Impact of the choice of threshold on physical activity patterns in free living conditions among adolescents measured using a uniaxial accelerometer: The HELENA study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the choice of threshold on physical activity patterns measured in adolescents under free living conditions (FLC) using a uniaxial accelerometer. The study comprised 2043 adolescents (12.5–17.5 years) participating in the HELENA Study. Participants wore a uniaxial accelerometer for 7 days. The PA patterns were assessed using thresholds determined from six different studies. For each of the thresholds used, the number of adolescents fulfilling the recommendation of 60 min of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) per day was also calculated. A significant difference was found between thresholds regardless of the activity level: differences of 38%, 207%, 136%, and 2780% for sedentary, light, moderate, and vigorous intensity PA, respectively (P < 0.001). Time of MVPA varied between methods from 25.3 to 55.2 min · day^–1. The number of adolescents fulfilling the recommendation varied from 5.9% to 37% according to the thresholds used. The kappa coefficient for concordance in the assessment of the number of adolescents achieving the PA recommendations was generally low. The definition of the threshold for PA intensity may considerably affect the PA patterns in FLC when assessed using a uniaxial accelerometer and the number of participants fulfilling the recommendations.     

Communication and relational culture: Bases for the study of human relationships

This article elaborates two concepts centrally important in the study of human relationships: communication and relational culture. Communication is represented as a formative process which constitutes, defines and disassembles relationships. Arising out of communication is relational culture, a privately transacted system of discourse and definition that coordinates attitudes, actions, and identities of partners in a relationship. These two concepts are used to define states of relationship which represent both stages and types of human relationships. For each state, communicative processes and functions are identified and attention is devoted to the impact of communication in moving partners toward or away from a binding relational culture.     

In a different mode: Masculine styles of communicating closeness

A number of contributors to Journal of Applied Communication Research have demonstrated communication research and theory can inform practical conduct in sundry situations. Less addressed has been the pragmatic potential of research to reform its own practice. Believing research is ideally self‐reflexive, we apply principles of scholarly inquiry to evaluate knowledge about gender and communication in close relationships. We document a prevalent bias that favors feminine styles of relating, characterized by verbal, emotional disclosure, and that devalues activity‐focused modes empirically more associated with masculinity. We then trace the presence of this bias in textbooks on gender and communication and interpersonal relationships, and we suggest teaching that relies on a non‐inclusive model of intimacy may misguide students’ communicative expectations and interpretations and may misdirect practical conduct in friendships and romantic relationships. Finally, we return to existing scholarship to extract information about masculine styles of experiencing and expressing closeness as a starting point for more inclusive research and teaching about gender, communication and human relationships.     

The keyword effect: A conceptual replication,effects on bias,and an optimization

Metacognition and Learning - Prompting learners to generate keywords after a delay is a promising means to enhance relative judgment accuracy in learning from texts. However, to date, conceptual...     

Parents' Use of Inductive Discipline: Relations to Children's Empathy and Prosocial Behavior

Relations between parents' discipline, children's empathic responses, and children's prosocial behavior were examined in order to evaluate Martin Hoffman's claim that children's empathy and empathy-based guilt mediate the socialization of children's prosocial behavior. 78 sixth and seventh graders (138–172 months in age), their mothers, and teachers completed multiple measures of Hoffman's constructs. Results were largely consistent with theory. Parents' use of inductive as opposed to power-assertive discipline was related to children's prosocial behavior. Children of inductive parents were more empathic; and more empathic children were more prosocial. Moreover, children's empathy was found to mediate the relation between parents' discipline and children's prosocial behavior. Few relations were obtained for children's guilt indices, but post hoc analyses yielded theoretically consistent results. Contrary to expectations, parents' use of statements of disappointment was the component of the inductive discipline score which was most strongly related to children's prosocial behavior.     

Same As It Ever Was: The Nexus of Race,Ability, and Place in One Urban School District

Lack of access to general education for students with disabilities, particularly students with extensive support needs, students of color, and students from low-income households, reflects continued educational inequities for multiply marginalized students. Here, we present findings of a geospatial analysis of the intersections of race, socioeconomic status, disability labels, and levels of inclusion for students with disabilities in an urban school district, serving primarily students of color. Findings show trends in segregated placements mirroring historical redlining practices, suggesting the persistence of racial segregation that is enacted systematically and systemically via special education placements, disability categories, and geography. Results suggest the need to examine student-level placement data in the context of race, class, disability label, and space to identify and address inequities in access to inclusive schooling.     

What is more important for fourth-grade primary school students for transforming their potential into achievement: the individual or the environmental box in multidimensional conceptions of giftedness?

Multidimensional models of giftedness specify individual and environmental moderators or catalysts that help transform potential into achievement. However, these models do not state whether the importance of the ‘individual boxes’ and the ‘environmental boxes’ changes during this process. The present study examines whether, during the early stages of talent development, the ‘environmental boxes’ play a more important role than the ‘individual boxes.’ To answer this question, we analyzed individual moderators and environmental moderators of achievement for fourth-grade primary-school students (N?=?976). A cluster analysis that included intelligence, achievement, and two individual moderators (motivation and learning behavior) revealed three groups of students, two of which are of particular interest, as they both displayed high intelligence and achievement but differed in their motivation and learning behavior. Questionnaire data on family environment (filled out by parents, N?=?682) and school environment (filled out by teachers, N?=?47) supported the assumption that among young students an inauspicious set of individual moderators, in this case maladaptive motivation and learning behavior, can be compensated by a sufficiently propitious set of environmental moderators, in this case parents’ and teachers’ learning support, cultural capital within the family, and teachers’ commitment to support their students’ learning.