Prevalence of bullying and victimization among children in early elementary school:Do family and school neighbourhood socioeconomic status matter?

BACKGROUND: Bullying and victimization are widespread phenomena in childhood and can have a serious impact on well-being. Children from families with a low socioeconomic background have an increased risk of this behaviour, but it is unknown whether socioeconomic status (SES) of school neighbourhoods is also related to bullying behaviour. Furthermore, as previous bullying research mainly focused on older children and adolescents, it remains unclear to what extent bullying and victimization affects the lives of younger children. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence and socioeconomic disparities in bullying behaviour among young elementary school children. METHODS: The study was part of a population-based survey in the Netherlands. Teacher reports of bullying behaviour and indicators of SES of families and schools were available for 6379 children aged 5–6 years. RESULTS: One-third of the children were involved in bullying, most of them as bullies (17%) or bully-victims (13%), and less as pure victims (4%). All indicators of low family SES and poor school neighbourhood SES were associated with an increased risk of being a bully or bully-victim. Parental educational level was the only indicator of SES related with victimization. The influence of school neighbourhood SES on bullying attenuated to statistical non-significance once adjusted for family SES. CONCLUSIONS: Bullying and victimization are already common problems in early elementary school. Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families, rather than children visiting schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, have a particularly high risk of involvement in bullying. These findings suggest the need of timely bullying preventions and interventions that should have a special focus on children of families with a low socioeconomic background. Future studies are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs

Television viewing through ages 2-5 years and bullying involvement in early elementary school

BACKGROUND: High television exposure time at young age has been described as a potential risk factor for developing behavioral problems. However, less is known about the effects of preschool television on subsequent bullying involvement. We examined the association between television viewing time through ages 2-5 and bullying involvement in the first grades of elementary school. We hypothesized that high television exposure increases the risk of bullying involvement. METHOD: TV viewing time was assessed repeatedly in early childhood using parental report. To combine these repeated assessments we used latent class analysis. Four exposure classes were identified and labeled “low”, “mid-low”, “mid-high” and “high”. Bullying involvement was assessed by teacher questionnaire (n = 3423, mean age 6.8 years). Additionally, peer/self-report of bullying involvement was obtained using a peer nomination procedure (n = 1176, mean age 7.6 years). We examined child risk of being a bully, victim or a bully-victim (compared to being uninvolved in bullying). RESULTS: High television exposure class was associated with elevated risks of bullying and victimization. Also, in both teacher- and child-reported data, children in the high television exposure class were more likely to be a bully-victim (OR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.42-3.13 and OR = 3.68, 95% CI: 1.75-7.74 respectively). However, all univariate effect estimates attenuated and were no longer statistically significant once adjusted for maternal and child covariates. CONCLUSIONS: The association between television viewing time through ages 2-5 and bullying involvement in early elementary school is confounded by maternal and child socio-demographic characteristics

Adolescents' use of care for behavioral and emotional problems: Types, trends, and determinants

Objective: While adolescents use various types of care for behavioral and emotional problems, evidence on age trends and determinants per type is scarce. We aimed to assess use of care by adolescents because of behavioral and emotional problems, overall and by type, and its determinants, for ages 10-19 years. Methods: We obtained longitudinal data on 2,230 adolescents during ages 10-19 from four measurements regarding use of general care and specialized care (youth social care and mental healthcare) in the preceding 6 months, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report, and child and family characteristics. We analyzed data by multilevel logistic regression. Results: Overall rates of use increased from 20.1% at age 10/11 to 32.2% at age 19: general care was used most. At age 10/11 use was higher among boys, at age 19 among girls. Use of general care increased for both genders, whereas use of specialized care increased among girls but decreased among boys. This differential change was associated with CBCL externalizing and internalizing problems, school problems, family socioeconomic status, and parental divorce. Preceding CBCL problems predicted more use: most for mental health care and least for general care. Moreover, general care was used more frequently by low and medium socioeconomic status families, with odds ratios (95%-confidence intervals): 1.52 (1.23;1.88) and 1.40 (1.17;1.67); youth social care in case of parental divorce, 2.07 (1.36;3.17); and of special education, 2.66 (1.78;3.95); and mental healthcare in case of special education, 2.66 (1.60;4.51). Discussion: Adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems use general care most frequently. Overall use increases with age. Determinants of use vary per type

Clustering of sedentary behaviours, physical activity, and energy-dense food intake in six-year-old children

This study examined the clustering of lifestyle behaviours in children aged six years from a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands. Additionally, we analysed the associations between socioeconomic status and the lifestyle behaviour clusters that we identified. Data of 4059 children from the Generation R Study were analysed. Socioeconomic status was measured by maternal educational level and net household income. Lifestyle behaviours including screen time, physical activity, calorie-rich snack consumption and sugar-sweetened beverages consumption were measured via a parental questionnaire. Hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analyses were applied. The associations between socioeconomic status and lifestyle behaviour clusters were assessed using logistic regression models. Three lifestyle clusters were identified: “relatively healthy lifestyle” cluster (n = 1444), “high screen time and physically inactive” cluster (n = 1217), and “physically active, high snacks and sugary drinks” cluster (n = 1398). Children from high educated mothers or high-income households were more likely to be allocated to the “relatively healthy lifestyle” cluster, while children from low educated mothers or from low-income households were more likely to be allocated in the “high screen time and physically inactive” cluster. Intervention development and prevention strategies may use this information to further target programs promoting healthy behaviours of children and their families

Screening for autism spectrum disorders with the brief infant-toddler social and emotional assessment

Objective: Using parent-completed questionnaires in (preventive) child health care can facilitate the early detection of psychosocial problems and psychopathology, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A promising questionnaire for this purpose is the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA). The screening accuracy with regard to ASD of the BITSEA Problem and Competence scales and a newly calculated Autism score were evaluated. Method: Data, that was collected between April 2010 and April 2011, from a community sample of 2-year-olds (N = 3127), was combined with a sample of preschool children diagnosed with ASD (N = 159). For the total population and for subgroups by child's gender, area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was examined, and across a range of BITSEA Problem, Competence and Autism scores, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratio's, diagnostic odds ratio and Youden's index were reported. Results: The area under the ROC curve (95% confidence interval, [95%CI]) of the Problem scale was 0.90(0.87-0.92), of the Competence scale 0.93(0.91-0.95), and of the Autism score 0.95(0.93-0.97). For the total population, the screening accuracy of the Autism score was significantly better, compared to the Problem scale. The screening accuracy of the Competence scale was significantly better for girls (AUC = 0.97; 95%CI = 0.95-0.98) than for boys (AUC = 0.91; 95%CI = 0.88-0.94). Conclusion: The results indicate that the BITSEA scales and newly calculated Autism score have good discriminative power to differentiate children with and without ASD. Therefore, the BITSEA may be helpful in the early detection of ASD, which could have beneficial effects on the child's development

The association between perceived social support and parenting self-efficacy among parents of children aged 0-8 years

Strengthening social support has been recognized as a potentially effective strategy to enhance parenting self-efficacy, but empirical evidence is limited. This study examined the association between perceived social support and parenting self-efficacy.Data of 647 parents of children aged 0-8 years, gathered in the CIKEO cohort study in the Netherlands, were analysed. Data were collected between October 2017 and December 2019. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine the association between social support and parenting self-efficacy. The mean age of the participants was 33.8 years (SD = 4.9); 94.9% mothers. At the start of the study, 15.1% parents perceived low to moderate social support. Parents who experienced lower levels of social support at the start of the study reported lower parenting self-efficacy at follow-up (β: 0.13; 95% CI: 0.05, 0.21), independent of potential socio-demographic confounders. Experiencing an increase in perceived social support during the study period was associated with an increase in parenting self-efficacy (β: 0.15; 95% CI: 0.10, 0.21). Our findings indicate perceived social support is associated with parenting self-efficacy among parents of children aged 0-8 years. Future longitudinal studies need to confirm our findings and may examine which social support interventions are effective in strengthening parenting self-efficacy.</p

The STRIPassistant: a Digital Tool to Optimize Polypharmacy

The Structured Tool to Reduce Inappropriate Prescribing (STRIP) is a method to perform a medication review. Part of this method is the pharmaceutical analysis that is digitalized into the STRIPassistant (demo: www.ephor.eu). The effectiveness and time-efficiency of the STRIPassistant will be presented

Prevalence of bullying and victimization among children in early elementary school: Do family and school neighbourhood socioeconomic status matter?

Background: Bullying and victimization are widespread phenomena in childhood and can have a serious impact on well-being. Children from families with a low socioeconomic background have an increased risk of this behaviour, but it is unknown whether socioeconomic status (SES) of school neighbourhoods is also related to bullying behaviour. Furthermore, as previous bullying research mainly focused on older children and adolescents, it remains unclear to what extent bullying and victimization affects the lives of younger children. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence and socioeconomic disparities in bullying behaviour among young elementary school children. Methods. The study was part of a population-based survey in the Netherlands. Teacher reports of bullying behaviour and indicators of SES of families and schools were available for 6379 children aged 5-6 years. Results: One-third of the children were involved in bullying, most of them as bullies (17%) or bully-victims (13%), and less as pure victims (4%). All indicators of low family SES and poor school neighbourhood SES were associated with an increased risk of being a bully or bully-victim. Parental educational level was the only indicator of SES related with victimization. The influence of school neighbourhood SES on bullying attenuated to statistical non-significance once adjusted for family SES. Conclusions: Bullying and victimization are already common problems in early elementary school. Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families, rather than children visiting schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, have a particularly high risk of involvement in bullying. These findings suggest the need of timely bullying preventions and interventions that should have a special focus on children of families with a low socioeconomic background. Future studies are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs

Sedentary behaviors, physical activity behaviors, and body fat in 6-year-old children: The Generation R Study

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity is a major public health concern. Knowledge on modifiable risk factors is needed to design effective intervention programs. This study aimed to assess associations of children's sedentary behaviors (television viewing and computer game use) and physical activity behaviors (sports participation, outdoor play, and active transport to/from school) with three indicators of body fat, i.e., percent fat mass, body mass index (BMI) standard deviation scores, and weight status (normal weight, overweight). Methods: Cross-sectional data from 5913 6-year-old ethnically diverse children were analyzed. Children's weight and height were objectively measured and converted to BMI. Weight status was defined according to age- and sex-specific cu

Social inequalities in young children's meal skipping behaviors: The Generation R Study

Background: Regular meal consumption is considered an important aspect of a healthy diet. While ample evidence shows social inequalities in breakfast skipping among adolescents, little is known about social inequalities in breakfast skipping and skipping of other meals among young school-aged children. Such information is crucial in targeting interventions aimed to promote a healthy diet in children. Methods: We examined data from 4704 ethnically diverse children participating in the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Information on family socioeconomic position (SEP), ethnic background, and meal skipping behaviors was assessed by parent-reported questionnaire when the child was 6 years old. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the associations of family SEP (educational level, household income, employment status, family composition) and ethnic backgr