First Line of Defense: Protecting Youth on Campus

Many institutions recognize the need for a centralized process to address the safety of youth on campus. Legislation, publicized incidents, state and national laws, and research have pushed this topic to the forefront. In an effort to educate, mitigate risk, and create consistency, the implementation of university-wide youth protection policies has become a common practice. While each campus is different, foundational components to these policies can create a cultural shift and educate individuals on their role in reporting abuse and neglect. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) launched its youth protection policy, Safety and Protection of Minors, in July 2016. The policy took over two years to create and is now in the second year of implementation. Based on the evolution of this policy, from inception to application, the university has learned that this initiative is a shared responsibility and that leaders play a key role

ReVision: Creating a Roadmap to Institutional Improvements

The Policy’s responsible office is charged with evaluating the policy’s effectiveness at achieving desired results and necessity for changes on an ongoing basis. Have you been wanting to or been asked to make a change to your policy? Writing or updating university rules and policy can seem daunting for many of us. Two universities will share their review process and lessons learned, including how focusing on risk management driven policy helped garner buy in and how it strengthened both policy and Youth Programs Manual through key modifications

A Project-Based Literature Review of Girls in STEM Day: A Day-Long STEM Event for Middle School Girls

Research specifically targeted at youth participation in STEM highlights the importance of community engagements outside of school to bolster interest in STEM. Representation of women in STEM and encouragement of girls’ participation and interest in STEM fields parallels the importance of designing and implementing curriculums that enhance middle school-aged girls’ participation in STEM fields. The Girls in STEM Day program hosted by UNLV Scientista Foundation is designed to encourage middle school girls of color from the Clark County School District to find interest in STEM. Interactive activities and framework analysis of the program provides prospective success towards increasing interest and participation in STEM. Evaluation of this program and activities will provide further evidence for curriculum development to triangulate girls’ experiences and perceptions of STEM. The authors of this study expect to contribute specific examples indicating middle school girls’ interests in STEM-based on experiences in a day-long STEM event

Creating, Collaborating and Adapting: Implementing a Decentralized Youth Policy

The first year implementing a new policy on campus comes with unique opportunities as well as challenges in ensuring appropriate controls and protections for minors. A decentralized policy can often highlight these barriers, but can also create space for innovation. When a policy is located in departments like human resources and risk management infrastructures designed to bolster policies and manage liability are present. For policies in non-traditional areas of higher education, the journey to a sustainable policy model requires a different approach. Virginia Commonwealth University’s policy, Safety and Protection of Minors, is located under the Division of Community Engagement, within the Mary and Frances Youth Center. The Center directly facilitates youth programs while also serving as a hub for youth development best practices through our policy work and training programs. We will share our experience implementing this policy during its’ first year and the ways in which we strengthened through key modifications. Identifying and orienting policy advocates, designing processes for background checks and non-compliance, incorporating multiple campuses, and creating partnerships with campus departments can help provide a strong foundation on which to rely. We will also share long term goals for year two of a new policy. This includes creating a process for auditing, developing a database of university youth programs and establishing a plan for policy assessment. The second half of the session will incorporate critical group discussions aimed at identifying key issues in policy implementation with opportunities for feedback and networking. By analyzing hurdles, identifying solutions and offering opportunities for in depth discussion and networking, we hope attendees will leave with strategies to overcome policy challenges

An independent audit of the Australian food industry\u27s voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme for energy-dense nutrition-poor foods

Background/Objective: Since 2006, the Australian food industry has promoted its front-of-pack (FOP) food labelling system-the Daily Intake Guide (DIG)-as a success story of industry self-regulation. With over 4000 products already voluntary featuring the DIG, the industry argues that government regulation of FOP nutrition labelling is simply unnecessary. However, no independent audit of the industry\u27s self-regulation has ever been undertaken and we present the first such Australian data. Subjects/Methods: Energy-dense nutrient-poor (EDNP) snacks were audited at nine Australian supermarkets, including biscuits, candy, ice creams, chocolates, crisps, sports drinks, energy drinks, flavoured milks, sweetened juices and soft drinks. In these categories nutrition labels were recorded for 728 EDNP products in various packaging sizes. Results: The DIG was displayed on 66% of audited EDNP products but most of these (75%) did not report saturated fat and sugar content. Only generic supermarket EDNP products were likely to display saturated fat and sugar content, compared with very few branded products (48% vs 4%, P\u3c0.001). Branded products not displaying fat and sugar content contained on average 10-times more saturated fat than those displaying such (10% vs 1% DI, P\u3c0.001) and nearly twice as much sugar (21 vs 13% DI, P\u3c0.05). Conclusions: Most Australian manufacturers of EDNP products have adopted the DIG; consistent with industry claims of widespread adoption, but almost all still avoid displaying the high saturated fat and sugar content of their products by opting for the \u27energy alone\u27 option, violating the industry\u27s own voluntarily guidelines and highlighting serious weaknesses with the industry\u27s self-regulation

Understanding Inservice Middle School Teachers’ Views of Nature of Science (VNOS)

The Nature of Science (NOS) is a component of science literacy that supports critical thinking around science concepts, speaking to how and why science is conducted and connected to creating data and evidence. NOS is designed to be more than the standardized lessons of science; it helps children critically analyze and solve real-world and societal issues using scientific knowledge. The interpretation of science varies between the ideology and beliefs of each individual. Given the importance of this idea, it is necessary that teachers be able to provide NOS opportunities to students; however, first, they must have a firm grasp of the concept. To that end, we have created a qualitative study using the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS-D+) questionnaire to understand how a group of middle school science teachers conceptualize the NOS. The VNOS-D+ was administered to a cohort of teachers and administrators (n=23) within a Large Urban School District. The data was analyzed using the VNOS key and then open-coded by three reviewers. The results found that participants had an emergent and developing understanding of the NOS and should be supported to develop a robust NOS perspective. Given this finding, future research, professional development, and educational curriculums should support teachers to continually engage with NOS explicitly and implicitly to grow their understanding of the topic

Epigenetic aging signatures in mice livers are slowed by dwarfism, calorie restriction and rapamycin treatment

Background: Global but predictable changes impact the DNA methylome as we age, acting as a type of molecular clock. This clock can be hastened by conditions that decrease lifespan, raising the question of whether it can also be slowed, for example, by conditions that increase lifespan. Mice are particularly appealing organisms for studies of mammalian aging; however, epigenetic clocks have thus far been formulated only in humans. Results: We first examined whether mice and humans experience similar patterns of change in the methylome with age. We found moderate conservation of CpG sites for which methylation is altered with age, with both species showing an increase in methylome disorder during aging. Based on this analysis, we formulated an epigenetic-aging model in mice using the liver methylomes of 107 mice from 0.2 to 26.0 months old. To examine whether epigenetic aging signatures are slowed by longevity-promoting interventions, we analyzed 28 additional methylomes from mice subjected to lifespan-extending conditions, including Prop1df/df dwarfism, calorie restriction or dietary rapamycin. We found that mice treated with these lifespan-extending interventions were significantly younger in epigenetic age than their untreated, wild-type age-matched controls. Conclusions: This study shows that lifespan-extending conditions can slow molecular changes associated with an epigenetic clock in mice livers

Social Norms and Risk Perception: Predictors of Distracted Driving Behavior Among Novice Adolescent Drivers

AbstractPurposeAdolescent drivers are at elevated crash risk due to distracted driving behavior (DDB). Understanding parental and peer influences on adolescent DDB may aid future efforts to decrease crash risk. We examined the influence of risk perception, sensation seeking, as well as descriptive and injunctive social norms on adolescent DDB using the theory of normative social behavior.Methods403 adolescents (aged 16–18 years) and their parents were surveyed by telephone. Survey instruments measured self-reported sociodemographics, DDB, sensation seeking, risk perception, descriptive norms (perceived parent DDB, parent self-reported DDB, and perceived peer DDB), and injunctive norms (parent approval of DDB and peer approval of DDB). Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to predict the influence of descriptive and injunctive social norms, risk perception, and sensation seeking on adolescent DDB.Results92% of adolescents reported regularly engaging in DDB. Adolescents perceived that their parents and peers participated in DDB more frequently than themselves. Adolescent risk perception, parent DDB, perceived parent DDB, and perceived peer DDB were predictive of adolescent DDB in the regression model, but parent approval and peer approval of DDB were not predictive. Risk perception and parental DDB were stronger predictors among males, whereas perceived parental DDB was stronger for female adolescents.ConclusionsAdolescent risk perception and descriptive norms are important predictors of adolescent distracted driving. More study is needed to understand the role of injunctive normative influences on adolescent DDB. Effective public health interventions should address parental role modeling, parental monitoring of adolescent driving, and social marketing techniques that correct misconceptions of norms related to around driver distraction and crash risk