Where Youth Live,Learn, and Play Matters: Tackling the Social Determinants of Health in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

Abstract

The body of evidence supporting a relationship between the social determinants of health and adolescent sexual and reproductive health is vast. To advance health and have a greater impact on adolescent health outcomes, sexual and reproductive health practitioners need to take into account the relationships, community, and society within which adolescents live, learn, and play. With this review, we aim to provide practitioners with a clear understanding of the value of adopting a more comprehensive approach and we provide concrete recommendations for actualizing social determinants of health through programs and services. Recommendations are provided for each of the five social determinants of health categories outlined by Healthy People 2020, including Neighborhood and Built Environment, Economic Stability, Health and Healthcare, Social and Community Context, and Education.     

Separated by Removal: The Impact of Parental Deportation on Latina/o Children’s Postsecondary Educational Goals

This research examines the impact of parental deportation on Latino/a adolescents’ postsecondary aspirations. Based on interviews with students, their families, and site observations, the study finds that for some adolescents who held college aspirations prior to the deportation, this type of abrupt parental removal negatively affects their perception of safety and stability in their home and school environments (i.e., microsystem) (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). Where this vulnerability is not countered with emotional, economic, and institutional support, it can hinder their development of the social capital (Coleman, 1988; Stanton-Salazar, 2001) that would be conducive to their higher educational aspirations.     

The Use of Concept Maps as an Assessment Tool in Physics Classes: Can One Use Concept Maps for Quantitative Evaluations?

Research in Science Education - The aim of the present research was to explore the use of concept maps as an assessment tool. The research question posed was: can concept maps be used to...     

Latin American traditions and perspectives

Educational and related non-pedagogical issues are generally described and discussed. Implicitly or explicitly, the theology of liberation,educación popular and traditional education tend to perpetuate male/female roles and very often incite violence. Peace education in Latin America should concentrate more on the pathology of the violent man. The so-called weaknesses associated with women and their powerlessness in Western civilization are precisely those which are absolutely essential to our survival. It is important for women to reject Western patterns of violence and participate actively in finding a viable alternative.

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Zusammenfassung Erziehungsfragen und darauf sich beziehende nichtpädagogische Probleme werden allgemein beschrieben und erörtert. Die Theologie der Befreiung, dieeducación popular und traditionelle Erziehung neigen verdeckt oder offen dazu, männlich/weibliche Rollen zu verfestigen und lösen sehr oft Gewalt aus. Friedenserziehung in Lateinamerika sollte sich mehr auf die Pathologie des gewalttätigen Mannes konzentrieren. Die sogenannten Schwächen, die mit Frauen und ihrer Machtlosigkeit in der westlichen Zivilisation assoziiert werden, sind genau die Eigenschaften, die für unser Überleben absolut notwendig sind. Für Frauen ist es wichtig, westliche Muster der Gewalt abzulehnen, und aktiv daran teilzunehmen, eine lebensfähige Alternative herauszufinden.

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Résumé Les questions d'éducation et celles, non-pédagogiques, qui s'y rattachent sont décrites et discutées de façon générale dans cet article. Implicitement ou explicitement, la théologie de libération, l'educación popular et l'éducation traditionnelle tendent à perpétuer les rôles homme/femme et très souvent suscite la violence. L'éducation pour la paix en Amérique Latine doít se concentrer davantage sur la pathologie de l'homme violent. Les prétendues faiblesses associées à la condition féminine et l'impuissance de la femme dans la civilisation occidentale sont précisément des qualités indispensables à notre survivance. Il importe que les femmes rejettent les formes occidentales de violence et qu'elles participent activement à la recherche d'une solution viable.

     

Hybridising Sport Education and Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility to include students with disabilities

The present study aimed to explore the impact of the combination of two pedagogical models, Sport Education and Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility, for learners with disabilities experiencing a contactless kickboxing learning unit. Twelve secondary education students agreed to participate. Five had disabilities (intellectual and motor). Additionally, three physical education teachers and the mother of one of the students contributed. Five different research instruments were used to obtain information from all participants: drawings, open-ended questions, discussion groups, diaries and semi-structured interviews. Thematic content analysis and constant comparison guided data analysis resulted in three major categories: part of the team, learning and enjoyment. Several ideas were also identified: inclusion, friendship, cooperation, students’ important role and transference. In conclusion, the hybridisation of Sport Education and Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility seems to be a powerful tool for including students with disabilities in physical education, helping them and their classmates connect in and out of class.     

Teachers’ Social–Emotional Capacity: Factors Associated With Teachers’ Responsiveness and Professional Commitment

Research Findings: Early care and education has pronounced implications for young children’s social-emotional learning. Although program structural and classroom process quality indicators have been widely explored, teachers’ personal social–emotional capacity has only recently been recognized as an indicator of quality. This study reviewed and identified indicators of teachers’ social-emotional capacity and established a two factor structure of psychological load and coping abilities. We also explored correlational associations between teachers’ social-emotional capacity and their professional commitment and responsiveness to children’s negative emotions. The sample consisted of 1,129 teachers in center-based child-care programs and public preschools in the US. We found that teachers’ psychological load (depression, stress and emotional exhaustion) was associated with teachers’ negative reactions to children and teachers’ professional commitment after controlling for a wide range of teacher/classroom characteristics. Conversely, teachers’ coping abilities (reappraisal emotion regulation and problem-focused coping strategies) were related to their positive reactions to children’s negative emotions. Practice or Policy: The findings suggest further studies to identify training and professional development program components that might address early childhood teachers’ psychological difficulties and coping strategies. Child-care programs may also need efforts that support teachers’ social–emotional capacity as a way to improve teachers’ responsiveness and professional commitment.     

Formatively assessing prospective teachers’ skills in leading mathematics discussions

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Mathematics discussions are important for helping students to develop conceptual understanding and to learn disciplinary norms and practices. In recent years,...     

Open data visualizations and analytics as tools for policy-making

Government agencies collect large amounts of structured and unstructured data. Although these data can be used to improve services as well as policy processes, it is not always clear how to analyze the data and how to glean insights for policy making, especially when the data includes large volumes of unstructured text data. This article reports opinions found in “We the People” petition data using topic modeling and visual analytics. It provides an assessment of the usability of the visual analytics results for policy making based on interviews with data professionals and policy makers. We found that visual analytics have potentially positive impacts on policy making practices. Experts also articulated potential barriers regarding the adoption of visual analytics tools, and made suggestions. Potential barriers included insufficient resources in government agencies and difficulty integrating analytics with current work practices. The main suggestions involved providing training and interpretation guidelines along with the visual analytics tools. Major contributions of this study include: (1) suggesting viable visualization tools for analyzing textual data for policy making, and (2) suggesting how to lower barriers to adoption by increasing usability.     

Time-frequency channel modeling and estimation of multi-carrier spread spectrum communication systems

In wireless communications, the channel is typically modeled as a random, linear, time-varying system that spreads the transmitted signal in both time and frequency due to multi-path propagation and Doppler effects. Estimated channel parameters allow system designers to develop coherent receivers that increase the system performance. In this paper, we show how time-frequency analysis can be used to model and estimate the time-varying channel of a multi-carrier spread spectrum (MCSS) system using a complex quadratic sequence as the spreading code. We will show that for this spreading code, the effects of time delays and Doppler frequency shifts, caused by the mobility of environment objects, can be combined and represented effectively as time shifts. The discrete evolutionary transform (DET), as a time-frequency analysis method, enables us to estimate the effective time shifts via a spreading function and to use them to equalize the channel. Using the effective time shifts, the time-varying channel can be represented simply as linear-time invariant system by embedding the Doppler shifts that characterize the time-varying channel into effective time shifts. The channel parameters are used to estimate the data bit sent. To illustrate the performance of the proposed method we perform several simulations with different levels of channel noise, jammer interference, and Doppler frequency shifts.