Simulation Modeling of Policies Directed at Youth Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption

Childhood obesity is a significant public health problem requiring innovative solutions. While recent reviews indicate that some policies show promise, there is a lack of information regarding which policies, and policy combinations, work best. Low-nutrition, energy-dense foods and beverages such as sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) have been identified as a major contributor to the problem. The purpose of this paper is to use simulation modeling to show how changes in three categories of SSB policies—school nutrition, school-based education, and taxes—impact SSB and other food consumption. The model shows that policies directed at SSBs, particularly tax hikes, could lead to substantial reductions in the number of calories consumed by youth. The estimates, however, are subject to a high degree of uncertainty. Estimates from school-based nutrition and school-based education policies, while also helping to reduce caloric intake, generally show smaller effects than tax policies and considerable variation around parameter estimates for individual and combined policies. We conclude with a discussion of the limits of the model, and suggest where additional information is needed. Limitations notwithstanding, simulation modeling is a promising methodology that can help advance our understanding of policy effects, thereby helping policymakers to better formulate effective policies to reduce obesity prevalence and the associated social harms.     

Cognitive ability,parenting and instruction in Vietnam and Germany

In a sample of N = 105 fifth graders from Vietnam and Germany, cognitive abilities (CogAT-Nonverbal, i.e. fluid figural, CogAT-Quantitative, i.e. crystallized mathematics), family attributes, parenting styles, leisure time activities, and attributes of school and instruction were compared. In spite of large cultural and economic differences, the general cognitive ability levels were similar (M_Vnm = 99.43 vs. M_Deu = 99.13 IQ points in current UK norms). This result is in contradiction to usual outcomes in developing countries. However, regarding family, parenting, school and instruction, differences were observed: German families had more books. German parents were less frequently married and German families less frequently consisted of both mother and father. Vietnamese parents had more children. Vietnamese parents showed higher levels of authoritarian and neglecting parenting. German children read more books. The Vietnamese did not attend kindergarten, had larger classes, more homework, and more private tuition. In a path analysis, parental educational level, number of books, burgher family, low birth order rank, amount of teaching, parental income, Confucian educational orientation and Vietnamese background all revealed a positive impact on children's intelligence.     

Studying Early Adolescents' Academic Motivation,Social-Emotional Functioning,and Engagement in Learning: Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches

This study used variable- and person-centered data analytic techniques to examine how early adolescents' academic motivation and social-emotional functioning were associated with their self-reported cognitive and behavioral engagement in the middle school classroom. Regression results showed that both motivational and mental health constructs contributed to the prediction of individual differences in classroom engagement. Person-centered analyses revealed between group variation in classroom engagement as a function of differing patterns of motivation and mental health among different subgroups of adolescents. Convergent and complementary information on these subgroups was provided by using two different grouping approaches. Findings are discussed in terms of broad patterns of promise or problems during early adolescence.     

The research agenda: the vital need for empirical research in child psychotherapy

In this paper I shall describe how work discussion groups offered to staff on-site as part of a mental health in schools outreach project can have a significant impact on the thinking, attitudes and culture within a school. Through the use of some detailed examples of these work discussion groups in action, I hope to illustrate the way these groups can enable staff to enhance their observational skills, develop a deeper understanding of the factors that impact on learning, behaviour and teaching, and reduce staff stress. Finally, I hope to highlight the ways in which such groups not only extend staff skills in engaging with pupils at risk of emotional breakdown and school exclusion, but can also promote a learning environment for all, in which development and growth is promoted at a personal, professional and whole-school level.     

哈佛医学院医学人文课程体系设置探析

哈佛医学院医学人文课程体系较为完整系统.以描述哈佛医学院必修课课程设置为主体,从基础医学教育阶段的职业导论、病人—医生Ⅰ与病人—医生Ⅱ、社会与人口科学相关课程以及医学探索四大类课程和临床见习与实习阶段的病人—医生Ⅲ、临床管理相关课程以及凯普斯课程三大类课程出发,分别对各门课程的主要内容、课时安排、教学方法、评价方式等进行阐述.并以介绍十六大类五十余门选修课的课程设置为补充,剖析哈佛医学院医学人文课程体系发展现状.提出改革必修课程、完善选修课程、促进医学人文教育与专业教育整合的几点建议.     

The Longevity Effects of Religious and Nonreligious Participation: A Meta‐Analysis and Meta‐Regression

Scholars have long argued that the reduced mortality risk associated with frequent participation in religious services derives from two sources: social participation and religious belief efficacy. In contrast, the reduced mortality risk associated with participation in nonreligious groups is thought to derive solely from the social participation component. This study tests the religious efficacy hypothesis by comparing the effects of religious participation with nonreligious participation using meta‐analyses of 312 mortality risk estimates from 74 publications (providing data on more than 300,000 persons). We found no significant difference between the mean hazard ratio (HR) for low religious participation (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.24–1.41) and the mean HR for low nonreligious participation (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.17–1.33). These findings suggest that the positive health effects of religious participation may largely be attributed to the social participation component, rather than to the religious component of the act.     

Middle School as a Developmental Niche for Civic Engagement

The present study investigated how school climate, school connectedness and academic efficacy beliefs inform emergent civic engagement behaviors among middle school youth of color. These associations were examined both concurrently and longitudinally using a developmentally appropriate measure of civic engagement. Data were drawn from two subsamples of a larger study of social/emotional development in middle school (cross‐sectional sample n = 324; longitudinal sample n = 232), M = 12 years old, 46 % female, 53 % male. Forty‐two percent (42.2 %) of the sample self‐identified as African American, 19.8 % as Multiracial or Mixed, 19.4 % as Latino, 11.6 % as Asian American or Pacific Islander, 11.6 % identified as Other, and 5.2 % as Native American. The study tested and found support for a latent mediation model in which more positive perceptions of school climate were positively related to school connectedness, and this in turn, was positively associated with civic engagement; school climate was also positively associated with academic‐self‐efficacy beliefs, but such beliefs did not mediate the climate‐civic engagement association. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Congregational Diversity and Attendance in a Mainline Protestant Denomination

One of the surprising oversights of existing research on racially/ethnically diverse congregations is the inattention to how racial composition relates to patterns of attendance. Is diversity associated with attendance growth, stability, or decline? A popular assumption from the Church Growth Movement is that cultural homogeneity is a foundation for growth, but recent research challenges this long‐standing belief. We test these competing views with longitudinal data from over 10,000 congregations in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We examine the relationship between changes in racial/ethnic diversity and changes in average weekly attendance over a 19‐year time period (1993–2012). In spite of the ELCA's denominational push for racial diversity in its local churches, our analysis finds increasing racial diversity associated with decreasing average attendance, most notably during the 1990s. To conclude, we discuss the implications of our findings for congregations and denominations.     

Modeling relationships between physical fitness,executive functioning,and academic achievement in primary school children

ObjectivesThe relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement in children has received much attention, however, whether executive functioning plays a mediating role in this relationship is unclear. The aim of this study therefore was to investigate the relationships between physical fitness, executive functioning, and academic achievement, more specifically to test whether the relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement is direct or indirect, via executive functioning.DesignCross-sectional.MethodThis study examined 263 children (145 boys, 118 girls), aged 7–12 years, who performed tests on physical fitness, executive functioning, and academic achievement.ResultsIn a structural equation model linking physical fitness to executive functioning and academic achievement there was a significant relationship between physical fitness and executive functioning (r = .43, R² = .19) and academic achievement (r = .33, R² = .11). Adding a relationship from executive functioning to academic achievement resulted in a non-significant direct link between physical fitness and academic achievement (r = −.08, R² = .006). However, a significant indirect relation through executive functioning persisted. The indirect relation between fitness and academic achievement (r = .41), was stronger than both the direct and total relation (r = .33).ConclusionExecutive functioning thus served as a mediator in the relation between physical fitness and academic achievement. This highlights the importance of including executive functioning when studying the relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement in children.     

God's Own Story? German Theology and Its Nineteenth‐Century Readers

This review essay discusses two recent monographs on nineteenth‐century German theology and its transnational reception. The books under review assess attempts by German theologians to present their discipline as a science, which required them to present its subject matter as at once purely historical and of absolute significance for humanity. The result was an attractive but inherently unstable discipline, which oscillated between idealist and critical objectives and historical and systematic modes of argument. Its reception in the United States demonstrates both its multifaceted character, which appealed to theologians from a range of traditions, and also the way in which engagement with Germany offered theologians a means of modernizing and sometimes challenging the doctrinal assumptions and scholarly methods of those traditions.