The purpose of this study was to contribute to the paucity of literature present on educational psychology involvement in supporting primary school-aged children’s sleep. The research was formed using a pragmatic, mixed-methods approach with a two-phase design. Phase one explored the views of 59 participants (teachers, n= 16; parents/carers, n= 21; children, n= 22) about children’s sleep, their academic outcomes and psychosocial functioning. There were some associations between parent, child, and teacher reports of children’s sleep-related difficulties, academic outcomes and aspects of children’s psychosocial functioning. Phase two adopted a time-series pre- and post-intervention design with the aim of evaluating a school-based, six-week Sleep Club intervention for children. Twenty-nine participants (teaching assistants, n= 2; parents/carers, n= 13; and children, n= 14) took part in phase two, with the findings drawing on evaluations, quizzes, field notes, surveys, and parent interviews. Six children were selected to provide greater insight into parent and child views through case study analysis. At the end of the intervention, there was an increase in children’s sleep-related knowledge, and there were improvements in many aspects of children’s sleep-related behaviours. Thematic analysis identified that the Sleep Club facilitated communication about sleep between children and their parents and raised children’s awareness and understanding of their sleep. Children enjoyed being part of a club with other children, from whom they felt they were able to learn. Learning about emotions, sleep and the body was noted by several children, though some children did not enjoy completing the given questionnaires. Overall, participants felt that the individual sessions and the intervention could have lasted longer than the time offered. Twenty-two participants (76%, including parents, children, and school staff) reported that they would recommend the Sleep Club intervention to others. The role of the educational psychologist in supporting children with sleep difficulties is discussed.

Reprint from: Allergology International 55(1), 2006, p.59-65

Asthma is a complex, chronic disorder of the airways that is characterized by underlying inflammation, airflow obstruction, and bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Asthma symptoms can be frightening and can have an effect on the emotional functioning Quality of Life (QOL) of school-aged children who have asthma. The purpose of this exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational study was to explore the influence of factors identified in the literature on school-aged children’s emotional responses to asthma. Guiding this study was a theoretical model that proposed that the impact of chronic illness severity on QOL is potentially mediated by both resource and barrier factors. The population of interest was 85 school-aged children (ages 6-12) and parents of children who have asthma that were recruited from participants already enrolled in year 4 of the Asthma in Central Texas (ACT) study (R01NR007770, Sharon D. Horner, P.I.) at The University of Texas at Austin. Significant inverse correlations were found between asthma related child emotional functioning QOL and each of the following variables: asthma severity, r = -.30, p < .01; child internalizing behaviors, r = -.26, p < .05, and child externalizing behaviors, r = -.43, p < .001. Significant inverse relationships were found between caregiver emotional functioning QOL and each of the following variables: asthma severity, r = -.39, p < .001; child internalizing behaviors, r = -.22, p < .05 and child externalizing behaviors, r = -.25, p < .05. Multiple regression analysis revealed that asthma severity and child externalizing problems accounted for 26% of the variance in child emotional functioning QOL. No moderators or mediators were identified. Findings from this study imply that externalizing problem behaviors of school-aged children may be a predictor of their negative feelings about their asthma. Nursing educators should consider including the emotional impact of asthma on children in nursing curriculums as this may ultimately influence health care providers to more skillfully address this important issue in both assessment and intervention settings. / text

Good nutrition is crucial. School-aged children battle social issues such as poor nutrition, childhood obesity, and minimal nutrition knowledge. This study was a quasi-experimental design analyzing the effects of CATCH curriculum with a Farm-to-School program to assess nutrition knowledge of third grade students, and to increase fruit and vegetable consumption behavior. Third grade boys and girls (n=65) participated in this study. The intervention consisted of two nutrition education classes and a farm tour. Data were collected at baseline and post intervention. Surveys assessed nutrition knowledge and fruit and vegetable consumption behavior. Data were analyzed with independent sample t-tests. Significant differences were found concerning knowledge of fiber and farm exposure (p<0.001). Knowledge of vitamins and minerals and reported vegetable consumption behavior at home and school were also significant (p<0.05). These findings suggest that CATCH nutrition education and farm tours can positively affect school-aged children's nutrition knowledge and consumption behavior.

Dyslexia is a clinical diagnosis often associated with phonological processing deficits. There are, however, other areas of concern, such as the presence of auditory temporal processing (ATP) disorders. One method of investigating ATP is the gap detection (GD) paradigm. This study investigated GD performance using the Gaps-in-Noise © (GIN) test in three groups of 30 children, aged 8 to 9 years. GD thresholds and gap identification scores (%) were determined for each participant. The three groups of participants included (Group I) children with dyslexia and phonological deficits, (Group II) children with dyslexia and no significant phonological deficits, and (Group III) normal reading peers. Repeated-measures ANOVA showed that GD thresholds for the three groups were significantly different. Group I showed longer GD thresholds (RE, 8.5 msec; LE, 8 msec), than did Group II (4.9 msec for both ears) or Group III (RE, 4.2 msec; LE, 4.3 msec). Close inspection of the threshold values for the three groups revealed that the thresholds for Group II overlapped substantially with those of Group III, but not with those of Group I. Similar trends were also noted for the gap identification analysis. From a clinical perspective, the majority of participants in Group II and all participants in Group III performed within normal limits on both measures (i.e., thresholds and identifications), while performance of participants in Group I fell below established norms on these measures. Finally, additional analyses revealed that ATP was highly correlated with phonological processing measures indicating a relationship between the presence of phonological deficits and ATP deficits. This study confirmed that ATP deficit is a factor to be considered in dyslexia and suggested that the GIN © test is a promising clinical tool that should be incorporated in the evaluation procedures for children with reading difficulties.

No description available.

Invasive procedures are often painful and distressing for children and disturbing for their parents. The purpose of this study was to develop a substantive theory of parental perceptions of their school-aged child's responses to an outpatient minor surgical procedure with nitrous oxide. The sample included 22 parents of 21 children who underwent a nitrous procedure. Participants were recruited from the pediatric surgery department at a children's hospital. Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews were conducted with each participant. Grounded theory method was used to simultaneously collect and analyze the data using the constant comparative method. The findings of the study revealed parental impressions involving a process of various emotions and behaviors. The identified process began at procedural scheduling, progressing through the procedure, and terminated going home. The core category derived from the data was Weathering the Storm before the Calm by Securing Connections. This core category describes the complexity of parental impressions and all categories subsumed by the core category. Six major categories and seven subcategories derived from the data represent parental impressions. Parental feelings of anxiety and fear arose during initial phases of the process. Parents attempted to deal with these stormy feelings in several ways. Parents experienced a sense of calmness after the procedure upon realizing their child was safe. The theme that weaves through the entire process is the parental-child connection and parental presence during the nitrous procedure. Parents also identified barriers and facilitators they faced during this process. The substantive theory that emerged provides nurses with an understanding of the stormy and subsequent calm phases parents endured. This information offers clinicians unique interventions to help parents get through this process. Future research needs extension to other settings such as radiology and other specialties such as plastic surgery and urology. Further research warrants investigating children's perceptions to their procedure with nitrous oxide.

Prospective memory (PM) refers to a person’s ability to remember to do something in the future. It is a complex behaviour that is essential for the daily functioning of young and old alike. Despite its importance in everyday life, few studies have sought to examine PM in a naturalistic way and even fewer have done so using school-aged children. The current study aimed to understand a particular form of time-based PM (TBPM), general TBPM, in children through the use of a novel naturalistic paradigm. In addition, the study aimed to add to the current PM literature by including an analysis of the circumstances surrounding a child’s prospective remembering. Results demonstrated that general TBPM was not significantly related to the parent-report Prospective Retrospective Memory Questionnaire for Children (PRMQC) or to the Memory for Intentions Screening Test for Youth (MISTY). Interestingly, general TBPM was not found to significantly relate to WM either. Descriptive analyses of the qualitative data demonstrated that no trigger rehearsals were most often responsible for children’s successful PM remembering. In contrast, when children forgot to complete their PM tasks, they most often reported being too busy with other things as the reason. The current findings provide preliminary support for the existence of a new sub-type of TBPM. They also call into question the utility of using measures like the MISTY and PRMQC to evaluate the ecological validity of new PM task paradigms. Consequently, future research should focus on validating current PM measures before using them to evaluate the ecological validity of new ones. Finally, it is also believed that the inclusion of qualitative measures assessing the contexts of PM retrieval have important implications for the effective development of future interventions for children who experience PM difficulties. / Graduate / 0621 / 0633 / 0620 / kdtalbot@uvic.ca

Bakalauro darbe analizuojamas žalingų įpročių paplitimas bei vartojimas pagrindinio ugdymo mokykloje bei priežastys, paskatinusios vartoti tabaką, alkoholį ir kitas narkotines medžiagas. Tyrime dalyvavo 75 pagrindinių mokyklų IX- X klasių moksleiviai bei 25 šiuos mokinius ugdantys pedagogai. Anketinės apklausos metodu tirta, kiek pagrindinėse mokyklose paplitęs tabako, alkoholio ir kitų narkotinių medžiagų vartojimas ir kas sąlygoja šių medžiagų paplitimą, taip pat aiškintasi koks yra pedagogų požiūris į narkotinių medžiagų vartojimo problemiškumą jų mokyklose, kaip jie siūlo organizuoti prevencinę veiklą paaugliams. Tyrimu nustatyta, kad 9- 10 klasių moksleiviai tabaką išbando gana jauname amžiuje. Daugelis mokinių nurodė per pastarąjį mėnesį vartoję silpnus alkoholinius gėrimus. Tiek tarp vaikinų, tiek tarp merginų populiariausias yra alus, tarp merginų dar vartojamas vynas ( šampanas) bei alkoholiniai kokteiliai. Mokiniai alkoholį vartoja iš neturėjimo ką veikti, norėdami atsipalaiduoti, pamiršti slegiančias problemas, apsvaigti bei vedami smalsumo. Tyrimas parodė, jog reikia daugiau dėmesio skirti moksleivių laisvalaikio organizavimui, gyvenimo įpročių ugdymui. Mokinių nuomone narkotikus jaunimas vartoja norėdami atsipalaiduoti. Tuo tarpu pedagogai mano, jog jaunimas narkotikus vartoja norėdami neišsiskirti iš bendraamžių, iš smalsumo. Pačius mokinius nuo ketinimo vartoti narkotikus dažniausiai sulaiko baimė tapti priklausomiems, suvokiama neigiama narkotikų žala. / Prevalence of addictions and reasons stimulating use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs at basic schools are analysed in the Bachelor Thesis. 75 9th – 10th form pupils and their 25 teachers working at Rusnė and Kairiai Basic Schools took part in the research. A questionnaire survey method was employed when investigating tobacco, alcohol and other drug use as well as the reasons for prevalence of the harmful substances at the basic schools. Moreover, teachers’ attitude towards a complex of problems of drug use and their proposals for organizing prevention activities for teenagers at the schools were investigated. It has been ascertained that 9th – 10th form pupils start using tobacco at a relatively young age. The majority of questioned pupils indicated that during the last month they had tried mild alcoholic drinks. Beer was the most popular drink among boys and girls. Besides, wine (champagne) and alcoholic cocktails were girls’ favourite drinks. The pupils indicated that they had used alcohol because of not having anything fun to do or willing to relax, forget about their problems, inebriate as well as being led by curiosity. The research has revealed that it is necessary to pay greater attention to organization of pupils’ free-time and education of their healthy life habits. According to the questioned pupils young people use drugs when they are willing to relax, whereas teachers are of the opinion that pupils use drugs being led by curiosity and willing not to stand... [to full text]

This study investigated the relationship between maladaptive behavior, defined as referral to counseling, and the Adlerian construct of birth order. The birth order variables examined were ordinal position, sex of subject, family density, family size, socio-economic status, intactness of family, age of mother, and sex of sibling. The subjects in this study were 217 school-aged children with academic and/or behavior problems who were referred to an interdisciplinary guidance center. The subjects were assigned to counseling or no-counseling groups on the basis of an interdisciplinary evaluation and staffing, which included an extensive battery of academic and psychological tests.