No abstract

No abstract

Fifth-and sixth-grade students (N = 72) were randomly assigned to one of six classes using a factorial assignment of ability level crossed with attitude. Each class of 12 students was taught a 2-day unit on probability. The teaching followed the direct instruction model. Students were videotaped during the lesson. Following the lesson, students were interviewed about their thought processes using a stimulated-recall procedure. Results showed that independent of student ability, students' reports of their understanding of the lesson were significantly related to achievement. Moreover, students who reported using specific cognitive strategies, such as relating the information being taught to prior knowledge, did better on the achievement test than students who did not report such strategies.

No abstract

Social epidemiology research has provided persuasive evidence of the link between the social environment--especially socioeconomic status--and health outcomes, but has failed to identify underlying mechanisms that might account for the association. The research may have been limited to date by its reliance on traditional epidemiological methods that emphasize a search for specific causal factor-disease relationships. It is time to take the research evidence and recast it to find practical solutions. We argue that the human development perspective supplies a framework for understanding the critical interaction between elements of social environment and health: Analyzing the social epidemiological research from this perspective can help to explain why and how the most potent factor, socioeconomic status, affects health outcomes. Equally important, this alternative perspective also presents health education practice implications.

Adolescents' current smoking and future smoking expectations are linked to marketing exposure even in limited settings, suggesting the need for comprehensive controls to eliminate the function of marketing in promoting adolescent smoking.

Norway implemented a nationwide ban on indoor smoking in June 2004. This study documents the smoking patterns of Norway's restaurant and bar workers before and after the ban, to determine changes in smoking prevalence and explore which individual and environmental characteristics were related to cessation. A national sample of food service workers was surveyed by telephone or Internet immediately before the ban and at 4 and 11 months post-implementation. Results showed that between baseline measurement and 4 months post-implementation, there were significant declines in prevalence of daily smoking (-3.6% points, p < 0.005), daily smoking at work (-6.2% points, p < 0.001), number of cigarettes smoked by continuing smokers (-1.55, p < 0.001) and number of cigarettes smoked at work by continuing smokers (-1.63, p < 0.001). No significant changes occurred in any of these variables between 4 and 11 months post-implementation. Logistic regression analysis revealed that only smokers' intentions at baseline to quit within 30 days predicted cessation at both follow-up time points. In addition, cessation at 4 months was predicted by lower daily cigarette consumption at baseline, whereas cessation at 11 months was predicted by baseline attitude toward ETS and exposure to ETS as measured at follow-up. In sum, Norway's smoking ban was accompanied by a reduction in smoking in the period immediately following the ban, and the reduction was maintained almost a year later. The finding that smoking cessation was consistently associated with smokers' intentions to quit within 30 days suggests that motivational and support programs could play a significant role in boosting cessation rates. It is recommended that targeted interventions be used to supplement the benefits of a comprehensive ban to achieve tobacco control objectives.

The concept of resilience refers to successful developmental processes in children who grow up in stressful or high-risk environments. Protective factors that increase the likelihood of positive developmental outcomes, as identified by longitudinal studies, include personal-level characteristics of autonomy, self-regulation, and problem-solving skill; family characteristics of warm but demanding relationships with parents, high parental expectations, and affectionate bonds with other family members; and community characteristics of social support, effective schools, and the availability of opportunities at major life transition points. Challenges include several cross-study ambiguities in the fundamental concepts, as well as potential misapplications of this research by policymakers who believe that children can be made 'invulnerable' to environmental stressors. It is recommended that: (1) Researchers should seek to understand those cases that do not conform to predictive statistical models; clinically oriented, qualitative methodologies can be useful for this purpose. (2) Greater focus needs to be placed on identifying individual differences in children's attraction to tobacco and their motivations for use. (3) Tobacco use can be studied as an instrumental strategy on the part of adolescents for dealing with critical developmental tasks. (4) Understanding the development of stress and coping processes in children can shed light on their use of tobacco as a coping mechanism, particularly in later phases of the uptake process. Overall, the study of resilience suggests a broad lifespan view of development, in which tobacco use is just one aspect of adaptation to critical developmental tasks.