A comparison of the menstruation and education experiences of girls in Tanzania,Ghana, Cambodia and Ethiopia

The barriers to menstrual hygiene management faced by adolescent schoolgirls in low-income countries are gaining interest at practice and policy levels. The challenges include inadequate water, sanitation and disposal facilities for the management of menses with privacy and dignity, and insufficient guidance to help girls feel confident in attending school during menses. The studies described here aimed to examine how menarche impacts the lives of schoolgirls in three low-income countries (Ghana, Cambodia and Ethiopia). The focus included girls’ school participation; their relationship with parents, teachers and peers; their evolving sanitation and hygiene needs; their understanding of cultural issues and taboos around menses; and what education, if any, they received prior to and during puberty. This comparative analysis was aimed at identifying similarities between the three countries that would enable the adaptation to each context of a training book on menstruation issues for girls, which was developed from a previous study conducted in Tanzania. In all three countries, participatory activities were utilised with girls and results were analysed using grounded theory. Findings included: similarities regarding the importance of culture in perpetuating negative attitudes towards menstruation, limited provision of health information and insufficient facilities within schools. Differences were revealed regarding menstrual myths, parent–child dynamics, sources of guidance and student–teacher relations. There is a critical knowledge gap around menstruation and girls’ education in these contexts that must be addressed to ensure that girls experience a positive menarche and can manage menstrual hygiene.     

Development in early literacy skills during the pre-kindergarten year in Head Start: Relations between growth in children's writing and understanding of letters

Children's literacy skills are an important predictor of success in the early elementary grades. Education programs for at-risk preschool students target children's acquisition of specific literacy skills, including knowledge of letters of the alphabet, in preparing children for early school success. Writing has been proposed as a complementary approach to other instructional strategies for teaching young children about letters. This study examines relations among preschool children's early writing competence, knowledge of letter names, sensitivity to initial sounds in words and understanding of print concepts in a sample of low-income children enrolled in Head Start. Data were collected from the beginning to the end of the school year, which offered the opportunity to examine concurrent development of these early literacy skills. Results revealed that children whose writing was more sophisticated knew the names of more letters, understood more about print concepts and were more sensitive to initial sounds of words. There was evidence of bidirectional influences of writing on growth in letter knowledge, and of letter knowledge on growth in writing competence.     

Early Identification and Intervention: Head Start's Response to Mental Health Challenges

Serving low-income children from birth to age five and their families, Head Start is a primary venue for identification and intervention in the area of child mental health. However, recent research has demonstrated that the knowledge base regarding prevalence, developmental course, and predictive power of child mental health problems is lacking for young children in general and low-income, diverse populations in particular. Head Start's agency-level data is often discrepant from both national estimates and small, intensive studies of similar populations, perhaps for reasons related to availability of community services and professional staff, as well as concerns about stigmatization. Following on recent expert recommendations, new collaborative Federal initiatives are underway to increase our understanding of the types, trajectories, and treatments of mental health problems affecting the vulnerable children served by Head Start. The paper concludes with a call to action for the field in the area of young children's mental health.     

Mexican-American and Anglo-American Children's Responsiveness to a Theory-Centered AIDS Education Program

Third, fifth, and seventh graders, most of them Mexican-American, were exposed to an empirically based and culturally sensitive AIDS curriculum designed to replace their intuitive theories with a coherent, scientific account of the causal processes that lead from risk behavior to AIDS symptomatology. Compared to students in control classes, experimental students knew more about AIDS risk factors and AIDS generally, displayed more conceptual understanding of the causes of AIDS and flu, and were more willing to interact with people who have AIDS (although not less worried about AIDS) at posttest and typically at follow-up 10–11 months later. The findings point to the potential value of adopting an intuitive theories approach in assessing and modifying children's concepts of health and illness and suggest, contrary to Piagetian formulations, that even relatively young children can, with appropriate instruction, grasp scientific theories of disease.     

Knowledge about Puberty and Sexual Development in 11‐16 Year‐olds: implications for health and sex education in schools

Knowledge is an important but largely neglected variable in sex education research. This study aimed to develop a measure to assess young people's knowledge about puberty and sexual development, and to examine knowledge in relation to age, gender and school. The main results of the study were that knowledge increased more between age 11/12 and 13/14 than between 13/14 and 15/16, girls knew more than boys at every age, and there were few differences in knowledge between the four schools involved in the study. The research has a number of implications for sex education in schools. First, it was found that even by age 15‐16 some young people lack information which is essential if they are to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Second, it may be that boys and girls need to be taught separately to enable the different needs of each gender to be addressed. Third, young people know more about some aspects of puberty and sexual development than others, and there are particular times when knowledge develops most rapidly. Giving teachers this information could help them to target areas of particular ignorance. The questionnaire developed to assess knowledge proved to be accurate and reliable, and a measure that is straightforward to score and analyse. As such, it has considerable potential for use in the classroom.     

Fostering Parental Support for Children's Mathematical Development: An Intervention with Head Start Families

The first national education goal, school readiness, recognizes a need for young children to be better prepared for entry into elementary school. Many low-income children exhibit a pattern of underachievement in school mathematics. Research has revealed a developmental gap between low-income preschool children and their middle-class peers with respect to the extent of their numerical knowledge. Research has also found that many low-income children do not receive a broad base of support for mathematical development at home or in preschool. In each of two studies, we conducted a bi-generation (parent and child) mathematics intervention with Head Start families. The intervention was designed to enhance parental support for pre-kindergarten children's mathematical development. It was found that low-income parents were willing and able to support this area of their children's development once they were provided with the training to do so. The support that parents provided to their children through the intervention was clearly effective in enhancing the development of children's informal mathematical knowledge. Intervention children developed more extensive mathematical knowledge than a comparison group of low-income children. Thus, an important step toward achieving the school readiness goal can be taken by fostering low- income parents' support for young children's mathematical development.     

Fostering Parental Support for Children's Mathematical Development: An Intervention with Head Start Families

The first national education goal, school readiness, recognizes a need for young children to be better prepared for entry into elementary school. Many low-income children exhibit a pattern of underachievement in school mathematics. Research has revealed a developmental gap between low-income preschool children and their middle-class peers with respect to the extent of their numerical knowledge. Research has also found that many low-income children do not receive a broad base of support for mathematical development at home or in preschool. In each of two studies, we conducted a bi-generation (parent and child) mathematics intervention with Head Start families. The intervention was designed to enhance parental support for pre-kindergarten children's mathematical development. It was found that low-income parents were willing and able to support this area of their children's development once they were provided with the training to do so. The support that parents provided to their children through the intervention was clearly effective in enhancing the development of children's informal mathematical knowledge. Intervention children developed more extensive mathematical knowledge than a comparison group of low-income children. Thus, an important step toward achieving the school readiness goal can be taken by fostering low- income parents' support for young children's mathematical development.     

A comparison of teachers vs. parents as instructors of a personal safety program for preschoolers.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of parents and teachers as instructors of a personal safety program. Sixty-one low-income preschool children were pretested and participated in either a homebased program, a school-based program, or a control program. Children were posttested on knowledge and skill gains. No significant differences were found between groups of children taught by teachers or parents, and children in both of these groups demonstrated greater knowledge about sexual abuse and higher levels of personal safety skills compared with controls. Knowledge and skill gains were maintained at the two-month follow-up. No program-related increases in negative behaviors were reported by teachers, nor were the treatment children perceived by their parents as more fearful subsequent to participation. These results suggest that parents are as effective as teachers at teaching skills in personal safety to preschool-age children, and that the programs can be implemented safely and effectively both at home and at school.     

Preschool Teachers’ Explanations for Hygiene Habits and Young Children’s Biological Awareness of Contamination

Research Findings: Preschools have many norms and rules children are supposed to follow. Among them, behavioral norms associated with mealtime are of great consequence because eating is an essential life function. The present study examined young Japanese children’s understanding of hygiene norms and rules at mealtime from the standpoint of their awareness of contamination. Previous studies on contamination sensitivity have mainly focused on children’s knowledge itself and have paid little attention to the origins of such knowledge. However, the present study examined how adults talk to children about contamination as 1 possible source of children’s knowledge. Practice or Policy: Study 1 involved 32 days of observations during lunchtime at 3 Tokyo preschools. The teachers frequently told children to adhere to hygiene habits such as washing their hands. Although preschool teachers attached much weight to hygiene, their explanations were not precise. They often used 1-word or 1-phrase directions (e.g., “Dirty”) or just input-output explanations such as “Please wash your hands, or you’ll get sick.” Explanations of why breaking hygiene norms would lead to sickness were seldom offered to children. In Study 2, 26 children age 3 (M age = 3.7) and 22 children age 5 (M age = 5.7) were asked to explain why breaking hygiene norms would lead to sickness. In contrast with teachers’ simple expressions in Study 1, even 3-year-old children frequently generated contamination mechanism explanations (e.g., referring to germs and disgust transmission spontaneously).     

Food Safety Knowledge and Beliefs of Middle School Children: Implications for Food Safety Educators

ABSTRACT: To create effective educational interventions that address the food safety informational needs of youth, a greater understanding of their knowledge and skills is needed. The purposes of this study were to explore, via focus groups, the food‐handling responsibilities of middle school youth and obstacles they face in practicing safe food handling and develop recommendations for the design of food safety interventions for youth. Most youth reported that they prepared food at least once weekly and rated learning to prevent foodborne illness as important. Youth knew that food could make them sick, described foodborne illness as resulting from “something” getting into food, not cooking food “right,” or the food going bad. Most responses lacked details, suggesting knowledge was basic. Nearly all were interested in learning about food safety. Barriers that deterred them from learning about food safety were time and feeling they were not susceptible to foodborne illness. To overcome barriers, youth suggested focusing on the seriousness of and risks for foodborne illness, using a serious but comical educational approach, and using hands‐on educational media. Parents highly rated the importance of and degree to which they wanted youth to learn about food safety. Parents felt that their children had moderate levels of food safety knowledge, but many questioned whether they practiced food safety procedures when unsupervised. Parents felt that food safety education needed to be taught and reinforced in school and at home. After having reviewed youth and parent data, food safety experts proposed recommendations for youth‐focused food safety education that paralleled current consumer food safety initiatives.     

Age Differences in Understandings of Disease Causality: AIDS, Colds, and Cancer

The development of concepts of disease causality was explored by asking 9-, 11-, and 13-year-olds and college students about risk factors for AIDS, colds, and cancer. Their knowledge became more accurate and differentiated with age. Although younger children knew a good deal about what causes each of the diseases, they lacked knowledge of what does not cause them, often inferring that risk factors for one disease, especially AIDS, cause other diseases as well. Knowledge of true risk factors for a disease was largely independent of knowledge of non-risk factors, and knowledge of one disease was largely independent of knowledge of another. These findings provide clues as to how disease understandings evolve with age and suggest that health educators must both understand students' current knowledge structures and explicitly teach students to make important differentiations between risk and non-risk factors for a given disease and between distinct diseases.     

Spanish-speaking Mexican-American Families' Involvement in School-based Activities and their Children's Literacy: The Implications of Having Teachers who Speak Spanish and English

For a sample of low-income, Spanish-speaking Mexican-American families (n = 72), we investigated associations between family involvement in school-based activities and children's literacy in their preferred language (English or Spanish) during early elementary school. We gave special attention to the potential moderating role of teacher fluency in Spanish. Between kindergarten and third grade, family involvement in school-based activities increased for children who displayed early literacy problems. The rate of increase was greater for children who consistently had bilingual teachers than for children who did not. In turn, increased family involvement predicted better literacy skills at third grade, particularly for children who struggled early. We discuss these results in light of recent recommendations to increase the number of elementary school teachers who are fluent in Spanish and English.     

Energy literacy and agency of New Zealand children

The development of energy literacy (knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviour) and agency of New Zealand children (age 9–10) were investigated through thematic and exploratory statistical analyses of interviews (October 2011–April 2012) with 26 children, their parents and teachers, focus groups and photo elicitation. The children knew that electricity costs money and saw it as a finite resource. Half could name an energy source but few knew of any associated environmental issues. Most of the children had a positive attitude towards saving electricity, but did not intend to save energy to a further extent (low intended behaviour) and were not influencing their families to conserve energy (low agency). The children were learning about energy informally from a variety of sources, and acquired their attitudes mostly from talking to their parents. The results highlight the need for energy education for citizenship at school and conversations about energy both there and at home.     

Public opinion and knowledge about childhood sexual abuse in a rural community.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the knowledge and attitudes of the general public about child sexual abuse (CSA) through a population-based survey. METHOD: A survey was completed by 246 respondents living in Klamath Falls, a small city in rural eastern Oregon. Specific areas of inquiry included who respondents believed were likely perpetrators of CSA, when a child was most likely to disclose sexual abuse, whether respondents believed that children would be truthful, reasons a child might not acknowledge that they had been sexually abused, what respondents knew about how CSA could be diagnosed, and what attitudes respondents thought that a sexually abused child might have towards the perpetrators of their abuse. Finally, respondents were asked how they would report a suspected case of CSA and about their receptivity to personal safety training to prevent CSA. RESULTS: While significant proportions of respondents were fairly knowledgeable about CSA, gaps in knowledge were found in all age groups and ethnic groups. Groups with the most significant knowledge deficits about CSA included men, unmarried respondents, respondents who had not had children, respondents in younger age groups, respondents of Latino descent, and respondents with low incomes or low education. Respondents were most likely to report CSA to their physician or the police. There is community interest in training about CSA and its prevention. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that significant deficits as well as strengths in knowledge about CSA exist in this rural community, and identify populations to which community education about CSA could be directed.     

The Relation of Gender Understanding to Children''s Sex-typed Preferences and Gender Stereotypes

Our goal was to explore how children's understanding of gender as a social category relates to their acquisition of sex-typed knowledge and preferences. Children's gender concepts, sex-typed preferences, and stereotyped knowledge were measured in 61 boys and girls (3-5 years). Gender concept measures included ability to identify and to discriminate the sexes, understanding gender group membership, temporal stability of gender, and gender consistency over situational changes. Children improved with age on most of the measures except gender consistency. With the exception of consistency, measures of gender concept understanding were found to be related to children's stereotyped toy and clothing knowledge and/or to their sex-typed toy preferences (with age controlled). It was shown that only rudimentary gender understanding is needed prior to children learning about sex stereotypes and prior to showing strong sex-typed preferences for peers or toys. The roles of gender identity, stability, consistency, and group membership in the sex-typing process are discussed.     

3～6岁回、汉族儿童心理理论发展的比较研究

采用经典＂错误信念＂任务,以181名回族幼儿、174名汉族幼儿为被试,探讨了不同文化背景下回、汉儿童心理理论发展的异同。研究发现：回、汉幼儿心理理论发展不存在显著性差异。回、汉幼儿的心理理论均随着年龄的增长而提高,总体上呈同步发展趋势,但回族幼儿心理理论发展速度要低于汉族幼儿;散居幼儿心理理论的发展速度低于在园幼儿;回族散居女童的心理理论发展速度缓慢。大力发展民族地区幼儿教育,重视民族女童教育是促进幼儿心理理论能力发展的重要途径。     

Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes of U.S. Healthcare Providers about Benefits and Risks of Consuming Seafood

An online needs assessment survey of healthcare providers was developed and implemented to determine knowledge and attitudes about the benefits and risks of consuming seafood along with how this might impact patient/clientele counseling. Only 6 of the 45 knowledge items queried (13%) met the 80% subject mastery or proficiency with a total knowledge score of 56 ± 18%. Based on this survey, it was found that healthcare providers were less than proficient regarding all knowledge areas for seafood. Understanding of seafood safety and contaminants was low. In addition, while the majority (76%) of healthcare respondents knew the correct recommendation for seafood meals per week, they failed to identify the groups that were targeted by the Food and Drug Administration/Environmental Protection Agency (FDA/EPA) advisory about seafood and mercury and therefore could be providing inaccurate information. Attitudinal responses for 18 items resulted in an overall average score of 3.28 ± 0.47 meaning slightly agree (based on a 5‐point Likert scale strongly disagree—strongly agree). While trends showed that it was important to the respondents to provide accurate information (3.78 ± 1.06) about seafood to their patients, they felt more comfortable recommending that their patients follow government advice (3.52 ± 0.91) about both seafood safety and which seafood to eat over other sources. Combined with a low knowledge base, attitudinal responses indicate that there could be a barrier to both outreach education to these healthcare providers and to their patient counseling regarding seafood consumption. Results also showed that a combination of online, science‐based, easy to access information with the capability to provide brochure‐formatted information would appear to be the best way to communicate seafood safety, nutrition, and health information.     

Child care workers' knowledge about reporting suspected child sexual abuse.

As reports of the sexual abuse of preschool-aged children increase and the number of children in day care expands, it is important to recognize child care workers as potentially important resource persons for sexually abused preschoolers. Although they are potential resources for abused children, they may fail to report suspected abuse if they do not know their legal responsibilities and their rights and protections under the law. The purpose of this study was to determine child care workers' knowledge about their reporting rights and responsibilities. Relative to child sexual abuse experts, day care personnel knew significantly less about the procedures for reporting suspected abuse and their protection under the law. Suggestions for improving child care workers' knowledge about reporting suspected sexual abuse cases are provided.