Educational stress among Chinese adolescents : individual, family, school and peer influences

Educational stress is common among school children and adolescents, especially in Asian countries. This study aims to identify factors associated with perceived educational stress among students in China. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with 1627 students (Grades 7–12) from six secondary schools in rural and urban areas of Shandong Province. A wide range of individual, family, school and peer factors were associated with stress measured using the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA). Rural school location, low school connectedness, perceived poor academic grades, female gender, older age and frequent emotional conflicts with teachers and peers were among the strongest correlates, and most of them are school- or study-related. Unexpectedly, family and parental factors were found to have little or no association with children’s perceived educational stress. These findings may offer directions for interventions in secondary school settings.

Dinamización de las relaciones familia-centro escolar a través de la formación del profesorado en este campo de actuación. 'Enhancing family-school partnerships throug in-service teacher training programs and action-research in this field'.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación. Resumen y título en castellano y en inglés

Family, school, peer and individual influences on early adolescent alcohol use: first-year impact of the Resilient Families programme

Introduction and Aims:  This study aimed to examine: (a) the influence of family factors relative to school, peer and individual influences on the development of adolescent alcohol use during the first year of secondary school; and (b) the feasibility of preventing adolescent alcohol use by modifying family factors. Design and Methods:  Twenty-four schools in Melbourne, Australia were randomly assigned to either the 'Resilient Families' intervention or a control condition. A baseline cohort of 2315 grade 7 students (mean age 12.3 years) were followed-up one year later (n = 2128 for longitudinal analyses). A sub-set of parents (n = 1166) also returned baseline surveys. Results: The prevalence of lifetime alcohol use in year 7 was 33% and rose to 47% by year 8. Student-reported predictors of year 8 alcohol use included baseline alcohol [Odds Ratio (OR) 3.64] and tobacco use (2.68), and school friend's alcohol (1.41) and tobacco use (1.64). After adjusting for other influences, student-reported family factors were not maintained as significant predictors of year 8 alcohol use. Parent-report predictors of student-reported alcohol use included allowing alcohol use in the home (2.55), parental alcohol use (1.88) and child hyperactivity (1.85). Protective factors included attendance at brief parent education (0.60) and parent involvement in school education (0.65). Discussion and Conclusions: The intervention appeared to benefit education-related outcomes, but no overall effect in reducing student alcohol use was found in year 8. Intervention effects on alcohol misuse may become significant in later secondary school once the entire program has been implemented. Considerable alcohol use was detected in early secondary school,   suggesting that interventions to reduce alcohol use may be usefully implemented prior to this period.

Individual, family, school, and community risk and protective factors for depressive symptoms in adolescents : a comparison of risk profiles for substance use and depressive symptoms

This study examines the relationship between adolescent depressive symptoms and risk and protective factors identified for substance use. A questionnaire, developed to measure these factors in a young persons community, family, school, peer group, and individual characteristics for substance use, was used to assess associations with self-reported depressive symptoms. Data were provided by a representative sample of 8984 secondary school students in Victoria, Australia. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 10.5% (95% CI 9.2,12.0) for males and 21.7% (95% CI 20.3,23.7) for females. Depressive symptoms were associated with factors in all domains, with the strongest associations in the family domain. Strong relationships were found between the number of elevated risk and protective factors and depressive symptoms, maintained after adjusting for substance use. Patterns of associations were similar for users and nonsubstance users. The findings indicate that prevention programs targeting factors for substance use have the potential to impact on depression.

Reduction of adolescent alcohol use through family-school intervention: a randomized trial

Purpose
Two-year longitudinal follow-up data evaluated the behavioral impact of Resilient Families, a universal intervention that aimed to prevent early initiation and frequent and heavy adolescent alcohol use in secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia.

Methods
Of 24 secondary schools (62% of those approached), 12 were randomly assigned to intervention and 12 as controls. Intervention students received a social relationship curriculum; their parents received parent education handbooks and invitations to parent education events outlining strategies to encourage healthy adolescent development and reduce adolescent alcohol misuse. At Wave 1 (2004), students were in Year 7 secondary school (mean age, 12.3 years). Data were imputed for students completing at least two of three annual surveys (N = 2,354). Wave 3 (2006; mean, 14.5 years) main outcome measures for alcohol use were “any,” “frequent” (at least monthly), and “heavy” (five or more drinks in a session at least once in the prior fortnight). Multivariate logistic regression assessed intervention exposure effects, adjusting for school classroom clustering and baseline measures.

Results
Relative to controls, intervention students showed significant reductions in any lifetime use (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], .78; 95% confidence interval [CI], .62–.97), and reduced progression to frequent (AOR, .69; CI, .56–.86) and heavy use (AOR, .75; CI, .60–.94).

Conclusions
Randomized assignment to Resilient Families was associated with a significant reduction in adolescent alcohol use among families volunteering for the evaluation. Family–school-based interventions appear promising as a strategy to contribute to population reductions in currently high rates of adolescent alcohol misuse.

A Importância da participação dos pais na creche e no jardim de infância : quais os obstáculos à participação dos pais

Relatório apresentado para a obtenção do grau de mestre em Educação pré-escolar

A Importância da participação dos pais na creche e no jardim de infância : quais os obstáculos à participação dos pais

Relatório apresentado para a obtenção do grau de mestre em Educação pré-escolar

Agentive motility meets structural viscosity: Australian families relocating in educational markets

This paper will develop and illustrate a concept of institutional viscosity to balance the more agentive concept of motility with a theoretical account of structural conditions. The argument articulates with two bodies of work: Archer’s (2007, 2012) broad social theory of reflexivity as negotiating agency and social structures; and Urry’s (2007) sociology of mobility and mobility systems. It then illustrates the concept of viscosity as a variable (low to high viscosity) through two empirical studies conducted in the sociology of education that help demonstrate how degrees of viscosity interact with degrees of motility, and how this interaction can impact on motility over time. The first study explored how Australian Defence Force families cope with their children’s disrupted education given frequent forced relocations. The other study explored how middle class professionals relate to career and educational opportunities in rural and remote Queensland. These two life conditions have produced very different institutional practices to make relocations thinkable and doable, by variously constraining or enabling mobility. In turn, the degrees of viscosity mobile individuals meet with over time can erode or elevate their motility.

Bonding and bridging : transition to school and social capital formation among a community of Indigenous Australian children

This study reports on an intervention program designed to facilitate transition to school of a whole community of Indigenous Australian children who had previously not been attending. The children were from families displaced from their traditional lands and experienced on-going social marginalisation and transience. A social capital framework was employed to track change in the children’s social inclusion and family-school engagement for two years, from school entry. Sociometric measurement and interview techniques were applied to assess the children’s social connectedness and peer relationship quality. Using these data, analyses examined whether bonding within the group supported or inhibited formation of new social relationships. Although transience disrupted attendance, there was a group trend towards increased social inclusion with some evidence that group bonds supported bridging to new social relationships. Change in family-school engagement was tracked using multi-informant interviews. Limited engagement between school and families presented an on-going challenge to sustained educational engagement.

Coteaching for parent-school-community engagement: Seen through the four resources model

This paper reflects on a 2008 project in which a teacher invited two parents1 of students in his class to coteach with him on the topic of War and Refugees (Willis, 2013). Although the project occurred in a Year eight context, it has utility for all teachers in showing how the four resources model (FRM) (Freebody and Luke, 1990) of language and literacy teaching and learning may provide a viewing platform for seeing the benefits and potential of coteaching for parent-school-community engagement. For decades, governments nationally and internationally have actively supported parentschool- community involvement initiatives. In Australia, these include the establishment in 2008 of The Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau and its recent publication, Parental engagement in learning and schooling: Lessons from research (Emerson, Fear, Fox, and Sanders, 2012). These initiatives derive from strong, consistent research evidence that parent involvement in schools not only benefits students, teachers, and schools but also has wide-ranging implications for education reform, employers and communities, and ultimately Australia's future economic prosperity. These initiatives also continue to inform the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) in identifying ways teachers and school leaders can generate and sustain professional engagement with colleagues, parents, and the community to meet new national teaching standards.

Family-based interventions in preventing children and adolescents from using tobacco: A systematic review and meta-analysis

- Background Tobacco is the main preventable cause of death and disease worldwide. Adolescent smoking is increasing in many countries with poorer countries following the earlier experiences of affluent countries. Preventing adolescents starting smoking is crucial to decreasing tobacco-related illness. - Objective To assess effectiveness of family-based interventions alone and combined with school-based interventions to prevent children and adolescents from initiating tobacco use. - Data Sources 14 bibliographic databases and the Internet, journals hand-searched, experts consulted. - Study Eligibility Criteria, Participants, and Interventions Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with children or adolescents and families, interventions to prevent starting tobacco use, follow-up ≥ 6 months. - Study Appraisal/Synthesis methods Abstracts/titles independently assessed and data independently entered by two authors. Risk-of-bias assessed with the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias tool. - Results Twenty-seven RCTs were included. Nine trials of never-smokers compared to a control provided data for meta-analysis. Family intervention trials had significantly fewer students who started smoking. Meta-analysis of twoRCTs of combined family and school interventions compared to school only, showed additional significant benefit. The common feature of effective high intensity interventions was encouraging authoritative parenting. - Limitations Only 14 RCTs provided data for meta-analysis (about 1/3 of participants). Of the 13 RCTs which did not provide data for meta-analysis eight compared a family intervention to no intervention and one found significant effects, and five compared a family + school intervention to a school intervention and none found additional significant effects. - Conclusions and Implications of Key Findings There is moderate quality evidence that family-based interventions prevent children and adolescents starting to smoke.

O impacto do modelo touchpoints nas representações do educador

Dissertação apresentada na Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa, para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências da Educação Especialidade Intervenção Precoce