended to last longer after generic than after alcohol-specific or other programmes. Overall, the evidence is more convincing for certain generic rather than alcohol-specific programmes. Among generic programmes, those based on psychosocial or developmental approaches (life skills in Life Skills Training; social skills and norms in Unplugged; behaviour norms and peer affiliation in the Good Behaviour Game) were most likely to report statistically significant effects over several years when compared to standard school curricula or other types of interventions. Family-based programmes All but one of the 12 trials were conducted in North America. Nine recorded statistically significant reductions in drinking, in some cases over longer as well as shorter term follow-ups. One study recorded apparently negative effects which may have arisen by chance or due to methodological issues. In another, though ineffective on its own, the family-based intervention was effective when combined with a school-based intervention. There is some evidence for the short to medium-term success of gender-specific interventions for daughters, typically involving their mothers. Some trials found impacts only among children already using substances at the start of the trial. Multi-component programmes All but three of the 20 trials were conducted in the USA. Relative to comparison conditions, 12 trials reported statistically significant reductions in drinking lasting up to three years among children allocated to multi-component programmes. Six of the 20 trials found no statistically significant differences, and in another significant reductions were confined to children already drinking at the start of the trial. It was unclear whether in general adding further prevention components to an existing programme improved outcomes; reports on four trials indicated some possible benefits, but another three trials found no such indications. Read More>> (An item from the ISHN Member information service) ISHN has been tracking articles on various school-based and school-linked interventions to increase physical activity among students. One of those articles has noted that walking/biking to school was likely the best and easiest way to increase activity but, often, a minority of parents allow their children to do so. An article in Issue #6, 2013 of the European Journal of Public Health confirms other studies that suggest that parental perceptions of neighbourhood safety will strongly influence that choice. The researchers report that "Significant associations were found between child obesity and the following residential environmental characteristics: the odds of children being obese were lower if their parents believed that it was safe (low/no crime rate) to walk/cycle at night (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.54–0.79) and during the day (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.55–0.86) and that it was easy and pleasant (pedestrian safety) to walk in their neighbourhoods (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.58–0.90) and when local sidewalks were well maintained and unobstructed (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.01–1.40). Conclusion: Parental perceptions of neighbourhood safety and the quality of local sidewalks are significantly associated with obesity values." Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) One of the topics discussed in the ISHN group on Integration within Education Systems is understanding and working with teachers. Several articles in Issue #2, 2013 of The School-Community Journal discuss how teachers often have difficulty in communicating with and involving parents. The first article on first year teachers in New Zealand uses social exchange theory to note that lack of reciprocity, difficulties in building relationships, power-dependence and the social identity of teachers all create barriers. A US study comparing student teacher placements in urban and suburban environments affected teacher perceptions significantly. A third article describes the potential of use of inter-disciplinary teams in middle schools to engage parents. A fourth article examines how individual teacher attitudes and school-related factors will affect the parent-teacher/school relationship.A fifth article explores how adult education programs can teach parents about being ionvolved in schools and their child's education. A sixth article reports on a parent program offered by a housing agency. Read more>>
(From Prevention Plus Wellness) Helping children, adolescents and young adults understand how health risk behaviors and health enhancing behaviors influence each other is critical to them making effective decisions for enhancing their whole health. In particular, youth need to know how substance abuse and health promoting habits affect each other to either enhance or interfere with their physical and mental health, perceived self-image, and achieving important life goals. In the past, health behaviors were viewed as being largely independent of each other. We now know that it is more common for youth to experience a number of co-existing unhealthy behaviors rather than a single behavior problem. These co-occurring behaviors influence each other both directly, as well as indirectly through common underlying risk and protective factors such as self-image and self-regulation skills. Effective prevention programs should therefore help young people identify how multiple areas of their lives interconnect to influence their future health, well-being and happiness. Below we provide some tips for teachers and parents on how to communicate with youth to help them make the connection between substance abuse and healthy behaviors. Read more>>
An item from the ISHN Member information service) There is a long standing consensus in the behavioural research that suggests that behaviours are the result of complex interactions between an individual's genetics, intelligence, personality traits, various social influences like family/parents, schools, the media, underlying social determinants such as socio-economic status, gender, culture, race and others. However, there are few examples of research that seeks to unravel or unpack these interactions in a way that can inform the development of realistic policy or program interventions. On exception to this general lack of practical analysis can be found in an articles in Issue #5, 2013 of Journal of Adolescence, where the personality trait of impulsiveness is examined in conjunction with family influences, gender and substance use. The authors report that " contemporary models of impulsivity argue against a unitary construct and propose at least two potential facets of impulsivity: reward drive and disinhibition. This study investigated the mediating role of prosocial risk-taking in the association between these two facets of impulsivity, family environment, and substance use in Grade 8 students, age 12–14 years (N = 969). For girls, traits related to disinhibition referred to as rash impulsivity were directly associated with greater substance use and, unexpectedly, reward drive was indirectly associated with greater substance use through participation in physical-risk activities, which itself predicted greater use. For boys, participation in physical-risk activities was the only direct predictor of substance use and, as in girls, reward drive conveyed indirect risk through this pathway. Family environment, reward drive, and rash impulsivity were associated with participation in performance-risk activities, and prosocial behavior more generally, but neither of these hypothesized mediators was related to substance use". Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Family dinners have recently been highlighted as a way of promoting health of children and adolescents as well as preventing different health problems. However, an article in Issue #3, 2013 of the Journal of Health & Social Behavior reports that an analysis of the 1997 US National Longitudinal Study of Youth (n = 5,419) suggests that dinners have little effect on substance use and may actually cause an increase. The authors report that "The results indicate that family dinners are not generally associated with alcohol or cigarette use or with drug use initiation. However, a continuous measure of family dinners is modestly associated with marijuana frequency, thus suggesting a potential causal impact. These results show that family dinners may help prevent one form of substance use in the short term but do not generally affect substance use initiation or alcohol and cigarette use." Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in the September 2013 issue of School Psychology Quarterly describes the ambivalent feelings and perceptions of parent involvement held by by teachers. The study was designed as follows: "Parent involvement indicators and correlates were selected from a review of existing research. Participants included 34 teachers and 577 children in kindergarten through third grade. The vast majority of the sample was African American (78%), followed by Caucasian (19%) and other ethnic backgrounds (2%). Two subscales from the Parent Involvement-Teacher scale, contact and comfort, were entered as indicators in a latent profile analysis to determine the number and types of parent involvement classes. Contact included the frequency of interactions between parents and teachers; comfort included the quality of their relationship with the parent and how well their goals were aligned". The authors report that "Three classes provided the optimal solution. This included two classes of parents with low contact with teachers but different comfort levels; one with low contact and low comfort (11%), and one with low contact but high comfort (71%). The remaining class, representing 18% of parents, was rated high on both contact and comfort. Low income status, family problems, and social, emotional, academic, and self-regulation problems distinguished the low comfort class from the other two classes. It is imperative to help teachers feel more comfortable working with families who may be experiencing substantial stressors and who also have children who need support across school and home settings." Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A Canadian study reported in Issue #1, 2013 of Injury Prevention reports that walking or riding to school does increase the risk of child injury. The researchers note that "This cross-sectional study is based on the 2009/10 Canadian Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey. A sample of children aged 11–15 years (n=20 076) was studied. Multi-level logistic regression was used to examine associations between walking or bicycling to school and related injury. Regular active transportation to school at larger distances (approximately >1.6 km; 1.0 miles) was associated with higher relative odds of active transportation injury (OR: 1.52; 95% CI 1.08 to 2.15), with a suggestion of a dose–response relationship between longer travel distances and injury (p=0.02)" Read More>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A supplementary issue of Childhood Obesity explores the influence that parents have on their children's physical activity, eating habits and use of media such as TV, games and other screen time. Several articles in the special issue explore different styles of parenting, role modeling and child-parent communications and other aspects. Parenting/family development models are applied to food, activity and screen use. Mini-research agendas are described. The editorial for the issue notes that measurement issues need considerable work in this area. The articles all appear to be excellent and interesting but sometimes i wonder if researchers on one health issue ever read the similar research that has already been done by people working on other health issues. Parenting and parental influences have already been well-described and discussed in respect to sexual health, substance abuse and problem behaviours as well as in regards to youth development and family systems in general. How much of tbhis is really new or noteworthy? Read more >>
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