Is dating violence associated with substance use and sexual risk behaviors among urban, minority, middle school youth

Background. One in 4 adolescents reports some form of dating violence each year. Dating violence among high school adolescents has been linked with several morbidity issues. However, the association between dating violence and sexual risk and/or substance use among young adolescents has rarely been studied.^ Methods. Research hypotheses were tested using a secondary data analysis from a HIV, STI, pregnancy prevention intervention study for urban middle school students.^ Results. At baseline, 21% of youth reported experiencing physical ADV victimization, 48.2% reported non-physical victimization, and 52.6% report any victimization. After adjusting for race/ethnicity, gender, and age ever having sex, alcohol use, and illicit drug use were significantly associated with several forms of ADV.^ Conclusions. Dating violence appears to be associated with early initiation of sexual behavior, as well as alcohol and drug use. Few interventions address ADV among middle school youth. Early interventions that prevent dating violence are needed. ^

African American and Hispanic adolescent STI and pregnancy prevention: Whose responsibility is it, anyway?

This dissertation utilized quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the role of responsibility in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy through condom use and other sexual behaviors among young adolescents. Data were analyzed across race and gender and three papers were developed. The quantitative portion used logistic regression to assess associations between personal responsibility, as well as other know correlates, and reported condom use and condom use intentions as a means of STI and pregnancy prevention among 445 inner-city, high school adolescents. Responsibility to prevent pregnancy by providing the condom was associated with condom use at last sex and consistent condom use. Responsibility to prevent acquiring a STI by using a condom was significantly associated with consistent condom use. No significant associations were found between responsibility and condom use intentions. ^ The qualitative section of the dissertation project involved conducting 28 in-depth interviews among 9th and 10th grade, African American and Hispanic students who attended a large urban school district in South Central Texas. Perceptions of responsibility for preventing STIs and unintended pregnancy, as well as for condom use, were explored. Male and female adolescents expressed joint responsibility to prevent a STI or pregnancy. Perceptions of responsibility for providing and using the condoms were mixed. Despite the indication of both partners, mostly all participants implied that females, more so than the males, had the final responsibility to prevent contracting a STI, a pregnancy, to provide a condom, and to make sure a condom was used. Participants expressed the role of parents' involvement for preventing these outcomes as well as the need for more sexual health education and access to preventative methods. ^ The last section of this dissertation involved qualitative inquiry to ascertain perceptions of reasons why adolescents engage in anal and oral (non-coital) sex. Pleasure-seeking and giving as well social influence and pressure were described as the main reasons why teenagers have non-coital sex. Other reasons included conveniences of participating in these behaviors such as ease of performing oral sex and anal sex as a convenient alternative to vaginal sex. Sexual inexperience was an indicator for why anal sex occurs. Many of the reasons involved misperceptions and adolescents who practice these sexual behaviors place themselves at-risk for contracting a STI. ^ This dissertation increased the current knowledge base about adolescent sexual responsibility and non-coital behaviors. Future studies should explore perceptions of responsibility and actual sexual activity practices among adolescents to reduce the burden of STIs and pregnancy as well as help public health professionals develop programs for adolescent populations, schools, and communities where these issues persist.^

Towards a Definition of Excellence in Sport Coaching

In this paper,we propose different definitions of coaching excellence based on two principles. First,the application of coaching skill,as in any other domain of excellence,is context-dependent. Second, excellent coaches are knowledgeable and constantly assemble mental models that enable them to meet their athletes' needs and to effectively manage the central duties of coaching - organization, training, and competition. Four categories of coaches and corresponding definitions are proposed based on the characteristics of athletes and the developmentally-appropriate sport contexts: 1) participation coaches for children, 2) participation coaches for teens and adults, 3) performance coaches for young adolescents, 4) performance coaches for older adolescents and adults.

Crenças e atitudes dos adolescentes associadas ao uso de substâncias psicoativas: álcool, tabaco e outras substâncias psicoativas ilegais

A adolescência é usualmente marcada por mudanças ao nível do corpo, do pensamento, das atitudes e da vida social que tornam os jovens mais vulneráveis a desenvolver comportamentos irracionais e impulsivos como o consumo de substâncias psicoativas. Neste sentido, o principal objetivo deste estudo é compreender as crenças e atitudes que motivam os jovens adolescentes a usar substâncias como álcool, tabaco e outras substâncias psicoativas. Para tal, foi escolhida uma amostra por conveniência entre os estudantes de três escolas pertencentes ao Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, nomeadamente a Escola Superior de Educação de Portalegre, a Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão de Portalegre e a Escola Superior de Saúde de Portalegre. A amostra é constituída por 193 estudantes, sendo que a idade dos participantes oscila entre os 18 anos e os 25 anos. Deste modo, foi aplicado o questionário HIT-D&A que permite medir as crenças e atitudes dos jovens, associadas ao uso de substâncias psicoativas como o álcool, o tabaco e outras substâncias psicoativas ilegais. Os resultados evidenciaram que as principais substâncias psicoativas consumidas pelos jovens são o álcool, seguindo-se o tabaco e a marijuana. Outra conclusão é a existência de diferenças significativas entre os dois géneros, sendo que os rapazes apresentam uma média superior face às raparigas de forma estatisticamente significativa. Embora não haja diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre faixas etárias, conclui-se que há mais consumos de substâncias psicoativas entre os jovens mais velhos. No que respeita às médias das três escolas analisadas, estas são superiores na Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão de Portalegre. Os resultados também mostraram a existência de uma forte associação entre as três distorções cognitivas (centração no eu, culpar os outros e assumir o piro e minimizar e etiquetar) e os consumos das várias substâncias psicoativas.

Physical activity as a dimension of family life for lower primary school children

While questions of children's engagement in physical activity are being widely debated, little is known about how physical activity is valued and managed within families. This paper reports on qualitative data from a multi-method study on lower primary aged children. The focus of the broader study was to determine the relationships between young children's physical activity patterns, skills, and recreational interests, and their families' location, income, commitment to physical activity, and other responsibilities. Drawing on interviews with 12 purposively selected families, it was found that physical activity was highly valued across different family contexts, that children's engagement was shaped by their interests, friendships, and safety, and that issues such as income, family configuration, parental work commitments, and transport were potential barriers to further engagement.

Evidence for retarded extinction of aversive learning in anxious children

The habituation to intense acoustic stimuli and the acquisition of differentially conditioned fear were assessed in 53 clinically anxious and 30 non-anxious control children and young adolescents. Anxious children tended to show larger electrodermal responses during habituation, but did not differ in blink startle latency or magnitude. After acquisition training, non-anxious children rated the CS + as more fear provoking and arousing than the CS- whereas the ratings of anxious children did not differ. However, anxious children rated the CS + as more fear provoking after extinction, a difference that was absent in non-anxious children. During extinction training, anxious children displayed larger blink magnitude facilitation during CS + and a trend towards larger electrodermal responses, a tendency not seen in nonanxious children. These data suggest that extinction of fear learning is retarded in anxious children. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

BEM ESTAR NO TRABALHO E OTIMISMO EM ESTUDANTES TRABALHADORES

O estudo teve como objetivo geral submeter ao teste empírico as relações entre bem estar no trabalho e otimismo em estudantes trabalhadores. No estudo foi utilizada uma amostra escolhida por conveniência, sendo composta por 125 estudantes trabalhadores de ambos os sexos, divididos em dois grupos. O grupo 1, com 60 estudantes de uma universidade da cidade de São Bernardo do Campo; e, o grupo 2, com 65 jovens adolescentes de uma organização não governamental da cidade de São Paulo. O instrumento de coleta foi um questionário de auto-aplicação composto por itens versando sobre as variáveis da pesquisa e questões sobre dados pessoais e profissionais dos participantes do estudo. As análises estatísticas foram descritivas e multivariadas. Os resultados descritivos das três dimensões de BET indicam a maior presença de sentimentos de satisfação com chefias e colegas em ambos os grupos; menores níveis de satisfação de ambos os grupos ocorreram com os fatores salário e promoção; fracos vínculos afetivos do grupo 1 com o trabalho e com a organização; fraco envolvimento com o trabalho do grupo 2. Os dois grupos apresentaram níveis elevados de otimismo, o que significa afirmar que ambos tinham uma percepção de futuro promissor. Foi confirmada empiricamente a hipótese de que BET pudesse ter alguma associação com otimismo, através da presença de correlação entre otimismo e satisfação com colegas, bem como, com envolvimento com o trabalho para o grupo 1. Para o grupo 2, otimismo correlacionou-se com satisfação com tarefas e comprometimento organizacional afetivo. O presente estudo visou a contribuir para a compreensão de bem estar no trabalho e otimismo e suas relações no contexto profissional de estudantes trabalhadores para desta forma prover melhor fundamentação conceitual acerca do tema para estudiosos, bem como sugerir ações e práticas de gestão de pessoas que intensifiquem o bem estar e a promoção de saúde das pessoas quando inseridos no contexto organizacional de trabalho.

Evaluating heavy episodic drinking effects on educational attainment

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are transition points that offer both opportunities and constraints on individual development. The purpose of this study is threefold: First, to examine two models (i.e., young adolescents in grades 7 and 8 and older adolescents in grade 12) of heavy episodic drinking and examine how heavy episodic drinking affects subsequent educational attainment. By utilizing two different developmental transitions, i.e., middle school to high school and high school to college, it may be possible to better understand the temporal effects of alcohol use and subsequent educational attainment. The second purpose of this study is to examine how alcohol use at Time 1 may lead to the problems in the adolescent's immediate context due to alcohol (i.e., problems with parents, peers, romantic relationships, problems at school) and to examine if these problems affect educational attainment over and above alcohol use alone. The third purpose of this study is to examine the potential gender differences in these models. The study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which is a large scale, nationally representative school based sample of 20,745 adolescents who were interviewed in grades 7 to 12. Two longitudinal mediational models were evaluated utilizing structural equation modeling. Binge drinking and number of days drunk were used as indicators for a latent variable of heavy episodic drinking (i.e., LHED). In the 7th and 8th grade model, direct effects of LHED were found to predict educational attainment at grade 12. Additionally, in the 7th and 8th grade sample, a mediated relationship was found whereby educational attainment was predicted by problems with parents. Problems with parents were predicted by number of days drunk in the past year. In the 12th grade sample, there were no direct effects or indirect effects of alcohol on educational attainment. This study highlights the need for using a longitudinal framework when examining heavy episodic drinking's effects on educational attainment. ^

Towards a Definition of Excellence in Sport Coaching

In this paper,we propose different definitions of coaching excellence based on two principles. First,the application of coaching skill,as in any other domain of excellence,is context-dependent. Second, excellent coaches are knowledgeable and constantly assemble mental models that enable them to meet their athletes' needs and to effectively manage the central duties of coaching - organization, training, and competition. Four categories of coaches and corresponding definitions are proposed based on the characteristics of athletes and the developmentally-appropriate sport contexts: 1) participation coaches for children, 2) participation coaches for teens and adults, 3) performance coaches for young adolescents, 4) performance coaches for older adolescents and adults.

Physical activity in the school setting: cognitive performance is not affected by three different types of acute exercise

Recent studies indicate that a single bout of physical exercise can have immediatepositive effects on cognitive performance of children and adolescents. However, thetype of exercise that affects cognitive performance the most in young adolescents isnot fully understood. Therefore, this controlled study examined the acute effects ofthree types of 12-min classroom-based exercise sessions on information processingspeed and selective attention. The three conditions consisted of aerobic, coordination,and strength exercises, respectively. In particular, this study focused on the feasibilityand efficiency of introducing short bouts of exercise in the classroom. One hundredand ninety five students (5th and 6th grade; 10–13 years old) participated in a doublebaseline within-subjects design, with students acting as their own control. Exercise typewas randomly assigned to each class and acted as between-subject factor. Before andimmediately after both the control and the exercise session, students performed twocognitive tests that measured information processing speed (Letter Digit SubstitutionTest) and selective attention (d2 Test of Attention). The results revealed that exercisingat low to moderate intensity does not have an effect on the cognitive parameters testedin young adolescents. Furthermore, there were no differential effects of exercise type.The results of this study are discussed in terms of the caution which should be takenwhen conducting exercise sessions in a classroom setting aimed at improving cognitive performance.

Preferências de leitura nas crianças do 1º ciclo do ensino básico : haverá indícios de preferências diferentes em função do género?

Relatório de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico.

A importância do telemóvel na comunicação escrita, por SMS, de um grupo de alunos dos 2.º e 3.º ciclos

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências da Linguagem, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2015

Isolamento social e indicadores de depressão em adolescentes: Um estudo longitudinal

Tese submetida como requisito parcial para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Psicologia Aplicada Especialidade em Psicologia Clínica

Teacher-student relationships

An updated edition of the comprehensive introduction to the rapidly growing area of middle schooling, for teachers, teacher education students and school administrators.The middle years of schooling are increasingly recognised as a crucial stage in students' lives, one that has significant consequences for ongoing educational success. International research indicates that young adolescents benefit from programs designed especially for their needs. Teaching Middle Years offers a systematic overview of the philosophy, principles and issues in middle schooling. It includes contributions from academics and school-based practitioners on intellectual and emotional development in early adolescence, pedagogy, curriculum and assessment of middle years students. This second edition is fully revised to reflect the latest research findings. It includes new chapters on students with diverse needs, school partnerships with families and community, and effective team teaching. Also new to this edition is a chapter that brings middle schooling concepts to life by providing real examples of reform in action.Written for teachers, student teachers, education leaders and policy makers, Teaching Middle Years is an essential resource for anyone involved in educating young adolescents.

Choques al hogar, trabajo Infantil y acumulación de capital humano : evidencia para Colombia

En este trabajo se estima el efecto que tienen distintos choques a los hogares sobre el logro académico de los niños. Mediante un modelo de regresión lineal, se encuentra un efecto adverso de la presencia de choques sobre el puntaje de la prueba Saber 11. Además, los resultados sugieren que el trabajo infantil es un mecanismo por el cual los choques afectan negativamente la acumulación de capital humano. Al explorar efectos heterogéneos por sexo y edad, las estimaciones indican que el efecto de los choques es guiado por los hombres y los adolescentes mayores a 14 años.