Patterns of Risk and Protective Factors Among Alaska Children: Association With Maternal and Child Well-Being

This study used population-representative data to examine associations of risk and protective factor patterns among Alaska Native/American Indian (AN/AI; N = 592) and non-Native (N = 1,018) children with maternal and child outcomes at age 3 years. Among AN/AI children, a high risk/moderate protection class was associated with child developmental risk and mothers being less likely to feel comfortable asking for help or knowing where to go for parenting information compared to a low socioeconomic status/high protection class. Among non-Native children, a moderate risk/high protection class was associated with child developmental risk and mothers being less likely to feel comfortable asking for help compared to a low risk/high protection class. Results provide insight on the intersection of risk and protective factors among Alaska families.     

Effects of aerobic exercise and cognitively engaging exercise on cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills in primary school children: A cluster randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT

This paper examined effects of two interventions on cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills, and whether these effects are influenced by baseline levels, and dose of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during the intervention. A cluster randomized controlled trial was implemented in 22 schools (n = 891; 9.2 ± 07 years). Intervention groups received aerobic or cognitively engaging exercise (14-weeks, four lessons per week). Control groups followed their regular physical education programme. Cardiorespiratory fitness, motor skills and MVPA were assessed. Multilevel analysis showed no main effects on cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills although the amount of MVPA was higher in the aerobic than in the cognitively engaging and control group. Intervention effects did not depend on baseline cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills. Children with a higher dose of MVPA within the intervention groups had better cardiorespiratory fitness after both interventions and better motor skills after the cognitively engaging intervention. In conclusion, the interventions were not effective to enhance cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills at a group level, possibly due to large individual differences and to a total dose of MVPA too low to find effects. However, the amount of MVPA is an important factor that influence the effectiveness of interventions.     

The misallocation of students to academic sets in maths: A study of secondary schools in England

Drawing upon data gathered from 9301 Year 7 students (12–13 years old) from 46 secondary schools in England, this study represents the first larger-scale attempt to compare their actual set allocations in maths with the counterfactual position where their allocation to sets is based solely on their prior attainment at the end of primary school [using their Key Stage 2 (KS2) fine-grained scores in maths]. Through such an analysis, the study found that nearly a third of students (31.2%) had been misallocated to lower or higher sets than their KS2 results would have warranted. Beyond this, school setting practices were found to exacerbate differences in set allocation in relation to gender and ethnicity, but not socioeconomic background. The odds of girls being misallocated to lower sets in maths than their prior attainment would warrant was found to be 1.5 times higher than that for boys. Similarly, the odds of Black students being misallocated to lower sets was 2.4 times higher than for White students, whilst the odds of Asian students being misallocated to lower maths sets was 1.7 times higher than for White students. The article concludes by reflecting on the significant role that setting by attainment in secondary school can play in exacerbating already established patterns of educational inequalities in gender and ethnicity.     

Spectacles in hybrid Japan: Deconstruction,semiotic excess,and obtuse meanings in Lost in Translation

This essay’s purpose is to recover Fiskean deconstructive criticism as a means of examining the complexities of texts. Specifically, we argue that Lost in Translation’s moments of spectacle reveal that even in a text that reinforces White Orientalist views of Japan, the text’s obtuse meanings subvert, though not upturn, this dominant narrative. The film’s text reifies heteronormative masculinity and femininity with the blending of the pre- and postmodern Japan, yet obtuse meanings subvert the Western gaze and present hybrid queer spaces that complicate Western neocolonial domination. Subversion cannot completely overturn those meanings, but guerrilla opportunities allow for tactical resistance.     

Tracking of Gross Motor Coordination From Childhood Into Adolescence

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze tracking and stability of motor coordination in children from age 6 years to ages 9 and 13 years. Method: Data were from the Copenhagen School Child Intervention Study. Motor coordination (MC) was measured using the körperkoordinationstest für Kinder (KTK) test. The crude performance score on every item was converted into a standardized “score” based on the original German reference study, which was used to generate a total standardized motor coordination (MQ) score. The MQ scores, which represented children's level of gross MC, were classified as low (MQ score < 85), normal (MQ score = 85–115), or high (MQ score>115). Pearson correlation was used to calculate the tracking coefficients of each KTK element and MQ score, and weighted kappa was used to analyze maintenance in MC classification groups. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the odds of remaining in the low MC group over time based on body mass index (BMI), weight, and height tertiles. Results: Tracking coefficients among the MQ score and each KTK element at different ages were moderate (r>.35). Children in the highest BMI and weight tertiles had a 5.44 and 5.15 times greater chance to be in the lower MC classification group during the 7-year follow-up, respectively, in comparison with children in their lowest tertiles. Conclusion: MC tracked moderately through childhood to early adolescence. Because heavier children had a greater chance to be in the lower MC group at older ages, intervention may be useful at earlier ages for those with lower MC and disadvantageous weight status.     

The Earthly Landscape of the Heavenly City: A New Framework for the Examination of the Urban Development of Frankish Jerusalem

This article introduces a new methodological framework for the examination of Frankish Jerusalem's urban development, based on a database encompassing documents relating to Jerusalem from the first half of the twelfth century. The deconstruction of documents according to their primary elements provides a new framework for their use in the study of the socio-economic mechanisms that propelled the transformation of Jerusalem's cityscape, hitherto commonly perceived as restricted to monumental construction. This supplements the panoramic view of the city, obtained from contemporary narrative sources and archaeological evidence, with an analytical depiction of the evolving urban environment. Such an analytical approach unveils previously undetected facets of Jerusalem's urban development, such as the early emergence and spatial distribution of residential areas, crystallisation of notions of property ownership and shifting patterns of economic conduct. It sheds new light on the periodisation and scope of urban change in Jerusalem and its correlation to wider socio-economic processes.     

Arab Contributions to World Knowledge: A Contemporary Curriculum Imperative

American K-12 school curricula are often bereft of acknowledgements of the historical contributions of Arab societies to our present-day intellectual heritage, an oversight most apparent in the sciences. Teachers in a thriving democracy are obliged to introduce contemporary scholarship that reflects the contributions of Arab scientists between the period of 850 and 1200 in the larger area of the Middle East. This article illuminates significant Arab scientists in history and offers appropriate resources for the K-12 classroom.     

Activity-related typologies and longitudinal change in physical activity and sedentary time in children and adolescents: The UP&DOWN Study

Background: Children and adolescents can be distinguished by different typologies (clusters) of physical activity and sedentary behavior. How physical activity ...     

Behavioral and Neural Pathways Supporting the Development of Prosocial and Risk-Taking Behavior Across Adolescence

This study tested the pathways supporting adolescent development of prosocial and rebellious behavior. Self-report and structural brain development data were obtained in a three-wave, longitudinal neuroimaging study (8–29 years, N = 210 at Wave 3). First, prosocial and rebellious behavior assessed at Wave 3 were positively correlated. Perspective taking and intention to comfort uniquely predicted prosocial behavior, whereas fun seeking (current levels and longitudinal changes) predicted both prosocial and rebellious behaviors. These changes were accompanied by developmental declines in nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) volumes, but only faster decline of MPFC (faster maturity) related to less rebellious behavior. These findings point toward a possible differential susceptibility marker, fun seeking, as a predictor of both prosocial and rebellious developmental outcomes.