Validation of the Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire - Revised in an Adolescent Sample (DRSEQ-RA)

Adolescent drinking is a significant issue yet valid psychometric tools designed for this group are scarce. The Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire—Revised Adolescent Version (DRSEQ-RA) is designed to assess an individual's belief in their ability to resist drinking alcohol. The original DRSEQ-R consists of three factors reflecting social pressure refusal self-efficacy, opportunistic refusal self-efficacy and emotional relief refusal self-efficacy. A large sample of 2020 adolescents aged between 12 and 19 years completed the DRSEQ and measures of alcohol consumption in small groups. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the three factor structure was confirmed. All three factors were negatively correlated with both frequency and volume of alcohol consumption. Drinkers reported lower drinking refusal self-efficacy than non-drinkers. Taken together, these results suggest that the adolescent version of the Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (DRSEQ-RA) is a reliable and valid measure of drinking refusal self-efficacy.

Children, Obesity and Exercise: Prevention, Treatment and Management of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity

Throughout the developed world there is an increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. Because of this increase, and awareness of the risks to long term health that childhood obesity presents, the phenomena is now described by many as a global epidemic. Children, Obesity and Exercise provides sport, exercise and medicine students and professionals with an accessible and practical guide to understanding and managing childhood and adolescent obesity. It covers: overweight, obesity and body composition; physical activity, growth and development; psycho-social aspects of childhood obesity; physical activity behaviours; eating behaviours; measuring childrens behaviour; interventions for prevention and management of childhood obesity. Children, Obesity and Exercise addresses the need for authoritative advice and innovative approaches to the prevention and management of this chronic problem.

Design and evaluation of an MRI compatible axial compression device for 3D assessment of spinal deformity and flexibility in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) offers a valuable research tool for the assessment of 3D spinal deformity in AIS, however the horizontal patient position imposed by conventional scanners removes the axial compressive loading on the spine. The objective of this study was to design, construct and test an MRI compatible compression device for research into the effect of axial loading on spinal deformity using supine MRI scans. The device was evaluated by performing unloaded and loaded supine MRI scans on a series of 10 AIS patients. The patient group had a mean initial (unloaded) major Cobb angle of 43±7º, which increased to 50±9º on application of the compressive load. The 7° increase in mean Cobb angle is consistent with that reported by a previous study comparing standing versus supine posture in scoliosis patients (Torell et al, 1985. Spine 10:425-7).

Distribution of forces during fulcrum bending radiographs on adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients

At the Mater Children’s Hospital, approximately 80% of patients presenting with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis requiring corrective surgery receive a fulcrum bending radiograph. The fulcrum bending radiograph provides a measurement of spine flexibility and a better indication of achievable surgical correction than lateral-bending radiographs (Cheung and Luk, 1997; Hay et al 2008). The magnitude and distribution of the corrective force exerted by the bolster on the patient’s body is unknown. The objective of this pilot study was to measure, for the first time, the forces transmitted to the patient’s ribs through the bolster during the fulcrum bending radiograph.

A framework for improved adolescent and child safety in MMOs

This paper presents an approach to providing better safety for adolescents playing online games. We highlight an emerging paedophile presence in online games and offer a general framework for the design of monitoring and alerting tools. Our method is to monitor and detect relationships forming with a child in online games, and alert if the relationship indicates an offline meeting with the child has been arranged or has the potential to occur. A prototype implementation with demonstrative components of the framework has been created and is introduced. The prototype demonstration and evaluation uses a teen rated online relationship-building environment for its case study, specifically the predominant Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMO) World of Warcraft.

Identifying parents' perceptions about physical activity : a qualitative exploration of salient behavioural, normative and control beliefs among mothers and fathers of young children

Drawing on the belief-based framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study employs qualitative methodology involving individual and group interviews to examine the beliefs associated with regular physical activity performance among parents of young children (N = 40). The data were analysed using thematic content analysis. A range of advantages (e.g. improves parenting practices), disadvantages (e.g. interferes with commitments), barriers (e.g. time), and facilitators (e.g. social support) to performing physical activity are identified. Normative pressures are also identified as affecting parents’ activity behaviour. These identified beliefs can be used to inform interventions to challenge inactivity among this at-risk group.

Identifying key belief-based targets for promoting regular physical activity among mothers and fathers with young children

We investigated the key beliefs to target in interventions aimed at increasing physical activity (PA) among mothers and fathers of young children. Parents (288 mothers and 292 fathers) completed a Theory of Planned Behaviour belief-based questionnaire and a 1-week follow-up of PA behaviour. We found that a range of behavioural, normative, and control beliefs were significantly correlated with parents’ PA intentions and behaviour, with only a few differences observed in correlations between PA beliefs and intention and behaviour by gender. A range of key beliefs was identified as making independent contributions to parents’ PA intentions; however, the behavioural beliefs about improving parenting practices (β = 0.13), interfering with other commitments (β = −0.29); normative beliefs about people I exercise with (β = 0.20); and control beliefs about lack of time (β = −0.24), inconvenience (β = −0.14), lack of motivation (β = −0.34), were revealed as significant independent predictors of actual PA behaviour. Furthermore, we found that a limited amount of parents already hold these beliefs, suggesting that these key beliefs warrant changing and, therefore, are appropriate targets for subsequent intervention. The current study fills an empirical gap in the PA literature by investigating an at-risk group and using a well established theoretical framework to identify key beliefs that guide parents’ PA decision-making. Overall, we found support for parents being a unique group who hold distinctive behavioural, normative, and control beliefs toward PA. Attention to these key underlying beliefs will assist intervention work aimed at combating inactivity among this at-risk population.

Lost children and imaginary mothers in Sonya Hartnett's Of A Boy

In Powers of Horror, Julia Kristeva writes about lost children. These are what she calls “dejects,” who, in the psychodrama of subject formation, fail to fully absent the body of the mother, to accept the Law of the Father and the Symbolic, and subsequently to establish “clear boundaries which constitute the object-world for normal subjects.” Dejects are “strays” looking for a place to belong, a place that is bound up with the Imaginary mother of the pre-Oedipal period. Kristeva’s sketch of the deject as one who is unable to negotiate a proper path to the Symbolicis useful to a reading of Hartnett’s Of A Boy (2002),a novel that also deals with lost children and imaginary mothers. However, in its portrayal of children who are doomed to never achieve adulthood, Of A Boy enacts a haunting retrieval of the pre-Oedipal from the dark side of phallocentric representation, privileging the semiotic (Kristeva’s concept) and the maternal as necessary disruptive checks on a patriarchal Symbolic Order.

Children of substance-using mothers : child health engagement and child protection outcomes

Aim: Maternal substance use has been associated with a range of child risk factors. The study investigated the relationship between engagement with child health services and child protection outcomes for children of substance using mothers. ----- ----- Methods: A sample of 119 children of mothers who disclosed opiate, amphetamine or methadone use during a maternity admission between 2000 and 2003, as included in a previous matched co-hort study1, were included in the current study. Statutory child protection agency and child health engagement information for the first two years of life, was obtained. The relationship between type of maternal substance use, child health engagement and child protection outcomes was examined. ----- ----- Results: Seventy two percent of study group infants were engaged with child health services during the first two years of life. Chi square analysis showed no significant relationship between child health engagement and child protection reports. Child health engagement was associated with decreased substantiated child protection notifications for children of methadone using mothers, but not for children of illicit substance users. ----- ----- Conclusions: Almost a quarter of identified children of substance using mothers are not accessing standard child health services in their first two years of life. This study provides support for increased attention to the provision of child health services for children of methadone using mothers. Further research into effective intervention strategies for children of illicit substance using mothers is indicated.

Patient-specific computational biomechanics for simulating adolescent scoliosis surgery : predicted vs clinical correction for a preliminary series of six patients

Scoliosis is a spinal deformity that requires surgical correction in progressive cases. In order to optimize surgical outcomes, patient-specific finite element models are being developed by our group. In this paper, a single rod anterior correction procedure is simulated for a group of six scoliosis patients. For each patient, personalised model geometry was derived from low-dose CT scans, and clinically measured intra-operative corrective forces were applied. However, tissue material properties were not patient-specific, being derived from existing literature. Clinically, the patient group had a mean initial Cobb angle of 47.3 degrees, which was corrected to 17.5 degrees after surgery. The mean simulated post-operative Cobb angle for the group was 18.1 degrees. Although this represents good agreement between clinical and simulated corrections, the discrepancy between clinical and simulated Cobb angle for individual patients varied between -10.3 and +8.6 degrees, with only three of the six patients matching the clinical result to within accepted Cobb measurement error of +-5 degrees. The results of this study suggest that spinal tissue material properties play an important role in governing the correction obtained during surgery, and that patient-specific modelling approaches must address the question of how to prescribe patient-specific soft tissue properties for spine surgery simulation.