Active relatives and health-related physical fitness in European adolescents: The HELENA Study

Abstract

High physical fitness in childhood and adolescence is positively associated with favourable health-related outcomes. Our aim was to examine the relationship between relatives’ (father, mother, brother, sister, and best friend) physical activity engagement and encouragement on adolescents’ physical fitness. Adolescents were part of the HELENA study, a multi-centre study conducted in 10 cities from nine European countries in 2006–2008. Participants were 3288 adolescents (48% boys, 52% girls) aged 12.5–17.5 years with valid data on at least one of the three fitness variables studied: muscular strength (standing long jump), speed/agility (4×10 m shuttle run), and cardiorespiratory fitness (20 m shuttle run). The adolescents reported their relatives’ physical activity engagement and encouragement. Analysis of covariance showed that relatives’ physical activity engagement (father, mother, brother, and best friend) was positively related to cardiorespiratory fitness (P < 0.05); and mother's and sisters’ physical activity engagement were positively associated with higher muscular strength in adolescents (P < 0.05). Furthermore, father's physical activity encouragement was positively linked to physical fitness (all fitness components) in adolescents (P < 0.05). Interventions aimed at improving physical fitness in young people might be more successful when family members, particularly mothers and fathers, are encouraged to engage in physical activity and support adolescents’ physical activity.     

Growth and body composition in Brazilian female rhythmic gymnastics athletes

Abstract

The aim was to analyse the physical growth and body composition of rhythmic gymnastics athletes relative to their level of somatic maturation. This was a cross-sectional study of 136 athletes on 23 teams from Brazil. Mass, standing height and sitting height were measured. Fat-free and fat masses, body fat percentages and ages of the predicted peak height velocity (PHV) were calculated. The z scores for mass were negative during all ages according to both WHO and Brazilian references, and that for standing height were also negative for all ages according to WHO reference but only until 12 years old according to Brazilian reference. The mean age of the predicted PHV was 12.1 years. The mean mass, standing and sitting heights, body fat percentage, fat-free mass and fat mass increased significantly until 4 to 5 years after the age of the PHV. Menarche was reached in only 26% of these athletes and mean age was 13.2 years. The mass was below the national reference standards, and the standing height was below only for the international reference, but they also had late recovery of mass and standing height during puberty. In conclusion, these athletes had a potential to gain mass and standing height several years after PHV, indicating late maturation.     

Sexual Orientation and Adolescent Time Use: How Sexual Minority Youth Spend Their Time

This study combines minority stress and ecological perspectives to theorize the associations between adolescents’ sexual orientation and time use. Hypotheses are tested using data from a national sample of Australian adolescents aged 14–15 years (Longitudinal Study of Australian Children; n = 3,060). Compared to heterosexual adolescents, sexual minority adolescents spent less time with their siblings and fathers, more time alone, less time in active leisure- and school-based activities, and more time in nonactive leisure. There were no differences between sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents in time spent with mothers, peers, and in screen-based leisure. Some associations were gendered. Collectively, the results suggest that sexual minority adolescents may withdraw or be excluded from critical developmental activities and the company of key social partners.     

Predictors of student success in Higher Education: Secondary school internal scores versus national exams

In many countries entrance to Higher Education is determined by the performance of students in secondary school and/or the scores obtained in national exams. The relative weight of these two scores on the admission decision is a relevant policy topic, given its implication on who is admitted to university. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative predictive power of these two measures on the academic performance of students in Higher Education. It makes use of a dataset of Bachelor students from Portuguese Higher Education institutions with detailed information about their characteristics and past achievement results. The measure of academic achievement considered is the Bachelor's final average score. The main finding is that the scores given by teachers in secondary school are better predictors of subsequent performance than the access exam scores. The relevance of factors like working status, social support and gender vary with the reputation of the degree and the type of Higher Education institution, university versus polytechnic. A noteworthy result is that the added predictive contribution of parents' education is always negligible when past success measures are already taken into account.     

The development of mental rotation abilities through robotics-based instruction: An experience mediated by gender

The research literature on the topic of “spatial ability” reveals that it has a major influence on achievement in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Additionally, previous studies indicate the existence of a gender gap in spatial ability in favour of males. Mental rotation, one subskill of spatial ability, is an area in which gender differences are greater. At the same time, educational robotics is seen as one of the more promising technologies in educational contexts for the future. We conducted a quasi-experimental study with 142 seven- and eight-year-old students aimed at analysing whether robotics-based instruction may produce greater learning gains on mental rotation abilities compared to traditional instruction. The intervention was developed in the context of map-reading tasks, which are part of the curricular content in Mathematics and Social Sciences at this age. The results showed that for males, the robotics-based instruction promoted a significantly greater improvement in students’ mental rotation abilities compared to the control group. By contrast, no significant differences were observed for females. Although this study provides empirical evidence of the potential of robotics-based instruction, future studies need to deeply analyse the existence of gender differences in the learning gains obtained through educational robotics.     

Pandemics,leadership, and social ethics

PROSPECTS - This Viewpoint argues that the absence of worldwide social ethics is&nbsp;at the root of our present social, political, and economic crises. More to the point, the current COVID-19...     

Building the role of ICT coordinators in primary schools: A typology based on task prioritisation

Although the school ICT coordinator’s role has been institutionally defined by the Andalusian Education Administration (Spain), individual factors may be key in the emerging role-building process. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) of the priority given by coordinators to their different functions and a subsequent cluster analysis of the MDS solution were used to identify role orientations among ICT coordinators in primary schools of Andalucía (Spain). Three orientation clusters were identified: “support of ICT use in the classroom” (67.1%), “promote ICT use in the classroom” (17.8%) and “planning and maintenance of ICT equipment in the school” (15.1%). The interest in separating technical and pedagogical duties into two profiles and the perceived organisational support from the Teachers Centres (TCs) differed in the three role orientation types. Finally, strategies are suggested to reduce role ambiguity and role conflict in ICT coordinators. A clearer definition of the role would improve their leadership in ICT implementation in schools.     

Perceptions of the Bologna process: what do students’ choices reveal?

A major element in the creation of the European area of higher education is the adoption of a common structure of degrees, implying in several countries the reduction of the duration of the first degree to 3 years, which is a controversial change. Cardoso et al. (CESifo Econ Stud 54(2): 229–247, 2008) have analyzed student confidence in the curricula change, quantifying its impact on students’ first choices of academic programs. This paper goes two steps further. First, it concentrates on a variable that better translates total demand for an academic program, namely the total number of students who place the program among their six revealed preferences, instead of just the first option; and, second, an econometric model that better fits the data is estimated. Results confirm a positive impact of the Bologna process on the demand for programs, which varies with program size and across fields of study. Our results complement those in Cardoso et al. (2008), as they uncover that being a program leader, i.e. the only institution in the country that restructured a given program, was associated with higher demand by prospective students, which nevertheless stemmed from their “second best" options and not from their first choices.

What level of education matters most for growth?: Evidence from Portugal

We decompose annual average years of schooling series for Portugal into different schooling levels series. By estimating a number of vector autoregressions, we provide measures of aggregate and disaggregate economic growth impacts of different education levels. Increasing education at all levels except tertiary have a positive and significant effect on growth. Investment in education does not significantly crowd out physical investment and average years of schooling semi-elasticities have comparable magnitude across primary and secondary levels.