AbstractObjectiveTo examine differences in vaping and smoking prevalence among adolescents in Canada, England, and the United States.DesignRepeat cross sectional surveys.SettingOnline surveys in ...Canada, England, and the US.ParticipantsNational samples of 16 to 19 year olds in 2017 and 2018, recruited from commercial panels in Canada (n=7891), England (n=7897), and the US (n=8140).Main outcome measuresPrevalence of vaping and smoking was assessed for use ever, in the past 30 days, in the past week, and on 15 days or more in the past month. Use of JUUL (a nicotine salt based electronic cigarette with high nicotine concentration) and usual vaping brands were also assessed. Logistic regression models examined differences in vaping and smoking between countries and over time.ResultsThe prevalence of vaping in the past 30 days, in the past week, and on 15 days or more in the past month increased in Canada and the US between 2017 and 2018 (P<0.001 for all), including among non-smokers and experimental smokers, with no changes in England. Smoking prevalence increased in Canada (P<0.001 for all measures), with modest increases in England, and no changes in the US. The percentage of ever vapers who reported more frequent vaping increased in Canada and the US (P<0.01 for all), but not in England. The use of JUUL increased in all countries, particularly the US and Canada—for example, the proportion of current vapers in the US citing JUUL as their usual brand increased threefold between 2017 and 2018.ConclusionsBetween 2017 and 2018, among 16 to 19 year olds the prevalence of vaping increased in Canada and the US, as did smoking in Canada, with little change in England. The rapidly evolving vaping market and emergence of nicotine salt based products warrant close monitoring.
The relationship between the breadth of the curriculum which university students followed at secondary school and their degree attainment or their entry to employment is studied using a series of ...surveys of graduates from Scottish universities between 1960 and 2002. The relationship of the school curriculum to the later experience of students who entered university has not been extensively studied. Scotland is a useful case study for this purpose because breadth of study at school was a core feature of school-leaving assessment from the origins of modern secondary schooling in the early twentieth century until the end of the century. Breadth of learning was also a principle of the dominant university tradition in Scotland from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The conclusion of the analysis is that breadth was associated with propensity to enter professions rather than managerial occupations, and to avoiding low-status occupations. But also, for students with relatively moderate or low attainment from school, breadth was associated with a lower chance of gaining the highest attainment at university.
To determine if racial and ethnic subgroups of adolescents are at high risk for engagement in suicidal behaviors.
Using the nationally representative school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the ...years 1991 to 2017, we conducted logistic regression analyses to examine trends by different racial and ethnic groups, with each suicide indicator serving as a dichotomous outcome. Participants included 198 540 high school students.
Across all sex and race and ethnic groups, there were significant linear decreases in self-reported suicidal ideation and suicide plans from 1991 to 2017. Female adolescents (odds ratio OR, 0.98;
< .001) had significant decreases in attempts over time. Black adolescents had positive linear trends for suicide attempts among both boys (OR, 1.04;
< .001) and girls (OR, 1.02;
= .003). Black adolescent boys (OR, 1.04;
= .048) had a significant linear increase in injury by attempt.
The results suggest that, over time, black youth have experienced an increase in suicide attempts, which is troubling because attempts are the most prominent risk factor associated with suicide death. For black boys, a significant increase in injury by attempt occurred, which suggests that black boys may be engaging in increasingly lethal means when attempting suicide. Examining trends of suicidal thoughts and behaviors over time by sex and race and ethnicity allow us to determine where to focus prevention and intervention efforts. Future research should examine the underlying reasons for these changes observed in US high school students.
Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health Abi-Jaoude, Elia; Naylor, Karline Treurnicht; Pignatiello, Antonio
Canadian Medical Association journal (CMAJ),
2020-Feb-10, 2020-02-10, 20200210, Letnik:
192, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In the last decade, increasing mental distress and treatment for mental health conditions among youth in North America has paralleled a steep rise in the use of smartphones and social media by ...children and adolescents. In Ontario, the proportion of teenagers reporting moderate to serious mental distress increased from 24% in 2013, to 34% in 2015 and to 39% in 2017, with parallel increases in health service utilization. Inpatient hospital admissions of children and adolescents for mental health reasons increased substantially across Canada between 2007 and 2014, while admissions for other medical conditions in this age group decreased by 14%.2 Between 2009 and 2014, admissions to hospital for intentional self-harm increased by 110% in Canadian girls. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for Canadian youth. At the same time, social media use has increased markedly. In the US, the proportion of young people between the ages of 13 and 17 years who have a smartphone has reached 89%, more than doubling over a 6-year period; moreover, 70% of teenagers use social media multiple times per day, up from a third of teens in 2012. The percentage of Ontario's teenagers who reported spending 5 or more hours a day on social media increased from 11% in 2013, to 16% in 2015 and to 20% in 2017. Here, Abi-Jaoude et al examine the evidence that links smartphone and social media use with mental distress and suicidality among adolescents.
How creativity in education is applied by teachers to secondary school contexts is dependent on how the term ‘creativity’ is grounded, politicised, and practised. This paper reports on an ...international study of secondary schools in Australia, USA, Canada, and Singapore investigating how creativity is understood, negotiated, valued and manifested in secondary schools, focusing on teacher and student understandings, actions, benefits and impediments to creative and critical thinking. Participant reflections revealed inter-, trans- and cross-disciplinary learning shaped by teacher collaboration, dialogue and classroom organization that fosters critical and creative thinking. Implications are made for the ways practicing teachers develop and foster creativity via pedagogical approaches that enhance connectivity and interdisciplinarity of teaching practices between domains of learning. An education-based Creativity Index through which administrators and teachers can gauge, assess and implement creative skills, capacities, pedagogic practices and assessment of creativity within secondary schools is posited. Implications for STEM/STEAM education and centralizing creative capacities in teaching, learning, and educational change are offered.
Self-regulated learning has a positive effect on academic outcomes; however, little is known about whether and how teachers at various education levels promote it in their classes. Video-based ...classroom observations were conducted to assess primary and secondary school mathematics teachers’ direct and indirect promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL). Teachers’ implicit and explicit instruction of SRL strategies (direct promotion of SRL) and the learning environment they created (indirect promotion of SRL) were rated according to how conducive they were to self-regulation. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the secondary school teachers to gain insight into their subjective views on SRL. Although the teachers’ instructional practices could foster SRL, teachers spent little time explicitly teaching SRL strategies. Moreover, they taught mainly cognitive strategies and very few metacognitive strategies. These results were more pronounced at the primary level than at the secondary level. Primary school teachers provided learning environments conducive to self-regulation more often than secondary school teachers did. The interviews revealed that the teachers lacked knowledge about metacognition as an important component of SRL and were rather reluctant to promote it; however, most of them valued cognitive and motivational components of SRL. Primary and secondary school teachers need training to enhance their direct and indirect instruction of SRL. They could benefit in particular from learning about explicit instruction of SRL strategies and metacognition.
The transition from primary to secondary school is a major life event for eleven‐year‐old children in the United Kingdom, where they face simultaneous changes. Following the outbreak of Covid‐19, ...transfer children face additional uncertainty on top of this. Negotiation of the multiple challenges, combined with the reduced support associated with Covid‐19, could have a negative impact on children’s school adjustment and mental health. Given the rapidity of changes associated with Covid‐19, there are key empirical and practical gaps on how best to support children as they negotiate these two key events. To date, there is no published research which has explored the experiences of transfer children, and that of their parents and teachers during this time. The present research aimed to narrow this research gap by answering the research question: What are parents’, children’s, and teachers’ experiences of primary‐secondary school transition during Covid‐19? This research used a series of UK wide surveys to gather data from 101 Year 7 children, 88 Year 7 parents, 26 primary school teachers, and 40 secondary school teachers using a mixture of open and closed questions. The data were analysed using Thematic Framework Analysis, taking an inductive‐open coding approach. All three stakeholders reported negative impacts of Covid‐19 on the transition, for example, in terms of missed opportunities. There were also many comments about the emotional impact of Covid‐19 on children, parents, and teachers. Numerous strategies were reported that were used to meet children’s needs pre and post‐transition, highlighting areas of good practice, along with practical suggestions for how to approach transition in the future. The study has identified ways that transition can be managed more effectively, thus, having short term implications in providing an evidence base to support transfer children this year, and long‐term implications for future transition years.
Due to increased need of professionals on the future labour market with competence in programming, many countries have integrated programming in kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) education. In 2017, ...programming was integrated in Swedish primary and secondary school curriculum and the courses of Mathematics and Technology. Research has highlighted challenges in integrating programming and other new technologies, and the need for better teacher support. The aim of the study was to examine what programming affords secondary school courses in Mathematics and Technology according to teachers that use programming in these two courses. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach and collected data through interviews with 19 teachers that use programming in secondary school courses of Mathematics and/or Technology. Thematic analysis with inductive-deductive approach was used to analyse the collected data. Theory of Affordances was used to identify themes of interests in the collected material and group these into categories. Ten programming affordances are identified in this study: 1) flexibility, 2) creativity, 3) efficiency, 4) visualisation, 5) fun, 6) curiosity, 7) play, 8) holistic views, 9) fearlessness, and 10) interdisciplinary collaborations. Through discussion and comparison with previous research, these programming affordances are found to relate to three aspects of teaching and learning in secondary school Mathematics and Technology: A) support course content and learning, B) facilitate engagement and motivation, and C) foster developmental skills. The study concludes with a suggestion for a conceptual model on what programming can afford school courses in Mathematics and Technology, based on the findings of the study. Findings can be used by teachers, policymakers and other stakeholders in the integration and design of programming in secondary education.
Despite the widely accepted view that low self‐efficacy beliefs negatively influence students' intention to opt for a STEM field oriented study or career path, it remains unclear how to effectively ...stimulate these beliefs in students who do seem to have the ability and motivation to opt for a STEM career. A suggestion from previous literature is that students' implicit beliefs about the malleability of their learning ability can have a major impact on their self‐efficacy beliefs, and, importantly, that these implicit beliefs are malleable themselves. Even though this relation between implicit beliefs, self‐efficacy, and STEM field aspirations has been suggested multiple times, there is no empirical evidence to support this claim. The goal of the current study was to examine whether implicit beliefs about the malleability of STEM ability are associated with secondary school students' intention to opt for a STEM field bachelor's degree, using a Structural Equation Modelling approach. Furthermore, we examined the mediating role of STEM‐oriented self‐efficacy beliefs on the relationship between implicit ability beliefs and STEM intention. We used a Likert‐type questionnaire, consisting of subscales to measure ability beliefs, self‐efficacy, and intention to opt for a STEM degree of secondary school students in their fifth grade (n = 483). Results showed that there is a positive relation between implicit STEM ability beliefs and the intention to opt for a STEM field bachelor degree, and that this relation is partly mediated by self‐efficacy beliefs. Incremental STEM ability beliefs predicted positive self‐efficacy beliefs and increased STEM intention. These findings provide a foundation for a novel approach to stimulate and motivate students for the STEM field, namely by stimulating incremental beliefs about their STEM ability.
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