No abstract

No abstract

Highly visible public health education efforts have resulted in increased awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic but not a related decline in the number of overweight children. The Transtheoretical Model was used to examine the associations among child risk factors, parent's knowledge of factors associated with childhood obesity and their access to healthy foods in their community and parent's stage of change (SOC) in making behavior changes to improve their child's diet and level of physical activity. Parents (n = 124) of children between 6-12 years of age were surveyed. Perceived weight of the child and the child's body mass index (BMI) were found to be associated with parent's SOC for food portions and dietary fats, yet this was not observed for the fruits and vegetables or physical activity domains. Food availability and parent's childhood obesity knowledge was not found to be associated with parent's SOC. This study provides evidence that intervention efforts that stress knowledge of the causes and harmful effects of being overweight may have limited effectiveness.

This study of a sample of 4,044 eighth grade students taken from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) was designed to examine the contribution that zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, school climate, parents' and teachers' perceptions of disciplinary climate make to students' perceptions of the school's disciplinary climate. Additionally, this study examined whether school location (i.e., urban and suburban) and school type (i.e., public and private) are associated with differences in disciplinary practices, perceptions of school discipline and school climate. Zero-tolerance disciplinary policies were found to be both directly and indirectly associated with students' perceptions of fewer discipline problems. Additionally, private schools can be characterized as having: tougher discipline policies; less teacher concern about school discipline; more student concern about school discipline; and more positive perceptions of school climate among administrators and parents than their public school counterparts. Implications for social work practice are discussed. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Addressing the interpersonal challenges that students with Emotional Disturbance (ED) classifications experience is critical to their success in and outside the school setting. Improving their self- and social awareness will strengthen their ability to navigate social relationships in and outside school. The planning and evaluation of interventions targeting the development of self- and social awareness requires psychometrically sound assessment instruments. Using the Graded Response Item Response Theory (GRM) approach, this study provides evidence of the reliability of the self- and social awareness subscale of the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) among students with an ED classification. The study participants were a sample of 449 youth attending schools serving students classified as emotionally disturbed in self-contained and inclusion settings. The examination of GRM item parameters (i.e., item discrimination and difficulty) and the information curves (i.e., test and item information curves) provides evidence of the reliability of DESSA’s self- and social awareness subscales across a broad range of students’ levels of self- and social awareness.