Parent/Caregiver Lack of Knowledge: A Barrier for Youth Swimming Ability?

This study examined how a parent’s lack of knowledge of potential opportunities and barriers may restrict the child’s opportunity to learn how to swim. A survey was completed in multiple urban areas (N=524), where parents/caregivers reported their child’s swimming ability, as well as the parent’s knowledge of possible barriers to their child’s participation in swimming. ANOVA results suggested that the only significant difference between the presence of barriers groupings for child’s swimming ability were based on the availability of a pool and ease of access. For potential barriers examined, the group who lacked of barriers had a significantly lower perception of their child’s swimming ability than the group who recognized barriers (p\u3c.001 for all), suggesting that while physical barriers may play a role in a child’s likelihood of learning to swim, the most significant barrier may be the involvement and knowledge of the parent/caregiver

An Investigation of Youth Swimming Skills and Method of Instruction

Drowning is a leading cause of death for US children. Teaching youth to swim in a formal setting from certified instructors is a consistent drowning prevention recommendation. Purposes for this investigation was to examine type of swimming instruction and ability to swim and compare to attitudes toward swimming among US youth. Methods were similar to previous USA Swimming studies in 2008 and 2010. YMCA associations in five cities were used to recruit adolescent survey respondents (n=600) aged 12-18 years. Results showed African American youth had the lowest rate of formal swimming instruction (29%) compared to White (32%) and Hispanic (42%) peers. Free/reduced lunch qualifiers reported a 23% formal instruction rate as compared to 43% of non-qualifiers. Formally instructed youth were 2.35 times more likely to report being a skilled swimmer (86%) compared to informally instructed youth (72%). Formal swimming instruction is recommended, and interventions need to target underserved populations

Applying Hellison's Responsibility Model in a Youth Residential Treatment Facility: a Practical Inquiry Project

Much of the literature on Hellison's Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model focuses on programs that are implemented by community engaged professors. It is also important that the literature reflect the implementation of TPSR by full time teachers, youth workers, etc. In this paperwe describe the practical inquiry framework and howitwas applied by Cheryl, a full time teacher in a recreational therapy program, as she tried to integrate strategies from the TPSR model to enhance her effectiveness inworking with emotionally and behaviorally troubled youth. Through a reflective and iterative process she was able to adapt several TPSR strategies and structures to fit her particular teaching situation. She also developed several situational insights that led to the development of novel tactics and strategies. Cheryl's story illustrates that effective implementation of TPSR requires teachers to mold and contour the model to fit their context. We encourage practitioners to be creative in their use of TPSR and consider using the practical inquiry framework for curriculum development as they strive to act morally and effectively in pedagogical situations.Por lo general, la literatura sobre el modelo de Enseñanza para la Responsabilidad Personal y Social de Hellison (Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility-TPSR) se centra en programas que llevados a cabo por profesores 'comunitarios'. A este respecto, es importante que la literatura refleje también el desarrollo de programas TPSR por parte de maestros a tiempo completo en instituciones escolares, por educadores juveniles, etc. En este artículo describimos el método de indagación en la práctica y el modo en que lo aplicó Cheryl, maestra a tiempo completo en un programa de terapia recreacional, al intentar utilizar las estrategias del TPSR para aumentar la eficacia en su trabajo con jóvenes con trastornos emocionales y de conducta. Mediante un proceso reflexivo e iterativo, pudo adaptar varias estructuras y estrategias del modelo TPSR a su contexto particular de enseñanza. Realizó también perspicaces análisis de situaciones específicas que le permitieron desarrollar nuevas tácticas y estrategias. En fin, la historia de Cheryl ilustra el hecho de que la implementación eficaz del modelo TPSR por parte de los maestros requiere que éstos lo ajusten y adapten a su situación. Animamos a los profesionales a que sean creativos en su uso del TPSR y a que consideren la utilidad de la indagación práctica para el desarrollo del currículo, tratando de actuar de manera moral y eficaz en situaciones pedagógicas

Parental Factors That Influence Swimming in Children and Adolescents

Swimming can be an important source of physical activity across the life-span. Researchers have found that parents influence physical activity behaviors of their children. The purpose of this study was to determine what parental factors influenced the number of days that children swam. Survey respondents (n = 1,909) from six cities across the United States were surveyed at local YMCAs. Children were found to swim significantly more if their parents encouraged them to swim, members of the family knew how to swim and swam with them, or their parents were not afraid of the children drowning or afraid of drowning themselves. The number of times that parents swam was the strongest predictor of the number of times children swam and explained 41% of the variance. A cyclical, familial pattern was found which included encouragement, fear of drowning, and swimming frequency. Introducing strategies to reduce fear of drowning may prove to be an effective intervention to increase physical activity in children

The Development of Swimming Skills for African American Youth: Parent and Caregiver Perceptions of Barriers and Motivations

African American urban youth participate in swimming at an alarmingly low rate with 69% self-reporting low or no swimming skill (Irwin, Irwin, Martin,&Ross, 2010). This lack of participation translates into a drowning rate three times as high as than their White/European American peers (CDC, 2009). To investigate this issue, 12 focus groups were conducted with parents and caregivers of swimming and nonswimming children at YMCAs in six American cities. Parents/caregivers who self-identified as Black or African American shared attitudes and values that impacted their child\u27s swimming participation. Some participants in the study identified structural barriers such as a lack of time, money, or facilities. Others shared attitudes of fear and discomfort in being in and around water. Parent/caregiver attitudes had a substantial impact on children\u27s opportunities to learn to swim. There was evidence that cultural expectations about swimming impacted the choices parents in this study made regarding swimming participation. Focus group participants shared strategies of effective messaging to influence caregiver attitudes to positively impact participation. © 2014 Human Kinetics, Inc

Emission and Absorption Properties of Low-Mass Type 2 Active Galaxies with XMM-Newton

We present XMM-Newton observations of four low-redshift Seyfert galaxies selected to have low host luminosities (M_g>-20 mag) and small stellar velocity dispersions (sigma_star<45 km/s), which are among the smallest stellar velocity dispersions found in any active galaxies. These galaxies show weak or no broad optical emission lines and have likely black hole masses <10^6 M_sun. Three out of four objects were detected with >3sigma significance in ~25 ks exposures and two observations had high enough signal-to-noise ratios for rudimentary spectral analysis. We calculate hardness ratios (-0.43 to 0.01) for the three detected objects and use them to estimate photon indices in the range of Gamma=1.1-1.8. Relative to [OIII], the type 2 objects are X-ray faint in comparison with Seyfert 1 galaxies, suggesting that the central engines are obscured. We estimate the intrinsic absorption of each object under the assumption that the [OIII] emission line luminosities are correlated with the unabsorbed X-ray luminosity. The results are consistent with moderate (N_H~10^22 cm^-2) absorption over the Galactic values in three of the four objects, which might explain the non-detection of broad-line emission in optical spectra. One object in our sample, SDSS J110912.40+612346.7, is a near identical type 2 counterpart of the late-type Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4395. While the two objects have very similar [OIII] luminosities, the type 2 object has an X-ray/[OIII] flux ratio nearly an order of magnitude lower than NGC 4395. The most plausible explanation for this difference is absorption of the primary X-ray continuum of the type 2 object, providing an indication that obscuration-based unified models of active galaxies can apply even at the lowest luminosities seen among Seyfert nuclei, down to L_bol~10^40-10^41 erg/s.Comment: 5 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

A genetically informed study of the associations between maternal age at childbearing and adverse perinatal outcomes

We examined associations of maternal age at childbearing (MAC) with gestational age and fetal growth (i.e., birth weight adjusting for gestational age), using two genetically informed designs (cousin and sibling comparisons) and data from two cohorts, a population-based Swedish sample and a nationally representative United States sample. We also conducted sensitivity analyses to test limitations of the designs. The findings were consistent across samples and suggested that, associations observed in the population between younger MAC and shorter gestational age were confounded by shared familial factors; however, associations of advanced MAC with shorter gestational age remained robust after accounting for shared familial factors. In contrast to the gestational age findings, neither early nor advanced MAC was associated with lower fetal growth after accounting for shared familial factors. Given certain assumptions, these findings provide support for a causal association between advanced MAC and shorter gestational age. The results also suggest that there are not causal associations between early MAC and shorter gestational age, between early MAC and lower fetal growth, and between advanced MAC and lower fetal growth.NonePublishe

Cerebellar Integrity in the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - Frontotemporal Dementia Continuum

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) are multisystem neurodegenerative disorders that manifest overlapping cognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor features. The cerebellum has long been known to be crucial for intact motor function although emerging evidence over the past decade has attributed cognitive and neuropsychiatric processes to this structure. The current study set out i) to establish the integrity of cerebellar subregions in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia spectrum (ALS-bvFTD) and ii) determine whether specific cerebellar atrophy regions are associated with cognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor symptoms in the patients. Seventy-eight patients diagnosed with ALS, ALS-bvFTD, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), most without C9ORF72 gene abnormalities, and healthy controls were investigated. Participants underwent cognitive, neuropsychiatric and functional evaluation as well as structural imaging using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine the grey matter subregions of the cerebellar lobules, vermis and crus. VBM analyses revealed: i) significant grey matter atrophy in the cerebellum across the whole ALS-bvFTD continuum; ii) atrophy predominantly of the superior cerebellum and crus in bvFTD patients, atrophy of the inferior cerebellum and vermis in ALS patients, while ALS-bvFTD patients had both patterns of atrophy. Post-hoc covariance analyses revealed that cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms were particularly associated with atrophy of the crus and superior lobule, while motor symptoms were more associated with atrophy of the inferior lobules. Taken together, these findings indicate an important role of the cerebellum in the ALS-bvFTD disease spectrum, with all three clinical phenotypes demonstrating specific patterns of subregional atrophy that associated with different symptomology

Southeastern Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting

The 2009 SEAALL Annual Meeting was held in Athens Georgia, April 16-18, 2009