Weight changes in children in foster care for 1 year

Objective

The aims of this study of predominately racial/ethnic minority children in foster care (N = 360, birth to 19 years old) in Los Angeles, CA were to examine the (1) prevalence of obesity (≥95 percentile) and overweight/obese (≥85 percentile) upon entrance to foster care (T1) and after 1 year in foster care (T2); (2) comparison of high weight categories to national statistics; (3) relationship of changes in weight status to age, reason for entry into foster care, and placement.

Methods

Chi-square test and McNemar test comparing paired proportions were used to determine whether there were significant changes in the proportion of high weight categories between T1 and T2. Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test were used to evaluate the association between age, placement, and reason for foster care with the change in weight category. Changes in weight were categorized as (1) decreased in weight, (2) remained at overweight or obese, (3) increased in weight, or (4) remained normal.

Results

The proportion of obese and obese/overweight children between ages 2 and 5 were significantly lower at T2 than T1. There were no significant changes in the prevalence of obesity for the total population at T2. Children age 6 or older had a higher prevalence of obesity and overweight/obesity compared to national statistics. Of children at all ages, 64.7% of children of all ages entered foster care with a normal weight and stayed in the normal range during their first year in foster care, 12.2% decreased their weight, 15.4% remained overweight or obese, and 7.7% increased their weight. Age and parental substance use was related to change in weight category from T1 to T2.

Conclusion

Children did not become more overweight or obese in foster care; however 28% of the children were obese or overweight upon entry into foster care. Children who are 6 years or older and obese upon entering foster care should be targeted for weight reduction. The pediatric community and child welfare system need to work together by including weight percentiles in the foster care file and training/monitoring child welfare caregivers in weight reduction interventions.     

Severe punishment of children by staff in Romanian placement centers for school-aged children: Effects of child and institutional characteristics

The objective of this study was to determine whether children's characteristics and/or institutional characteristics were predictors of severe punishments (including beatings) and/or frequency of punishments that children received from staff in Romanian institutions. The data was hierarchical with institutionalized children (N = 1391) nested within 44 institutions, and the measurement of punishments by the staff and frequency of punishments had a binary distribution. Thus, multilevel logistic regression models were used to examine the effects of individual and institutional level variables on reported punishments and to account for the clustering of the children within institutions. Two general patterns of results emerged. First, regarding individual level variables, it was found that: (1) amount of time spent by children in their current institutions had a significant effect on the probability of being punished by staff and the frequency of this punishment; (2) the probability of being punished was higher for boys than for girls; and (3) having no siblings in the institution increased the odds of being punished several times. Second, regarding institutional level variables: (4) being in placement centers for school-aged children with a traditional type of institutional organization increased the odds of severe punishment compared to a familial/mixed type. The results of the present study highlight the importance of understanding the consequences of institutionalization in a broader way, where children not only experienced early severe psychosocial deprivation as documented in other studies, but also high levels of severe punishments administered by institutional staff.     

人文关怀视域下高校贫困生思政工作探讨

高校贫困生作为一个特殊群体有着自身的心理特点,需要思政工作者给予更多的关心和帮助。人文关怀提倡以人为本,尊重人的主体地位,促进人的全面发展等观念适用于高校贫困生思想政治教育工作。给予高校贫困生群体更多的人文关怀,对这一群体的成长成才和促进高校校园的和谐稳定具有重要意义。     

Fetal Monitoring: Creating a Culture of Safety With Informed Choice

The dominant culture in labor and birth is the medical model, not the midwifery model of woman-centered care. Consensus among professional and governmental groups is that, based on the evidence, intermittent auscultation is safer to use in healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies than electronic fetal monitoring (EFM). Barriers impact the laboring woman’s ability to give informed choice regarding fetal monitoring. Lack of informed choice denies a woman her right to be in control of her birth experience, and is in opposition to a woman’s right to autonomy and self-determination.     

An exploratory study of early childhood educators' views on culture and play

Abstract

This study explored early childhood teachers’ views relating to culture and play by collecting information from them on cultural differences and parental perceptions of play, culturally appropriate play (CAP) practices and barriers in its implementation. The participants of the study were 14 early childhood educators working in long day care (LDC) or out, of, school, hours care (OOSH) settings located in Sydney, Australia. Children in the selected centers represented various cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Teachers in the present study reported noticeable differences in the play of children of diverse cultural backgrounds. However, they believed that the differences in children's play were attributable to the children's proficiency in English language and gender rather than to their culture. The teachers reported they had limited or no information on the children's cultural patterns of play at home. The lack of information on cultural patterns of play, perhaps, has led to difficulties in understanding the cultural origins of play or in accommodating cultural differences into programming. The results highlight the need for educators to have greater knowledge of the cultural bases of play to enable them to provide, in partnership with parents, culturally appropriate play experiences for children.     

高校图书馆勤工助学学生馆员管理工作探究——以钦州学院为例

学生馆员是图书馆的优秀人力资源,他们的存在具有很大的价值和作用,但在管理工作中也存在学生馆员工作流动性大、工作岗位层次较低、思想认识存在偏差等问题.应从科学合理安排工作岗位、完善制度、加强培训教育、注重人文关怀等方面强化高校图书馆勤工助学学生馆员管理工作.     

A comparative study of teaching efficacy in pre-service and in-service teachers in Korean early childhood education and care (ECEC)

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between pre-service and in-service teachers in terms of their levels of teaching efficacy and teaching professionalism. In addition, the patterns in predictors of teachers’ teaching efficacy were compared between the two subgroups of this study. Five hundred and seventy-three teachers completed self-administered questionnaires. The in-service teachers were found to have higher efficacy than their counterparts in only one of the six subscales of teaching efficacy, the subscale “Teaching Strategies”. Additionally, the college major specialisation and some domains of professionalism were found to be predictive to both groups. Along with the main results of this study, implications for research and practice are discussed.     

注重人文关怀和心理疏导提高思想政治工作实效

一些基层单位传统政工方式方法已不能适应形势发展需要,注重人文关怀和一心理疏导应是开创政工新局面的着力点。本文在分析人文关怀和心理疏导的涵义后,从三个方面提出建议。一是政工干部要加强传统人文修养,学习基础心理学知识,二是建立政工培训、考核机制,三是善于营造环境,掌握若干基本方法,创造性提出建立职工人文和心理档案的设想。     

探究人文关怀下的大学生思想政治教育

人文关怀下的大学生思想政治教育是对传统教育模式的创新和挑战,是实现校园和谐人文环境、浓厚人文文化的先决条件。文章从分析人文关怀下的大学生思想政治教育的内涵入手,探讨加强人文关怀下的大学生思想政治教育的重要意义及加强人文关怀下大学生思想政治教育工作需要考虑的因素,最后论述了人文关怀下的大学生思想政治教育中存在的问题和加强人文关怀下大学生思想政治教育的措施。     

Diversity, child care quality, and developmental outcomes

It is widely accepted that high quality child care enhances children’s cognitive and social development, but some question whether what constitutes quality care depends on the child’s ethnic and cultural background. To address this question, secondary analysis of data from the two largest studies of child care experiences in the United States, Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study and the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, tested whether standard measures of child care quality were less reliable or valid for African-American and English-speaking Latino children than for white children. Widely used measures of child care quality showed comparably high levels of reliability and similar levels of validity for white, African-American, and Latino children. Analyses tested whether cognitive and social skills were related to child care quality, the match between child’s and caregiver’s ethnicity, and the match between the mother’s and caregiver’s beliefs about child-rearing. Results indicated children from all three ethnic groups showed higher levels of cognitive and social skills on standardized assessments shown to predict school success when caregivers were sensitive and stimulating. Children’s skills were not consistently related to whether the child’s and caregiver’s ethnicity matched or whether the mother’s and caregiver’s beliefs about child-rearing were similar. These two large studies suggest that children from all three ethnic groups benefit from sensitive and stimulating care on child outcomes related to school success. The results are interpreted as indicating that the global dimension of quality may be reflected in very different types of practices that reflect cultural differences.