(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.
0 Comments
(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.
|
Welcome to our
|