Physical activity and childhood obesity

More than one-third of American children and teenagers are considered overweight or obese. Unfortunately, obesity is often a persistent and dangerous health condition that is costly to manage. It is one of the leading causes of preventable death and combating the condition has become a national priority. To this end the two most common recommendations are: eat a healthier diet and increase physical activity. Using data from both the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the NLSY79 Children and Young Adult files, this study examines the relationship between physical activity and the persistence of childhood obesity. More specifically, Cox-proportional hazard techniques are used to quantify the impact a child’s physical activity has on the likelihood that they exit an overweight or obese state. Results indicate that being physically active reduces the probability that an overweight or obese child remains overweight or obese. Strikingly, there is not a significant difference between children who are active daily and those who are active a few times per week, suggesting that being active may be more important than the frequency of activity.     

Children as vulnerable consumers: a first conceptualisation

ABSTRACT

Understandings of consumer vulnerability remain contentious and despite recent developments, models remain unsuitable when applied to children. Taxonomic models, and those favouring a ‘state’- or ‘class’-based approach have been replaced by those attempting to tackle both individual and structural antecedents. However, these are still overly individualistic and fail to progress from an artificial view that these dimensions work separately and independently. In contrast, the new sociology of childhood conceptualises childhood as a hybridised, fluid combination of structure and agency. This paper introduces this approach, new to the consumer vulnerability field, and proposes that it has considerable implications for the way that children’s consumer vulnerability is theorised and researched, and for the formulation of policy.     

Ordinal Bivariate Inequality: Concepts and Application to Child Deprivation in Mozambique

This paper introduces a concept of inequality comparisons with ordinal bivariate categorical data. In our model, one population is more unequal than another when they have common arithmetic median outcomes and the first can be obtained from the second by correlation‐increasing switches and/or median‐preserving spreads. For the canonical 2 × 2 case (with two binary indicators), we derive a simple operational procedure for checking ordinal inequality relations in practice. As an illustration, we apply the model to childhood deprivation in Mozambique.     

Reexamining the significance of childhood recreation patterns on adult leisure behavior

This study is the examination of the impact of childhood participation levels in outdoor recreation on the activity level of that individual as an adult. The study is based on a stratified random sample of adult residents in eight northeastern Iowa counties. Forty‐five outdoor recreation activities were used to determine the “carry‐over” of participation from childhood to adulthood. The results indicate a direct effect of the childhood level of participation on adult level of participation. Only eight of forty‐five activities seem to carry over; therefore, prediction of specific activity carryover is very limited. Implications for educating for leisure and aspects of socialization are discussed.     

An analysis of stratagems to reduce drowning deaths of young children in private swimming pools and spas in Victoria,Australia

This population-based retrospective case series study examined the frequency and distribution of protective stratagems (legislatively compliant safety barrier, adequate caregiver supervision, water familiarisation and early administration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR]) amongst drowning deaths of young children (0–4 years) in private swimming pools or spas in Victoria, Australia. In 65.0% (52/80) of deaths, none of the four protective stratagems were known to be present and there was only one case where all four were known to be present. This indicates that if the presence of all four stratagems is increased, this may reduce drowning in this age group and setting. While these results are positive, further examination of the presence and interaction of these stratagems for effectiveness is required. Further research is also warranted to explore the impact of enforcement of pool fencing legislation and potential associations between water familiarisation and drowning risk. In addition, a consensus on the definition of adequate supervision in needed.     

非学历教育视角下的城乡教育差距考量:基于北京的数据

教育公平问题近年来受到我国政府和教育工作者的广泛关注,而城乡教育差距则被视为教育不公平中最突出的矛盾,城乡教育差距是教育不公平问题的显性表现。目前的大量关于教育城乡差距的研究文献都是针对学历教育提出的,文章以北京2007年—2009年相关统计数据为基础,立足于非学历教育中幼儿园教育和职业技能教育,提出了不同于学历教育教育差距度量的基本指标和方法,并以此对产生教育城乡差距的内因进行了具体分析,同时根据研究得出的结论提出了相应的对策建议。     

论童年经验对萧乾小说艺术风格的影响

文学创作是童年经验的重塑和变形。通过对萧乾童年时代的生活贫穷、民族歧视和宗教压迫等因素的分析,发现童年经验对萧乾小说艺术风格的形成有着密不可分的联系。     

基于建构主义学习理论的幼儿早期阅读教学模式研究

对国内外幼儿早期阅读教育进行了深入调研与对比分析;深入研究了建构主义学习理论的核心;基于阅读的复杂心理活动过程,以早期阅读幼儿的阅读主要特征为切入点,运用建构主义教学设计的原则,遵循情境、协作、交流和意义建构的认知过程,构建符合早期幼儿阅读特征的教学模式,强调发挥幼儿在早期阅读过程中的主动性和建构性;重视"情景"、"协作与交流"在教学中的重要作用,进而实现合理易行的幼儿早期阅读培养的教学目标。研究提出:1、构建以教学内容为背景的教学环境;2、构建教学主题活动,强调"协作学习、交流学习";3、重视阅读内容的意义建构。     

The Role of Habit,Childhood Consumption,Familiarity, and Attitudes Across Seafood Consumption Segments in Australia

Australian consumers hold very favorable attitudes toward seafood, with key drivers to consumption being taste, convenience, diet variety, and health benefits. Nevertheless, despite these positive attitudes, seafood consumption remains below many other countries. In this article, we investigate the influence of habit including regular childhood consumption, familiarity with seafood, and attitudes toward seafood on seafood consumption and consumption occasions. Habit and lack of familiarity with seafood were found to lead to lower levels of seafood consumption, whereas positive attitudes toward seafood were associated with more regular seafood consumption. People who consumed seafood on a regular basis as a child were more likely to be more familiar with seafood and be in the habit of consuming seafood in adulthood. Patterns of childhood consumption occasions were found to be associated with adult consumption occasions. Based on these findings, we discuss possible strategies and behavioral interventions for further investigation, which are grounded in habit theory and are aimed at changing seafood eating habits, increasing childhood consumption, and reducing the lack of familiarity with seafood.