Search results for: school children in Ho Chi Minh City

Authors: Mitra Abtahi, Esmat Nasseri, Morteza Abodllahi

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Introduction: Adequate hydration is necessary for proper physical and mental function. The aim of this study is to determine the consumption of water and all other beverages in children (8-13 years) and adolescents (14-17 years) in Tehran metropolitan city of Iran. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 455 children (8-13 years) and 334 adolescents (14-17 years) were retrieved from north, center, and south of Tehran (18 schools). Instrument for data collection consisted of a “demographic and general health” questionnaire and a “7-day fluid record”. Data analyses were performed with SPSS 16 software. Results: The mean total consumption of fluids in school children was 1302 ± 500.6 ml/day. The highest mean intakes were observed for water (666 ± 398 ml/day), followed by milk (239 ± 183 ml/day), regular soft beverages (RSB) (188 ± 148 ml/day), and juices (60 ± 74 ml/day). Water, hot drinks (mainly tea) and soft drinks intake was significantly more in boys than girls. A significantly lower intake of milk and a higher intake of RSB and hot beverages (mainly tea) have been seen among adolescents compared to children. Conclusion: The most important finding is that mean fluid intake of children and adolescents does not meet international adequate intake references for water and fluids. This finding may suggest the necessity of development of the local references. To improve fluid intake habits of children and adolescents, relevant policy making and actions are warranted.

Keywords: adolescents, beverages, children, water

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Authors: Sahar Hooshmand, Mohammad Reza Bagherzadeh Anasari

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The aim of this study was to examine the effect of breakfast eating pattern (between frequencies of breakfast consumers and non-consumers) on nutritional status (weight for age, height for age and weight for height). A total 4570 primary school children aged 6-9 years old constituted the sample. From these, 2234 Iranian school children (1218 girls and 1016 boys) and 2336 Indian school children (1096 girls and 1240 boys) were included in a cross sectional study. Breakfast frequency consumption was recorded through an interview with mothers of children. Height and wight of children were taken and body mass index were calculated. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) AnthroPlus software used to assess the nutritional status of the children. Weight for age z-scores were slightly associated with frequency of consuming breakfast in both India (χ2 = 60.083, p=0.000) and Iran (χ2 = 18.267, p=0.032). A significant association was seen between frequency of child‘s breakfast intake and the height z-scores in both India (χ2 = 31.334, p=0.000) and Iran (χ2 = 19.443, p=0.022). Most of children with normal height had breakfast daily in both countries. A significant association was seen with children‘s BMI z-scores of Indian children (χ2 = 31.247, p=0.000) but it was not significant in Iran (χ2 = 10.791, p=0.095). The present study confirms the observations of other studies that showed more frequency in having breakfast is associated with better nutritional status.

Keywords: breakfast, schoolchildren, nutritional status, global food security

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Authors: Jerickson Abbie Flores, Jana Fragante, Jan Paolo Dipasupil, Jan Jorge Francisco

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Malnutrition is one of the rapidly growing health problems affecting the world at present. Children affected are not only at risk for significant health problems, but are also faced with psychological and social consequences, including low self-esteem. School-age children are specifically vulnerable to develop poor self-esteem especially when their peers find them physically unattractive. Thus, malnutrition, whether obesity or undernourishment, contributes a significant role to a developing child’s health and behavior. This research aims to determine if there is a significant difference on the level of self-esteem among Filipino children ages 9-12 years old with abnormal body mass index (BMI) and those children with desirable BMI. Using a cross-sectional study design, the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and self-esteem was observed among children ages 9-12 years old. Participants took the Hare self esteem questionnaire, which is specifically designed to measure self-esteem in school age children. The lowest possible score is 15 and the highest possible score is 45. A total of 1140 students with ages 9-12 years old from Cembo Elementary School (public school) participated in the study. Among the participants, 239 out of the 1140 have desirable body mass index, 878 are underweight, and 23 are overweight. Using the test questionnaire, the computed mean scores were 36.599, 36.045 and 36.583 for normal, underweight and overweight categories respectively. Using Pearson’s Correlation Test and Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient Test, the study showed positive correlation (p value of 0.047 and 0.004 respectively) between BMI and Self-esteem scores which indicates that the higher the BMI, the higher the self-esteem of the participants.

Keywords: body mass index, malnutrition, school-age children, self-esteem

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Authors: Ebtehag Tolba, Ahmed Mousa, Mohamed Abd El-Salam

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The study presents a proposed program for nursery school children in Egypt. The program consists of a collection of artistic activities and aims to develop the language, mathematical, and artistic skills of preschool children. Furthermore, the researcher has presented a questionnaire to experts about the link between the target group and the content. Finally, the proposed program was applied to group of 30 children. In addition, the researcher has prepared another questionnaire for measuring the effect of the program. This questionnaire was used as a pre-test and post-test, and at the end of the study, a significant difference was determined in favour of the post-test results.

Keywords: developing, concepts, nursery, children, artistic activities

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Authors: Sakineh Nouri Saeidlou, Fatemeh Rezaiegoyjeloo, Parvin Ayremlou, Fariba Babaie

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Introduction: Childhood overweight and obesity is a major public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Overweight and obesity in children may have severe consequences later in adolescence and adulthood. The aim of current study was to determine the prevalence trend of overweight and obesity in school-aged children from 2009 to 2011. Methods: The present study was a population-based study and conducted in three consecutive years, from 2009 to 2011. The study population included all of primary, secondary and high school children in rural and urban regions of West Azarbijan province in West-North of Iran. Body mass index (BMI), the ratio of weight to height squared [weight (kg)]/ [height (m)]2, was calculated to the nearest decimal place. Overweight and obesity were classified using CDC recommendations for age and sex: a BMI 85th–95th percentile was classified as overweight and a BMI>95th percentile was classified as obese. All statistical analyses were performed using the Excel Software. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample in different time periods. The prevalence was calculated as the ratio of number present cases to a given population number in a given subgroup at a given time. Results: Overall, 165740, 145146 and 146203 school children were assessed at 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively. Prevalence of overweight in primary school children among girls were 52.83, 86.93 and 116.36 and for boys were 57.07, 53.4 and 93.55 per 1000 person in 2009, 2010 and 2011 years ,respectively. The prevalence of obesity in secondary school children for girls were 22.26, 27.75 and 28.43 and 26.52, 25.72 and 35.85 for boys per 1000 person in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively, The highest prevalence of overweight was 77.58, 142.4 and 126.46 per 1000 person among primary, secondary and high school children, respectively, in 2011. The lowest prevalence of obesity was 12.52, 24.1 and 21.61 per 1000 person among primary, secondary and high school children, respectively, in 2009. Conclusion: However, the rapid increase in both obesity and overweight should have a special attention. Research on prevalence trend of overweight and obesity in children is poorly reported in Iran. So that, future studies need to follow-up on the associations between overweight and obesity with health outcomes when children develop and reach adolescence and adulthood.

Keywords: overweight, obesity, school children, prevalence trend, Iran

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Authors: Aviva Lvan, Lipaz Shamoa-Nir

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Recently, has increased the research interest in modern fatherhood especially, the increasing involvement of fathers in the family. However, there is a little research evidence on fathers to children with special needs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of stress and coping style on involvement in school among fathers to children with special needs in inclusive education. We compared the fathers to children with special needs (N=72) with fathers to non-special needs children (N = 75), and found that higher stress levels, greater educational involvement and greater use of social support coping style, were found among fathers of children with special needs. In addition, mission coping style and emotional coping style predict involvement in the school and emotional coping style predicts high levels of stress. The above findings contribute to the investigation of changes in the perception of the role of fathers and their involvement in their children's lives especially, among fathers to children with special needs. From the applied aspect, the findings may increase the understanding of the role of fathers and their unique contribution to the social, emotional, and academic development of their children.

Keywords: coping style, educational involvement, special needs, stress

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Authors: Barbara A. Fogarty-Perry

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This paper draws on one to one interviews with parents of children with high and complex needs conducted in 2019. Those interviewed were asked questions around various areas of well-being, and these were transcribed and then thematically analysed. Results were plotted to identify strategies that enhance resilience in parents of children with physical disabilities. The parents were asked to highlight challenges in the support systems they utilized, and all of those interviewed identified difficulties in the New Zealand education system. Legally in New Zealand, children have the right to attend their local primary school, but for 100% of those interviewed, this was an issue. This paper will discuss the way these parents navigated the New Zealand education system in order to defend this right for their children. The New Zealand education system is having to become more inclusive through parental actions despite precarious times of counter-movement by the New Zealand government.

Keywords: autoethnography, human rights, inclusion, parents voice in disability

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Authors: Umaiza Bashir, Ushna Farukh

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The present study examined the perspective of school students regarding teacher’s behavioral pattern during a teaching in classroom and its influence on the students’ socialization particularly forming peer relationships with the development of emotional, behavioral problems in school children. To study these dimension of teacher-student classroom relationship, 210 school children (105 girls and 105 boys) within the age range of 14 to 18 years were taken from the government, private schools. The cross-sectional research design was used in which stratified random sampling was done. Teacher-student interaction scale was used to assess the teacher-student relationship in the classroom, which had two factors such as positive and negative interaction. Peer relationship scale was administered to investigate the socialization of students, and School Children Problem Scale was also given to the participants to explore their emotional, behavioral issues. The analysis of Pearson correlation showed that there is a significant positive relationship between negative teacher-student interaction and student’s emotional-behavioral as well as social problems. Another analysis of t-test revealed that boys perceived more positive interaction with teachers than girls (p < 0.01). Girls showed more emotional behavioral problems than boys (p < 0.001) Linear regression explained that age, gender, negative teacher’s interaction with students and victimization in social gathering predicts mental health problems in school children. This study suggests and highlights the need for the school counselors for the better mental health of students and teachers.

Keywords: teacher-student interaction, school psychology, student’s emotional behavioral problems

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Authors: W. Kongnoo, J. Loysongkroa, S. Chotivichien, N. Viriyautsahakul, N. Saiwongse

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Obesity, stunting and wasting problems among Thai school-aged children are increasing due to inappropriate food consumption behavior and poor environments for desirable nutritional behavior. Because of a low school lunch budget of only 0.40 USD per person per day, food quality is not up to nutritional standards. Therefore, the Health Department with the Education Ministry and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation have developed a quality school lunch project during 2009–2013. The program objectives were development and management of public policy to increase school lunch budget. The methods used a healthy public policy motivation process and movement in 241 local administrative organizations and 538 schools. The problem and solution research was organized to study school food and nutrition management, create a best practice policy mobilization model and hold a public hearing to motivate an increase of school meal funding. The results showed that local public policy has been motivated during 2009-2011 to increase school meal budget using local budgets. School children with best food consumption behavior and exercise increased from 13.2% in 2009 to 51.6% in 2013 and stunting decreased from 6.0% in 2009 to 4.7% in 2013. As the result of national policy motivation (2012-2013), the cabinet meeting on October 22, 2013 has approved an increase of school lunch budget from 0.40 USD to 0.62 USD per person per day. Thus, 5,800,469 school children nationwide have benefited from the budget increase.

Keywords: public policy, quality school lunch, Thailand, obesity

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Authors: Sara Zadunaisky Ehrlich, Batia Seroussi, Anat Stavans

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Text structure is a parameter of text quality. This study investigated the structure of written argumentative texts produced by elementary school age children. We set two objectives: to identify and trace the structural components of the argumentative texts and to investigate whether reading comprehension skills were correlated with text structure. 293 school children from 2nd to 5th grades were asked to write two argumentative texts about informal or everyday life controversial topics and completed two reading tasks that targeted different levels of text comprehension. The findings indicated, on the one hand, significant developmental differences between mature and more novice writers in terms of text length and mean proportion of clauses produced for a better elaboration of the different text components. On the other hand, with certain fluctuations, no meaningful differences were found in terms of presence of text structure: at all grade levels, elementary school children produced the basic and minimal structure that included the writer's argument and reasons or arguments' supports. Counter-arguments were scarce even in the upper grades. While the children captured that essentially an argument must be justified, the more the number of supports produced, the fewer the clauses the children produced. Last, weak to mild relations were found between reading comprehension and argumentative text structure. Nevertheless, children who scored higher on sophisticated questions that require inferential or world knowledge displayed more elaborated structures in terms of text length and size of supports to the writer's argument. These findings indicate how school-age children perceive the basic template of an argument with future implications regarding how to elaborate written arguments.

Keywords: argumentative text, text structure, elementary school children, written argumentations

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Authors: Zasha Romero, Roberto Trevino, Lin Wang, Elizabeth Alanis, Jesus Cuellar

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Background: There is a strong relationship between low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and high adiposity levels. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of the Bienestar/Neema Coordinated School Health Program (BN CSHP) on the CRF of preschool children. Methods: This is a randomized cluster trial conducted in preschools of two school districts located along the Texas-Mexico border. Of 48 eligible schools, 28 were randomly selected (intervention, n=14; control, n=14). Family demographics and household health characteristics were collected from parents. CRF, as measured by the Progressive Anaerobic Capacity Endurance Run (PACER) fitness test, was collected from the children. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) was used to analyze the data. Results: Family demographics, household health characteristics, and children’s weight, obesity prevalence, and sedentary activity were similar among both treatment groups. After adjusting for covariates, the number of laps run by children in the control group increased by 23% (CI: -5% to 60%) per each data collection period compared with 53% (CI: 7% to 119%) in the intervention group. Conclusions: Children in the BN CSHP, compared to those in the control group, had a significantly higher increase in their CRF. This finding is important because of the health benefits of CRF in children.

Keywords: coordinated school health program, cardiorespiratory fitness, obesity, border health, preschool, physical education, movement

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Authors: Joserra Díez, Ainhoa Meñika, Iñaki Sanz-Azkue, Arritokieta Ortuzar

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Biodiversity provides humans with a great range of ecosystemic services; it is therefore an indispensable resource and a legacy to coming generations. However, in the last decades, the increasing exploitation of the Planet has caused a great loss of biodiversity and its acquaintance has decreased remarkably; especially in urbanized areas, due to the decreasing attachment of humans to nature. Yet, the Primary Education curriculum primes the identification of flora and fauna to guarantee the knowledge of children on their surroundings, so that they care for the environment as well as for themselves. In order to produce effective didactic material that meets the needs of both teachers and pupils, it is fundamental to diagnose the current situation. In the present work, the knowledge on biodiversity of 3^rd cycle Primary Education students in Biscay (n=98) and its relation to the size of the town/city of their school is discussed. Two tests have been used with such aim: one for tree identification and the other one so that the students enumerated the species of trees and animals they knew. Results reveal that knowledge of students on tree identification is scarce regardless the size of the city/town and of their school. On the other hand, animal species are better known than tree species.

Keywords: biodiversity, population, tree identification, animal identification

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Authors: Khair Jadaan, Qasem Alqasem

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School children are vulnerable road user groups and are particularly at high risk calling for the need to improve their safety. Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) concept is considered as one safety improvement approach that would effectively help improve school children’s safety. This paper aims to determine the best practice SRTS for Jordan based on the international experience attained through extensive and selected literature review falling under the 5 E’s and additionally on information/data collected through a survey performed using an online predesigned questionnaire to investigate the reactions and attitudes of students and their parents towards the proposed SRTS program. Data are analyzed using SPSS and MS software, especially Excel, in addition to some literature reviews inserted in this study. The results represent some recommendations that are strongly believed to help decision makers to develop the current safety conditions of the school routes. The challenges that the implementation of this program would face including COVID-19 protection for teachers and students are addressed.

Keywords: children, COVID-19, Jordan, safety, school, SRTS, 5 E’s

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Authors: Ssekamanya, Mastura Badzis, Khamsiah Ismail, Dayang Shuzaidah Bt Abduludin

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With rising incidents of school violence worldwide, educators and researchers are trying to understand and find ways to enhance the safety of children at school. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which the demographic variables of gender, age, length of service, position, academic qualification, and school location predicted teachers’ awareness about school safety practices in Malaysian primary schools. A stratified random sample of 380 teachers was selected in the central Malaysian states of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Multiple regression analysis revealed that none of the factors was a good predictor of awareness about school safety training, delivery methods of school safety information, and available school safety programs. Awareness about school safety activities was significantly predicted by school location (whether the school was located in a rural or urban area). While these results may reflect a general lack of awareness about school safety among primary school teachers in the selected locations, a national study needs to be conducted for the whole country.

Keywords: school safety awareness, predictors of school safety, multiple regression analysis, malaysian primary schools

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Authors: M. A. M. Hayati Adilin, D. Ajau, A. S. Siti Khuzaimah, K. Mastura, R. Nik Muhammad Syafiq, M. N. Noor Fatin Nadiah

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The school environment is one of many factors related to the increment of overweight and obesity among children. There is an evidence to suggest that the school environmental factor has an independent effect towards health-related behaviour of children and school culture. It may have a significant impact towards the emergence of childhood obesity through their influence on eating pattern and physical activity level. The objective of this study is to identify the school environmental factors (i.e. physical, economic, political and socio-cultural) towards healthy eating and physical activity of urban and rural primary school children in preventing childhood obesity. This can be identified by examining the compliance of rural and urban school environment with whole-school environmental mapping framework. The study design was a cross-sectional study. A total of 60 schools were randomly selected (30 urban and 30 rural) in Selangor, Western Peninsular Malaysia in 2013 and 60 teachers (responsible for student affairs and the school curriculum) have been interviewed face to face by using a whole school mapping questionnaire followed by observation of the school environment . This study has demonstrated that schools in both areas (rural and urban) comply mostly with the physical environmental mapping (83.3%), followed by socio-cultural environmental mapping, 65%. Meanwhile, the political environmental mappings in both urban and rural schools show a low compliance percentage, which is 56.7%. For economic environmental mapping, only 10% of both schools are complied. As a conclusion, this study has demonstrated that schools in both areas do not fully comply with the whole school environmental mapping framework, especially economic and political. However, holistic approach is needed and many improvements can be proposed to promote healthy eating and physical activities among school children. Government, families and schools as well as communities and the media should be included together with any strategies for preventing childhood obesity.

Keywords: childhood obesity, healthy eating, physical activity, school environment

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Authors: Huang Ying

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The present study was to investigate factors affecting children's improvement through the first two years of elementary school on a population-based sample of children with autism in Taiwan. All the children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by clinical psychologists according to DSM-IV. Children's development was assessed by the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Chinese version (VABS-C) on the first and the third grade. Children's improvement was measured by the difference between the standardized total score of the third and the first year. In Taiwan, school-age children with special-education needs will be arranged into different classes, including normal classes (NC), resource classes (RC), and special classes (SC) by the government. Therefore, type of class was one of the independent variables. Moreover, as early intervention is considered to be crucial, the earliest age when intervention begins was collected from parents. Attention was also included in the analysis. Teachers were asked to evaluate children's attention with a 3-item Likert Scale. The frequency of paying attention to the class or the task was recorded and scores were summed up. Additionally, standardized scores of the VABS-C in the first grade were used as pretest scores representing children's developmental level at the beginning of elementary school. Multiple regression was conducted with improvement as the dependent variable. Results showed that children in special classes had smaller improvement compared to those in normal or resource classes. Attention positively predicted improvement yet the effect of earliest intervention age was not significant. Furthermore, scores in the first grade negatively predicted improvement, which indicated that children with higher developmental levels would make less progress in the following years. Results were to some degree consistent with previous findings through meta-analysis that the effectiveness of conventional intervention methods lacked sufficient evidence to support.

Keywords: attention, early intervention, elementary school, special education in Taiwan

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Authors: Mahani Razali, Abd Halim Masnan, Nordin Mamat, Seah Siok Peh

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This research is based on three main objectives which are to identify children`s social interaction behaviour during computer play activities, teacher’s role and to explore teacher’s beliefs, views and knowledge about computers use in four Malaysian pre-schools.This qualitative study was carried out among 25 pre-school children and three teachers as the research sample. The data collection procedures involved structured observation which was to identify social interaction behavior among pre-school children through computer play activities; as for semi-structured interviews, it was done to study the perception of the teachers on the acquired of social interaction behavior development among the children. A variety of patterns can be seen within the peer interactions indicating that children exhibit a vast range of social interactions at the computer, and they varied each day. The findings of this study guide us to certain conclusions, which have implications in understanding the phenomena of how computers were used and how its relationship to the children’s social interactions emerge in the four Malaysian preschools. This study provides evidence that the children’s social interactions with peers and adults were mediated by the engagement of the children in the computer environments.

Keywords: computer, play, preschool, social interaction

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Authors: Prasanta Saini, Junaid Jibran Jawed, Subrata Majumdar

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Infections caused by soil-transmitted helminths (STH) are the major problem in all the nations of the world. The major focus of STH research is to study the prevalence of three major helminths, such as Ascaris, Trituris and hookworm. Here we are reporting the prevalence and intensity of the STH in the school children of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence and risk factors of STH infection among the school children, aged between 5-10 years in 27 districts randomly selected districts with covering nine agro-climatic zones of Uttar Pradesh, India. For this cross-sectional survey, we have selected the populations of government primary school going children in Uttar Pradesh. The sampling was performed in the nine different agro-climatic zones. Every individual of the study populations filled their daily information in the questioner's form and then the sample was collected and processed by kato-katz methods by following the guidelines of WHO. In this method, the sampling was performed in total of 6421 populations. A total of 6,421 children from 130 schools were surveyed. Infection with any soil-transmitted helminths was detected among 4,578 children with an overall prevalence of 75.6% (95% CI: 65.3-83.6). Among the 6421 population, the prevalence of Ascaris is 69.6% (95% CL 57.97-79.11), hookworm is 22.7% (95%CL 19.3-26.3) and Trichuris sp is 4.6% (95% CL 0.8-21.6), so the predicted prevalence map indicates that the STH infection was hyperendemic in this state. The findings of our survey in 130 schools covering 9 agro-climatic with one or more soil transmitted helminths. Majority of STH infections were of light intensity. STH infection was hyper-endemic in entire state, except three zones in western Uttar Pradesh. High prevalence ( > 75%) in all age groups also indicate little impact of existing deworming initiatives, including those among pre-school aged children. WHO recommends annual treatment in areas where STH prevalence is between 20% and 50%, and, a bi-annual treatment in areas with prevalence rates of over 50%. In view of high prevalence of STH infection in Uttar Pradesh, it is strongly recommended to initiate a deworming programme for school children in the state. Although our survey was among primary school children, high prevalence among children aged 4-6 years also indicates the need to strengthen the existing deworming programs for pre-school children. Extending the benefits of deworming to pre-school children through deworming in Anganwadi schools would further reduce to decrease the load of infection in community. As a long-term solution for control STH infection, it is also necessary to improve the sanitation levels in the area, as majority of the houses did not have latrines and most of the children were defecating in open fields, a factor that was found to be significantly associated with STH infection.

Keywords: prevalence, school going children, soil transmitted helminthes, Uttar Pradesh-India

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Authors: Giedre Sirvinskiene, Kastytis Smigelskas

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Quality of family relations is an important factor of child development, however, the role of joint family activities on adolescent happiness still needs investigation. The aim of this study is to analyze associations between happiness of school-aged children and parental involvement. The analysis involves Lithuanian data from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School Aged Children (HBSC) study. The sample comprised 5730 children aged 11–15 years. Results: The odds of happiness was 2.38 times higher if children were living together with mother (95% CI: 1.81–3.13) and 1.81 times – with father (95% CI: 1.53–2.15). However, the likelihood of happiness was 7.21 times lower if adolescent had difficulties to talk with mother (95% CI: 5.42–9.61) and 6.40 times – with father (95% CI: 4.80–8.56). The joint daily adolescents-parents activities also predict the odds for happiness: joint TV watching by 5.96 times (95% CI: 4.21–8.43), having meals together by 7.02 times (95% CI: 4.77–10.32), going for a walk together 4.30 times (95% CI: 2.96–6.26), visiting places by 6.85 times (95% CI: 4.74–9.90), visiting friends and relatives by 7.13 times (95% CI: 4.87–10.43), sporting by 2.76 (95% CI: 1.83–4.18) as well as discussing various things by 7.35 times (95% CI: 5.50–9.82). Conclusions: Joint parents-adolescents activities and communication are related with greater happiness of adolescent. Though adolescence is a period when the relationships with peers get more importance, the communication and joint activities with parents remain a significant factor of adolescent happiness.

Keywords: adolescent, family, happiness, school-age

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Authors: William Cheng, Rini Sekartini

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Background: Sleep is essential for children because it provides enhancement for the neural system activities that give physiologic effects for the body to support growth and development. One of the modifiable factors that relates with sleep is nutrition, which includes nutritional status, iron intake, and magnesium intake. Nutritional status represents the balance between nutritional intake and expenditure, while iron and magnesium are micronutrients that are related to sleep regulation. The aim of this study is to identify prevalence of sleep disturbance among Indonesian children and to evaluate its relation with aspect to nutrition. Methods : A cross-sectional study involving children aged 5 to 7-years-old in an urban primary health care between 2012 and 2013 was carried out. Related data includes anthropometric status, iron intake, and magnesium intake. Iron and magnesium intake was obtained by 24-hours food recall procedure. Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) was used as the diagnostic tool for sleep disturbance, with score under 39 indicating presence of problem. Results: Out of 128 school-aged children included in this study, 28 (23,1%) of them were found to have sleep disturbance. The majority of children had good nutritional status, with only 15,7% that were severely underweight or underweight, and 12,4% that were identified as stunted. On the contrary, 99 children (81,8%) were identified to have inadequate magnesium intake and 56 children (46,3%) with inadequate iron intake. Our analysis showed there was no significant relation between all of the nutritional status indicators and sleep disturbance (p>0,05%). Moreover, inadequate iron and magnesium intake also failed to prove significant relation with sleep disturbance in this population. Conclusion: Almost fourth of school-aged children in Indonesia were found to have sleep disturbance and further study are needed to overcome this problem. According to our finding, there is no correlation between nutritional status, iron intake, magnesium intake, and sleep disturbance.

Keywords: iron intake, magnesium intake, nutritional status, school-aged children, sleep disturbance

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Authors: Fathi Ihmeideh

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The study aimed at investigating parents’ attitudes towards a school-based family program in developing kindergarten children’s literacy skills. The study surveyed 160 parents of preschool children, gathering information about their attitudes toward the development of children’s early literacy. Results indicated that parents hold positive attitudes towards the school-based family literacy program. The results also revealed statistically significant differences among parents due to a number of study variables. The study concludes with putting forward a number of practical and theoretical recommendations for the field of study. Acknowledgment: This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # (NPRP 8-921-5-122) from the Qatar national research fund (a member of Qatar foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Keywords: parents, literacy development, preschool children, family involvement

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Authors: Mohaned G. Abed

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is considered one of the most frequently diagnosed psychiatric childhood disorders. It has an effect on 3–5% of school-aged children, and brings about difficulties in academic and social interaction. This study explored the knowledge and beliefs of parents in Saudi Arabia about children with ADHD. The Knowledge about Attention Deficit Disorder Questionnaire (KADD-Q) was administered to a sample of parents, followed by interviews with a subset of the total respondents. The results indicated that the parents knew more about the characteristics of ADHD than they knew about its related causes and treatment. Overall, the findings indicated that these parents had some knowledge about general characteristics of ADHD, but they had little understanding of causes and possible interventions. These results suggest an important need for more formal parents training regarding all aspects of ADHD in school age children.

Keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, childhood disorders, school-aged children, difficulties in academic, social interaction

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Authors: Rehan Mohammad

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Background: Improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) practices in schools ensure children’s health, well-being and cognitive performance. In India under various WASH interventions in schools, teachers, and other staff make every possible effort to educate children about personal hygiene, sanitation practices and harms of open defecation. However, once children get back to their families, they see other practicing inappropriate WASH behaviors, and they consequently start following them. This show disconnect between school behavior and family behavior, which needs to be bridged to achieve desired WASH outcomes. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the factors causing disconnect of WASH-related behaviors between school and the family of children. It also suggests behavior change interventions to bridge the gap. Methodology: The present study has chosen a mixed- method approach. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection have been used in the present study. The purposive sampling for data collection has been chosen. The data have been collected from 20% children in each age group of 04-08 years and 09-12 years spread over three primary schools and 20% of households to which they belong to which is spread over three slum communities in south district of Delhi. Results: The present study shows that despite of several behavior change interventions at school level, children still practice inappropriate WASH behaviors due to disconnect between school and family behaviors. These behaviors show variation from one age group to another. The inappropriate WASH behaviors being practiced by children include open defecation, wrong disposal of garbage, not keeping personal hygiene, not practicing hand washing practices during critical junctures and not washing fruits and vegetables before eating. The present study has highlighted that 80% of children in the age group of 04-08 years still practice inappropriate WASH behaviors when they go back to their families after school whereas, this percentage has reduced to 40% in case of children in the age group 09-12 years. Present study uncovers association between school and family teaching which creates a huge gap between WASH-related behavioral practices. The study has established that children learn and de-learn the WASH behaviors due to the evident disconnect between behavior change interventions at schools and household level. The study has also made it clear that children understand the significance of appropriate WASH practices but owing to the disconnect the behaviors remain unsettled. The study proposes several behavior change interventions to sync the behaviors of children at school and family level to ensure children’s health, well-being and cognitive performance.

Keywords: behavioral interventions, child health, family behavior, school behavior, WASH

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Authors: Małgorzata Anna Karczmarzyk

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Who is the contemporary child? What are his/her distinctive features making him/her different from earlier generations? And how to teach in the dissimilar social reality? These questions will constitute the key to my reflections on contemporary early school education. For, to my mind, games have become highly significant for the modern model of education. There arise publications and research employing games to increase competence both in business, tutoring, or coaching, as well as in academic education . Thanks to games students and subordinates can be taught such abilities as problem thinking, creativity, consistent fulfillment of goals, resourcefulness and skills of communication.

Keywords: games, art, children, school education, integration

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Authors: Du T. Tran, Quyen T. L. Hoang

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The role of language learning strategies in second language acquisition has received increased attention across several disciplines in recent years. Language learning strategies have been shown to occur in many studies over the passing years with the aim of improving the efficiency of language learning. Following previous studies, this study endeavors to scrutinize language learning strategies employed by the students at Vo Minh Duc high school and the effect of motivation on students’ learning strategy choices. The responses are examined quantitatively and qualitatively to enhance their validity and reliability. Data are collected from 342 students’ responses to the questionnaire, interviews with ten teachers and fifteen students, and classroom observations. The findings reveal that students’ motivation has an enormous impact on the choice of language learning strategies. The results simultaneously show that students use many language learning strategies to enhance their communicative competence, but the most frequently used ones are cognitive and affective ones. Significant correlations among types of learning strategies and the influence of motivation on the choices of language learning strategies were consistent with previous studies. The study’s results are expected to be beneficial to teachers of English and students in terms of narrowing the gap between the students' language learning strategies and their teaching methodologies preferences and sketching out the best strategies to enhance students’ speaking skills. The implications of these findings and the importance of viewing learners holistically are discussed, and recommendations are made for ongoing research.

Keywords: learning strategies, speaking skills, memorization strategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies

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Authors: Carly Hawkins

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Forced migration is at unprecedented levels globally, and many countries have implemented harsh policies regarding people seeking asylum. Australia legislates one of the harshest and most controversial responses in the world, sending any asylum seeker arriving by boat to indefinite offshore immigration detention. This includes children, families and unaccompanied minors. Asylum seekers and refugees are detained indefinitely by the Australian government in the Pacific Island countries of Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Global research on the impact of immigration detention has primarily focused on mental health and psychological concerns for both adults and children. Research into Australian immigration detention has largely overlooked the schooling and education of children detained in Nauru, despite refugee children spending more than five years in detention, a significant portion of a child’s life. This research focused on the experience of education for children detained offshore in Nauru from 2013-2019. 21 qualitative interviews were conducted with children, parents and service providers between 2021-2022. Interviews explored experiences of schooling, power structures, and barriers and support to education. Findings show that a lack of belonging and lack of agency negatively affected school engagement. A sense of hopelessness and uncertainty also affected their motivation to attend school, with many children missing school for months and years. The research indicates that Australia’s current policy of offshore detention has been detrimental to children’s educational experiences.

Keywords: asylum seeker, children, education, immigration detention, policy, refugee, school

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Authors: Mayurachat Kanyamee, Srisuda Rassameepong, Narunest Chulakarn

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This experimental pretest-posttest control group design aimed to examine the effects of a family-based intervention on increasing fruit and vegetable intake and reduce fat and sugar intake and nutritional status among school-age children. Children were randomized to experimental 68 children and control 68 children. The experimental group received the intervention based on Social Cognitive Theory. The control group received the school’s usual educational program regarding healthy eating behavior. Data were collected via three questionnaires including: demographic characteristics; fruit and vegetable intake; and fat and sugar intake at baseline, sixteen weeks after baseline. Analysis of the data included the use of descriptive statistic and independent t-test. Results revealed the significant differences between the experimental and control group, regarding: fruit and vegetable intake, fat and sugar intake and nutritional status at sixteenth week after baseline. The findings suggest a family-based intervention, based on SCT, appears to be effective to improve eating behavior, and nutritional status of school -age children. So, the intervention can be applied to improve eating behavior among other groups of children.

Keywords: family-based intervention, children, unhealthy food, food safety

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Authors: Rahaf Alasiri, Tarek Alghamdi, Abdullah Zarkan

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Background: Due to measures such as school closure, social distancing, and virtual teaching during the pandemic, primary school children's psychological well-being is greatly affected. These measures have short and long-term consequences on the children's well-being and mental health. Identifying these consequences is important. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate mood and behavior changes in children who attended school virtually. Subjects and methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted among children and their parents who visited the outpatient clinic. A self-administered questionnaire was given to the parents of children aged between 6 to 14 years. The questionnaire includes socio-demographic characteristics, Conor's modifies scale to assess the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) of children, and the parental stress scale (PSS) to assess the stress symptoms of the parents. Results: Of the 66 surveyed children, 60.6% were aged between 10 to 14 years old, with the female being dominant (77.3%). The most common medical condition was asthma (7.6%), and nearly two-thirds (63.6%) indicated good health conditions during the pandemic. There was a significant inverse correlation observed between ADHD score and PSS score (r=-0.387). No significant differences are in ADHD and PSS scores in relation to the socio-demographic characteristics of the children, including age, gender, and having an associated medical condition (p>0.05). Conclusion: During the pandemic, children who attended virtual classes did not seem to affect even with restrictions. Most children indicated good health conditions during the pandemic. However, it is surprising to know that in spite of children’s high spirits during the pandemic, their parents were seen to have an increased level of stress. Strategies to address parents’ psychological disorders during the pandemic are warranted.

Keywords: children's mood, COVID-19, ADHD, parental stress

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Authors: Xiaoying Zhang

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Forest school – an outdoor educational experience that is undertaken in an outdoor environment with trees – becomes an emerging field of early childhood education recently. In China, the benefits of natural outdoor education to children and young people’s wellness have raised attention. Although different types of outdoor-based activities have been involved in some pre-school of China, few study and practice have been conducted in terms of the notion of forest school. To comprehend the impact of forest school for children and young people, this study aims to systematically review articles on the topic of forest school in preschool education from an ecological perspective, i.e. from individual level (e.g., behavior and mental health) to microsystem level (e.g., the relationship between teachers and children) to ecosystem level. Based on PRISMA framework flow, using the key words of “Forest School” and “Early Childhood Education” for searching in Web-of-science database, a total of 33 articles were identified. Sample participants of 13 studies were not preschool children, five studies were not on forest school theme, and two literature review articles were excluded for further analysis. Finally, 13 articles were eligible for thematic analysis. According to Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, there are some fingdings, on the individual level, current forest school studies are concerned about the children behavioral experience in forest school, how these experience may relate to their achievement or to develop children’s wellbeing/wellness, and how this type of learning experience may enhance children’s self-awareness on risk and safety issues. On the microsystem/mesosystem level, this review indicated that pedagogical development for forest school, risk perception from teachers and parents, social development between peers, and adult’s role in the participation of forest school were concerned, explored and discussed most frequently. On the macrosystem, the conceptualization of forest school is the key theme. Different forms of presentation in various countries with diverse cultures could provide various models of forest school education. However, there was no study investigating forest school on an ecosystem level. As for the potential benefits of physical health and mental wellness that results from forest school, it informs us to reflect the system of preschool education from the ecological perspective for Chinese children. For instance, most Chinese kindergartens ignored the significance of natural outdoor activities for children. Preschool education in China is strongly oriented by primary school system, which means pre-school children are expected to be trained as primary school students to do different subjects, such as math. Hardly any kindergarteners provide the opportunities for children and young people to take risks in a natural environment like forest school does. However, merely copying forest school model for a Chinese preschool education system will be less effective. This review of different level concerns could inform us that the localization the idea of forest school to adapt to a Chinese political, educational and cultural background. More detailed results and profound discussions will be presented in the full paper.

Keywords: early childhood education, ecological system, education development prospects in China, forest school

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Authors: Mohammad Amjad, Muhammad Iqbal Zafar, Ashfaq Ahmed Maan, Muhammad Tayyab Kashif

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Obesity is an abnormal physical condition where an increased and undesirable fat accumulates in the human body. Obesity is an international phenomenon. In the present study, 12 schools were randomly selected from each district considering the areas i.e. Elite Private Schools in the private sector, Government schools in urban areas and Government schools in rural areas. Interviews were conducted with male students studying in grade 5 to grade 9 in each school. The sample size was 600 students; 300 from Faisalabad district and 300 from Rawalpindi district in Pakistan. A well-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection. The calibrated scales were used to attain the heights and weights of the respondents. Obesity of school-going children depends on family types, family size, family history, junk food consumption, mother’s education, weekly time spent in walking, and sports facility at school levels. Academic performance, physical health and psychological health of school going children are affected with obesity. Concrete steps and policies could minimize the incidence of obesity in children in Pakistan.

Keywords: body mass index, cardiovascular disease, fast food, morbidity, overweight

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