Interventions to increase physical activity in disadvantaged communities: A review of behavioural mechanisms. ESRI Working Paper No. 646 December 2019

Physical inactivity is now a significant driver of health and social inequalities among socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and poses a major challenge to policymakers, worldwide. Although a vast amount of research has focused on designing and evaluating interventions to increase physical activity, there remains little consensus on which interventions are likely to work. In this narrative review, we build on previous reviews by not only examining what interventions tend to work but by trying to understand why certain interventions tend to work, while others do not, through the lens of behavioural science. We present a behavioural framework through which the existing body of physical activity research could be viewed, in order to identify potentially effective mechanisms that would be likely to work in their intended domain. Our analysis finds that while there is evidence that the physical and educational environment matter for increasing levels of physical activity, interventions are more likely to be successful where they involve a social component. We conclude that a behaviourally informed physical activity intervention would thus employ a set of focused educational and socially-mediated behavioural mechanisms, within an appropriate physical environment

A Moment Became the Season: An Exploration of Trauma Narrative within the Community Development Context

This research explores current methods of psychological trauma intervention within the community development context, namely the understandings that bound the clinical and diagnostic side of trauma, and the more recent victim centered approach: the trauma informed care method. The shortcomings of these approaches is that they individually lack the ability to establish the victim back into their sense of self or community, accordingly. This research argues that a narrative approach, a process by which a survivor of trauma has full agency to express their experience, used in conjunction with existing practices can rectify the shortcomings of both methods. The researcher and author uses creative writing within this research to exemplify the power of using a combination of academic or clinical definition and creative expression to convey a fuller sense of the experience of psychological trauma

Opettajien työuupumuksen tarttuminen työyhteisössä : yksilölliset, vuorovaikutteiset sekä organisatoriset tekijät

Opettajien työuupumus vaikuttaa niin yksilö-, kuin organisaatiotasolla sekä vuorovaikutuksissa työyhteisön sekä opettajan ja oppilaan välillä. Koulutusalalla koetaan suhteessa enemmän työuupumusta muihin toimialoihin verrattuna. Sen on todettu olevan yhteydessä niin työssä jaksamiseen, alanvaihtoon kuin vetäytymiskäyttäytymiseen, sekä oppilaiden motivaatioon, työyhteisön ongelmien ja yksilön terveyden lisäksi. Työuupumusoireiden on todettu vaihtelevan niin sukupuolen, uravaiheen, koulutustason, koulualueen sosio-ekonomisen tason sekä organisaation koon suhteen. Työuupumuksen on todettu tarttuvan yksilöstä toiseen sekä organisaatioissa, että perheen kesken. Opettajien työuupumuksen tarttumista edistäviä ja estäviä tekijöitä on kuitenkin tutkittu melko vähän. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, mitkä yksilölliset, vuorovaikutteiset sekä organisaatio tason tekijät voisivat mahdollisesti puskuroida tai altistaa työuupumuksen tarttumiselle. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin osana laajempaa kansallista Oppiminen ja kehittyminen koulussa tutkimusryhmän Koululla on väliä tutkimushanketta (Pietarinen, Pyhältö & Soini, 2017). Kyselyyn vastasi 1531 opettajaa sekä ala-asteelta, yläasteelta, että yhtenäiskoulusta. Opettajat jaettiin ryhmiin sukupuolen, opetettavan kouluasteen, koulualueen sosioekonomisen aseman, työkokemuksen, sekä opettajamäärän mukaan. Yksilöllisten, vuorovaikutteisten sekä organisatoristen tekijöiden yhteyttä työuupumusoireisiin tarkasteltiin korrelaatioiden, t-testin ja yksisuuntaisen varianssianalyysin avulla. Tulosten perusteella opettajat näyttivät kokevan melko kohtuullisia työuupumuksen oireita, mutta varianssin perusteella korkeampia työuupumusoireita koettiin verrattain paljon. Työuupumus oireet korreloivat positiivisesti keskenään. Työuupumuksen tarttumista estäviä tekijöitä tutkimuksen perusteella olivat yksilöllisinä tekijöinä miessukupuoli, pidempi työkokemus – vuorovaikutteisena tekijänä – korkeampi koulualueen sosioekonominen asema ja – organisatorisena tekijänä – pieni koulun koko. Altistavia tekijöitä työuupumuksen tarttumiseen olivat naissukupuoli ja matalampi työkokemus, koulualueen matala sosioekonominen sekä koulun suuri koko. Tutkimustulokset ovat yleistettävissä koko Suomen opettajakuntaa koskeviksi tutkimusdatan kattavuuden vuoksi.Teacher burnout has negative consequences on an individual, transactional and organizational levels between teachers and pupils. Compared to other fields, the educational field experiences higher levels of burnout. Previous studies indicate that burnout is connected to turnover, withdrawal, pupils’ motivation, and problems in the working community in addition to the individual’s health. The burnout symptoms have been found to differ in gender, career phase, academic level, socio- economic level of the neighborhood and organization size. Previous research has found that burnout crossover happens from an individual to another across the teacher community. The buffering and exposing attributes concerning the crossover of teacher burnout have been studied rather little. The aim of this research is to discover which individual, transactional and organizational attributes could potentially buffer or expose to the crossover of burnout. Research data was gathered as a part of a wider, national research project called School Matters by the members of the Learning and Development in School research group (Pietarinen, Pyhältö & Soini, 2017). The participants were selected from six different areas. Altogether 1531 teachers from primary, secondary and combined schools completed the questionnaire. The teachers were divided into groups based on their gender, academic level, the level of socio-economic status (SES) of the school neighborhood, career phase and school size. Individual, transactional and organizational factors’ connection to the burnout symptoms were examined through correlations, t-test and One-way analysis of variance. Results indicate that on average the teachers are doing quite well and experience quite moderate levels of burnout. Even so, quite many of them reported higher and lower levels of the symptoms. The symptoms correlate positively with each other. Based on the research findings it can be suggested that individual attributes, including male gender and higher number of years in the profession, buffer from the crossover of burnout. In addition, the higher socio-economic status (SES) of the school neighborhood – a transactional attribute – and smaller school size – an organizational attribute – also act as buffers. On the other hand, exposing attributes include the female gender, less years in the profession, lower socio-economic status of the school neighborhood and large school size. The result may be generalized to the Finnish teaching community as a whole because the research population was large and the geographical distribution of the population was comprehensive

Shots fired: Unraveling the 2015 Surrey gang conflict using social network analysis

The ever-changing gang landscape in British Columbia (BC) has seen periods of escalated retaliatory gang violence, most recently in 2015, in Surrey, BC, Canada. The ‘face’ of the gang problem in Surrey is that of South Asian males in their early twenties. Homicide among this population is an unrecognized public health crisis, as over the last decade, there have been over 150 deaths and counting of South Asian males related to gang violence in the Lower Mainland. A cross-disciplinary tool that police can use to advance their understanding of gangs, conflicts and violent victimization is social network analysis (SNA). The ego-networks of the 23 confirmed gang-related gun homicide or attempted homicide victims in Surrey, in 2015, are constructed using police data from 2011 to 2015. The present study a) assesses the overall structure to understand the Surrey gang conflict, b) conducts centrality analyses to identify those individuals (victims and non-victims) at the highest risk of gunshot victimization and c) explores the potential consequences of being central in the victim network. Results indicate that 299 of the 355 individuals in the overall network are connected to each other, including 18 of the 23 victims, who are more likely to be brokers. A high-risk group is identified, with two or more direct connections to victims that are at the highest risk of victimization. Finally, results show that 2016 and 2017 victims are among the most central in the network. Policy and practical implications are discussed with reference to these findings

The Untapped Potential of Ethnic Community Networks: Urban Resiliency and the Chinese Commuter Van System in New York City

Community resiliency begins at the local level. This explores the intersection of urban resiliency with the strength of community transit networks by evaluating the extensive Chinese immigrant inter-borough commuter van system in New York City. How should the city better empower and utilize existing immigrant transit and support networks in its strategic planning in response to disaster relief, recovery, and resiliency? More broadly, how can cities harness the realities of the 21st century - migration and climate change - and realize their potential to improve accessibility and reach in disaster relief? Better understanding the way the van system works within the community and links geographically distant neighborhoods underscores how immigrant neighborhoods bring different corners of the city together, which on a local level provides additional legitimacy to existing networks of support in migrant communities. I recommend that informality and im/migrant systems are recognized and supported through New York City\u27s recovery and resiliency efforts of OneNYC, and as a model for other global cities, to embed supporting existing networks in im/migrant communities into disaster preparedness

Understanding Recent Spikes and Longer Trends in American Murders

On September 7, 2016, four of the nation’s newspapers of record weighed in on the connected crises in crime and policing. The New York Times revealed the tensions between the Mayor’s office in Chicago and several community and professional groups over a plan to overhaul Chicago’s police disciplinary board – a plan developed in the wake of the shooting of an unarmed teenager, Laquan McDonald, and the release of a video of that killing. The Wall Street Journal related a vigorous defense of New York City’s “broken windows” policing strategy – a strategy that has been a recurring source of tension between the city’s minority communities and the police, and whose value in crime reduction has been sharply debated. The Washington Post’s lead editorial decried Chicago’s “deadliest month in two decades” that left city officials at odds over the basic elements of public safety policy and strategic responses to the seemingly intractable violence. The Chicago Tribune weighed in as well. In it, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson declared that the crisis is “not a police issue, it’s a society issue,” pointing to the need for stricter gun controls

My brain wakes up

An original work of fiction designed to open the conversation between students and teachers about the striking contrasts and innate beauty in how differently each of our brains are made. It is at once a work of fiction, an interview of children, an opportunity for personal reflection, and an invitation for all learners to honor our unique creativity

Storytelling as an Expressive Arts Therapy Intervention with Children via Telehealth

As an expressive arts therapist in training working in the midst of a global pandemic, I sought to develop a creative, safe, accessible, and effective intervention for children via telehealth during a time of great uncertainty. Coronavirus 2019 has had a massive impact on mental and physical health and disrupted the lives of billions across the globe; the pandemic also forced mental health professionals to online formats. I found a significant lack of literature around expressive arts therapy via telehealth. Through considering theoretical approaches from cinematherapy, narrative therapy, metaphor therapy, play therapy, and expressive arts therapy, I developed an eight-week storytelling intervention for four clients between six and eleven years old at an outpatient child and family counseling center. I worked collaboratively to create six unique stories with each client to begin to conceptualize parts creatively and safely. The intervention was a successful and incredible experience for myself and my clients. Common themes across clients included family, isolation or loneliness, needing help, helping others, confusion, and problem-solving. In the end, I was astounded at their insight, reflection, and growth. I hope this intervention can help other professionals who may struggle with implementing expressive arts therapy via telehealth just as I did

New Situations: Between “gang Rape” And The “farce Of Rape” In Network Society

This article reflects on the impacts of the Internet on the relationships between individuals, state agencies and social movements by analyzing the case of a gang rape in the Morro da Barão neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro in May 2016, which had national and international repercussions in the major media and on social networks. To do so, a mapping was conducted of news articles and videos about “rape culture” and of comments about this material, which led me to different understandings of the term and to moralities involved with these understandings and questionings of them. © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.20164