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This study examined sedentary volume and bouts of Chinese primary and middle school students during different segments of a school day and determined whether gender and school level are associated with their sedentary volume and bouts. A total of 472 students participated in this study. Accelerometers were used to measure the sedentary volume and sedentary bouts of different durations (i.e., 1–4 min, 5–9 min and ≥10 min) during all segments. The participants spent the majority of their time in sitting (61.7%) and sitting bouts of ≥10 min (37.3%). They spent higher percentages of time in sitting during regular classes (76.7%) and out-of-school time (54.5%), and lower during physical education (PE) classes (32.2%), lunch break (35.4%) and recess (38.0%). The highest proportions of time were in sedentary bouts of ≥10 min during regular classes (50.2%), out-of-school time (28.0%) and lunch break (18.8%), while the greatest percentages occurred in sitting bouts of 1–4 min during PE class (16.4%) and recess (18.6%). Girls and middle school students had higher percentages of sedentary volume than boys and primary school students during most segments. They spent greater proportions of time in sitting bouts of ≥10 min during regular classes, lunch break, and out-of-school time, and higher proportions in sedentary bouts of 1–4 min than boys and primary students during PE classes. Regular class and out-of-school time were identified as key segments for reducing sedentary volume and breaking up prolonged sitting. Interventions on interrupting prolonged sitting during lunch break should also be explored. Girls and middle school students should receive more attention in future interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical appearance perfectionism is a domain-specific form of perfectionism comprising two components: worry about imperfection and hope for perfection (Yang & Stoeber, 2012). Previous studies found that physical appearance perfectionism is related to body dissatisfaction among university students, particularly the worry about imperfection component, but did not address the question of whether physical appearance perfectionism changes over school years and explains variance in body dissatisfaction above age and body mass index (BMI). The present study investigated the questions examining 914 school students 9–18 years of age. Physical appearance perfectionism increases over school years and it explained a significant additional variance in body dissatisfaction beyond age group and BMI. Some gender differences were identified and limitations and implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Analysis of student consumption of illicit drugs (ID) by school population surveys (SPS) provides information useful for prevention, but the results may be influenced by subjective factors. We explored wastewater (WW) analysis to improve the information.Methods: We used WW analysis to measure ID consumption in eight secondary schools in Italy in 2010-13 (students aged 15-19). Samples were collected from the sewage pipes of the schools during lessons for one week each year. Samples were analysed by mass spectrometry to measure ID and consumption by students was compared to that of the general population.Results: We found THCCOOH (human metabolite of THC) concentrations in 2010 indicating significant consumption of cannabis in all the schools and benzoylecgonine (human metabolite of cocaine) suggesting a limited consumption of cocaine in all but one school. Morphine was only found in traces, and amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine and mephedrone were not detectable. Repeated analysis showed cannabis stable until 2012 with increases in 2013, low cocaine and morphine levels, and none of the other ID.Discussion: WW analysis suggested that students used amounts of cannabis comparable to the general population, with low, sporadic use of cocaine and opioids, but excluded the use of significant amounts of amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine and mephedrone. WW analysis was useful to confirm SPS figures and provides complementary findings for effective prevention strategies. This is the first time WW analysis has been used to investigate consumption of a large number of ID and new psychoactive substances (NPS) in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the rapidly-expanding phenomenon of technology-based academic dishonesty (AD). One hundred and twenty seven 7th graders received scenarios of AD, based on Pavela's (1997) framework of AD types (i.e. cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, and facilitation), in digital and non-digital settings. Participants reported on the pervasiveness of AD types in their class and on the perception of their legitimacy. The “Ethical Dissonance Index” (EDI) is calculated as the difference between the pervasiveness and the legitimacy of AD types. The ethical dissonance that learners experience when conducting academic dishonesty behaviors is expressed by the consistent findings, that the pervasiveness of all dishonesty types was significantly higher than the perception of their legitimacy. These findings indicate that students conduct AD despite its perception as unethical. In the digital setting, plagiarism is the most common type of AD, perceived as the most legitimate, and characterized by the greatest EDI. In the non-digital setting, cheating and fabrication are the most common types of AD, perceived as the most legitimate, and characterized by the greatest EDI. Educational implications and suggestions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study assessed the mental health of adolescents in Puducherry, India. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 291 students (121 male and 170 female) in the 14–17 year old age group, grades IX and XI. The students were recruited from private, public, co-ed and single sex schools. Along with a Structured Questionnaire, the Mental Health Inventory was administered. We sought to investigate as to whether there would be differences in mental health status of adolescents based on age, class, gender and other demographic variables. There were significant age differences with respect to global mental health, psychological distress, anxiety and loss of behavioural/emotional control. Family type-wise significant differences in global mental health, life satisfaction and loss of behavioural/emotional control were also found. Significant differences were observed with respect to global mental health, psychological well-being, positive effects, psychological distress and depression across socio-economic groups. Number of siblings also accounted for differences in anxiety and emotional ties. However, no significant gender differences were observed across mental health sub-scales. Results suggest the need for promotion of mental health awareness and intervention programs for adolescents, their parents and teachers. There is also a need for advocacy in children and adolescent rights regarding welfare, well-being and protection from violence. The objective is to enhance psychological well-being and reduce psychological distress in students across different social strata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet Addiction has become a public health issue that cannot be neglected. In Jordan, there is a need to investigate this issue among school students. This descriptive correlational study aimed to assess the prevalence of Internet Addition and associated risk factors in Jordanian school students. The participants (N = 716) aged 12–18 years were selected randomly from ten public schools in Amman Governorate in Jordan. Socio-demographical data, patterns of Internet usage, the Young's Internet Addiction Tool (YIAT), the Symptom Checklist-anxiety scale (SCL-anxiety), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) were used. The findings showed that the prevalence of severe Internet Addiction was 6.3%. The highest prevalence of Internet Addiction was among students with family monthly income >1400$/, their fathers completed elementary education and mothers completed university and higher education, and their academic performance was poor. The friend's home was the favorite place among Internet addicted students. Chatting was the highest reason for Internet Addiction. The students were experiencing anxiety and depression symptoms had the highest prevalence of Internet Addiction (10.3%, 8.2%, respectively). There was a statistically significant relationship between the age, school grade, family income, academic performance, average hours of Internet daily usage during school days and holidays, anxiety, depression, and Internet Addiction. These findings emphasize the importance of developing and implementing interventions such as preventive measures and early diagnosis of Internet Addiction among school students. Furthermore, counseling programs are recommended to increase the awareness of families regarding Internet Addiction and their responsibilities in providing guidance and support for their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although perfectionism is a personality disposition that plays an important role in educational contexts, research on perfectionism and school engagement is limited. School engagement is a key process in predicting educational outcomes in students. Consequently, it is important to know how perfectionism relates to school engagement and whether perfectionism predicts relative changes in school engagement over time. Using a sample of 486 students from 6th–12th grade (54% female) and employing a longitudinal design with three waves spaced 4–5 months apart, the present study investigated whether perfectionism (perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns) predicted relative changes in students' school engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement). Results showed that both perfectionistic strivings and concerns were related to school engagement, but only perfectionistic strivings predicted relative increases in school engagement. Implications for the understanding of how perfectionistic strivings contribute to school students' engagement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• All subject areas benefit from extra-curricular challenges to build 21st century skills. • STEM teams rely more on collaborative thinking process to produce creative solutions. • Explicit teaching of thinking strategies to promote creativity is needed in all learning areas. The Australian Tournament of Minds (TOM) is an annual collaborative problem-solving challenge for student teams inclusive of Years 3–10. TOM develops 21st century skills (21CS) of creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration (4Cs) as identified by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). TOM challenges accommodate student teams with an enthusiasm for the Arts, Language Literature, Social Sciences, and Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. The research employed a correlational design using quantitative ANOVA to explore relationships between thinking processes and collaboration in producing creative answers. The data (N = 1445 teams) was collected from the Australian and New Zealand teams of seven students participating in a five-minute spontaneous divergent thinking challenge in 2019. The data reported operational differences between the teams to generate creative outcomes. STEM teams saw enhanced collaborative thinking compared to other teams in a common challenge. The data has implications for teacher-initiated collaboration pedagogy in different learning areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied associations between ocular symptoms, rhinitis, throat and dermal symptoms, headache and fatigue in students by ethnicity and in relation to exposure to chemical microbial markers and fungal DNA in vacuumed dust in schools in Malaysia. A total of 462 students from 8 randomly selected secondary schools in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, participated (96% response rate). Dust was vacuumed from 32 classrooms and analysed for levels of five types of endotoxin as 3-hydroxy fatty acids (C10, C12, C14, C16 and C18 3-OH), muramic acid, ergosterol and five sequences of fungal DNA. Multiple logistic regression was applied. Totally 11.9% reported weekly ocular symptoms, 18.8% rhinitis, 15.6% throat and 11.1% dermal symptoms, 20.6% headache and 22.1% tiredness. Totally 21.1% reported pollen or furry pet allergy (atopy) and 22.0% parental asthma or allergy. Chinese students had less headache than Malay and Indian had less rhinitis and less tiredness than Malay. Parental asthma/allergy was a risk factor for ocular (odds ratio = 3.79) and rhinitis symptoms (OR = 3.48). Atopy was a risk factor for throat symptoms (OR = 2.66), headache (OR = 2.13) and tiredness (OR = 2.02). There were positive associations between amount of fine dust in the dust samples and ocular symptoms (p < 0.001) and rhinitis (p = 0.006). There were positive associations between C14 3-OH and rhinitis (p < 0.001) and between C18 3-OH and dermal symptoms (p = 0.007). There were negative (protective) associations between levels of total endotoxin (LPS) (p = 0.004) and levels of ergosterol (p = 0.03) and rhinitis and between C12 3-OH and throat symptoms (p = 0.004). In conclusion, the amount of fine dust in the classroom was associated with rhinitis and other SBS symptoms and improved cleaning of the schools is important. Endotoxin in the school dust seems to be mainly protective for rhinitis and throat symptoms but different types of endotoxin could have different effects. The ethnic differences in symptoms among the students deserve further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study was aimed to assess Saudi school students' knowledge, attitude and practice about medicines. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used anonymously among 15-20year-old adolescents attending tertiary schools in Taif City, KSA. A total of 1022 students completed the questionnaires. Only 15.4% of the respondents knew the medicines' uses. Most of the students 79.6% affirmed that they used to take medicines after consulting physicians, and 45.1% of the students thought that tablet size affects the medicine's efficacy. More than half of the students knew that high temperatures affect the efficacy of medicines, there was a significant difference between rural and urban areas (P=0.005). Physicians (50.6%) and community pharmacists (15.7%), were the main students' reliable sources of information about medicines. The majority of the students 70.5% were interested in learning more about medicines. The younger students ⩽18years wish to learn more than the older ones (P<0.014). The study showed that Saudi school students aged 15-20years old have poor knowledge, misconception and negative attitudes about medicines. Low level of knowledge may expose adolescents to health-related problems. Educational efforts are important to improve students' practice toward medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The importance of various information sources to school students has been investigated. [•] Gender, place of residence, and school type are the tested variables. [•] Parents scored the highest mean value followed by internet and teachers. [•] Statistical differences among study variables were found and highlighted. [•] Principle Component Analysis revealed three dimensions of preferences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Purpose: Internet addiction (IA) is an upcoming and less researched entity in psychiatry, especially in low and middle income countries. This is the first such effort to study IA amongst Indian school students of class 11th and 12th and to find its correlation with socio-educational characteristics, internet use patterns and psychological variables, namely depression, anxiety and stress. Methods: Six hundred and twenty one students of six English medium schools of Ahmedabad participated, of which 552 (88.9%) who completed forms were analyzed. Young's Internet Addiction Test and 21 item Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale were used to measure IA and psychological variables respectively. Logistic regression analysis was applied to find the predictors of IA. Results: Sixty-five (11.8%) students had IA; it was predicted by time spent online, usage of social networking sites and chat rooms, and also by presence of anxiety and stress. Age, gender and self-rated academic performance did not predict IA. There was a strong positive correlation between IA and depression, anxiety and stress. Conclusions: IA may be a relevant clinical construct, and needs extensive research even in developing nations. All high school students suffering from depression, anxiety and stress must be screened for IA, and vice versa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Students’ understanding of probability and sample size. [•] Teachers’ pedagogical knowledge of probability and sample size. [•] No student difference in performance for problem context. [•] Teachers aware of some, not all, student strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effects of test tasks with different cognitive demands on salivary cortisol concentrations in school students. The salivary cortisol levels of 93 students (56 males and 37 females, mean age 17.86yrs.) were measured before and after 2 brief tests and 2 control situations, respectively. One of the tests comprised reproductive, the other transfer and problem-solving tasks. In the control groups, students were instructed to either write whatever they want, or to wait. Statistical analysis (ANOVA) indicated a significant main effect of the experimental treatment on the cortisol response. The cortisol increase was significantly higher following the reproduction tasks as compared to both control conditions. Although not significant the cortisol increase during reproduction tasks was over twice as much in males compared to females. In contrast the increase during transfer and problem solving tasks does not differ significantly from the control conditions under which the cortisol concentration remains nearly the same and decreases respectively. These findings indicate an influence of the task demand on the cortisol concentration. Furthermore, it can be assumed that reproduction tasks in particular have the potential to be a major stressor during school examinations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

SUMMARY: Demand for nursing care, and nurses, is growing in the United Kingdom given an increasingly ageing patient population with long-term co-morbidities. An ageing nursing workforce and fewer school leavers entering nursing are key barriers to student nurse recruitment. This paper aims to identify the socio-demographic and correlates nursing as a career choice in 5th and 6th year school students. This cross-sectional descriptive study gathered self-administered questionnaires from a total cohort of 5th and 6th year school students (n=1059) in one educational authority in Scotland. A response rate of 100% was achieved, with 702 students expressing a career choice. Some 71.7% (n=503) of students providing a full data set would never consider nursing, even if they obtained poor grades. Only 28.3% (n=199) would ever consider nursing. Students cited nursing as a career choice if they were female, of average to below average academic ability/achievement, expressed a positive attitude to nursing as a degree subject which was shared by their career guidance teacher. Each additional higher reduced the likelihood of nursing as a career choice by 22%. Nursing is an unpopular career choice amongst school students. Strategies are required to improve the occupational image of nursing in secondary education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Studies have found that prior involvement in student politics while in school seems to be a good predictor of adult political engagement. While most studies of adults have obtained retrospective data on participation in school elections, there have been few studies of students about this activity. We contribute to this latter relatively unexplored area by reporting the results from a national survey of Australian secondary school students about the relationship between participation in school elections and future intended political engagement activities. We found that voting in school elections is positively related to feeling prepared to vote as an adult, to being committed to vote when 18, to political knowledge, and to engagement in forms of peaceful activism. Running for student government office is related to political knowledge and participation in peaceful activism. These results reinforce the findings of adult retrospective studies, and show that participation in school elections serves as a beneficial experience in the preparation of students for life as an active adult citizen. The implications of these findings for the structure and conduct of student elections in schools are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Altruism can evolve through assortation if the selfish advantage of egoistic individuals is outcompeted by the benefits of mutual cooperation between altruists. This selection process is possible if (a) individuals can distinguish altruists from egoists and (b) altruists cooperate electively with other altruists, leaving egoists no chance but to mingle with each other. This study investigates whether these two conditions are fulfilled in a natural setting. One hundred twenty-two students of six secondary school classes (age 10 to 19 years) played an anonymous dictator game, which functioned as a measure of altruism. Afterwards and unannounced, the students had to estimate their classmates'' decisions and did so better than chance. Sociometry revealed that the accuracy of predictions depended on social closeness. Friends and disliked classmates were judged more accurately than liked classmates or those met with indifference. Moreover, altruists were friends with more altruistic persons than were egoists. The results confirm the existence of the two prerequisites for the evolution of altruism through assortation: the predictability of altruistic behavior and the association of altruists. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

: PurposeTo identify the health concerns for which adolescent residents in New South Wales, Australia, do not receive health care, and the associated factors, including their sociodemographic distribution.: MethodsPurposive sampling was used to recruit school students who were stratified by gender and age (12–14, 14–16 and 16–17 years), from schools stratified by socioeconomic status and urban/rural location. Out-of-school young people were recruited through youth health services. Qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze data.: ResultsEighty-one focus groups were conducted. Most young people defined health solely in terms of their physical well-being, but still identified a broad range of situations, conditions, or behaviors which they believed might affect their health. One-third of females and two-thirds of males said they would not seek help for their health concerns, and when they did, were most likely to seek help from family, friends, or others they trusted. When professional help was sought, young people again preferred someone they knew and trusted. The three groups of barriers to accessing health care were: concerns about confidentiality, knowledge of services and discomfort in disclosing health concerns, and accessibility and characteristics of services. Factors related to use of health care services were associated with age, gender, and location, but rarely with socioeconomic status.: ConclusionsThe majority of these young people in New South Wales (particularly males) do not seek health care despite identifying a broad range of issues that affect their health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• No differences in behavioural, psychological, and physiological stress markers or academic performance between students with immigrant parents and students with non-immigrant parents. • There were no differences in behaviour detected that might impact their overall performance, nutritional habits, or physical activity registered. The aim of this study was to analyse the differences in behavioural, psychological, and physiological stress markers and academic performance of immigrant parents' students and non-immigrant parents' students. 75 students (7.8±2.3 years, from 3 to 12 years), 37 from Morocco immigrant families and 38 from Spanish families, all of them studying in a Spanish public school were recruited. We analysed the autonomical nervous system stress status by the heart rate variability, physical activity patterns, nutritional habits, state and trait anxiety, and academic performance of students. No significant differences were found in autonomical nervous system stress markers, physical activity levels, academic performance, and just a lower protein animal consumption from students with Moroccan families. Students with North African descendent family presented a behavioural, psychological and physiological stress markers and academic performance similar than students with national origins, showing their adaptation in the school context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]