Dataset Information

Local environment and social factors in primary school children's afterschool commute in China.

ABSTRACT: The rapid decline in young children's active commutes to and from school has prompted investigations into ways to raise activity levels. The period after school is recognized as very important in the daily activity regime of primary school children. In this study, we examine the relative effects of local environmental factors and socio-economic status on children's after-school commute mode choice. Environmental factors are pedestrian priority streets, street intersection density, motorways, shops, and play spaces. Property values are used as a proxy for income. Twenty-four school districts are selected using intersection density and motorway length as criteria. All children's exit behaviors were film-recorded on October weekdays and extracted as four choices-alone, in a group of children, on foot with a parent or guardian, on e-bike driven by an adult. A multinomial logistic regression reveals that gated communities, higher priced housing, motorways and bus stops are associated with children accompanied by adults. The presence of pedestrian streets is associated with children travelling alone and in groups. Greater travel distance is also associated with parents accompanying children on foot or on e-bike. The amount of play space is associated with children leaving school in groups. Overall, social and environmental factors are influential in the independent travel of primary school children after the school day ends in south China.

SUBMITTER: Zacharias J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5524311 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Local environment and social factors in primary school children's afterschool commute in China.

Zacharias John J Zhen Bai B Han Xili X Huang Yunshi Y

Preventive medicine reports 20170705

The rapid decline in young children's active commutes to and from school has prompted investigations into ways to raise activity levels. The period after school is recognized as very important in the daily activity regime of primary school children. In this study, we examine the relative effects of local environmental factors and socio-economic status on children's after-school commute mode choice. Environmental factors are pedestrian priority streets, street intersection density, motorways, sho ...[more]

PMID: 28752024

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundResilience is a person's mental ability to deal with challenging situations adaptively and is a crucial stress management skill. Psychological resilience and finding ways to cope in crises is a highly relevant topic considering the COVID-19 pandemic, which enforced quarantine, social distancing measures, and school closures worldwide. Parents and children are currently living with increased stress due to COVID-19. We need to respond with immediate ways to strengthen children's resilience. Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy interventions for children's stress management overcome accessibility issues such as the inability to visit mental health experts owing to COVID-19 movement restrictions. An interactive learning environment was created, based on the preventive program "Friends," to overcome accessibility issues associated with delivering cognitive behavioral therapy-based interventions in formal and informal education settings.ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a web-based learning environment on resilience in (1) reducing anxiety symptoms and (2) increasing emotion recognition and recognition of stress management techniques among 9-10-year-old children. We also aimed to evaluate the learning environment's usability.MethodsA quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was used. In total, 20 fourth graders in the experimental group interacted with the learning environment over 6 weekly 80-minute sessions. Further, 21 fourth graders constituted the control group. The main data sources were (1) a psychometric tool to measure children's anxiety symptoms, namely the Greek translation of the original Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, (2) 3 open-ended questions assessing emotion recognition and recognition of stress management techniques, and (3) the System Usability Scale to measure the usability of the learning environment.ResultsIn both groups, there was a small but nonsignificant postintervention reduction in reported anxiety symptoms, except for obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms in the experimental group. A paired samples t test revealed that students' reported symptom scores of obsessive-compulsive disorder significantly decreased from 1.06 (SD 0.68) to 0.76 (SD 0.61) (t19= 5.16; P=.01). The experimental group revealed a significant increase in emotion recognition (t19=-6.99; P<.001), identification of somatic symptoms of stress (t19=-7.31; P<.001), and identification of stress management techniques (t19=-6.85; P<.001). The learning environment received a satisfactory usability score. The raw average system usability score was 76.75 (SD 8.28), which is in the 80th percentile rank and corresponds to grade B.ConclusionsThis study shows that interactive learning environments might deliver resilience interventions in an accessible and cost-effective manner in formal education, potentially even in distance-learning conditions owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Interactive learning environments on resilience are also valuable tools for parents who can use them with their children at home, for informal learning, using mobile devices. As such, they could be a promising first-step, low-intensity intervention that children and the youth can easily access.

Project description:BackgroundAfterschool programs are an important setting in which to promote children's physical activity. This study examines the association of environmental and policy characteristics on the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior of children attending afterschool programs.MethodsA total of 1302 children attending 20 afterschool programs across South Carolina wore accelerometers (ActiGraph GT3X+) for up to 4non-consecutive days. Policy-level characteristics were evaluated using the Healthy Afterschool Program Index-Physical Activity scale. Physical activity space was measured using a measuring wheel (indoor, ft(2)) and Geographical Information Systems software (outdoor, acres). The structure (free-play or organized) of activity opportunities was evaluated via direct observation. Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary, both indoors and outdoors, was estimated using accelerometry.ResultsFor every 5000 ft(2) of utilized indoor activity space an additional 2.4 and 3.3 min/day of sedentary behavior was observed among boys and girls, respectively. A higher ratio of free-play to organized play was associated with higher indoor sedentary behavior among boys and girls (3.9 min/day and 10.0 min/day, respectively). For every 1 acre of outdoor activity space used, an additional 2.7 min/day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was observed for boys. A higher free-play to organized play ratio was associated with higher outdoor moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for boys and girls (4.4 and 3.4 min/day increase, respectively). Policy characteristics were unrelated to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels and time spent sedentary.ConclusionFindings indicate that policies and size of activity space had limited influence on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior, suggesting that a programmatic structure may be a more effective option to improve moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels of children attending afterschool programs.

Project description:BackgroundObesogenic environment is important in driving obesity epidemic. Children spend large amount of their time in schools. School neighborhood environment, as well as its interaction with socioeconomic status (SES) needs to be explored to provide evidence for children obesity prevention policies.MethodsObjective anthropometric measurement, a household structured questionnaire, and school geospatial analyses were carried out on 3670 children (aged 9-12 years) of 26 schools in northeast China. Interaction between SES inter-categorical intersectionality group and school neighborhood environment was tested for the effect on children's body mass index z scores (z-BMI) and waist-hip ratio z scores (z-WHR), following formulation of SES inter-categorical intersectionality group based on household wealth, parental education, and parental occupation.ResultsSES groups formed by household wealth, parental education and parental occupation was associated with z-BMI and z-WHR for girls. Those from moderate wealth & self-employed (M&S) families had the highest adjusted z-BMI and z-WHR among all SES groups. School neighborhood environment factors interacted with SES groups in association with WHR for girls. Number of school neighborhood supermarkets and residential sites were negatively associated with z-WHR for girls from M&S families (β= -0.45 (95%CI: -0.76, -0.15) for supermarkets; β= -0.01 (95%CI: -0.03, 0.00) for residential sites). Number of school neighborhood convenience stores and public transport stops were positively associated with z-WHR for girls from M&S families (β = 0.02 (95%CI: 0.00, 0.03) for convenience stores; β = 0.23 (95%CI: 0.15, 0.31) for public transport stops). While non-significant association was found for number of vegetable stores.ConclusionGirls from moderate wealth & self-employed families may be the group susceptible to school neighborhood environment. Local policies targeted at improving the school neighborhood environment may be one avenue for reducing socioeconomic disparities in obesity especially for girls.

Project description:BackgroundPersistent pain during pregnancy is a significant health issue, which could be correlated with psychological distress resulting from inadequate social support. This study aims to investigate whether the relationship between poor social support and antenatal pain is mediated by psychological distress. We also aimed to examine whether social cohesion moderates the influence of psychological distress on the relationship between social support and antenatal pain.MethodsWe analysed 94,517 pregnancies of women from a Japanese national birth cohort completed questionnaires assessing pain, psychological distress, social support and social cohesion. Psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. Two types of models were used: the mediation model to examine whether the association between social support and pain was mediated by psychological distress; the moderated mediation model to analyse whether social cohesion buffered the negative effect of inadequate social support on pain. Demographic, socioeconomic and psychological factors were controlled for in all analyses.ResultsPsychological distress was fully mediated the association between social support and pain. Social cohesion had a focal moderation effect on the inverse association between social support and psychological distress (unstandardized regression coefficient [β] = 0.09; 95% CI, 0.07-0.11) and functioned as moderator for the indirect effect of social support on antenatal pain (index of moderated mediation = 0.006; 95% CI, 0.004-0.007).ConclusionsPoor social support was related to antenatal pain through psychological distress, possibly buffered by social cohesion. During the antenatal period, social support and cohesion are important for women.SignificanceIn this study, poor social support was found to be associated with pain intensity during pregnancy, which was mediated by psychological distress and might be buffered by desirable social cohesion. This finding could potentially help healthcare providers and policy makers to understand the importance of desirable social cohesion in preventing pain among pregnant women.

Dataset Information

Local environment and social factors in primary school children's afterschool commute in China.

Publications

Local environment and social factors in primary school children's afterschool commute in China.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets