The Impact of a Healthy Weight Intervention Embedded in a Home-Visiting Program on Children's Weight and Mothers’ Feeding Practices

Objective

To examine whether a healthy weight intervention embedded in the Parents as Teachers (PAT) home visiting program, which was previously found to improve mothers’ body mass index (BMI) and obesity-related behaviors, changed the BMI of preschool children or maternal feeding practices.

A comparison of the relationships between psychosocial factors,occupational strain,and work ability among 4 ethnic teacher groups in China

The present study compared the level of occupational strain and work ability among Han, Hui, Uygur, Hui, and Kazakh teachers, and explored ethnic differences based on the associations of psychosocial factors at work, occupational strain, and work ability. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2,941 teachers in primary and secondary schools in Xinjiang Province, China. Psychosocial factors, occupational strain, and work ability were measured using the Occupation Stress Inventory—Revised Edition (OSI-R) and Work Ability Index. Han and Hui teachers experienced reduced work ability compared with Uygur and Kazakh teachers, and this finding was caused, in part, by exposure to psychosocial factors at work. The vocational and psychological strains caused by these factors play an important role in reduced work ability among all ethnic teacher groups. The findings indicate the importance of taking action to reduce occupational strain for promoting teachers' work ability in multiethnic workplaces.     

Effects of a summer school-readiness programme on measures of literacy and behaviour growth: a pilot study

Young children enter kindergarten with varying levels of readiness and abilities to learn. One factor that contributes to lower levels of school readiness is poverty. One timely, cost-effective, and feasible strategy to boost school readiness, regardless of exposure to high-quality preschool is to leverage the summer months prior to kindergarten entry and provide comprehensive, evidence-based programming immediately before the school year begins. The current study implemented a community-based summer programme targeted at improving school readiness for 25 four- and five-year-old children in a low-income community. Across the 9-week study, children participated in two types of early literacy activities and the Incredible Years social/emotional learning curriculum. Results indicate that participants demonstrated significant growth across three early literacy skills and were rated as overall stable regarding their behaviour across the summer. These results are discussed along with implications and future directions in this line of research.     

EARLY EDUCATION AND CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Changing issues in the field of preschool education will be discussed, set in the context of two of my studies which have been concerned with children with special needs in 'ordinary' preschool education, one 'pre-Warnock' in Scotland, and the other 'post-Warnock' in the West Midlands. The concept of special needs will then be widened to include children for whom English is a second language, and also gifted children. Finally, the discussion is extended to early education rather than preschool education with a discussion of the dangers of treating preschool education in isolation.     

间接免疫荧光法检测婴幼儿急性下呼吸道合胞病毒感染的特异性IgM

本文对1984年1～3月和1985年3～8月共107例急性下呼吸道感染的住院患儿,采用间接免疫荧光法检测其急性期血清抗RSV特异性IgM抗体,并与病毒分离和/或中和试验比较,敏感性为82.1％,特异性为71.8％。RSV感染患儿发病后3天内大多数病例即可从血清中检测出RSV-IgM,因此该法具有早期诊断价值。     

小学教师主观幸福感与心理健康的相关研究

目的 研究小学教师主观幸福感和心理健康的关系。方法 用人脸量表和SCL－90测量了301名小学教师的主观幸福感和心理健康状况。结果 小学教师的主观幸福感呈右偏态分布趋势，主观幸福感与心理健康存在显著正相关。结论 心理健康是影响小学教师主观幸福感的因素之一。     

Preventing accidental injury to young children in the home using volunteers

Accidental injury in the home is a major cause of death andill-health among young children. Reducing home safety hazardsby the use of safety devices such as stair barriers and safetytaps has the potential to prevent home injuries. Little is knownabout levels of home safety hazards or how to encourage parentsto reduce hazards. The Safe Place Project examined parents'knowledge of home safety and the prevalence of safety hazardsin homes where there were young children. The study also evaluatedthe effectiveness of a low-cost strategy aimed at reducing homesafety hazards. The strategy used trained volunteers to providehome safety checks and tailored safety education in conjunctionwith increasing the availability of home safety devices. Onehundred and six families with young children participated inthe project. Some homes contained many hazards, with 43% ofthe sample having more than 10 home safety hazards. At follow-up,the intervention group showed a significant reduction in homehazards and a trend towards an increase in knowledge of homesafety.     

Expressed emotion in children: associations with sibling relationships

Objective   To investigate the reliability and validity of the expressed emotion (EE) measure, the Pre-school Five Minute Speech Sample (PFMSS), in child-to-child sibling relationships.
Method   A total of 106 boys aged 7–11 were recruited from 12 mainstream primary schools in North Wales. The children completed the PFMSS regarding their sibling and two self-report measures of sibling relationship: the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ) and a Child Visual Analogue Scale (CVAS). The parents of 60 participants completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire regarding the behavioural problems of the participating child and his younger sibling.
Results   The PFMSS demonstrated good inter-rater and code–recode reliability. The significant associations between EE dimensions such as relationship, positive comments and critical comments with various components of the SRQ and CVAS provided support for the concurrent validity of the PFMSS. Significantly higher levels of Conflict and Rivalry and significantly lower levels of Warmth/Closeness on the SRQ were reported by children with high EE, demonstrating good discriminant validity for the PFMSS. There was no significant association between the child's EE profile and the behavioural difficulties of both siblings as reported by parents.
Conclusions   The study found that the PFMSS is a valid and reliable measure of child EE. Future research is needed to clarify the concurrent validity of the warmth and initial statement components of the measure as well as the association between EE dimensions and behaviour.