Sports participation and health-related behaviors among US youth

Objective To examine the relationship between sports participation and health-related behaviors among high school students. Design Cross-sectional design using data from the 1997 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Participants A nationally representative sample of 14221 US high school students. Main Outcome Measures Prevalence of sports participation among males and females from 3 ethnic groups and its associations with other health behaviors, including diet, tobacco use, alcohol and illegal drug use, sexual activity, violence, and weight loss practices. Results Approximately 70% of male students and 53% of female students reported participating on 1 or more spores teams in school and/or nonschool settings; rates varied substantially by age, sex, and ethnicity. Male sports participants were more likely than male nonparticipants to report fruit and vegetable consumption on the previous day and less likely to report cigarette smelting, cocaine and other illegal drug use, and trying to lose weight. Compared with female nonparticipants, female sports participants were more likely to report consumption of vegetables on the previous day and less likely to report having sexual intercourse in the past 3 months. Among white males and females, several other beneficial health behaviors were associated with sports participation. A few associations with. negative health behaviors were observed in African American and Hispanic subgroups. Conclusion Sports participation is highly prevalent among US high school students, and is associated with numerous positive health behaviors and few negative health behaviors.

Socio-economic and demographic variations in school lunch participation of French children aged 3-17 years

Objective: To assess school canteen attendance in a French nationally representative sample of children and to analyse its association with the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the children and their families.
Design: Data from the second French national cross-sectional food consumption survey (INCA2), performed in 2006–2007, were used. Information on usual weekly school canteen attendance was collected through a self-reported questionnaire, and demographic and socio-economic variables through a face-to-face questionnaire. The associations between school canteen attendance and the socio-economic and demographic variables were investigated by multivariate logistic regression analyses.
Setting: The INCA2 sample was representative of the children aged 3–17 years in France.
Subject: Analysis was performed on 1413 schoolchildren who completed the school canteen attendance questions.
Results: Some 65?6% of schoolchildren aged 3–17 years had school lunch at least once weekly. This rate of attendance was positively correlated with age. Whatever the school level, school canteen attendance was positively associated with the educational level of the caregiver/parent. In pre- and elementary-school children, enrolment at the school canteen was also higher when the caregiver/parent worked, or in single-parent families. In secondary-school children, school lunch participation decreased with children living in more densely populated areas and increased with the level of the household’s living standards.
Conclusions: School canteen attendance was positively associated with children’s socio-economic background. This could reduce the effectiveness of the forthcoming school meal composition regulations designed to improve the diet of children from deprived backgrounds, who are more likely to have unhealthy food habits.

The relation of sports participation to academic performance of high school students

Over the past one hundred years, interscholastic athletic programs have evolved to a place of prominence in both public and private education across America. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) estimates that approximately 3.96 million males and 2.80 million females participated in organized high school athletic programs during the 2001–2002 school year at over 17 thousand public and private high schools. The popularity of interscholastic athletic programs has resulted in continuous investigations of the relationship between high school athletic programs and academic performance. ^ The present study extends earlier investigations by examining the relation of athletic participation to several indicators of academic performance for senior high school students. This research examined: (a) average daily attendance of varsity athletes and non-athletes; (b) final cumulative grade point average; and (c) test scores on the tenth grade Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FLAT) in both reading and in mathematics. ^ Data were collected on 2081 randomly selected male and female high school students identified as athletes or non-athletes at ten public senior high schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools district. The results of the overall analyses showed a positive and significant relationship between athletic participation and educational performance. On average, athletes were absent fewer days from school per year than non-athletes and athletes earned a significantly higher cumulative grade point average than their non-athlete peers. A significant statistical difference was also found in the tenth grade FCAT test scores in both reading and mathematics for athletes and non-athletes when eighth grade FCAT test scores in reading and mathematics were used as co-variates. Athletes earned significantly higher Grade 10 FCAT test scores in both reading and mathematics than non-athletes. ^ Although cause and effect cannot be inferred from this study, the findings do indicate the potentially beneficial value of athletic programs in public secondary education. The study concluded that Florida high school graduation requirements might seriously consider the role of interscholastic athletic programs as a valid and essential extra-curricular activity. ^

Participation factors in optional high school health and physical education

Student enrolment rates in optional health and physical education (HPE) classes have been steadily declining, to the point where most Ontario students stop taking HPE after completion of their one required credit, typically taken in grade nine. This study looked at factors that could contribute to HPE enrolment, sampling 227 grade ten students from five schools. These factors included selfefficacy (SE), perceived autonomy support (PAS), task value (TV), motivational regulation (autonomous, AR; controlled, CR), HPE grade average and body size discrepancy (BSD). Qualitative information was also gathered from students regarding likes and dislikes ofHPE, as well as reasons for their HPE enrolment choice. Cronbach Alpha values of each scale fell within acceptable values. ANOVA analysis revealed differences between enrolment groups in SE, TV, AR, HPE grade average, and BSD (p < .05). Reasons students reported for not taking HPE included a dislike of health classes, scheduling challenges, not needing HPE for future endeavors, concerns about social self-presentation, and a dislike of sports and/or competition. This research shows important differences between students and their HPE class choices and calls for a re-evaluation of how HPE classes are structured, advertised and scheduled by high school practitioners. Future works should look toward what other factors could be at play in students' decisions for or against optional HPE and how those factors interact with the constructs that were found to be of significance in this study. Keywords: Health and physical education, high school students, participation.

Geographical dimensions of imagined futures: post school participation in education and work in peri-urban and regional Australia

This paper discusses preliminary findings from a sub-set of empirical data collected for a recent NCVER study that explored the geographic dimensions of social exclusion in four locations in Victoria and South Australia with lower than average post school education participation. Set against the policy context of the Bradley Review (2008) and the drive to increase the post-school participation of young people from low socio-economic status neighbourhoods, this qualitative research study, responding to identified gaps in the literature, sought a nuanced understanding of how young people make decisions about their post-school pathways. Drawing on Appadurai’s (2004) concept ‘horizons of aspiration’ the paper explores the aspirations of two young people formed from, and within, their particular rural ‘neighborhoods’. The paper reveals how their post-school education and work choices, imagined futures and conceptions of a ‘good life’, have topographic and gendered influences that are important considerations for policy makers.

School and choice : Anethnography of a primary school with bilingual classes

Based on a one-year ethnographic study of a primary school in Finland with specialised classes in Finnish and English (referred to as bilingual classes by research participants), this research traces patterns of how nationed, raced, classed and gendered differences are produced and gain meaning in school. I examine several aspects of these differences: the ways the teachers and parents make sense of school and of school choice; the repertoires of self put forward by teachers, parents and pupils of the bilingual classes; and the insitutional and classroom practices in Sunny Lane School (pseudonym). My purpose is to examine how the construction of differentness is related to the policy of school choice. I approach this questions from a knowledge problematic, and explore connections and disjunctions between the interpretations of teachers and those of parents, as well as between what teachers and parents expressed or said and the practices they engaged in. My data consists of fieldnotes generated through a one-year period of ethnographic study in Sunny Lane School, and of ethnographic interviews with teachers and parents primarily of the bilingual classes. This data focuses on the initial stages of the bilingual classes, which included the application and testing processes for these classes, and on Grades 1─3. In my analysis, I pursue poststructural feminist theorisations on questions of knowledge, power and subjectivity, which foreground an understanding of the constitutive force of discourse and the performative, partial, and relational nature of knowledge. I begin by situating my ethnographic field in relation to wider developments, namely, the emergence of school choice and the rhetoric of curricular reform and language education in Finland. I move on from there to ask how teachers discuss the introduction of these specialised classes, then trace pupils paths to these classes, their parents goals related to school choice, teachers constructions of the pupils and parents of bilingual classes, and how these shape the ways in which school and classroom practices unfold. School choice, I argue, functioned as a spatial practice, defining who belongs in school and demarcating the position of teachers, parents and pupils in school. Notions of classed and ethnicised differences entered the ways teachers and parents made sense of school choice. Teachers idealised school in terms of social cohesiveness and constructed social cohesion as a task for school to perform. The hopes parents iterated were connected to ensuring their children s futurity, to their perceptions of the advantages of fluency in English, but also to the differences they believed to exist between the social milieus of different schools. Ideals such as openmindedness and cosmopolitanism were also articulated by parents, and these ideals assumed different content for ethnic majority and minority parents. Teachers discussed the introduction of bilingual classes as being a means to ensure the school s future, and emphasised bilingual classes as fitting into the rubric of Finnish comprehensive schooling which, they maintained, is committed to equality. Parents were expected to accommodate their views and adopt the position of the responsible, supportive parent that was suggested to them by teachers. Teachers assumed a posture teachers of appreciating different cultures, while maintaining Finnishness as common ground in school. Discussion on pupils knowledge and experience of other countries took place often in bilingual classes, and various cultural theme events were organized on occasion. In school, pupils are taught to identify themselves in terms of cultural belonging. The rhetoric promoted by teachers was one of inclusiveness, which was also applied to describe the task of qualifying pupils for bilingual classes, qualifying which pupils can belong. Bilingual classes were idealised as taking a neutral, impartial posture toward difference by ethnic majority teachers and parents, and the relationship of school choice to classed advantage, for example, was something teachers, as well as parents, preferred not to discuss. Pupils were addressed by teachers during lessons in ways that assumed self responsibility and diligence, and they assumed the discursive category of being good, competent pupils made available to them. While this allowed them to position themselves favourably in school, their participation in a bilingual class was marked by the pressure to succeed well in school.

Ontario high school sport : an investigation of organizational design and its context

In 2002, The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) identified that in providing extracurricular sport programs schools are faced with the 'new realities' of the education system. Although research has been conducted exploring the pressures impacting the provision of extracurricular school sport (Donnelly, Mcloy, Petherick, & Safai, 2000), few studies within the field have focused on understanding extracurricular school sport from an organizational level. The focus of this study was to examine the organizational design (structure, systems, and values) of the extracurricular sport department within three Ontario high schools, as well as to understand the context within which the departments exist. A qualitative multiple case study design was adopted and three public high schools were selected from one district school board in Ontario to represent the cases under investigation. Interviews, observations and documents were used to analyze the extracurricular sport department design of each case and to better understand the context within which the departments exist. As the result of the analysis of the structure, systems and values of each case, two designs emerged- Design KT1 and Design KT2. Differences in the characteristics of design archetype KT1 and KT2 centered on the design dimension of values, and therefore this study identified that contrasting organizational values reflect differences in design types. The characteristics of the Kitchen Table archetype were found to be transferable to the sub-sector of extracurricular school sport, and therefore this research provides a springboard for further research in organizational design within the education sector of extracurricular high school sport. Interconnections were found between the data associated with the external and internal contexts within which the extracurricular sport departments exist. The analysis of the internal context indicated the important role played by organizational members in shaping the context within which the departments exist. The analysis of the external context highlighted the institutional pressures that were present within the education environment. Both political and cultural expectations related to the role of extracurricular sport within schools were visible and were subsequently used by the high schools to create legitimacy and prestige, and to access resources.

Presión arterial en preescolares de la localidad de Usaquén en Bogotá

Introducción: La hipertensión arterial es un problema de salud pública tanto en países industrializados como en vía de desarrollo. Su prevalencia en la infancia viene en aumento por lo que es relevante determinarla en niños preescolares a nivel local. Objetivo: Determinar la prevalencia de hipertensión arterial en niños de tres a cinco años de una cohorte de 14 hogares infantiles del ICBF de la localidad de Usaquén en Bogotá. Materiales y métodos: Se realizó un estudio de corte transversal analítico, utilizando la base de datos de un ensayo aleatorizado y controlado del año 200913, y se evaluaron las cifras de tensión arterial de acuerdo a sexo, edad, talla y su correlación con el IMC con un nivel de confianza del 95% y precisión del 1%. Se calcularon las medias, desviaciones estándar, percentiles y prevalencia. Resultados: Se obtuvo una muestra de 1035 casos, encontrándose una prevalencia de 4,5% de HTA sistólica, 10,4% de diastólica, ambas en estadio I; teniendo en cuenta tanto sistólica como diastólica, fue de 11,6% en estadio I. Se determinaron los valores de presión arterial sistólica y diastólica en cuartiles de acuerdo a edad, sexo y talla. El coeficiente de correlación entre el IMC y los niveles de presión arterial sistólica y diastólica fueron de 0.0992 y 0.0362 respectivamente. Conclusión: La prevalencia de HTA general fue de 11,6%, predominando la diastólica en estadio I en niños preescolares. No se encontró correlación entre el IMC y las cifras de tensión arterial sistólica y diastólica.

Intercollegiate athletics and college rankings: An analysis of the relationship between athletic success and the U.S. News and World Report college rankings

The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the relationship between athletic success of football and men's basketball and the U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) college rankings. There has been consistent debate among researchers who study institutional quality about whether intercollegiate athletics enhances reputation. This study is similar to other studies attempting to measure the relationship between athletic success and possible indirect benefits to the university from athletics, such as increased admissions applications and increased alumni donations and giving. This study offered a more nuanced model for measuring athletic success, a concept that has been difficult to measure quantitatively. The method used here also measured change over time (in this case, from year-to-year over an eleven year period). The research questions for this study were (a) is there a correlation between athletic success and the USNWR college ranking; and (b) is there a correlation in the change from year-to-year in athletic success with the change from year-to-year in the USNWR college rankings? Spearman Rho correlation and ANOVA tests were used to answer these research questions. The results from the statistical tests demonstrated little correlation between athletic success, whether in football or men's basketball, with the USNWR college rankings. Although the relationships were weak, men's basketball success consistently demonstrated a stronger relationship than football success. This finding differed from what is most often found in the literature, which often favors football success. The ANOVA test results did reveal some results that suggest athletic participation is a factor in the USNWR college rankings. As the debate continues about whether intercollegiate athletics enhances reputation, and as colleges and universities continue spending enormously on athletics, a keener understanding about the possible indirect benefits to the university from athletic programs is needed. The "advertising" provided by spectator sports such as football and men's basketball is often assumed by university leaders to present substantial indirect benefits for the university. However, the existing research along with this study provides little evidence of such opportunities.

Who pays and who plays? Mapping the discourse of publicly funded instrumental music education in Ireland

Instrumental music education is provided as an extra-curricular activity on a fee-paying basis by a small number of Education and Training Boards, formerly Vocational Education Committees (ETB/VECs) through specialist instrumental Music Services. Although all citizens’ taxes fund the public music provision, participation in instrumental music during school-going years is predominantly accessed by middle class families. A series of semistructured interviews sought to access the perceptions and beliefs of instrumental music education practitioners (N=14) in seven publicly-funded music services in Ireland. Canonical dispositions were interrogated and emergent themes were coded and analysed in a process of Grounded theory. The study draws on Foucault’s conception of discourse as a lens with which to map professional practices, and utilises Bourdieu’s analysis of the reproduction of social advantage to examine cultural assumptions, which may serve to privilege middle-class cultural choice to the exclusion of other social groups. Study findings show that within the Music Services, aesthetic and pedagogic discourses of the 19th century Conservatory system exert a hegemonic influence over policy and practice. An enduring ‘examination culture’ located within the Western art music tradition determines pedagogy, musical genre, and assessment procedures. Ideologies of musical taste and value reinforce the more tangible boundaries of fee-payment and restricted availability as barriers to access. Practitioners are aware of a status duality whereby instrumental teachers working as visiting specialists in primary schools experience a conflict between specialist and generalist educational aims. Nevertheless, study participants consistently advocated siting the point of access to instrumental music education in the primary schools as the most equitable means of access to instrumental music education. This study addresses a ‘knowledge gap’ in the sociology of music education in Ireland. It provides a framework for rethinking instrumental music education as equitable in-school musical participation. The conclusions of the study suggest starting-points for further educational research and may provide key ‘prompts’ for curriculum planning.

Evaluating the Norfolk physical education program with respect to fitness-level improvement

The grades seven and eight physical education program of the Norfolk Board of Education was evaluated with respect to fitnesslevel improvement, an objective of the Ministry of Education for the province of Ontario. The Canada Fitness Award battery of fitness tests was used to measure fitness levels. It was established that in September the students were unfit, and in May they were fit. This indicated that the Norfolk physical education program was effective, with respect to the criterion used for this research. In addition, it was discovered that fitness-level improvement was significantly related to certain variables: teacher qualifications, teaching experience, school, and participation in extracurricular physical activity. Considering the results of the research, it was recommended that the Norfolk Board of Education hire young, qualified physical education teachers; create the position of Physical Education Consultant; and strive to create equitable resources for physical education instruction, in order that the school to which a student belongs no longer will be a determinant of fitness improvement.

Participação da família na gestão da Escola : um estudo nas Escolas Públicas Municipais de ensino fundamental de Santa Luzia do Itanhi – Sergipe

Esta pesquisa destinou-se a estudar e analisar a política da Gestão Democrática com ênfase na “Participação da Família” nos processos decisórios da escola. Enfoques sobre esse tema é concernente à aprendizagem, onde se busca conhecer as influências da interação das famílias com a escola e o impacto dessa relação na aprendizagem. O processo da democratização e descentralização contribui muito para a formulação de estratégias políticas visando à participação, ou seja, garante essa participação através de representações que os pais fazem nas instituições como Associações de Pais e Mestres, Conselhos Escolares e outros, como processo fundamental para fortalecer as lideranças escolares e a gestão democrática e participativa nas unidades de ensino público. Sem esquecer que quando se fala em comunidade escolar, além dos segmentos de alunos, professores e funcionários envolvidos (comunidade externa) está falando de todo um segmento de pessoas posicionadas no entorno das escolas, dedicando-se às mais variadas atividades, e, com especial ênfase, está se referindo às famílias desses alunos. Em linhas gerais, a lógica da gestão é orientada pelos princípios democráticos, caracterizada pelo reconhecimento da importância da participação consciente e esclarecida das pessoas nas decisões das atividades escolares. A pesquisa foi extensiva investigando 4 escolas, sendo 2 da zona urbana, 2 da zona rural, estendendo-se aos conselhos escolares com participação em reuniões, assembléias, entrevistas e momentos de observação durante 4 meses. Neste sentido, os Conselhos Escolares e entrevistados, afirmam a importância da participação na Gestão Escolar, contudo, ainda faltam requisitos técnicos para se consolidar um trabalho mais efetivo de participação. Os resultados também apontam à necessidade de repensar a formação e capacitação dos gestores, voltada para a promoção de uma cultura de reflexão, crítica e assimilação de idéias, associadas à ação, pelo conjunto dos que fazem à realidade escolar, contemplando a relação entre Escola e Família.

The effects of training on performance and performance-related states in individual elite athletes : a dynamic approach

There are difficulties undertaking controlled training studies with elite athletes. Thus, data from non-elite performers are often presented in scientific journals and subsequently used to guide general training principles. This information may not be transferable or specific enough to inform training practices in an individual elite athlete. However, the nature of athletic participation at elite levels provides the opportunity to collect training data, performance-related variables, and performance data of elite athletes over long periods. In this paper, we describe how dynamic linear models provide an opportunity to use these data to inform training. Data from an elite female triathlete collected over a 111-day training period were used to model the relationship between training and self-reported fatigue. The dynamic linear model analysis showed the independent effects of the three modes of triathlon training on fatigue, how these can change across time, and the possible influence of other unmeasured variables. This paper shows the potential for the use of dynamic linear models as an aid to planning training in elite athletes.

A implementação do programa Gestão nota 10 no sistema municipal de educação em Mossoró/RN (2005 a 2009)

This research work is focused to show the changes in educational administration from the agreements between the Mossoró / RN and the Ayrton Senna Institute IAS, for education provision. Nowadays, the partnership policy is a constitutive element of the reform of the Brazilian State, which dropped its action on social policies and to strengthen its regulatory role, encouraging private participation in planning, preparation and implementation of public policies, new printing setting the political-social. In this context, the 10 Note Management Programme, developed by the IAS, is part of the neoliberal logic of modernization of public school systems, focusing on results and developing strategies for control and regulation of schools work and its efficiency, effectiveness and greater productivity. The 10 Note focuses on two dimensions: the management of learning and teaching in networking, in a managerial perspective to overcome the culture of failure (expressed as age-grade, dropout and repetition rates in) and implantation of culture of success (as measured in the improvement of the indices). To understanding the process, we have delimited as the object of study, the process of implementing them mentioned program in the city, which its objective is to analyze implications for the school community from the perspective of democratic management, adopting the dimensions of autonomy and participation in institutional processes as a criterion of analysis. From a methodological point of view, the survey was conducted from a literature review and documentary about educational policy developed in the country since the 1990´s, seeking to understand, in a dialectical perspective, the political dimensions of teaching, training and performance of the subjects involved in the school work. Besides the empirical observation, it was also used semi-structured interviews with a methodological tool for gathering information and opinions about the partnership and the implementation of the 10 Note Management Program in the county. The interviewee participants were ex-former education managers, coordinators, school managers, secretaries and teachers. Regarding the dimensions inside the analysis (autonomy and participation), the research led to the conclusion: that GEED, under the guidance of IAS promoted regulation of school autonomy, set up the selection process for exercising the office of school administration and system awards to schools, pupils and teachers, subject to results, there is mismatch between the managerial logic and the democratic management principles, that the ideological discourse of modernization of municipal management coexists with traditional practices, centralizing patronage, which ignores the democratic participation in the school decisions processes, the goals of the partnership were partially achieved, since that the city has improved over the approval and dropouts, although the approval of the Education Municipal Plan of the rules institutional (administrative, financial and educational) and the creation of the Councils observed that the school community participation is still limited, not being characterized as a coordinated intervention, capable of promoting the transformation and improvement its quality in the county. In the same way, the orientation of networking is a limit to the autonomy of schools, given the external definition of goals and strategies to be adopted, along with pressure exerted through the accountability of each school community for their achievements

A autonomia da escola pública :um complexo movimento entre a outorga e a construção

The present research to explorer the configurations that come being given to the autonomy of the school, since the decade of 1990. We investigate the implementation of the principle of the autonomy in the public system of education of the State of Pernambuco and, specifically, in four school units and this schools its in the quarters of Stubborn Brasilia Teimosa and Casa Amarela, both located in Recife. We try to know if the implementation of the autonomy of the school is circumscribed in the process of productive reorganization, it was evidenced that the inclusion of this principle in the educational politics - in the scopes national and state - obeyed the dynamics of retraction that, in the neoliberal context, the performance of the State in relation to the public education and the school characterizes, with consequence impact in the investigated schools. From the empirical inquiry it was identified to the occurrence of a movement realized for the social actors of the schools research in direction to the construction of the pertaining to school autonomy; this movement presenting some limits and fragilities. It was evidenced despite this movement varied of intensity in the measure where the social actors of the schools had developed levels of dinamics processes (in greater or minor degree) related with the diverse expressions of democratic management that can occur into the school, such as: elaboration of the Politician-Pedagogical Project, institution and functioning of the Pertaining to school Advice, etc. The set of the carried through analyses made possible that it concluded that, in the context neoliberal and delimited to the investigated time and space, the implementation of the autonomy of the school comes if giving in way to a complex movement of construction