Not all types of nature have an equal effect on urban residents’ well-being: A structural equation model approach

A growing amount of research shows a positive association between urban nature and urban residents' psychological and physical well-being and quality of life. With its focus on specific dimensions of well-being and reliance either on large-scale objective data sets or experimental and comparative designs, prior research does not explicitly address the relationships between the various types of urban nature as experienced by citizens and their overall well-being. The present research proposes a model for the potential influence of the perceptions of the type and characteristics of nature close to urban residences and citizens' well-being via their frequency of exposure to, and their activities in, nature. Using WHOQOL-26 as a measure of well-being and constructing or adapting measurements for the other variables, a questionnaire was designed and administered among a sample of 2500 French urban residents. Psychometric tests, structural equation modeling, and mediation analyses were conducted on the collected data. The results show that: (1) The perceived characteristics of nature near urban residences have both direct and indirect influences on the psychological, physical, environmental, and resources-related dimensions of citizens' well-being; (2) Less domesticated nature—forests, fields, and scrubland—contributes to psychological well-being by favoring light or calm activities in nature, and to physical well-being by supporting exposure to nature. Such wilder nature is also positively associated with the perceived quality of urban residences; (3) Small spots of nature, located close to one's residence—a balcony, a patio, or a roof garden—make a similar but smaller contribution to well-being; (4) Domesticated nature—city gardens and parks—contribute marginally to the physical and resources-related dimensions of well-being. These results complement past research on the perceived characteristics of nature by showing how nature, as experienced by urban citizens, refers to different vegetation spaces. They also invite urban planners and policymakers to acknowledge the positive association between “wilder” natural spaces and well-being.     

Children’s museums: purposes,practices and play?

Children’s museums have been increasing rapidly since their beginnings in the nineteenth century, and especially so in the past 30 years. This article is based on my observations of 30 children’s museums in Europe, North America, South America and the Middle East and the article briefly discusses the history and development of children’s museums, their definitions, missions/goals and models of children’s museums. Then, trends related to types of exhibits, programming and outreach activities are presented. Finally, some frequent challenges and issues around the establishment and continuation of children’s museums such as funding, sponsorship, attendance, exhibit design and technology are discussed. A summary of research on children’s museums is included.     

Children’s Agency, Interests, and Medical Consent

In this paper I argue that reference to a developmental account of agency can help explain, and in cases also alter, our current practices when it comes to the non-consensual medical treatment of children. It does this through its explanation of how stages of development impact the types of interests we have.     

Harmonising data on the correlates of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in young people: Methods and lessons learnt from the international Children’s Accelerometry database (ICAD)

Background

Large, heterogeneous datasets are required to enhance understanding of the multi-level influences on children’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour. One route to achieving this is through the pooling and co-analysis of data from multiple studies. Where this approach is used, transparency of the methodology for data collation and harmonisation is essential to enable appropriate analysis and interpretation of the derived data. In this paper, we describe the acquisition, management and harmonisation of non-accelerometer data in a project to expand the International Children’s Accelerometry Database (ICAD).

Method

Following a consultation process, ICAD partners were requested to share accelerometer data and information on selected behavioural, social, environmental and health-related constructs. All data were collated into a single repository for cataloguing and harmonisation. Harmonised variables were derived iteratively, with input from the ICAD investigators and a panel of invited experts. Extensive documentation, describing the source data and harmonisation procedure, was prepared and made available through the ICAD website.

Results

Work to expand ICAD has increased the number of studies with longitudinal accelerometer data, and expanded the breadth of behavioural, social and environmental characteristics that can be used as exposure variables. A set of core harmonised variables, including parent education, ethnicity, school travel mode/duration and car ownership, were derived for use by the research community. Guidance documents and facilities to enable the creation of new harmonised variables were also devised and made available to ICAD users. An expanded ICAD database was made available in May 2017.

Conclusion

The project to expand ICAD further demonstrates the feasibility of pooling data on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and potential determinants from multiple studies. Key to this process is the rigorous conduct and reporting of retrospective data harmonisation, which is essential to the appropriate analysis and interpretation of derived data. These documents, made available through the ICAD website, may also serve as a guide to others undertaking similar projects.

     

Children’s Gender and Parents’ Color Preferences

Gender differences in color preferences have been found in adults and children, but they remain unexplained. This study asks whether the gendered social environment in adulthood affects parents’ color preferences. The analysis used the gender of children to represent one aspect of the gendered social environment. Because having male versus female children in the U.S. is generally randomly distributed, it provides something of a natural experiment, offering evidence about the social construction of gender in adulthood. The participants were 749 adults with children who responded to an online survey invitation, asking “What’s your favorite color?” Men were more likely to prefer blue, while women were more likely to prefer red, purple, and pink, consistent with long-standing U.S. patterns. The effect of having only sons was to widen the existing gender differences between men and women, increasing the odds that men prefer blue while reducing the odds that women do; and a marginally significant effect showed women having higher odds of preferring pink when they have sons only. The results suggest that, in addition to any genetic, biological or child-socialization effects shaping adults’ tendency to segregate their color preferences by gender, the gender context of adulthood matters as well.     

A Parental Health Education Model of Children’s Food Consumption: Influence on Children’s Attitudes,Intention, and Consumption of Healthy and Unhealthy Foods

This study proposes that parental mediation of television advertising and parental guidance of food consumption differentially influence children’s attitude, intention, and behavior toward the consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods. Structural equation modeling based on a survey of 1,119 children aged 9–12 supported our model, revealing that parental education strategies influence children’s food consumption in a complex manner that is highly context-dependent. Parental guidance of food consumption enhanced children’s healthy food attitude and intention to consume, while reducing the intention to consume unhealthy food. However, parental mediation of television advertising influenced unhealthy food attitude to a greater extent than healthy food attitude. Implications for health promotion and education, as well as parents and policy makers are discussed.     

Lead Content and Exposure from Children’s and Adult’s Jewelry Products

No abstract available.     

Not all hours are equal: could time be a social determinant of health?

Time can be thought of as a resource that people need for good health. Healthy behaviour, accessing health services, working, resting and caring all require time. Like other resources, time is socially shaped, but its relevance to health and health inequality is yet to be established. Drawing from sociology and political economy, we set out the theoretical basis for two measures of time relevant to contemporary, market‐based societies. We measure amount of time spent on care and work (paid and unpaid) and the intensity of time, which refers to rushing, effort and speed. Using data from wave 9 (N = 9177) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey we found that time poverty (> 80 h per week on care and work) and often or always rushing are barriers to physical activity and rushing is associated with poorer self‐rated and mental health. Exploring their social patterning, we find that time‐poor people have higher incomes and more time control. In contrast, rushing is linked to being a woman, lone parenthood, disability, lack of control and work–family conflicts. We supply a methodology to support quantitative investigations of time, and our findings underline time's dimensionality, social distribution and potential to influence health.     

Simpson’s Paradox is suppression,but Lord’s Paradox is neither: clarification of and correction to Tu,Gunnell, and Gilthorpe (2008)

The relationship between collapsibility and confounding has been subject to an extensive and ongoing discussion in the methodological literature. We discuss two subtly different definitions of collapsibility, and show that by considering causal effect measures based on counterfactual variables (rather than measures of association based on observed variables) it is possible to separate out the component of non-collapsibility which is due to the mathematical properties of the effect measure, from the components that are due to structural bias such as confounding. We provide new weights such that the causal risk ratio is collapsible over arbitrary baseline covariates. In the absence of confounding, these weights may be used for standardization of the risk ratio.

     

Familiarity or Not: Children’s Choice of Interviewer in a Study of Substitute Care

This article is based on a study of children's experiences of being in care in which children were given the opportunity to choose either their own social worker or an outside researcher to interview them for the purposes of the research. We examine here how the children (N?=?15) describe their choice of interviewer and also explore how the social workers (N?=?8) experience their role as research interviewers. The findings highlight that there is no single reason for children to choose either a social worker or a researcher to be the interviewer. Familiarity, in particular, can either be a motivation or an obstacle. The dual positions of children as research interviewees and as clients as well as the dual positions of social workers both supported and hindered the interviews. Social workers reported new insights into their knowledge about children’s views as a result of the research interview experience. It is argued that the choice of the interviewer may be an option for some children to have their voice heard in research. Ethical balancing and critical dialogue are also suggested as having a role.     

Nurses’ sense of coherence and their work related patterns of behaviour

Objectives  

This paper is a report on the relationship between a sense of coherence (and its components) and work related patterns of behaviour in the group of nurses.     

COVID-19 and Children’s Well-Being: A Rapid Research Agenda

Maternal and Child Health Journal - Understanding the full impact of COVID-19 on U.S. children, families, and communities is critical to (a) document the scope of the problem, (b) identify...     

The NYU Children’s Health and Environment Study

European Journal of Epidemiology - The aims of the NYU Children’s Health and Environment Study (CHES) are to evaluate influences of prenatal non-persistent chemical exposures on fetal and...     

Community-Level Social Determinants and Children’s School Readiness

Prevention Science - The current study examined links between social determinants across communities and school readiness of children attending kindergarten in each community, in literacy, math,...     

Children’s recognition of pictorial signs and symbols

This study aimed to examine children’s recognition of common signs. A group of 449 children ages 4–5 years old were recruited from preschools in three Jordanian cities. The children were presented with a collection of common signs found in public spaces and asked to identify the sign’s meaning. Results revealed a low frequency of correctly recognising a sign’s meaning, as reflected in the total score. Signs were categorised as guided, warning, or public. Results showed that the most frequently identified signs were guided signs, with the mosque sign in particular being mostly often correctly identified. Results also showed that the least recognised sign was the elevator sign. Additionally, findings revealed that sign recognition differed significantly depending on the child’s gender, age, and location. The results of this study highlight the lack of knowledge children have about common public signs.     

Children’s social play sequence: Parten’s classic theory revisited

The purpose of this article is to revisit Parten’s study on social play from cultural, environmental, social and economic aspects. Young children’s social play is viewed as a critical means to foster and enhance language, cognitive, social and emotional development. Social play theory has been predominately viewed from developmental perspectives. The classic study of Parten’s social play has been considered as a guideline for early childhood education programmes for decades. However, some recent research indicates that many young children may not necessarily follow the hierarchical sequence of social play as defined by Parten. Cultural, environmental and social changes since Parten’s time may have an impact on children’s social play behaviour and on the interpretations of play behaviour in addition to developmental factors. Because of the diversity and complexity of American children and their families, there is a pressing need to re‐examine Parten’s developmental sequence of young children’s social play that was conducted over 70 years ago in order to prepare developmentally and culturally appropriate practice for today’s children.     

Residential Staff’s Changing Attitudes Toward Parents of Children in their Care: Rationale and Healing Effects on Children,Parents, and Staff

A pilot project in Israel, regarding parent’s involvement in their children’s education in residential care was evaluated. The dual goals were changing staff’s attitudes toward parents, and empowering parents. During the school year, parents were invited to participate in bi-weekly dynamic group workshops in the residence (parents only and parents–children), and to 3–4 “Family Days,” in addition to sharing special parent–child summer camps. Results indicate considerable success: children, parents, and staff felt that the project had improved their ability to deal successfully with their everyday challenges, with parents viewing themselves as having been most rewarded.