Food and Beverage Marketing on California High School Campuses Survey: Findings and Recommendations

Assesses marketing of food and beverages at 20 California public high schools. Provides recommendations for eliminating commercial influences that promote unhealthy foods and beverages, consumer education, and establishing business partnership guidelines

The Federal Child Nutrition Commodity Program: A Report on Nutritional Quality

Examines the types of food California schools order through the USDA Child Nutrition Commodity Program and how they affect the nutritional value of school meals. Includes policy recommendations for ensuring that meals meet nutritional guidelines

Using Video Modeling Delivered Through an iPod Touch to Teach Purchasing Skills to Students With Severe Cognitive Disabilities

Video modeling is a recent buzzword in the vocabulary of special educators and other professionals who work with individuals with disabilities. This type of modeling has proven effective in many studies specifically for individuals with autism. Recent studies show the effectiveness of acquiring skills through observing a video recording of a model (themselves or another person) performing the skill correctly. The technique used in this study is video modeling with another individual as the model (VMO). The researchers looked at the acquisition of purchasing skills based on viewing the video model in the grocery store. The VMO was presented using an Apple iPod Touch where the student could easily access the video and use headphones to hear the VMO while shopping in the grocery store.This research involved three high school-aged participants with significant cognitive disabilities who displayed a need for purchasing skills within the grocery store. They were taught seven steps through the VMO in the grocery store. The skills were: (a) select shortest checkout lane, (b) put divider down and place items from the cart on the belt, (c) greet cashier, (d) pay cashier appropriate bill or combination of bills, (e) wait and take change and receipt from cashier, (f) thank cashier, and (g) take bag and carry belongings to the exit. In order to check for generalization of the skill, the participant was taken to different local grocery stores not involved in initial teaching once they acquired mastery at the original grocery store.Results indicated VMO increased responding for all three participants from the beginning of the study for purchasing groceries. All participants generalized the purchasing skills in other grocery stores; however, each participant required additional instruction via VMO or other prompting throughout the study.The results illustrate for educators and researchers that VMO represents a practical method for increasing skills in community settings. This also illustrates the need for VMO to be paired with additional instruction and should not be used as the only mode to teach a skill

Maternal well-being and infant outcomes in Massachusetts

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityPost-partum depressive symptoms (PDS) are defmed by feelings of sadness, depression, and anhedonia during the year after giving birth. PDS ranges in severity from transient 'baby-blues' experienced by over 80% of mothers shortly after birth to 10-15% fulfilling criteria for a major depressive episode. PDS can have profound long-term consequences for mothers and families if left untreated, impairing mother-infant bonding, leading to delayed development in children. PDS may also impact the mother's use of infant health care. This dissertation explores risk factors for PDS and its consequences using population-based data from the Massachusetts Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (MA-PRAMS). In study 1, we examined the association between common life stressors including partner-related, financial-related, traumatic-related, and emotional-related, and PDS prevalence. Common life stressors during pregnancy were associated with an increased prevalence of PDS, with the strongest association seen for partner-related stressors, the most commonly reported stressor. However, mothers with PDS who experienced partner-related stressors were also least likely to seek help for their depression, relative to mothers with other grouped stressors or no stressors. In study 2, we assessed the association between infertility treatment (1FT) and PDS risk. There was no appreciable association between 1FT use and PDS overall. However, we found that 1FT users who delivered multiples (e.g., twins or triplets) had a lower risk of PDS compared with non-users of 1FT who delivered multiples, persistent across mode of delivery. Among mothers with PDS, we found little evidence of an association between 1FT and seeking help for depression, regardless of plurality. lp study 3, we examined the association between PDS and mother's use of hospital-based infant healthcare (HIH) in the 24 months after birth, using MA-PRAMS data linked to the Pregnancy to Early Life Longitudinal Linkage (PELL) study. Overall, there was little evidence of an association between PDS and HIH. However, we observed significant differences across race/ethnic populations. Among White non-Hispanic and Hispanic mothers, PDS was associated with a small increased risk of HIH, while among Asian mothers, PDS was associated with an inverse risk of HIH. No appreciable association was found between PDS and HIH among Black non-Hispanic mothers

Charting Their Own Course: Individualized Contract Grading as a Practice of Freedom

Students move through college along different curricular and personal pathways. Feminist scholars have explored multiple ways of inviting students to bring their diverse experiences into the classroom. However, it can be challenging to invite diversity while requiring each student to navigate a standardized curriculum. I propose unilateral grading contracts as one tool to enable students to move through a course while leveraging their strengths, helping them grow, and sharing their experiences to enrich the broader class community and achieve the course learning outcomes

Promoting English fluency through peer feedback and dialogue journals in an ESL college classroom

This study investigated research methodologies which were proven to be successful in promoting English fluency among ESL students in the college level classroom. The history of second language learning was tied to popular teaching practices, such as journal writing, dialogue journals, peer feedback, and teacher feedback. Due to a lack of cohesion between the above methods and a rising gap in related literature, an experiment was formed to determine whether dialogue journals could be combined with peer feedback to facilitate an accelerated comprehension of English as an L2 language. Over a three-month period, 19 ESL students at Gavilan College were instructed to write about their weekly course experiences by answering one or more prompt questions in a notebook. The class was observed for both positive and negative reactions to peer encounters, consistent English language use in verbal and written form, and number of errors made in grammar and spelling. Pre and post scores were also compared to represent whether English comprehension improved after the intervention of the peer feedback method. By the end of the study, field notes from the observations and an analysis of dialogue journal entries proved that students became more confident with English language use, and overall English fluency increased. On average, 14 out of 19 participants (74%) improved their grammar, and 16 out of 19 participants (84%) improved their spelling. Therefore, it can be concluded that dialogue journals and peer feedback help achieve English fluency among college level ESL students when combined simultaneously

Decision making by approved mental health professionals, approved social workers, and mental health officers

An article considering focusing on the S.P.I.R.A.L model of decision making for Approved Mental Health Professionals, Approved Social Workers, and Mental Health Officers