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Though summer learning loss has been widely documented across both the United States and Canada, there is little knowledge on how parents and teachers view the use of technology in the context of summer vacation, and what the role of digital tools are in potentially alleviating achievement gaps due to summer learning loss. Drawing on 71 parent and 37 teacher interviews from a large-scale Canadian study examining summer learning loss in Ontario through summer literacy and numeracy programs for students (grades 1–3), this study highlights the complexities associated with using digital tool in both home and school life in the summer. Through extensions of Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, we suggest that digital tools are becoming a new type of valued skillset that parents and educators are acknowledging. In specific, our main findings center around three interrelated themes: i) comfort with technology; ii) home-school connections; and iii) perception of children as digital natives. Results may be fruitful for parents, educators, and policymakers to understand the larger role that digital technology plays amongst Canadian families and teachers during the summer months and school year. Capturing these discussions can maximize both school and home use of digital tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children exposed to domestic violence may be at risk of homicide. Through an analysis of 140 domestic homicide cases in Ontario, Canada, this study sought to identify unique factors that heighten the risk for children in these circumstances. Two groups of domestic homicide cases were compared: cases with no children (No Children, n = 39) and cases where children were part of the family system (Children, n = 101). Further comparison was made of cases in which children were killed (n = 20) to cases in which children were present but not killed (n = 81). Overall, there were few unique differences between the groups and most of the significant findings were based on expected demographic characteristics related to having children in the family. Other significant results included a higher percentage of reports made to legal counsel/services within child-specific cases and a higher percentage of reports made to family members in cases where children were not killed. These results indicate that children who lose parents to domestic homicide share similar high-risk circumstances as children who have been killed in this context. Practical implications of the study's findings are discussed. Highlights: This study examined children's risk of homicide in the context of domestic violence. The study compared domestic homicide cases of families with and without children. Study results generally indicated few unique differences between groups. Results suggest that children exposed to domestic homicide are at similar risk to children who are not domestic homicide victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The Healthy Kids Community Challenge is a large-scale, centrally-coordinated, community-based intervention in Ontario, Canada that promotes healthy behaviours towards improving healthy weights among children. With the goal of exploring tools available to evaluators, we leveraged electronic medical records from primary care physicians to assess child weights prior to launch of the Healthy Kids Community Challenge. This study compares the baseline (i.e. pre-intervention) prevalence of overweight and obesity in children 1–12 years of age living within and outside Healthy Kids Community Challenge communities. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a primary care patient cohort. Setting: Electronic Medical Record Administrative data Linked Database (EMRALD) in Ontario, Canada. Participants: A cohort of 19 920 Ontario children who are rostered to an EMRALD physician. Children were 1–12 years of age at a primary care visit with recorded measured height and weight, between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015. Outcome measure: Overweight and obesity as determined by age- and sex-standardized body mass index using World Health Organization’s Growth Standards. Results: In Healthy Kids Community Challenge communities, 25.6% (95% CI 24.6–26.6%) of children had zBMI above normal (i.e. >1) compared to 26.7% (95% CI 25.9–27.5%) for children living outside of Healthy Kids Community Challenge communities. Conclusions: Despite some differences in sociodemographic characteristics, zBMI of children aged 1–12 years were similar inside and outside of Healthy Kids Community Challenge community boundaries prior to program launch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Food insecurity is associated with a wide array of negative health outcomes and higher health care costs but there has been no population-based study of the association of food insecurity and mortality in high-income countries. Methods: We use cross-sectional population surveys linked to encoded health administrative data. The sample is 90,368 adults, living in Ontario and respondents in the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The outcome of interest is all-cause mortality at any time after the interview and within four years of the interview. The primary variable of interest is food insecurity status, with individuals classed as “food secure”, “marginally food insecure”, “moderately food insecure”, or “severely food insecure”. We use logistic regression models to determine the association of mortality with food insecurity status, adjusting for other social determinants of health. Results: Using a full set of covariates, in comparison to food secure individuals, the odds of death at any point after the interview are 1.28 (CI = 1.08, 1.52) for marginally food insecure individuals, 1.49 (CI = 1.29, 1.73) for moderately food insecure individuals, and 2.60 (CI = 2.17, 3.12) for severely food insecure individuals. When mortality within four years of the interview is considered, the odds are, respectively, 1.19 (CI = 0.95, 1.50), 1.65 (CI = 1.37, 1.98), and 2.31 (CI = 1.81, 2.93). Interpretation: These findings demonstrate that food insecurity is associated with higher mortality rates and these higher rates are especially large for the most severe food insecurity category. Efforts to reduce food insecurity should be incorporated into broader public health initiatives to reduce mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the growing hegemony of the bourgeois family pattern among the Canadian working classes that accompanied the development of a welfare state and focuses on the legal institutionalization and regulation of childhood and sexuality in Ontario and British Columbia, particularly during the inter-war years. The discussion centers on similarities and differences between the provinces with respect to two major issues: first, the enactment of criminal and quasi-criminal legislation, ostensibly universal in application but directed primarily at poor children and the adults responsible for them, to force compliance with middle-class standards of morality and family life; and, second, the administration of many such statutes through the Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver Juvenile Courts. In Canada, as in other jurisdictions, demands for implementation and refinement of legislation aimed at upholding the norms of childhood and heterosexual marriages were accompanied by demands for new enforcement mechanisms.