The curse of low expectations: remedial education and perceived returns to education of Roma people

We examine how a remedial education programme for primary school-age children affects parental expectations about their children’s future. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether expectations on labour market prospects and educational attainment change as a consequence of exposure to the Roma Teaching Assistant programme. Our results show that parents of pupils in treated schools expect higher returns to education for their children and are more likely to expect them to achieve a secondary level of education. We also investigate the possible mechanisms in place due to the characteristics of the programme: remedial education and role model

Equal Access to Education: An Evaluation of the Roma Teaching Assistant Program in Serbia

This paper investigates the effects of a remedial education program—the Roma Teaching Assistant Program—targeting the socially excluded Roma minority in Serbia. By using first-hand collected data, we find evidence that children exposed to the program went more to school. We do not find an effect on dropouts or marks for all grades. An examination of heterogeneous effects suggests that children in the first grade benefited more from the program as compared to their older peers through lower dropouts and better marks. Overall, our results suggest that well-targeted remedial education programs can boost outcomes of low performers.This paper is produced as part of the project Actors, Markets, and Institutions in Developing Countries: A micro-empirical approach (AMID), a Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Commission under its Seventh Framework program Contract Number 214705 PITN-GA-2008-214705. Financial support from the Belgian Federal Administration of Scientific Research—SPF Sciences under the grant number TA/00/046 is gratefully acknowledged. Financial support from the Spanish MEC (Ref. ECO2014-58434-P) is gratefully acknowledged

Family Planning and Child Health Care: Effect of the Peruvian Programa de Salud Reproductiva y Planificación Familiar, 1996–2000

Our study estimates the effects of exposure to a family planning program which promoted surgical contraception for the first time in Peru on women's use of birth control methods and their children's health. While a broad program, the Programa de Salud Reproductiva y Planificación Familiar forced many indigenous women to undergo sterilization. We compare provinces affected by the program earlier with provinces affected later, before and after the policy. Overall, the results indicate that women in treated areas were more likely to use both temporary and permanent contraceptive methods and their children were less likely to die within their first year of life, partly due to longer breastfeeding. However, we observe heterogeneity by ethnicity. In treated provinces, nonindigenous children benefited from the policy regardless of their mothers’ choice of contraceptive method, while there were few positive impacts for indigenous children whose mothers underwent sterilization. This suggests that coercive or aggressively implemented family planning programs may not confer health benefits on children.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under grant ECO2014-58434-P

Determination of a strength index for upper body local endurance strength in sedentary individuals: a cross sectional analysis

A range of balance between flexor and extensor muscles is fundamental in order to prevent pathologies caused by bad postures or to ensure health of the joint as a measure of prevention of overtraining in specific muscle groups. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the ratio between "pulling" and "pushing" strength in sedentary individuals. 212 healthy participants, of both genders (139 male and 73 female; age 32 \ub1 13.3 years, weight 70.2 \ub1 14.1 kg, height 173 \ub1 9 cm) were retained for investigation. Strength was assessed through a new methodology: Pulling through a lat-pulldown test while pushing strength through a chest-press test. Both tests were performed to exhaustion with an overload of 30 % of each participants bodyweight. Such method aims to prevent excessive overloads in sedentary individuals. Pearson's correlations and a t test to assess differences were analyzed. Subsequently, the ratio for both genders of pulling and pushing local endurance strength was assessed by means. A mean number of 57 repetitions was shown with the lat-pulldown while 34 repetition with the chest press. A correlation of 0.42 has been found between the number of repetitions of the two tests. A significant difference (p < 0.001) was found between such performances. No correlation was found between the strength measures and the anthropometric parameters of the participants. The lat machine to chest press ratio was 1.36:1 for male while 2.69:1 for female. The results indicate that sedentary participants have higher pulling rather than pushing local endurance strength. Such ratio should be considered as a normative value when starting to perform exercise protocols. Resistance training should be performed in order to improve strength measures of the weaker muscles and reduce such ratio

Repayment Flexibility and Risk Taking: Experimental Evidence from Credit Contracts

A widely held view is that small firms in developing countries are prevented from making profitable investments by lack of access to credit and insurance markets. One solution is to provide repayment flexibility in credit contracts. Repayment flexibility eases both the credit constraint, as it allows for increased spending during the startup phase, and offers insurance, in case of fluctuations in income. In a field experiment among traditional microfinance clients and larger collateralized borrowers in Bangladesh, we randomly assign the option to delay up to 2 monthly repayments at any point during a 12-month loan cycle. The flexible contract leads to substantial improvements in the traditional microfinance clients’ business outcomes, driven by borrowers in the upper tail of the distribution. In addition, we find a significant impact on socioeconomic status, combined with lower default rates. We show theoretically and empirically that these effects are induced by an increase in entrepreneurial risk taking, implying that the primary mechanism is insurance provision. Repayment flexibility also attracts less risk-averse borrowers interested in business expansion. At the same time, the effects for the larger loan are much more modest. Our findings suggest that lack of insurance is an important constraint for small firms but that a simple financial product that increases repayment flexibility can be an effective tool for enabling enterprise growth

Effects of an adapted physical activity program on psychophysical health in elderly women

Background: Several studies have shown the positive effects of adapted physical activity (APA) on physical and mental health (MH) during the lifetime. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific APA intervention program in the improvement of the health-related quality of life (QOL) and functional condition of spine in elderly women. Methods: Thirty women were recruited from a senior center and randomly assigned to two groups: control group (CG; age: 69.69±7.94 years, height: 1.57±0.06 m, weight: 68.42±8.18 kg, body mass index [BMI]: 27.88±2.81) and trained group (TG; age: 68.35±6.04 years, height: 1.55±0.05 m, weight: 64.78±10.16 kg, BMI: 26.98±3.07). The APA program was conducted for 8 weeks, with two training sessions/week. CG did not perform any physical activity during the study. Spinal angles were evaluated by SpinalMouse® (Idiag, Volkerswill, Switzerland); health-related QOL was evaluated by SF-36 Health Survey, which assesses physical component summary (PCS-36), mental component summary (MCS-36), and eight subscales: physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health perception, role-emotional, social functioning, vitality, and MH. All measures were recorded before and after the experimental period. Results: In TG, compared to CG, the two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures with Bonferroni post hoc test showed a relevant improvement in lumbar spinal angle (°) and in SF-36 outcomes after the intervention period. We showed a significant increase in physical functioning, bodily pain, and MH subscales and in PCS-36 and MCS-36 scores in TG compared to CG. In particular, from baseline to posttest, we found that in TG, the PCS-36 and MCS-36 scores increased by 13.20% and 11.64%, respectively. Conclusion: We believe that an 8-week APA intervention program is able to improve psychophysical heath in elderly people. During the aging process, a dynamic lifestyle, including regular physical activity, is a crucial factor for public and health care systems to improve QOL and physical fitness in aging people

The Development of Motor and Pre-literacy Skills by a Physical Education Program in Preschool Children: A Non-randomized Pilot Trial

It is known in the literature that fundamental motor skill acquisition is strongly associated with the development of neuromotor, cognitive, social, and emotional aspects in childhood. Unfortunately, in Italy, the physical education teacher is not included in the school’s core personnel, and it is very hard to find a specific physical education program (PEP) that could improve preschool children’s motor and cognitive status. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the quotient of gross motor development (QGMD) and pre-literacy skills concerning visual analysis and spatial orientation abilities changed after 16 weeks of PEP (2 h/week) in preschool children. We conducted a school-based non-randomized pilot trial. It involved 119 preschool children, clustered in a control group [CG, n = 29, body mass index (BMI): 16.90 ± 3.16 Kg/m2] and an intervention group (IG, n = 90, BMI: 16.00 ± 1.75 kg/m2). Participants were assessed for literacy readiness, locomotor and object control skills before and after the experimental period. IG increased the locomotor, object-control skills and QGMD in response to PEP. As concerns the pre-literacy domain, no significant difference was found in visual analysis and spatial orientation skills between IG and CG groups. However, we detected improvements from baseline to post-test in IG children. In conclusion, this study contributes additional evidence suggesting how a PEP could affect not only motor skills, but also cognitive ones. Consistently with the growing research, interventions based on structured ludic-motor activities ensure health benefits for preschool children.Clinical Trial Registration:www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT01274117

Soccer pactice as an add-on treatment in the management of individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

Abstract: Physical activity is an important aspect of good health for everyone; it is even more important for psychiatric patients who usually live an unhealthy lifestyle. In recent years, there has been growing focus on the use of soccer as a vehicle to improve the health of subjects with severe mental illness. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of soccer practice on the self-reported health quality of life (SRHQL) and sports performance (SP) in psychotic subjects. Eighteen male patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia were randomized into either a trained (TG) or a control group (CG). The TG was trained for 12 weeks using two soccer training sessions per week. The CG did not perform any regular sports activity during the experimental period. Anthropometric measurements, SRHQL, personal time records in a 30 meter sprint test and slalom test running with a ball were evaluated before and after the experimental period. SRHQL was assessed using Short Form-12 questionnaire measuring physical and mental component summary scores. After the training period, the TG showed a relevant decrease by 4.6% in bodyweight (BW) and body mass index compared to baseline. Conversely, the CG showed an increased BW and body mass index by 1.8% from baseline to posttest. Moreover, after 12 weeks we found that control patients increased their BW significantly when compared to trained patients (Δ = 5.4%; P , 0.05). After the training period, comparing the baseline TG’s Short Form-12-scores to posttest results, we found an improvement of 10.5% and 10.8% in physical component summary and mental component summary, respectively. In addition, performances on the 30 meter sprint test and slalom test running with a ball in the TG improved significantly (P , 0.01) from baseline to posttest when compared to CG. Soccer practice appears able to improve psychophysical health in individuals with diagnosis of schizophrenia. Indeed, our study demonstrated that programmed soccer physical activity could reduce antipsychotic medication-related weight gain and improve SRHQL and sports performance in psychotic subjects. Keywords: schizophrenia, mental illness, psychotic subjects, sport, exercise, socce

Equal access to education: An Evaluation of the Roma Teaching Assistant Programme in Serbia *

Abstract The paper investigates the impact of the Roma Teaching Assistant Programme in Serbia in its first year of introduction on the following schooling outcomes: marks, absences and probability to dropout. We use two different identification strategies. First, we use a differencein-difference approach and exploit the gradual implementation and the intensity of the programme to estimate its impact. Second, we compare children exposed to the programme with older cohorts not exposed to the programme. We find that marks have improved, especially for migrants, and dropout have reduced. There is also evidence that children exposed to the programme went on average more to school. Higher and more systematic impacts are obtained in schools with a lower number of Roma. We confirm the robustness of our results with placebo tests for the years prior to the introduction of the programme

Pain perception and stabilometric parameters in people with chronic low back pain after a pilates exercise program: A randomized controlled trial

Various exercise interventions, such as Pilates exercises and traditional physical therapy methods, are employed to decrease low back pain (LBP). Nonspecific low back pain (NSLBP) is distinct from LBP, however, as the distribution of pain is restricted to the region between the costal margin and the inferior gluteal. The aim of our randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the effects of a program of Pilates exercises on pain perception and stabilometric parameters in patients with NSLBP.Thirty-eight participants were randomly allocated, using a 1:1 scheme, to either the experimental group (EG) or control group (CG). The EG completed a 14-week program of Pilates exercises, performed thrice per week under the supervision of an exercise specialist, while the CG was managed with a social program only. Measures of posturography and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for pain perception were obtained at baseline (T0) and after the 14 weeks of intervention (T)1.Posturography measures improved for patients in the EG, with both eyes open and eyes closed (P\u200a<\u200a0.05). There were no statistical differences in posturography in the CG. ODI decreased significantly in both groups over the 14 weeks of the study protocol: EG, T0, 13.7\u200a\ub1\u200a5.0 compared with T1, 6.5\u200a\ub1\u200a4.0 (P\u200a<\u200a0.001); and CG, T0, 10.7\u200a\ub1\u200a7.8 compared with T1, 8.4\u200a\ub1\u200a7.8 (P\u200a<\u200a0.01). A greater extent of reduction in pain was achieved in the EG.The Pilates exercise program yielded improvements in pain and posturography outcomes. Our study also confirms the applicability of posturography in evaluating postural instability in patients with NSLBP. Due to our relatively small study group, future studies would be necessary to confirm our findings