Margaret Cargo, Jon Salsberg, Treena Delormier, Serge Desrosiers and Ann C. Macaulay
Although implementation fidelity is an important component in the evaluation of school health promotion programs, it assumes that teaching is the most relevant teacher role. To…
Abstract
Purpose
Although implementation fidelity is an important component in the evaluation of school health promotion programs, it assumes that teaching is the most relevant teacher role. To understand the social context of program implementation, a qualitative study was undertaken with the aim of identifying the schoolteacher's role in implementing the objectives of the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project (KSDPP), a locally governed Kanienke:háka (Mohawk) community‐based diabetes prevention program.
Design/methodology/approach
Prospective semi‐structured interviews were conducted cross‐sectionally with 30 teachers, two administrators and one physical education teacher across four intervention years. Interviews were analysed retrospectively using qualitative thematic analysis.
Findings
In implementing KSDPP objectives teachers adopted, to varying degrees, the roles of teaching the health education curriculum, enforcing the school nutrition policy, role modelling healthy lifestyles, and encouraging healthy lifestyles. Taken together, these roles point to a high‐order role of teachers taking responsibility for enabling healthy lifestyles in their children, which is congruent with a wholistic approach to health. Study findings suggest that children in different classrooms were exposed to a different intervention dose based on the extent to which teachers applied each role.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest that the current conceptualisation of implementation fidelity should be expanded to account for the influence of the social context (i.e. teachers' roles) on the implementation of health promotion program objectives.
Originality/value
Consistent with an ecological approach to intervention, teachers would benefit from interventions that predispose, enable, and reinforce their capacity to adopt and apply health promotion roles.
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Ruth Elwood Martin, Sue Adamson, Mo Korchinski, Alison Granger-Brown, Vivian R. Ramsden, Jane A. Buxton, Nancy Espinoza-Magana, Sue L. Pollock, Megan J.F. Smith, Ann C. Macaulay, Lara Lisa Condello and T. Gregory Hislop
Women in prison throughout the world experience higher rates of mental and physical illness compared with the general population and compared with men in prison. The paper finds…
Abstract
Purpose
Women in prison throughout the world experience higher rates of mental and physical illness compared with the general population and compared with men in prison. The paper finds no published studies that report on men or women in prison engaging in participatory health research to address their concerns about nutrition and fitness. The purpose of this paper is to describe a pilot nutrition and fitness program, which resulted from a unique prison participatory health research project.
Design/methodology/approach
Women in prison designed, led, and evaluated a six-week pilot fitness program in a minimum/medium security women's prison. Pre- and post-program assessments included a self-administered questionnaire and body measures. Open-ended questionnaire responses illuminated the quantitative findings.
Findings
Sixteen women in prison completed the program evaluation. Weight, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and chest measurements decreased, and energy, sleep, and stress levels improved by the end of the program.
Research limitations/implications
As a component of a participatory research project, incarcerated women designed and led a nutrition and fitness program, which resulted in improved body measures and self-reported health benefits.
Originality Value
Incarceration provides opportunities to engage women in designing their own health programs with consequent potential long-term “healing” benefits.
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James Harris, Ruth Elwood Martin, Heather Filek, Ann C Macaulay, Jane A. Buxton, Marla Buchanan, Mo Korchinski, Veronika Moravan and Vivian Ramsden
This participatory health research project of researchers and women prisoners examined housing and homelessness as perceived by incarcerated women to understand this public health…
Abstract
Purpose
This participatory health research project of researchers and women prisoners examined housing and homelessness as perceived by incarcerated women to understand this public health concern and help guide policy. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
A participatory research team designed and conducted a survey of 83 incarcerated women in BC, Canada. Using descriptive statistics, the authors examined socio-demographic factors related to social support networks and family housing and women’s housing preference upon release.
Findings
In total, 44 percent of participants reported no family home upon release while 31 percent reported lost family ties due to their incarceration. Most vulnerable subpopulations were women aged 25-34, aboriginal women and those with multiple incarcerations. Housing preferences differed between participants suggesting needs for varied options. Further implementation, evaluation and appraisal of social programs are required.
Research limitations/implications
This study surveyed one correctional facility: future research could utilize multiple centers.
Practical implications
Addressing housing instability among released incarcerated individuals is important fiscally and from a public health lens. Improved discharge planning and housing stability is needed through policy changes and social programs. A social support network, “Women in2 Healing,” has developed from the research group to address these issues.
Social implications
Housing stability and recidivism are closely linked: providing stable housing options will lessen the social, fiscal and medical burden of individuals returning to crime, substance abuse, illness and poverty.
Originality/value
Housing instability addresses an important social determinant of health and focussing on incarcerated women builds upon a small body of literature.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
Hassam Waheed, Peter J.R. Macaulay, Hamdan Amer Ali Al-Jaifi, Kelly-Ann Allen and Long She
In response to growing concerns over the negative consequences of Internet addiction on adolescents’ mental health, coupled with conflicting results in this literature stream…
Abstract
Purpose
In response to growing concerns over the negative consequences of Internet addiction on adolescents’ mental health, coupled with conflicting results in this literature stream, this meta-analysis sought to (1) examine the association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms in adolescents, (2) examine the moderating role of Internet freedom across countries, and (3) examine the mediating role of excessive daytime sleepiness.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 52 studies were analyzed using robust variance estimation and meta-analytic structural equation modeling.
Findings
There was a significant and moderate association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, Internet freedom did not explain heterogeneity in this literature stream before and after controlling for study quality and the percentage of female participants. In support of the displacement hypothesis, this study found that Internet addiction contributes to depressive symptoms through excessive daytime sleepiness (proportion mediated = 17.48%). As the evidence suggests, excessive daytime sleepiness displaces a host of activities beneficial for maintaining mental health. The results were subjected to a battery of robustness checks and the conclusions remain unchanged.
Practical implications
The results underscore the negative consequences of Internet addiction in adolescents. Addressing this issue would involve interventions that promote sleep hygiene and greater offline engagement with peers to alleviate depressive symptoms.
Originality/value
This study utilizes robust meta-analytic techniques to provide the most comprehensive examination of the association between Internet addiction and depressive symptoms in adolescents. The implications intersect with the shared interests of social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers.
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Discuss in detail the uses which might legitimately be made of the following passage by the writer of a profound study of economic life and thought in France at the end of the…
Abstract
Discuss in detail the uses which might legitimately be made of the following passage by the writer of a profound study of economic life and thought in France at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. In answering the question make full use of your knowledge of (a) historical criticism; (b) French economic and general history.
Ruth Elwood Martin, Debra Hanson, Christine Hemingway, Vivian Ramsden, Jane Buxton, Alison Granger‐Brown, Lara‐Lisa Condello, Ann Macaulay, Patti Janssen and T. Gregory Hislop
The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, by incarcerated women who were members of a prison participatory health research team, of a survey tool regarding…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, by incarcerated women who were members of a prison participatory health research team, of a survey tool regarding homelessness and housing, the survey findings and recommendations for policy.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was developed by incarcerated women in a minimum/medium security women's prison in Canada. Associations were examined between socio‐demographic factors and reports of difficulty finding housing upon release, homelessness contributing to a return to crime, and a desire for relocation to another city upon release. Open‐ended questions were examined to look for recurrent themes and to illuminate the survey findings.
Findings
In total, 83 women completed the survey, a 72 per cent response rate. Of the 71 who were previously incarcerated, 56 per cent stated that homelessness contributed to their return to crime. Finding housing upon release was a problem for 63 per cent and 34 per cent desired relocation to another city upon release. Women indicated that a successful housing plan should incorporate flexible progressive staged housing.
Research limitations/implications
The present study focuses only on incarcerated women but could be expanded in future to include men.
Practical implications
Incarcerated women used the findings to create a housing proposal for prison leavers and created a resource database of the limited housing resources for women prison leavers.
Social implications
Lack of suitable housing is a major factor leading to recidivism. This study highlights the reality of the cycle of homelessness, poverty, crime for survival, street‐life leading to drug use and barriers to health, education and employment that incarcerated women face.
Originality/value
Housing is a recognized basic determinant of health. No previous studies have used participatory research to address homelessness in a prison population.
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The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act…
Abstract
The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:
The United States has an uncomfortable relationship with pleasure. Cultural ambivalence is evident in discourses surrounding pleasure and the labeling and treatment of those who…
Abstract
The United States has an uncomfortable relationship with pleasure. Cultural ambivalence is evident in discourses surrounding pleasure and the labeling and treatment of those who act on their desires. Pleasure seeking, generally understood in moral terms, is often medicalized and criminalized (as in the case of pregnancy prevention and drug use), placing questions of how to manage pleasure under the purview of medical and legal actors. At the macrolevel, institutions police pleasure via rules, patterns of action, and logics, while at the microlevel, frontline workers police pleasure via daily decisions about resource distribution. This chapter develops a sociolegal framework for understanding the social control of pleasure by analyzing how two institutions – medicine and criminal justice – police pleasure institutionally and interactionally. Conceptualizing medicine and criminal justice as paternalistic institutions acting as arbiters of morality, I demonstrate how these institutions address two cases of pleasure seeking – drug use and sex – by drawing examples from contemporary drug and reproductive health policy. Section one highlights shared institutional mechanisms of policing pleasure across medicine and criminal justice such as categorization, allocation of professional power, and the structuring of legitimate consequences for pleasure seeking. Section two demonstrates how frontline workers in each field act as moral gatekeepers as they interpret and construct institutional imperatives while exercising discretion about resource allocation in daily practice. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how understanding institutional and interactional policing of pleasure informs sociolegal scholarship about the relationships between medicine and criminal justice and the mechanisms by which institutions and frontline workers act as agents of social control.