California's Children

58% of preschoolers don't play outdoors "on a daily basis"

UPDATE, April 5, 2012: A new study has found that 58% of preschoolers, aged 3 to 5 years, who have a regular childcare provider outside of the home, do not play outdoors with their parents on a daily basis; the findings were published online Monday by the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and reported on by Karen Kaplan for the LA Times blog Booster Shots.

These findings add to previous research that shows preschoolers are already developing a sedentary lifestyle early on, potentially contributing to the obesity epidemic.

A study published in January found childcare providers unintentionally limit outdoor unstructured play to far less than the recommended daily amount (60 minutes). Read below for more on this study.

Researchers led by Dimitri A. Christakis M.D., above, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, University of Washington, analyzed data on 10,700 children from the US Department of Education's Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (2001).

Findings from the Christakis study:

• Girls were 15% less likely than boys to be taken outside to play with a parent on a daily basis.

• Compared with white mothers, Hispanic mothers were 20% less likely to take their preschoolers outside every day, black mothers were 41% less likely, and Asian mothers were 49% less likely.

• The amount of time kids spent in front of TVs, computers and other screens was not related to their odds of going outside each day with a parent. Neither was household income or parents’ perception of the safety of their neighborhood.

Self-esteem & playing ball: closely related in study of 4th-graders

April, 4, 2012: Fourth-grade children who have well-developed ball control skills (throwing, catching and dribbling) tend to have healthier body weights and have higher levels of perceived competence (how competent children think they are) in their athletic and academic abilities, as well as in their personal appearance.

A recent study goes beyond previous research to look at the different kinds of physical activities in which a child engages, and to see how a child's self-perception is influenced by his or her abilities in these activities -- self-perception that goes beyond competency in the sport itself.

Previous research has identified perceived competence in physical ability (for e.g., running) as a predictor of a healthy weight in children.

The study, based in a Ph.D. dissertation,  “The Relationship Among Motor Skill Development, Aerobic Capacity, Body Composition and Perceived Competence of Fourth Grade School Children,” by Sheila Kelly, at left, was recently selected by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) for making a significant contribution to the knowledge of sport psychology.

“Often we have the physical ability and opportunity to be active, but we’re not,” says Kelly, a lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology and Recreation Administration at Humboldt State Univ. in Arcata. “I’ve always been interested in why some people are sedentary and others aren’t. The mental side of physical activity is huge.”

Kelly analyzed the results of physical fitness tests taken over several weeks by 137 children in 4th grade (67 males; 70 females) from three Michigan elementary schools. The study tested body mass index (BMI), the scale that measures total body fat based on weight and height; the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER); and the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2).

PACER measures aerobic capacity by continuous running between two lines 20 meters apart in time to recorded beeps; the time between the beeps gradually decrease requiring an increase in speed (a 10 year old boy considered within the Healthy Fitness Zone to pass the California Fitness Test should be able to do between and 23 and 61 laps).

TGMD-2 measures 12 different locomotor (skipping, jumping, running) and object-control (ball) skills.

Kelly also measured perceived competence in 6 different domains: academic, athletic, social acceptance, behavioral conduct, physical appearance, and overall global self-worth, using the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), which asks questions such as:  "Some kids feel they are very good at their school work, while other kids worry about whether they can do the school work assigned to them,” and asks them which half of the sentence describes them better.

Among the findings:

Well-developed ball skills predict a higher perceived competence overall and better aerobic capacity.

Children who were confident about their physical appearance also had better aerobic capacity and ball control abilities.

Children who perceive themselves as academically competent have lower BMIs.

Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.

 

Teen dating violence: do teens think it's a joke?

 Local non-profits trying to establish TDV prevention programs in schools often lack data on the impact of dating violence on teens in the community.

To address this issue, Humboldt Domestic Violence Services (HDVS) in Eureka is conducting a community-wide assessment to find out exactly what middle and high school students understand about healthy dating relationships. Teens have been asked to participate in a survey with questions about their personal experiences in dating relationships, what they consider healthy (or unhealthy)  behavior, and what, if any, education they've had that addresses dating violence. 

Coordinator for the HDVS study, Lucee Beggs, said the findings so far indicate that most teens have spent less than one class day discussing healthy relationships -- and that most teens find the subject "confusing" or make a joke of it.

Beggs told California's Children that data generated from the survey and follow-up focus groups will be used to apply for grants to fund TDV prevention programs in local schools.

Read below for previous stories on TDV legislation and prevention programs:

UPDATE, March 30, 2012: New legislation authorizing Teen Dating Violence (TDV) prevention in schools was heard Wednesday by the Assembly Committee on Education.

AB 1857, introduced by Paul Fong (D-Cupertino), at left, would allow schools to provide TDV prevention programs to students, grades 7-12, as part of the health curriculum; the cost, to come from the Proposition 98 General Fund, according to the Appropriations Committee, is estimated to be $450,000.

However, with Proposition 98 funds being diverted, it is unclear how many schools would be able to afford to put such a program in place .

Previously reported:

March 27, 2012: Coaching Boys into Men (CBIM), a teen dating violence prevention curriculum developed by San Francisco-based Futures Without Violence (formerly the Family Violence Prevention Fund), teaches young boys how to treat girls respectfully; it is also the subject a new study, the findings of which were released this week in the Journal of Adolescent Health, reports Grace Rubenstein of the Sacramento Bee.

Race-related verbal abuse by fans lands high school team on probation

 UPDATE, March 15, 2012: Ferndale High School's football program has been placed on probation by the North Coast Section, the organization that rules interscholastic athletics for northern California schools, for racial taunting of opposing teams' athletes and officials by sideline "fans" of the Ferndale team. Lack of leadership by the school's coach and its principal/superintendent were blamed for the ineffective management of the issue, which has at least three separate incidents of fan verbal abuse on the public record. 

 January 20, 2012: The 16-point program, Pursuing Victory with Honor ("Winning at all costs is not winning at all"), drawn up by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the organization that regulates athletics in California high schools, includes a code of conduct for parents.

Parents, said Ferndale (Humboldt County) High School trustee Jerry Hansen, at a town meeting last night with "hundreds" of community members present (the region's population is under 2,000), are the problem.

Vitamin D may protect teen girls stress fractures more than calcium

March 9, 2012: Vitamin D may be more helpful in protecting active adolescent girls from stress fractures than calcium, the nutrient long considered the most important in bone health, finds a study, "Vitamin D, Calcium, and Dairy Intakes and Stress Fractures Among Female Adolescents." Shari Roan reported on the findings, published online this week in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, for the LA Times' Booster Shots Blog.

The findings were part of a collaborative effort by researchers from the Children's Hospital Boston, (Catherine Gordon, M.D., at left, Kendrin Sonneville Sc.D., Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine; Mininder S. Kocher, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon), Alison Field, Sc.D., professor of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, and Arun Ramappa M.D. from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.

Researchers analyzed data from 6,721 girls ages 9 to 15 from the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), including the girls' intake of calcium, vitamin D and dairy products and the occurrence of any stress fractures; the girls were followed for seven years.

During that time, almost 4% of the girls developed a stress fracture. Dairy and calcium intake seemed to bear no relationship to the risk of a stress fracture. However, girls with the highest vitamin D intake had a 50% lower risk of stress fracture compared with the girls who had the lowest intake. This was especially evident among girls who participated in at least one hour a day of high-impact physical activity. They had a 52% decreased risk.

Surprisingly, high calcium intake was associated with a doubling of the risk of stress fracture. However, the authors said that this "unexpected finding" should be further investigated.

Researchers were unable to assess whether even higher levels [than the recommended daily requirements of 600 international units(IU)] of vitamin D intake may be more protective, but the question should be studied, they noted.

Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.