Children exposed to domestic violence not only have more disciplinary problems at school, they perform considerably worse in math and reading than other students. They also have a negative effect on their classroom peers, resulting in decreased test scores and increased disciplinary problems according to a new study by economists Scott Carrell of the University of California–Davisand Mark Hoekstra of the University of Pittsburgh, published in the summer issue of Education Next.
Carrell and Hoekstra find that adding one troubled student to a classroom of 20 students decreases student reading and math test scores by more than two-thirds of a percentile point and increases misbehavior among other students in the classroom by 16 percent.
The researchers found that troubled peers have a large and statistically significant negative effect on the math and reading achievement of higher income children, but only a small and statistically insignificant effect on the achievement of low-income children. The pattern is opposite for disciplinary outcomes. The presence of troubled peers increases problem behavior of low-income children, but does not significantly increase the disciplinary problems of higher income children.
Carrell and Hoekstra also found that the effect differed by race and gender. The negative test-score effect is large and statistically significant for white boys, but statistically insignificant for black boys. The test-score effects on girls are negligible regardless of race. Disciplinary problems, however, increase for all subgroups except white girls. The effects are largest for black girls. One troubled peer added to a classroom of 20 students increases the probability that a black girl commits a disciplinary infraction by as much as 10 percent.
Carrell and Hoekstra also examined whether troubled boys affect their peers differently than do troubled girls. Across all outcome variables, both academic and behavioral, the negative peer effects appear to be driven primarily by the troubled boys, and these effects are largest on other boys in the classroom.
The results indicate that adding one troubled boy to a classroom of 20 students increases the probability that a boy will commit a disciplinary infraction by 17 percent and decreases boys’ test scores by nearly 2 percentile points -- or 7 percent of a standard deviation -- each year.
“These findings have important implications for both education and social policy,” Carrell and Hoekstra said. “Any policies or interventions that help improve the family environment of the most troubled students may have larger benefits than we have previously anticipated.”
Carrell and Hoekstra worked with a confidential student-level data set that consists of observations of students in grades 3 through 5 from 22 public schools over the period 1995–2003 in a district of roughly 30,000 students. The student population in the sample is approximately 55 percent white, 38 percent black, 3.5 percent Hispanic, 2.5 percent Asian, and 1 percent mixed race. Fifty-three percent of students were eligible for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program.
Carrell and Hoekstra also had access to yearly disciplinary records, which include incident type and date and were available for every student in their sample. They gathered domestic violence data from public records information, which include the date filed and the names and addresses of individuals involved in domestic violence cases filed in civil court between 1993 and 2003.
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The cardiovascular benefits of daily exercise in school children are evident even after 1 year
Prevalence of obesity and overweight decreases significantly
School children as young as 11 can benefit from a daily exercise programme in reducing their levels of several known risk factors for cardiovascular disease. An ongoing study, which began four years ago in the German city of Leipzig, shows already that children assigned to daily exercise lessons reduced their overall prevalence of obesity, improved their exercise capacity, increased their levels of HDL-cholesterol, and reduced their systolic blood pressure.
"It's clear that children today have different lifestyles from the past," says investigator Dr Claudia Walther from the Heart Centre of the University of Leipzig. "They're less active, and it was our hypothesis that an increase in their exercise activity would result in fewer risks of cardiovascular disease later in life."
The study, whose first-year results are reported at EuroPRevent 2009, randomised 188 school children with a mean age of 11.1 years (from seven classes at three different high schools) to either an active exercise programme in their school routine, or to a conventional curriculum of just two sports lessons a week. The exercise programme comprised daily supervised exercise which included at least 15 minutes of endurance training. "So it was well controlled," says Dr Walther, "with the teachers making sure that the programme was followed."
The first results presented here in Stockholm already show significant benefits for those in the daily exercise groups: in just one year the proportion of overweight and obese children decreased from 13% to 9%, but increased in the control group from 11% to 13%. These were statistically significant changes. Moreover, exercise capacity (as measured by VO2max) also improved significantly in the exercise groups by 29%. Similarly, levels of HDL-cholesterol and of triglycerides, and systolic blood pressure all improved in the exercise group.
"Even from these first-year results we can say that regular physical activity has a significant beneficial effect on body composition, exercise capacity and cardiovascular risk markers in children," says Dr Walther, who adds that follow-up over the next 10-20 years will give some idea of how risk modification at this young age translates into benefit later in life.
The "most surprising" result, she says, was the effect of daily exercise on body weight, an effect not found so marked or so soon in other studies. "These are normal children," explains Dr Walther, "so we didn't expect such a significant reduction in the overall prevalence of obesity or excess weight."
Such findings have also raised local interest in Germany, where the investigators hope to extend the study to other neighbouring towns, and eventually to a daily exercise programme incorporated into the basic school curriculum.
"It's so easy," says Dr Walther. "All it needs is a little more time allocated to exercise lessons. The teachers are there, they supervise, and they all seem enthusiastic. If we can include daily exercise in the school curriculum, I'm sure we'll see an effect."
Sporadic play activity as beneficial to child health as continuous bouts of exercise, study suggests
New research suggests for the first time that frequent bouts of sporadic activity could be just as beneficial to children's health as longer exercise sessions. A team from the University of Exeter measured the frequency, intensity and duration of bouts of physical activity in a group of children and analysed the results against a number of health indicators.
The results highlighted that the associations between children's activity and health were similar regardless of how the child accumulated the activity. In other words, a child who accumulated short bursts of moderate or vigorous exercise throughout the day was just as healthy as a child who did a similar amount of activity over longer sessions.
The researchers, from the University of Exeter's School of Sport and Health Sciences, believe their findings have positive implications, as children are more likely to engage in short bursts of activity than complete longer bouts of exercise.
Published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, the study focused on 47 boys, aged between eight and ten, the majority of who were all in good health and within a healthy weight range. Using electronic devices called 'accelerometers' worn by the boys, the researchers recorded the frequency, intensity and duration of their activity over seven days. They then conducted a series of tests to measure health indicators, including waist circumference, aerobic fitness and microvascular function (an early indicator of cardiovascular risk).
During a typical day, less than 15% of the boys achieved five bouts of moderate intensity activity lasting five minutes and very few managed to achieve one bout of vigorous intensity activity lasting five minutes. The findings suggest that schools, parents and policy-makers should focus their efforts on encouraging young children to move around as they do naturally.
Lead researcher Michelle Stone, a PhD student at the University of Exeter, said: "Our study suggests that physical activity is associated with health, irrespective of whether it is accumulated in short bursts or long bouts. Previous research has shown that children are more naturally inclined to engage in short bursts of running, jumping and playing with a ball, and do not tend to sustain bouts of exercise lasting five or more minutes. This is especially true for activities that are more vigorous in nature.
"If future research backs up our findings, we would do better to encourage young children to do what they do naturally, rather than trying to enforce long exercise sessions on them. This could be a useful way of improving enjoyment and sustainability of healthy physical activity levels in childhood. Since the frequency of activity bouts accumulated per day was more strongly associated with waist circumference and microvascular health than the intensity or the duration of activity bouts, simply encouraging children to break up sedentary time with bursts of activity may be a good starting point."
The research team now recommends further research to measure the impact of sporadic exercise on health over time. Such research will help to determine whether differences in the aspects of the activity pattern in young children are a cause or a consequence of better health. Measurement of children's activity patterns and aspects of health over a number of years (i.e., tracking studies) will help determine whether relationships between the pattern of activity and health outcomes persist as children age. They also suggest a comparison between girls and boys to see whether aspects of the activity pattern which relate to health differ between genders. This further research could then be used to influence policy change to ensure that children are given the opportunity to be active in the most effective way for health benefits.
Professor Roger Eston, co-author and Head of the University of Exeter's School of Sport and Health Sciences, said: "The use of accelerometers permits much closer scrutiny of activity behaviour than has previously been allowed through other methods. The recording of habitual activity counts on an almost second-by-second basis provides researchers with the ability to capture the sporadic and brief bursts of activity which naturally occur in healthy young children.
"Whilst it is not possible to attribute cause and effect relationships from this study, this is the first time that such short bursts of naturally occurring habitual activity behaviour in young children have been associated with microvascular function. The findings from this study enrich our understanding of the potential links between naturally occurring sporadic physical activity and health in children."
For Food-Allergic Kids, Parents and Schools Step Up
According to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, 3 percent of households in the United States is affected by a life-threatening food allergy, yet little is know about the experiences of average families related to food allergies; what schools are doing to manage the problem, or how accepting parents are of the special accommodations schools must make to protect food-allergic children.
The National Poll on Children’s Health asked parents with children, ages 0 – 13, about food allergies and what their children’s daycares, preschools and elementary schools are doing to accommodate food-allergic children.
“About a quarter of parents know at least one child with a life-threatening food allergy in their own child’s daycare or elementary school, and about three-quarters of these parents say their child’s school or daycare is making some sort of accommodations,” says Harvey L. Leo, M.D., adjunct clinical associate of pediatrics and assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Center for Managing Chronic Disease in the School of Public Health. "But most importantly, about one half of parents without a food-allergic child don’t find those accommodations to be terribly inconvenient."
The most common accommodation for food-allergic children, according to the poll, is a ban on food or treats brought from home. Nearly two-thirds of parents report their child’s daycare or preschool (63 percent) has this policy, while one-half indicate their child’s elementary school has this policy.
Other accommodations include posted or required food allergy plans, separate eating areas for food-allergic children, and special classroom assignments. About one-half of parents report their children’s elementary schools, daycares or preschools also have staff training specifically for food allergies.
“As much as we’re asking families to make accommodations, it’s important to know that the majority of parents are willing to make those accommodations for their children, and for the safety of other children,” Leo says. “In the past, these accommodations have been controversial for many parents because they are seen as limiting and frustrating for parents of non-food-allergic children.”
The poll also finds:
- Among families with food-allergic children, half believe others at school accommodate their child’s life-threatening food allergy “very well;” while 44 percent say “somewhat” accommodated.
- About one quarter of parents without food-allergic children find accommodations with food or handling of food to be “somewhat” inconvenient, and only 5 percent find it “very inconvenient.”
While one-half of parents are accepting of food allergy accommodations in the school setting, nearly one-third are less comfortable with these accommodations. This raises concerns for educators, clinicians and policymakers about potential obstacles to expanding accommodations to other child care and school settings that have not yet adopted them, Leo says.
Methodology:
For its report, the National Poll on Children's Health used data from a national online survey conducted in August 2008 in collaboration with Knowledge Networks, Inc. The survey was administered to a random sample of 1,552 parents aged 18 and older, who are a part of Knowledge Network's online KnowledgePanel®U.S. population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 to 7 percentage points, depending on the question. For results based on subgroups, the margin of error is higher. Learn more about Knowledge Networks.
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