Magnocellular mediated visual-spatial attention and reading ability

This study explores the relationship between attentional processing mediated by visual magnocellular (MC) processing and reading ability. Reading ability in a group of primary school children was compared to performance on a visual cued coherent motion detection task. The results showed that a brief spatial cue was more effective in drawing attention either away or towards a visual target in the group of readers ranked in the upper 25% of the sample compared to lower ranked readers. Regression analysis showed a significant relationship between attentional processing and reading when the effects of age and intellectual ability were removed. Results suggested a stronger relationship between visual attentional and non-word reading compared to irregular word reading. (C) 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

Breakfast skipping is associated with cyberbullying and school bullying victimization:a school-based cross-sectional study

Breakfast skipping is a health concern that has well-known negative consequences physically and psychologically. It is therefore important to understand why children skip breakfast. The purpose of this study was to establish whether the experience of bullying and cyberbullying impacts upon breakfast skipping and to further evaluate whether the inability for youths to cope with bullying victimization affects their mental health (depression), and in turn predicts breakfast skipping. Data were obtained from the Eastern Ontario 2011 Youth Risk Behaviour Survey, a cross-sectional regional school-based survey of middle and high school students (11-20 years old) across the five counties of Eastern Ontario, Canada (N = 3035). Self-reported data about children's experiences of bullying victimization, breakfast eating habits, socio-economical status, depression, and other risk behaviours were analysed. Approximately half of the participants (50.4%) reported not eating breakfast on a regular basis: 26.3% and 24.1% reported often (usually eat breakfast three times or more per week) and frequent (usually eat breakfast twice a week or less) breakfast skipping behaviour, respectively. Victims of both cyberbullying and school bullying presented greater likelihood of often (adjusted relative risk ratio (RR) = 1.55; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.17-2.06) and frequent (RR = 1.97; 95% CI = 1.28-3.03) breakfast skipping. Mediation analysis further showed that depression fully mediated the relationship between school bullying victimization and frequent breakfast skipping. Moreover, depression partially mediated the associations between both cyberbullying and school bullying with frequent breakfast skipping. These findings highlight the potential interrelationships between cyberbullying, school bullying and depression in predicting unhealthy breakfast skipping behaviour in children. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.