“Sharenting,” parent blogging,and the boundaries of the digital self

ABSTRACT

This article asks whether “sharenting” (sharing representations of one’s parenting or children online) is a form of digital self-representation. Drawing on interviews with 17 parent bloggers, we explore how parents define the borders of their digital selves and justify what is their “story to tell.” We find that bloggers grapple with profound ethical dilemmas, as representing their identities as parents inevitably makes public aspects of their children’s lives, introducing risks that they are, paradoxically, responsible for safeguarding against. Parents thus evaluate what to share by juggling multiple obligations—to themselves, their children in the present and imagined into the future, and to their physical and virtual communities. The digital practices of representing the relational self are impeded more than eased by the individualistic notion of identity instantiated by digital platforms, thereby intensifying the ambivalence of both parents and the wider society in judging emerging genres of blogging the self.     

“Immigrant” in Russian and French Print Media (Linguistic and Visual Composition Analyses)

This study addresses the representation of the linguistic and cultural type “immigrant” in French and Russian media discourse. Linguistic analysis of selected sources shows, on the one hand, signs of tolerance towards immigrants and, on the other hand, evidence of rejecting immigrants, which demonstrates the ambiguity of the matter and indirectly provokes conflicts. Visual composition analysis complements these results by revealing the following: the purpose of immigration – employment – is often socially rejected; immigrants’ sense of community is a specific cultural code in a host culture; and the cultural transfer of an “immigrant” into a different space creates uncertainty or ambiguity.     

Aerodynamic behaviour of single sport jersey fabrics with different roughness and cover factors

Wind tunnel testing has been carried out on nine-knitted single jersey fabrics (100% polyester) using cylinder and leg models to determine its aerodynamic behaviour over a range of speeds (20–80 km/h) representative of sports activities. Strong correlation between fabric manufacturing (cover factor) and fabric roughness and aerodynamic parameters has been established. Similar aerodynamic behaviour of fabrics was observed when tested on the cylinder model and on the leg model.     

Facet-based opinion retrieval from blogs

The paper presents methods of retrieving blog posts containing opinions about an entity expressed in the query. The methods use a lexicon of subjective words and phrases compiled from manually and automatically developed resources. One of the methods uses the Kullback–Leibler divergence to weight subjective words occurring near query terms in documents, another uses proximity between the occurrences of query terms and subjective words in documents, and the third combines both factors. Methods of structuring queries into facets, facet expansion using Wikipedia, and a facet-based retrieval are also investigated in this work. The methods were evaluated using the TREC 2007 and 2008 Blog track topics, and proved to be highly effective.     

The –ography of markets (or,the responsibilities of market studies)

How should we write about markets? What responsibilities does this writing bring upon us? This paper offers an immanent critique of ‘market studies’ scholarship, and through this a call to reflection and reformed action. Turning the intellectual framework of market studies upon itself, we come to see its texts as performative and agential. We discuss these qualities and the associated responsibilities via a reading of literature from the domain of ethnography. An auto-ethnographic sketch of market writing allows us to consider the problematic nature of expertise for market studies scholars and the agency and power of our texts. We find a dual moment of performativity from which our texts emerge more powerful than their authors. On this basis we offer a vision of critical interventions embedded in our texts, underpinned by the intellectual axioms of the market studies programme.     

Implementing a school-based physical activity program: process evaluation and impact on teachers’ confidence,perceived barriers and self-perceptions

Introduction: Secondary schools have the potential to promote health-related fitness (HRF) and physical activity within and outside school hours. As such, schools are often chosen as the setting to implement child and adolescent physical activity programs. School-based programs often utilise teachers as delivery agents, but few studies examine effects on teacher-level outcomes.

Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to determine the impact of teacher training embedded within a physical activity intervention on teacher-level outcomes. The secondary aim of this study was to evaluate process data, including implementation, satisfaction and fidelity.

Methods: Resistance Training for Teens (RT for Teens) was evaluated using a cluster randomised controlled trial in 16 secondary schools. Teachers (N?=?44; 48% female/52% male; mean?±?SD years teaching experience?=?10.6?±?8.0) from 16 secondary schools were assessed at baseline. Intervention group teachers (i.e. from eight schools) delivered a structured school-based physical activity program over 10-weeks. Teacher outcomes included confidence to teach health-related fitness (HRF) activities, perceived barriers to teaching HRF activities, and perceived fitness. Detailed process evaluation data were also collected. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 6-months (post-program), and outcomes were assessed using repeated measures analysis of variance.

Results: There was a positive group-by-time effect for the confidence composite score (p?=?.010, partial eta squared?=?0.29), but no effects for the two (contextual, interpersonal) barrier composite scores. Also, there was a significant effect for perceived ‘general fitness’ (p?=?0.044, partial eta squared?=?0.13), but not for specific fitness subdomains. Teachers were highly satisfied with both the training and the program, believing it was beneficial for students. Resource usage and adherence to the SAAFE (Supportive, Active, Autonomous, Fair, Enjoyable) delivery principles was high.

Conclusion: RT for Teens improved teachers’ confidence and perceived fitness. These findings highlight the potential for high-quality teacher training and program delivery to positively influence teacher-level outcomes. This may provide support for the use of teacher professional development to improve HRF-related pedagogy.     

The whole day matters: Understanding 24-hour movement guideline adherence and relationships with health indicators across the lifespan

BackgroundNew research suggests that the composition (mix) of movement behaviors within a 24-h period may have important implications for health across the lifespan. Consistent with this integrated movement behavior paradigm, a number of countries across the world have developed and released 24-h movement guidelines for specific age groups. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the associations between the 24-h time-use composition of movement behaviors, or adherence to 24-h movement guidelines, and multiple health indicators across the lifespan.MethodsFive online databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, and Ovid MEDLINE) were searched for relevant peer-reviewed studies published between January 2015 and January 2020 that met the a priori inclusion criteria, with no study design limits. The methodological quality of research evidence for each individual study and for each health indicator was assessed by using a modified version of the Downs and Black checklist.ResultsA total of 51 studies from 20 different countries met the inclusion criteria. A total of 31 studies examined adherence (meeting vs. not meeting) to 24-h movement guidelines, and 20 studies used compositional analyses to explore the 24-h time-use composition of movement behaviors. Findings indicated that meeting the 24-h movement guidelines were (1) not associated with adiposity among toddlers, (2) favorably associated with health-related quality of life, social-cognitive development, and behavioral and emotional problems among preschoolers, (3) favorably associated with global cognition, health-related quality of life, and healthy dietary patterns in children, and (4) favorably associated with adiposity, fitness, and cardiometabolic, mental, social, and emotional health among children and youth. Significant associations were also found between the composition of 24-h movement behaviors and indicators of (1) adiposity and bone and skeletal health among preschoolers, (2) health-related quality of life among children, (3) adiposity, fitness, and cardiometabolic, social, and emotional health among children and youth, (4) cardiometabolic health in adults, (5) adiposity and fitness among adults and older adults, and (6) mental health and risk of mortality among older adults. The quality of the available evidence ranged from poor to good.ConclusionThe current evidence indicates that the composition of movement behaviors within a 24-h period may have important implications for health at all ages and that meeting the current 24-h movement guidelines is associated with a number of desirable health indicators in children and youth. Future studies should employ longitudinal and experimental designs, include valid and reliable measures of 24-h movement behaviors, and examine a wide array of health indicators across all age groups. Such studies would confirm the results from the primarily cross-sectional evidence drawn from studies included in our review and further advance our understanding of the relationships between 24-h movement behaviors and health.     

Development of a cultural self-efficacy scale for adolescents (CSES-A)

We developed a cultural self-efficacy scale for adolescents (CSES-A) and tested its psychometric properties using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Cultural self-efficacy (CSE) was defined as person's perception of his/her own capability to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity. On the basis of Bandura's guideline for the development of a domain-specific self-efficacy measure, we tailored 50 items after reviewing literature about cultural competence, adolescents’ school-problems and social self-efficacy scales developed in previous studies in intercultural contexts. After pre-testing and analyzing psychometric properties of the scale, we selected 33 items. Eight hundred sixty-eight adolescents with five different cultural origins completed a set of questionnaires, including the CSES-A, internal control expectancies, general self-efficacy, academic expectancies, number of people from diverse cultures they keep in touch with, acculturation attitudes, perceived enrichment of other cultures, acculturation stress and demographic data. An EFA with MPLUS 2.14 highlighted a five-factor solution with 25 items that was supported by a subsequent CFA. The five factors were: self-efficacy in mixing satisfactorily with other cultures, in understanding different ways of life, in processing information from other cultures, in coping with loneliness and in learning and understanding other languages. The pattern of correlation with internal control expectancies, general self-efficacy and cultural variables supported the validity of the scale. CSES-A may be useful for future research on multicultural contexts, in which self-efficacy in cultural adaptation could be a fundamental variable.     

Oximetry: a reflective tool for the detection of physiological expression of emotions in a science education classroom

The pulse oximeter is a device that measures the oxygen concentration (or oxygen saturation—SpO₂); heart rate, and heartbeat of a person at any given time. This instrument is commonly used in medical and aerospace fields to monitor physiological outputs of a patient according to health conditions or physiological yields of a flying pilot according to changes in altitude and oxygen availability in the atmosphere. Nonetheless, the uses for pulse oximetry may expand to other fields where there is human interaction and where physiological outputs reflect fluctuations mediated by arising emotions. A classroom, for instance is filled with a plethora of emotions, but very often participants in this space are unaware of others’ or their own sentiments as these arise as a result of interactions and responses to class discussions. In this paper I describe part of a larger study-taking place at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. The focus is on the exploration of emotions and mindfulness in the science classroom. The oximeter is used in this study as a reflexive tool to detect emotions emerging among participants of a graduate History and Philosophy of Science Education course offered in the spring of 2012. Important physiological information of class participants provided by the oximeter is used to analyze the role of emotions in the classroom as sensitive and controversial topics in science education are discussed every week.