Can the provision of games equipment at school break time increase the physical activity levels of adolescents?

The promotion of physical activity to young people is currently a public health priority due to growing concerns that this group is not sufficiently physically active. Adolescence in particular is characterised with a decline in physical activity levels (Verstraete, et al 2006, Journal of Public Health, 16: 415-419). There exists an increased concern that Physical Education lessons within the National School Curriculum do not assist with this downward trend in activity levels, thus the notion of using school break time to promote physical activity is being explored (Ridgers, et al 2006, Sports Medicine, 36: 359-371). Whilst research has been completed into the use of break time physical activity interventions within primary schools, there is a distinct shortage of work examining the effectiveness of interventions aimed at the adolescent population. The aim of this study was to hence establish if a physical activity intervention delivered in school break time could increase the physical activity levels of adolescents from one secondary school in Lincoln. Emphasis was placed upon evaluating the intervention in order to establish its effectiveness and not merely reporting statistical findings. The research was situated within the critical realist paradigm adopting a subjective epistemology. Following institutional ethics approval, one secondary school was chosen as the case study location. Observations recording adolescents’ physical activity levels were completed during lunch break twice per week for a period of five weeks using the System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity in Youth (SOPLAY). The first two weeks featured no physical activity intervention, whilst the final three weeks involved the provision of games equipment. Structured interviews were completed with adolescents to gain a deeper understanding of the influence and effect of the intervention on physical activity levels. Both data sets were then incorporated to evaluate the effect of the intervention under the RE-AIM Evaluation Framework (Glasgow, et al 1999, American Journal of Public Health, 89: 1322-1327). Findings illustrated that the intervention had no significant impact on break time physical activity levels and that physical activity was limited due to institutional constraints placed by the school. Restraints related to the time available at break time which reduced activity opportunities, especially when considering the time adolescents required to leave and return to lessons. The study thus suggests that it is the school environment as opposed to the activity available which influences adolescents’ physical activity levels at break time

Fearless: Bruce Larson and Alice Carter

This Monday, Professor of political science and public policy, Bruce Larson, Assistant Director of Development, Alumni, and Parent Relations, and Technology, Alice Carter, and daughter Lily Larson will be leaving for a semester in Beijing, China. Professor Larson will be joining the ranks of Gettysburg College’s Fulbright recipients, teaching two courses at the China Foreign Affairs University while conducting his research

Patterns of anxiety symptoms in toddlers and preschool-age children: Evidence of early differentiation

The degree to which young children’s anxiety symptoms differentiate according to diagnostic groupings is under-studied, especially in children below the age of 4 years. Theoretical (confirmatory factor analysis, CFA) and statistical (exploratory factor analysis, EFA) analytical methods were employed to test the hypothesis that anxiety symptoms among 2–3-year-old children from a non-clinical, representative sample would differentiate in a manner consistent with current diagnostic nosology. Anxiety symptom items were selected from two norm-referenced parent-report scales of child behavior. CFA and EFA results suggested that anxiety symptoms aggregate in a manner consistent with generalized anxiety, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, separation anxiety, and social phobia. Multi-dimensional models achieved good model fit and fit the data significantly better than undifferentiated models. Results from EFA and CFA methods were predominantly consistent and supported the grouping of early childhood anxiety symptoms into differentiated, diagnostic-specific categories

An Ecological Risk Model for Early Childhood Anxiety: The Importance of Early Child Symptoms and Temperament

Childhood anxiety is impairing and associated with later emotional disorders. Studying risk factors for child anxiety may allow earlier identification of at-risk children for prevention efforts. This study applied an ecological risk model to address how early childhood anxiety symptoms, child temperament, maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, violence exposure, and sociodemographic risk factors predict school-aged anxiety symptoms. This longitudinal, prospective study was conducted in a representative birth cohort (n=1109). Structural equation modeling was used to examine hypothesized associations between risk factors measured in toddlerhood/preschool (age=3.0 years) and anxiety symptoms measured in kindergarten (age=6.0 years) and second grade (age= 8.0 years). Early child risk factors (anxiety symptoms and temperament) emerged as the most robust predictor for both parent-and child-reported anxiety outcomes and mediated the effects of maternal and family risk factors. Implications for early intervention and prevention studies are discussed

Tempus et Locus: a tool for extracting precisely dated viral sequences from GenBank, and its application to the phylogenetics of primate erythroparvovirus 1 (B19V)

The presence of data in the collection_date field of a GenBank sequence record is of great assistance in the use of that sequence for Bayesian phylogenetics using tip-dating. We present Tempus et Locus (TeL), a tool for extracting such sequences from a GenBank-formatted sequence database. TeL shows that 60% of viral sequences in GenBank have collection date fields, but that this varies considerably between species. Primate erythroparvovirus 1 (human parvovirus B19 or B19V) has only 40% of its sequences dated, of which only 112 are of more than 4 kb. 100 of these are from B19V sub-genotype 1a and were collected from a mere 6 studies conducted in 5 countries between 2002 and 2013. Nevertheless, Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of this limited set gives a date for the common ancestor of sub-genotype 1a in 1990 (95% HPD 1981-1996) which is in reasonable agreement with estimates of previous studies where collection dates have been assembled by more laborious methods of literature search and direct enquiries to sequence submitters. We conclude that although collection dates should become standard for all future GenBank submissions of virus sequences, accurate dating of ancestors is possible with even a small number of sequences if sampling information is high quality

The Massachusetts Early Education and Care: Professional Development Study

This study is a research-policy partnership. This study used workforce registry (n=55,768) and professional development attendance data to examine early educator characteristics and patterns of professional development participation in one state. In the paper, we describe how these new workforce data can inform professional development. We present the concept of density in professional development participation, discuss its potential benefits, and highlight the utility of state-wide digital tracking of early educators’ patterns of professional development for informing policy. We suggest that professional development policy can impact professional development participation density, and can thus be used intentionally to promote investments that have the potential to improve quality. We conclude the paper with implications for research and policy

Priming scalar and ad hoc enrichment in children

Sentences can be enriched by considering what the speaker does not say but could have done. Children, however, struggle to derive one type of such enrichments, scalar implicatures. A popular explanation for this, the lexical alternatives account, is that they do not have lexical knowledge of the appropriate alternatives to generate the implicature. Namely, children are unaware of the scalar relationship between some and all. We conducted a priming study with N = 72 children, aged 5;1 years, and an adult sample, N = 51, to test this hypothesis. Participants were exposed to prime trials of strong, alternative, or weak sentences involving scalar or ad hoc expressions, and then saw a target trial that could be interpreted in either way. Consistent with previous studies, children were reluctant to derive scalar implicatures. However, there were two novel findings. (1) Children responded with twice the rate of ad hoc implicature responses than adults, suggesting that the implicature was the developmentally prior interpretation for ad hoc expressions. (2) Children showed robust priming effects, suggesting that children are aware of the scalar relationship between some and all, even if they choose not to derive the implicature. This suggests that the root cause of the scalar implicature deficit is not due to the absence of lexical knowledge of the relationship between some and all

Lost Toy? Monsters Under the Bed? Contributions of Temperament and Family Factors to Early Internalizing Problems in Boys and Girls

This study was designed to examine the contribution of multiple risk factors to early internalizing problems and to investigate whether family and ecological context moderated the association between child temperament and internalizing outcomes. A sample of 1,202 mothers of 2- and 3-year-old children completed a survey of child social-emotional functioning, family environment, and violence exposure. Child temperament, maternal affective symptoms, and family expressiveness were associated with child anxiety and depression problems. Violence exposure was related only to child anxiety. When maternal affective symptoms were elevated, inhibited girls but not boys were rated as more anxious and youngsters with heightened negative emotionality were rated as more depressed. Family expressiveness moderated the association between inhibited temperament and anxiety symptoms