Self correction of refractive error among young people in rural China: results of cross sectional investigation.

OBJECTIVE: To compare outcomes between adjustable spectacles and conventional methods for refraction in young people. DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: Rural southern China. PARTICIPANTS: 648 young people aged 12-18 (mean 14.9 (SD 0.98)), with uncorrected visual acuity ≤ 6/12 in either eye. INTERVENTIONS: All participants underwent self refraction without cycloplegia (paralysis of near focusing ability with topical eye drops), automated refraction without cycloplegia, and subjective refraction by an ophthalmologist with cycloplegia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uncorrected and corrected vision, improvement of vision (lines on a chart), and refractive error. RESULTS: Among the participants, 59% (384) were girls, 44% (288) wore spectacles, and 61% (393/648) had 2.00 dioptres or more of myopia in the right eye. All completed self refraction. The proportion with visual acuity ≥ 6/7.5 in the better eye was 5.2% (95% confidence interval 3.6% to 6.9%) for uncorrected vision, 30.2% (25.7% to 34.8%) for currently worn spectacles, 96.9% (95.5% to 98.3%) for self refraction, 98.4% (97.4% to 99.5%) for automated refraction, and 99.1% (98.3% to 99.9%) for subjective refraction (P = 0.033 for self refraction v automated refraction, P = 0.001 for self refraction v subjective refraction). Improvements over uncorrected vision in the better eye with self refraction and subjective refraction were within one line on the eye chart in 98% of participants. In logistic regression models, failure to achieve maximum recorded visual acuity of 6/7.5 in right eyes with self refraction was associated with greater absolute value of myopia/hyperopia (P<0.001), greater astigmatism (P = 0.001), and not having previously worn spectacles (P = 0.002), but not age or sex. Significant inaccuracies in power (≥ 1.00 dioptre) were less common in right eyes with self refraction than with automated refraction (5% v 11%, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Though visual acuity was slightly worse with self refraction than automated or subjective refraction, acuity was excellent in nearly all these young people with inadequately corrected refractive error at baseline. Inaccurate power was less common with self refraction than automated refraction. Self refraction could decrease the requirement for scarce trained personnel, expensive devices, and cycloplegia in children's vision programmes in rural China.

‘Racialised’ pedagogic practices influencing young Muslims' physical culture

Background: There is growing concern surrounding the ‘racialised’ body and the way young people develop dispositions towards physical activity (PA) and sports, and more broadly to physical culture. This paper draws on Bourdieu's social theory in an effort to explore the ways in which the intersectionality of various fields (family, religion and school) and their dimensions (culture and social class) influence young Muslims' physical culture. Purpose: More specifically the paper examines the ‘racialised’ pedagogic practices in various fields that influence young Muslims' dispositions to physical culture. Method: The study reports on the voices of 40 participants identifying as young Muslims (12–15 years old; 20 girls and 20 boys) from one secondary school in the South of England, UK. A case study approach was used to explore participants’ understanding, meaning, structural conditions and personal agency with regard to physical culture and ‘racialised’ body pedagogies. Data include semi-structured paired interviews with participants. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. More specifically, thematic analysis based on the notion of ‘fields' informed deductive and inductive procedures. Findings: Results suggested that religion had limited influence on the participants' agency when intersecting with schooling and social class with regard to embodiment of active physical culture. Economic capital, on the other hand, had a considerable influence on participants’ physical culture as it contributed to young people's access to PA opportunities, agency and body pedagogies. In addition, the study concludes that fields outside the school play a significant role in influencing and enabling young Muslims’ physical culture. Conclusions: One of the most significant implications of this study is emphasising that young Muslims should not be viewed as a homogenous group as various fields intersect to influence their participation in physical education and their embodiment of physical culture. Identified fields and their markers make dispositions unique, dependent upon characteristics and their relative influence.

Weight status and gender-related differences in motor skills and in child care - based physical activity in young children.

Over the last decades, a decline in motor skills and in physical activity and an increase in obesity has been observed in children. However, there is a lack of data in young children. We tested if differences in motor skills and in physical activity according to weight or gender were already present in 2- to 4-year-old children. Fifty-eight child care centers in the French part of Switzerland were randomly selected for the Youp'là bouge study. Motor skills were assessed by an obstacle course including 5 motor skills, derived from the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment test. Physical activity was measured with accelerometers (GT1M, Actigraph, Florida, USA) using age-adapted cut-offs. Weight status was assessed using the International Obesity Task Force criteria (healthy weight vs overweight) for body mass index (BMI). Of the 529 children (49% girls, 3.4 ± 0.6 years, BMI 16.2 ± 1.2 kg/m2), 13% were overweight. There were no significant weight status-related differences in the single skills of the obstacle course, but there was a trend (p = 0.059) for a lower performance of overweight children in the overall motor skills score. No significant weight status-related differences in child care-based physical activity were observed. No gender-related differences were found in the overall motor skills score, but boys performed better than girls in 2 of the 5 motor skills (p ≤ 0.04). Total physical activity as well as time spent in moderate-vigorous and in vigorous activity during child care were 12-25% higher and sedentary activity 5% lower in boys compared to girls (all p < 0.01). At this early age, there were no significant weight status- or gender-related differences in global motor skills. However, in accordance to data in older children, child care-based physical activity was higher in boys compared to girls. These results are important to consider when establishing physical activity recommendations or targeting health promotion interventions in young children.

Exploring the impact of a hands-on intervention on grade 7 girls and their feelings about self, mathematics, science, technology and related careers

Forty-five 12- and 13-year-old females attending Grade 7 in North York, Ontario were randomly selected from a group of 100 females who had volunteered to participate in a oneday hands-on workshop called It's Your Choice at Seneca College. The goals of this intervention were to broaden the career horizons of these students and to help them realize the need to continue mathematics and science through high school in order to keep occupational options unlimited. The young women were given a pre- and post-attitude survey to provide background information. In the month following participation in the workshop the students were interviewed in small groups (S students per group) to discover their perceptions of the impact of the workshop. The interviews revealed that participants felt that after the workshop their feelings of self-confidence increased, specifically with respect to working with their hands. Participants felt more aware of the usefulness and importance of the study of mathematics, science and technology, They also felt that It's Your Choice increased their interest in careers in these domains and helped them to see that these careers are viable choices for females. The interviews also revealed that many of the participants felt that in this society their roles and their choices were influenced and probably limited by the fact that they are female.

Perceptions of leadership in adolescent girls, members of the Girl Guides of Canada

Twenty-eight young women who were members of the Girl Guides of Canada as Rangers and Cadets from a convenience sample chose to participate in this case study. They were from four separate locations in Southern Ontario. The interviews and observations at unit meetings allowed an indepth look into the perceptions of leadership of these young women. The amount of time observing and interacting with each participant provided a snapshot of what they thought and how they responded to the questions asked at that particular time. Each girl responded to the question, "Are you a leader?" They then gave examples of their own leadership and described leaders they knew. Their responses are reported in relation to their definitions. Their identifications of effective and ineffective leaders were examined, as well as their views of the best and worst things a leader can do. This information is reported by unit, as some patterns in their responses emerged which were unique to each group. The responses of all of the girls to the leadership of Guiders, Rangers and Cadets and the hypothetical effect of male leaders and male Rangers in Guiding are reported. For these, the participants' views were sorted based on the common themes/ and regardless of their group affiliation, since many of the same themes emerged when examining these questions. The information collected was extensive and allowed for trends and parallels to become evident 0 All of the participants identified themselves as leaders. A diversity of views exists in their perceptions of leadership. For many, age makes a difference in leadership. The majority identified the single-sex aspect of the organization as comfortable and stated that it should remain so. Gender profoundly affects who is listened to and what opportunities are available.

"They always remain girls" : la re/production des rapports de genre dans les sports féminins au Québec, 1919-1961

Cette thèse lève en partie le voile sur l’histoire des sports féminins au Québec de 1919 à 1961, soit de l’âge d’or des sports féminins au Canada jusqu’à l’adoption de la Loi sur la condition physique et le sport amateur par le gouvernement fédéral. Elle montre comment les rapports de genre ont été re/produits dans les sports féminins en étudiant les discours et les pratiques, tout en portant une attention particulière à l’influence qu’exercent l’appartenance de classe, l’ethnicité et la religion sur les sports féminins. L’analyse se penche d’abord sur les discours des médecins, des professeurs d’éducation physique et des clercs de l’Église catholique pour étudier les prescriptions qu’ils ont formulées à l’égard de la participation sportive des femmes. Les idées de deux Montréalaises, Myrtle Cook et Cécile Grenier, sont ensuite examinées pour montrer comment elles contestent les discours dominants. Enfin, les pratiques sportives des femmes dans deux centres sportifs montréalais, soit la Palestre nationale et le Young Women’s Christian Association, ont été étudiées de manière détaillée afin de mettre en lumière les différences, mais aussi certaines similitudes, entre l’organisation des sports féminins dans les communautés francophones et anglophones de la ville. Cette thèse met en évidence les tensions qui découlent des rapports de genre, de classe, d’ethnicité et de l’appartenance religieuse, et qui sont présentes à la fois dans les discours et les pratiques. Comme ailleurs en Amérique du Nord et même ailleurs en Occident, les discours dominants au Québec ne sont pas univoques, alors que des vues divergentes les contestent et que les pratiques sont plurielles. Tout en s’inscrivant dans le mouvement plus large d’accès des femmes aux sports en Occident, les discours et les pratiques observables à Montréal s’en distinguent, notamment par la forte influence de l’Église catholique et par les tensions ethniques. Le Québec est donc un cas d’espèce tout indiqué pour mettre en lumière la complexité de la re/production des rapports de genre à travers l’analyse des sports féminins, l’étude de ce champ constituant en même temps une avenue de recherche fort stimulante pour mieux saisir l’entrée de la province dans la modernité.

Girls talk: authorship and authenticity in the reception of Lena Dunham's Girls

By examining the discourse around Lena Dunham's HBO comedy Girls (2012– present), this article argues that the programme served as a space to think through female authorship, televisual representations and cultural tensions surrounding young womanhood. Central to this discourse was the narrative asserting Girls' and Dunham's 'authenticity', originality and universality, which sought to legitimate her gendered authorship and interest in the comedy of female intimacy within HBO' s masculine prestige channel identity. Charting three cycles of discourse surrounding the programme's debut, this article explores the paratextual framing by promotional concerns, television critics and women' s websites. It highlights how journalists and critics furthered HBO's paratextual framing of Dunham, which was later countered by the networked spaces of niche online media, which used the programme as a space to productively work through industrial and cultural tensions; particularly those surrounding female comic authorship, autobiography and intersectionality.

The effect of cues on young children’s abilities to discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Objective: To determine if cues help young children discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Participants: Ninety-six children aged 4–7 years from three schools in Norwich, UK. Design: Within each age band (4, 5, 6, 7), children were randomised to the cue or the no cue condition on a stratified basis ensuring that equal numbers of boys and girls from each school were in each of the eight cells (cue condition×age). Cues were glove puppets and post boxes. The effect of IQ was controlled. Measures: A discrimination task, in which children were asked to identify a thought, a feeling and a behaviour from each of six brief stories, and a brief IQ assessment were administered to children individually. Results: There was a significant effect of age and cue condition on performance; older children and those who were presented with the cue performed better. There were no gender differences and no interaction between cue condition and age. Conclusion: Many young children discriminated among thoughts, feelings and behaviours suggesting that they may be able to engage in this aspect of cognitive behaviour therapy. Simple cues (puppets and posting boxes) improved children’s performance and these may be useful therapeutic tools with young children.

The lives and deaths of young medieval women: the osteological evidence

Written sources from the medieval period focus mainly on the activities of adults, particularly males and often those from the wealthier sections of society. Recent scholarship has attempted to redress this balance by giving attention to medieval women and children, but we are still limited by what we can learn about the daily lives of all members of medieval English society. Osteology, the study of human skeletal remains, suffers from no such bias and can provide substantial and detailed information on growth, health and daily life of the general population. This paper presents the results of a new analysis of the skeletal remains of over 300 medieval girls and young women aged at between 14 and 25 years from a number of English cemetery sites. We incorporate data from the published archaeological literature as well as documentary evidence to provide new insights into the lives and deaths of young medieval women.

Patriarchal values : girls are more apt to change

Patriarchal values: girls are more apt to change How has the family value system changed between generations, especially when taking into account the gender dimension? This article presents some results from a study carried outin 2007 in one village of the Gourani tribe where the people are followers of Ahle Hagh in Islamabad Gharb (west of Iran). The differences between generations (those born and raised before and after the Islamic Revolution) in patriarchal values in the family are statistically significant. The older generation opts for the man of the family to make most of the decisions; on children’s education, marriage, naming, the families expenditure, the place for residence, the social network of the family and even the number of children. The younger generation has a different value system and it has moved towards a more egalitarian type of family. With the gender variable included in the findings we see that although the values of the younger male population have evolved toward a less patriarchal decision making structure inthe family, the degree of changes among the young women is much higher. Looking into the preferences for male sex for the first child as well as a larger number of boys in the family, the difference between generations is significant. However data on the differences analyzed with the gender variable proves that the changes concerning the equality of sexes are mainly due to drastic changes in the young women’s value system. That is, the male population, young or old, still prefer to have a boy as their first born and to have more sons in the family. But the young female generation in the rural area sees less difference in having boys or girls in the family. It is concluded that reforms in the old value system is an evolving process of everyday life and that the girls are the main social force for change.

Healthcare providers balancing norms and practice : challenges and opportunities in providing contraceptive counselling to young people in Uganda - a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Pregnancies among young women force girls to compromise education, resulting in low educational attainment with subsequent poverty and vulnerability. A pronounced focus is needed on contraceptive use, pregnancy, and unsafe abortion among young women. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore healthcare providers' (HCPs) perceptions and practices regarding contraceptive counselling to young people. DESIGN: We conducted 27 in-depth interviews with doctors and midwives working in seven health facilities in central Uganda. Interviews were open-ended and allowed the participant to speak freely on certain topics. We used a topic guide to cover areas topics of interest focusing on post-abortion care (PAC) but also covering contraceptive counselling. Transcripts were transcribed verbatim and data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The main theme, HCPs' ambivalence to providing contraceptive counselling to sexually active young people is based on two sub-themes describing the challenges of contraceptive counselling: A) HCPs echo the societal norms regarding sexual practice among young people, while at the same time our findings B) highlights the opportunities resulting from providers pragmatic approach to contraceptive counselling to young women. Providers expressed a self-identified lack of skill, limited resources, and inadequate support from the health system to successfully provide appropriate services to young people. They felt frustrated with the consultations, especially when meeting young women seeking PAC. CONCLUSIONS: Despite existing policies for young people's sexual and reproductive health in Uganda, HCPs are not sufficiently equipped to provide adequate contraceptive counselling to young people. Instead, HCPs are left in between the negative influence of social norms and their pragmatic approach to address the needs of young people, especially those seeking PAC. We argue that a clear policy supported by a clear strategy with practical guidelines should be implemented alongside in-service training including value clarification and attitude transformation to equip providers to be able to better cater to young people seeking sexual and reproductive health advice.

Body image and body change techniques among young adolescent boys

The aim of the present study was to examine the level of body image disturbance among adolescent boys and to determine how body image disturbance was related to body change techniques. Twenty boys from year 7 (mean age = 12.55 years, SD = 0.61) and 20 boys from year 9 (mean age = 14.85 years, SD = 0.59) were interviewed individually about their body image and body change strategies. The boys were questioned about the importance and their satisfaction with their weight, body size, body shape, muscle tone and parts of their body and the frequency with which they used the following techniques: eating less to lose weight, eating more to gain weight, and exercise to change body size, shape or muscle tone. The results demonstrated that of those boys who wanted to change their body (50 per cent), 12 wanted to lose weight and eight wanted to gain weight. The most frequent strategy used to change body size or shape was exercise, rather than changing eating patterns. Year 7 boys were more satisfied with their weight than year 9 boys, and boys with a larger body mass index (BMI) were less satisfied with their muscle tone and more likely to change their eating habits to decrease their body size or shape than boys with a smaller BMI. The implications of these findings for obtaining a better understanding of how male body image and body change strategies are different from girls are discussed.

A prospective study of pressures from parents, peers, and the media on extreme weight change behaviors among adolescent boys and girls

The current study was designed to evaluate the role of sociocultural influences over a 16 month period on strategies to lose weight, extreme weight loss strategies, and strategies to increase muscles among adolescent boys (n=344) and girls (n=246). All participants completed measures of body dissatisfaction, body image importance, strategies to lose weight, extreme weight loss strategies, and strategies to increase muscles. Measures of perceived pressure to lose weight or increase muscles from mother, father, best male friend, best female friend and the media were also evaluated. Data were gathered on three occasions, 8 months apart. The results demonstrated that boys showed a decrease in strategies to lose weight and increase muscles over time, whereas girls showed an increase. Both boys and girls showed an increase in extreme weight loss strategies with girls demonstrating a greater increase than boys. The sociocultural influences generally were perceived by girls to relate to messages to lose weight, whereas for boys they were perceived to relate to increasing muscles. Messages from parents, particularly fathers, were strong predictors of both strategies to lose weight and increase muscles among boys, with the media and best male friend playing a limited role. For girls, the strongest influences were mothers and best female friends, with few influences from fathers or the media. The results of this study are discussed in terms of the importance of the various sociocultural influences in shaping body change strategies among young adolescent boys and girls, and the implications of these findings for intervention programs for adolescents.

A prospective study of extreme weight change behaviors among adolescent boys and girls.

This study examined changes in extreme weight change attitudes and behaviors (exercise dependence, food supplements, drive for thinness, bulimia) among adolescent boys and girls over a 16 month period. It also investigated the impact of body mass index, puberty, body image, depression and positive affect on these attitudes and behaviors 16 months later. The participants were 847 young adolescents (411 boys, 436 girls). Participants completed questionnaires evaluating the above variables on three occasions, eight months apart. Girls obtained higher scores on exercise dependence, drive for thinness and bulimia. Changes in depression and body image importance were the strongest predictors of changes in these extreme attitudes and behaviors among boys; changes in depression, body dissatisfaction and body image importance were the strongest predictors for girls. The need for gender specific educational and intervention programs for adolescents are discussed.