(An item from ISHN Member information service) Several articles in Issue #3, 2012 of Children & Schools call for and then start to develop a comprehensive model of school-based and school-linked social work. The editorial provides a rationale for the creation of a national school social work model, followed by an initial conceptualization of a model and recent and future steps to refine the model using an iterative process. Anogther of the articles replicates the efforts of a mixed-method investigation designed to identify barriers and facilitators to school social work practice within different geographic locations. Time constraints and caseloads were found to be the most commonly cited barriers to practice, and respondents from urban locations reported the highest number of barriers when compared with those from suburban and rural settings. As a single category, school staff collaboration, communication, cooperation, and attitudes was cited as the most common facilitator and the highest ranked facilitator of practice. A third article provides an argument for and implications of school social workers as uniquely qualified to develop, lead, and facilitate interdisciplinary, community–university collaboration to increase meaningful family involvement and support children's success in schools through school-linked services. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #6, 2012 of Child, Care, Heallth & Development freview the impact of child vision screening and found benefits as well as more questions about which form is most effective for different types of vision problems. The aim of this review was to determine: (1) the effectiveness of children's vision screening programmes; (2) at what age children should attend vision screening; and (3) what form vision screening programmes should take to be most effective. Screening of children 18 months to 5 years, and subsequent early treatment, led to improved visual outcomes. The benefit was primarily through treatment of amblyopia, with improved visual acuity of the amblyopic eye. However, the overall quality of the evidence was low. The authors conclude that " Screening and treating children with uncorrected refractive error can improve educational outcomes. Evidence suggested that screening occur in the preschool years. Orthoptists were favoured as screening personnel; however, nurses could achieve high sensitivity and specificity with appropriate training. Further research is required to assess the effectiveness of neonatal screening. Most studies suggested that children's vision screening was beneficial, although programme components varied widely (e.g. tests used, screening personnel and age at testing). Research is required to clearly define any improvements to quality of life and any related economic benefits resulting from childhood vision screening". Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) The strong evidence showing that a trusted adult figure in the lives of young people is vitally important has been confiremed, even for young homeless youth attending high school. An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Child & Youth Care Forum describes the factors associated with substance abuse among homeless youth who are continuing to attend high school. The researchers note that " Greater substance use was associated with gang membership, partner abuse and truancy. Lower levels of substance use were associated with higher levels of adult support. Additionally, adult support acted as both a mediator and moderator between the hypothesized risk factors and substance use". Read more.

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Sex Education recalls the important role played by a little handbook called The Little red Schoolbook, which was published in the 1960's and formed part of the sexual revolution underway at that time. The authors note that "After the book's publication in the UK, opponents were successful in pressing for its publisher's prosecution. The ensuing trial led to its withdrawal and its bowdlerisation. It is argued that the work played some part in changing social and sexual mores and sex education practice in the UK, being, in effect, the Urtext of the ‘harm reduction approach’ in sexual health education. The article caught my eye because in the early 1970's, I used the little book with my class of troubled students in a middle class high school in Montreal. The book included practical advice on sex for teens (my students used to enjoy watching me get embarrassed by its frankness) but also included invaluable survival advice for students who were barely tolerated in mainstream education at that time and who got little support at home. We used the book for class discussions and it was a great resource. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Sex Education states that "sex education in England (and almost all other countries) has mostly focused on ‘damage limitation’, emphasising only the dangerous inevitability of pregnancy and childbirth after unprotected sex and the hazards of sexually transmitted diseases. This approach is largely based on restrictive notions of teenage sexuality, characterising teenagers as hypersexual beings for whom sexual drives continuously threaten to produce unwanted babies unless preventive action is taken. Thde authors go on to suggest that " Yet, recent demographic evidence shows that educated women in Europe continue to delay first childbirth for a number of reasons. At the same time they are also subject to seductive and deceptive media messages about the possibilities of conception at late reproductive age through reporting on ‘older’ celebrity mothers, and the role that reproductive technologies play in conquering infertility. In the light of these demographic trends, and the misleading hidden curriculum, this paper contends that discourses of damage limitation are no longer appropriate in sex education. Instead, if educated women are to gain full reproductive autonomy then new, more balanced conceptualisations of sex education that also incorporate appropriate messages about the finite nature of the reproductive lifespan are needed". Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Intervention strategies, such as educational policies, programs, and a supportive environment that improve the social climate for LGBT students in secondary schools and universities are discussed in an article in Issue #4, 2012 of the Jpurnal of LGBT Youth. The authors note that "no studies have compiled and synthesized existing research to show the exclusively positive effect safe school interventions and supportive environments have on LGBT youth. This article presents a summary of the various intervention strategies, examines the strengths and limitations of the existing body of knowledge, and makes recommendations for future research". Read more. 

(From the UCLA School Mental Health Program) School reform continues to focus primarily on two arenas: improving curriculum and instruction and rethinking the way our schools are governed and managed. We have new curriculum, new tests, new evaluation schemes, new technology, and new governance for some schools. But little is substantively new about the ways in which schools address factors that interfere with students benefiting from improved instruction. The purpose of this paper is to provide a policy perspective on what needs to be done
about this matter as the US Congress moves forward to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Read More

An item from ISHN Member information service) Boys are not doing well in schools in many countries these days and part of the reason is the removal of social practices and norms that motivate males. One of these rituals in many societies has been an explicit rite of passage into manhood. An article in Issue #4, 2012 of Pastoral Care in Education reports on the re-introduction of a "rites of passage program" into an all-boys school in New Zealand (all-boy schools may also be part of the solution for some boys). The authors report that "xperiences of staff and students involved in the programme are reported using their own words as far as possible. Of particular note is the impact of the programme on the teacher–student relationship. The study raises some significant points for consideration, applicable beyond the specific programme discussed and relevant to all schools concerned about supporting boys. Read more.

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Most of the attention in bullying prevention has focused on bullying, some of which seeking to explain the relationship between the bully and the school. An article in Issue #17, 2012 of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examines the subsequent bonds between victims of bullying and their schooling. The authors note that " Using a sample of 10th-grade students from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, HLM models were developed to explore the relationship between school-based victimization and the adolescent’s social bond to school. The results suggest that school-based victimization has a negative association with three elements of the adolescent’s social bond to school: attachment, commitment, and belief." Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An intriguing article in Issue #6, 2012 of Crime & Delinquency uses a criminology theory to examine if strained relationships with parents or teachers as well as anger can explain the propensity to bully. This South Korea study reports that there is no such correlation and therefore "strain theory" does not explain bullying behaviour. The authors note that "Using longitudinal data on 2,817 South Korean youth, the current study attempts to fill the gaps by examining whether general strain theory can explain school bullying. As the theory suggests, youth who experience victimization by peers and conflict with parents are more likely to engage in bullying. However, there is limited evidence of the expected interaction effects between strains and conditioning factors. Inconsistent with general strain theory, parental attachment and positive relationships with teachers do not condition the effects of strains, and anger is not a mediating variable". Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the October 2012 issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity offers a detailed analysis of the reasons why parents choose to have their child walk or bike to school. Using Canadian HBSC data and Google Street View, the researchers examined why the 3,997 students living within one mile of their schools (26,078 students attended these schools) followed active transportation routes to schools and what kinds on interventions could encourage more to do so. The factors that influenced that choice were: the gender of the child, not living with both parents, socioeconomic status, perceived neighbourhood safety, proportion of roads with sidewalks, vacant or shabby buildings, rainy, cold or hot climates. School policies and programs to encourage active transportation (special days, bike racks etc) seemed to not have a positive effect, so the contradictory data was discarded as was the counter-intuitive finding that higher speed limits were correlated with more active transport. Actions to improve neighbourhood safety and calm traffic were suggested in the conclusions. It is also noteworthy that a small minority of total students attending these urban Canadian schools were within one mile and within that minority about 60% of students walked or biked to school. The analysis offers an excellent example of multi-level analysis to unravel the complex ecological factors affecting behaviours.  Read more.

(An item from ISHN Member information service) With the recent approval in a Washington State, USA vote on decriminalization of marijuana, an article in Issue #6, 2012 of the International Journal of Drug Policy caught our attention. The authors suggest that the value of the average, annual consumption of marijuana in British Columbia, which is next door to Washington State, is $407 million. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service)   Regular readers of this information service will know that we have been tracking articles that discuss "school connectedness" and made the argument that it is different from generalized efforts to improve "school climate" and is more about the relationships (social attachments) that are formed at school, which can be negative, positive or non-existent. An article in the October 2012 issue of Advances in Mental Health adds to this discussion while suggesting that connectedness can be a mediating factor with children who are involved with child protective services. Using an eight year old definition, the authors argue "School connectedness is the belief among students that teachers and other adults within the school care about them as individuals and about their learning (Wingspread Declaration on School Connections, 2004).  Despite the use of a variety of different terms within the research literature, including school connectedness, school attachment, school climate, school environment, or school bonding, the underlying concern is with perceptions of the social and learning environment". Later in the article they note "As experiences of adversity accumulate and the range of problem areas expands, the negative effects on future outcomes climb. Within such circumstances, small encouragements and attachments at school may play a large protective role, providing supportive social networks, routines, structured environments, and positive role models.   Schools are a practical alternative for youth seeking connections and a sense of belonging". Even with these few sentences, the need to clarify the concept and describe the actual interventions more specifically about connectedness becomes clear. In our view, it is not about exhorting teachers to care more, or general efforts to make the school climate happier. It is about carefully structuring activities, attachments, routines, series, opportunities, recognitions around students in school who are already on a negative trajectory. There are multi-intervention programs such as Positive Behaviour Support, that do this.  It is also recognizing that the accreditation/student evaluation function of schools will mean that some students will inevitably not experience success at school. This means that, despite the pressure on schools to raise "standards, they must also offer meaningful pathways to other forms of employment and vocation as well as recognize alternative forms of social achievement thatn only athletics and academics.  Read More. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) We have been following articles that discuss behavioural intentions and this latest one indicates that the transparency of BI research may need improvement. An article in the November 2012 issue of Addictions reports on an analysis of BI research studies and " used the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs (TREND) Statement to develop the 59-question Adapted TREND Questionnaire (ATQ). Each ATQ question corresponds to a transparency guideline and asks how clearly a study reports its objectives, research design, analytical methods and conclusions". The authors noted that "The average report adhered to 38.4 (65.1%) of the 59 ATQ transparency guidelines. Each of the 59 ATQ questions received positive responses from an average of 16.9 (63.8%) of the reports." They conclude that " Gambling intervention reports need to improve their transparency by adhering to currently neglected and particularly relevant guidelines. Among them are recommendations for comparing study participants who are lost to follow-up and those who are retained, comparing study participants with the target population, describing methods used to minimize potential bias due to group assignment, and reporting adverse events or unintended effects." Given the potential challenges associated with BI and its importance as a tool for school health studies, where behavioural outcomes are expensive to track for more than a few months after the intervention, this article appears very relevant. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) With a recent teen suicide in Canada causing significant concern, similar concerns and even legislation in Iowa and Facebook launching a campaign to prevent bullhying, an article in Issue #6, 2012 of The Journal of Adolescent Research, written by Canadian researchers, is both timely and saddening. The descriptive study helps us to understand how teen learn from their mistakes in disclosing personal information online and offers throughts on relevant education programs. The authors note that: "In a sample of 256 adolescent Facebook users, the authors explore the relationship between having a negative experience, privacy knowledge, and behavior. Their reports of bad experiences on Facebook are categorized as bullying/meanness, unwanted contact, exposure/unintentional disclosure, and misunderstandings. Adolescents who report having a bad experience are more likely to protect their privacy, and this relationship is mediated by knowledge of the privacy settings. Participants who experience negative consequences are more aware of the risks of online disclosure and how to protect themselves, which results in greater information control. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Youth & Adolescence suggests that protective fathers (parents) who closely monitor their daughters relationships with boys will likely result in delayed and less use of alcohol. The authors report that: "for girls, higher levels of parental monitoring lead to fewer other-sex friendships, which then lead to lower levels of subsequent alcohol use. For drug use, the findings provided support for a direct relationship between early adolescent parental monitoring and late adolescent drug use for both boys and girls. Thus, parents seem to have a protective effect on their daughters’ later use of alcohol by limiting inclusion of male friends in their networks. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #4, 2012 of Social Development explores the impact of two different cultures (Italy & Singapore) on teen bystander reactions to bullying. The researchers report that: "Participants were 1031 school-age children from two culturally diverse settings, namely Italy and Singapore, which are similar on several dimensions (e.g., quality of life, child welfare) but dramatically differ on other aspects, such as individualism—collectivism orientation. Multilevel analyses showed that country and participants' gender moderated the relations between individual predictors and behavior during bullying episodes. In particular, although individual attitudes were a stronger predictor of Italian students'—especially girls'—behavior, perceived peer expectations were more strongly associated with behavior of Singaporean participants. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) A Canadian study reporting on over 300 interviews with young children entering kindergarten from pre-school is found in the November 2012 issue of Children and Society. The authors report that: Findings from 33 focus-group discussions suggest that children begin to formulate ideas about starting kindergarten prior to school entry. Children’s responses were grouped according to three themes, play versus academic activities and homework; getting bigger but still needing help; and rules. Overall, the responses highlighted their expectations regarding continuity and discontinuity between the two environments. These findings support the position that children should be given the opportunity to contribute to the planning of transition practices. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health reports on the validity of a questionnaire designed to assess the youth-friendliness of primary and preventive health services. this criteria underlying the effectiveness of health services delivered to teens is one of the important parts of a comprehensive approach to school health promotion. The tool can be used to assess school-linked services such as local clinics and physicians offices as well as school based health centres. Read more. 

(From the ASCD Health & Learning News Updates)  A study in the journal Appetite found that students who skipped breakfast performed worse on Internet-based tests of attention, memory, and reaction time than their peers who had eaten breakfast. Researchers in the United Kingdom asked 1,386 students from 32 schools to take several online performance tests and indicate whether or not they had eaten breakfast. The vast majority of students (1,202) reported having eaten breakfast, but 5.6 percent of boys and 7.6 percent of girls said they had skipped a morning meal. In addition, results showed that girls who did not eat breakfast were less able to focus then the boys who had missed breakfast. Read More. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) A Canadian study reported in the November 2012 issue of Pediatrics reports that about one-quarter of over 1200 students who returned a mail-in survey reported tnhat they were active for about 50 minutes twice per week. The authors report that "Nearly one-quarter (24%) of participants reported exergaming. Exergamers played 2 days per week on average, for ∼50 minutes each bout; 73% of exergamers played at a moderate or vigorous intensity. Exergamers were more likely than nonexergamers to be girls, to play nonactive video games, to watch ≥2 hours of television per day, to be stressed about weight, and to be nonsmokers. Many adolescents exergame at intensity levels that could help them achieve current moderate-to-vigorous PA recommendations. Interventions that encourage exergaming may increase PA and decrease sedentary behavior in select youth subgroups, notably in girls". Read more. 

(From UCLA School Mental Health Project) Educating the whole child" is a phrase that has been in and out of style for over 100 years, but as the engines rev up for the re-authorization of ESEA ... At the core of the "whole child" concept is the understanding that children grow physically, emotionally, and intellectually; therefore, school should attend to all of these areas of growth.(Center for Inspired Teaching). A whole school has three primary, essential, and overlapping primary components: (1) curriculum and teaching, (2) a learning supports system
to address factors that interfere with learning and teaching, and (3) school governance/management. While every school pursues functions related to all three, each component continues to be the focus of what often are controversial school improvement efforts. Given available findings, the consensus is that schools are more effectiveand caring places when they have family engagement and are an integral and positive part of the community. State and local education agencies all over the country have recognized the importance of school, family, and community collaboration. The aim is to sustain formal connections and strong engagement over time. The frequent calls for enhancing parent and community engagement with schools, however, often are not accompanied by effective action. This undercuts efforts to focus on whole student and whole school development. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #4, 2012 of Educational Research presents a theory-based explanation as to how experienced teachers develop professionally. The authors note that : "The review is framed by theories within the constructivist paradigm. From this perspective, knowledge is perceived as the construction of meaning and understanding within social interaction. The social surroundings are seen as decisive for how the individual learns and develops. It is argued that courses and lectures, or ‘times for telling’, and teachers’ development of a metacognitive attitude are decisive factors for teachers’ learning within a constructivist frame of reference." The review of articles shows that both individual and organisational factors impact teachers’ learning. Teacher co-operation has importance for how they develop, and some of the teachers can lead such learning activities themselves. Moreover, a positive school culture with a good atmosphere and understanding of teachers’ learning, in addition to co-operation with external resource persons, may impact the professional development of teachers. The article concludes with the reflection that learning in school is the best arena for further development of teachers. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in issue #5, 2012 of the International Journal of Educational Policy and Leadership notes that teachers and administrators had some differences in their perceptions about bullying. Teachers felt more strongly that educators played an important role in bullying prevention; however, administrators felt more comfortable communicating with the parents of bullying victims. Interestingly, teachers were significantly more likely than administrators to perceive a need for increased bullying prevention training. Significant gender differences concerning the inclusion of bullying prevention in school curriculum were also found. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Several articles in Issue #8, 2012 of Teaching & Teacher Education continue that journal's tradition of describing teachers, student teachers and their norms, beliefs and practices. These offer excellent insights for advocates of health and social development programs in schools. Read more.