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This article provides a review of existing research on youth transitions within regional, remote and rural communities. Results were organised according to the Systems Theory Framework of Career Development, highlighting the importance of geographical location as an environmental influence within the career decision-making process. By deploying a scoping review methodology it was determined that educational institutions, the employment market, socioeconomic status and families are the most significant influences on the career decision-making processes for young people in regional, remote and rural communities. Future research in this area would involve an examination of these four areas.

From 2017 to 2021, the Youth Action Research Revolution (YARR) team documented the institutional histories of young people experiencing homelessness in Canada. Interviews with youth focused on educational, child welfare, health care, and criminal justice institutions. Situated at the intersections of critical adult education (CAE), participatory action research (PAR), and institutional ethnography (IE), we outline our mobilization of IE to ground learning and action in our team. We document the different phases of learning that we undertook to illustrate how CAE, PAR, and IE can be mutually supportive frameworks for praxis and activist learning. We highlight our use of IE to illuminate and resist the institutionalizing processes at work in post-secondary contexts and reflect on the importance of mutual aid as essential to realizing the social justice potential of participatory research. We suggest that co-creating IE research with young adults with lived experiences of homelessness constitutes a unique opportunity to mobilize CAE values and tangibly support community research that seeks to positively influence the lives of those implicated by the problems we study together.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed the practice of school leadership, requiring greater flexibility, creativity, and innovation. Guided by institutional theory, this paper suggests that leadership adaptations are influenced by environmental pressures such as coercive (e.g., from governmental or regulatory agencies), mimetic (e.g., attempts to emulate best practices from other schools), and normative pressures (e.g., professional standards endorsed by professional societies or unions). By using a qualitative co-constructed autoethnographic approach (See Kempster & Iszatt-White, 2012), the paper presents the Covid-19 timeline in Manitoba, identifying stakeholders and associated environmental pressures. It also features the personal leadership adaptations experienced by a school principal (Susan). The findings suggest that coercive pressures are mostly associated with creativity and inventive leadership practices. Mimetic pressures may lead to copying behaviours, and normative pressures are associated with enhanced foundational knowledges, all depending on contextual factors. The findings also highlight the significant emotional and physical toll the pandemic has taken on school principals.

Mental health challenges among students remain a complex and widespread problem facing school leaders. Though schools are a front-line pathway for providing mental health services, many struggling youth are not receiving the professional help they need (Atkins, Hoagwood, Kutash, & Seidman, 2010; Findlay, 2017). Creative and collaborative solutions are needed to bridge the mental health gap. School leader support is essential to the successful implementation of mental health interventions (Forman, Olin, Hoagwood, Crowe, & Saka, 2009). This paper summarizes the novel approach taken by school and community leaders in one rural Ontario community who jointly piloted a school-based social worker (SBSW) role to support secondary schools in two districts. Interviews with five district leaders (four involved in designing the intervention and the SBSW who piloted the role) reveal conditions necessary for the pilot to take place, as well as leader involvement in setting up, supporting, monitoring the new role. Interviews highlighted multiple ways which the pilot improved student mental well-ness: one-on-one and group counselling sessions, charting fresh pathways networks of support available to students, creating a safe space for student and staff drop-ins, among other benefits to schools and stakeholders involved in the pilot. Results also detail three challenges leaders encountered along the way: stakeholder agreement, role clarity, and the temporary design of the role. Findings underscore how school-based social workers show promise in addressing rising mental health challenges.

Grade inflation is a global phenomenon that has garnered widespread condemnation among educators, researchers, and the public. Yet, few have deliberated over the ethics of grading, let alone the ethics of grade inflation. The purpose of this paper is to map out and examine the ethics of grade inflation. By way of beginning, we clarify why grade inflation is a problem of practical ethics embedded in contemporary social practice. Then, we illuminate three different aspects of grade inflation--longitudinal, compressed, and comparative--and explore the ethical dilemmas that each one raises. We demonstrate how these three aspects may be seen as corresponding to three different victims of grade inflation--individuals, institutions, and society--and hence also to three potential agents of harm--teachers, schools, and educational systems. Next, we reflect upon various compelling reasons that these agents inflate grades, whether from an ethic of care, fiduciary responsibility, or simple self-preservation. Subsequently, we consider a variety of means of combatting grade inflation, and invite more educators and philosophers to delve into the complex practical ethics of grade inflation.

Using the language and concepts of economic markets for the purpose of describing and evaluating the function and performance of educational institutions has been a common and growing practice throughout Western industrial societies for many years. The critique of such market analysis also has a long history. Critical assessments of market theory have been made by both conservatives and radicals. It comes as no surprise, of course, to learn that criticisms have been plentiful among left-wing political theorists like Antonio Gramsci. What is less well appreciated is that even iconic classical economists like Adam Smith had serious and explicitly moral reservations about the implications of market economics, especially as applied to education. While radicals called for greater democracy in education and conservatives sought to maintain exclusive control over elite institutions, both shared a skepticism of both the ideology and the social goals of educational reform. So, conservatives have often joined radicals in generating robust objections to the primacy of vocational training, instrumental values and the subservience of postsecondary institutions to the expressed needs of corporate ideology and the labour market (Grant, 1970, Prentice, 1977). In Ontario, the agenda for discussion about the primary purpose, organizational structure and funding of college education has been set for some time. One important document that epitomizes the market model and strikingly reveals the political and economic contradictions inherent in it is the "Road Map to Prosperity" (henceforward RMP), an economic plan for jobs in the twenty-first century published in 1999. Its emphasis upon regarding education as primarily a provider of specific training for the workplace has seldom been equaled. Its message continues to resonate with those whose commitment has been to vocational training as the main mandate of the college sector. This article assesses the economic and educational concepts contained in the RMP and their ongoing relevance for institutions of higher education, especially community colleges in Ontario.

Recognizing the paucity of quantitative and qualitative data from North American educational institutions that have pursued open access policies, the authors devised a survey to collect information on the characteristics of these institutions, as well as the elements of the open access policies, the methods of promoting these policies, faculty concerns about the policies, and how those concerns have been addressed. The data collected through survey results from fifty-one institutions can inform the strategic decisions being made by other institutions considering an open access policy and illustrates the essential roles that academic libraries can play in the development and passage of open access policies.

In her book, "Neoliberalism as Exception," Aihwa Ong usefully observes that the North American university has been dirempted from it historical role of preparing young people for democratic citizenship. It has instead, according to Ong, become the great global marketplace and grand bazaar for international students' ambitions. In what follows, we draw on Ong's insights. Specifically, we report on a global ethnographic study that looks at the way in which six form students (whom we are calling the "Argonauts") in two Barbadian elite schools--Old Cloisters and Ardent Arbors--are orienting themselves to the future in a moment of aggressive recruiting by North American universities. These developments bring students' global imaginations into profound tension with historical narratives and traditions linking these schools to England. This new context is epitomised by the transactions between the students and international college representatives at an annual international college fair that brings North American recruiters to the island in search of academic talent. We document this encounter at some length, pointing to the collision between the students' roiling ambitions and the schools' deep sense of heritage and tradition linked to the metropolitan paradigm of British public school traditions.

While technology use is becoming ever more ubiquitous in society, there are times when even the most useful of technologies faces non-adoption for a variety of contextual reasons. Educational institutions are increasingly relying on online academic support services such as e-tutoring to balance rising demands for public accountability over standardized testing with decreasing budgets. This study explores the context of an e-tutoring service that has experienced a relatively low adoption rate in a school district in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The study proposes a model, based on the results of a mixed-methods diffusion study, for the effective implementation of the service; results indicate that this model is significantly correlated with the adoption of e-tutoring. Implications for the integration of educational technologies in secondary education, especially in relation to e-tutoring, are discussed. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

Privileging the voices of 12 recent Chinese immigrant adolescents, this multiple-case narrative study examined their home and school experiences from the critical sociocultural perspective. The adolescent stories about home testified to the significant influence of immigrant poverty, parental sacrificial altruism, and disciplinary Chinese parenting in their academic achievement. The adolescent experiences at school revealed their appreciation of Canadian liberal education, their perception of ethnic peer divides, and their concerns about the ineffectiveness and the negative psychological consequences of the ESL (English as a Second Language) programming. Locating the adolescent narratives in the hierarchical power of domination in Canadian society, this article challenges mainstream educational institutions to address the changing nature of urban Canadian classrooms, structurally and ideologically representing the strengths of cultural diversity. (Contains 1 table and 2 notes.)

This dialogue centers on the following questions: (1) How can schools help a society select or identify new elites who are hopefully as good as and perhaps even better than those individuals who belong to the existing elite system?, and (2) How can we create learning situations that provide the most general learner with a broad basic education? The first question is rejected as highly inadequate and unsatisfactory partly because it makes a number of mistaken assumptions about how schools can best meet the educational needs in modern countries (such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada). The second question is deemed extremely worthwhile; it should be at the heart of educational dialogues in liberal democratic societies. The discussion is mainly about the desirability of replacing the first problem (of selecting new elites) with the second problem (of a broad basic education) by the way of commentary on the development of Western educational thought from Plato to Popper and beyond. A major aim of this dialogue is to upgrade the way elites in liberal democratic societies attempt to reform and improve our educational institutions.

Presents a rationale for the need to investigate the environments of educational organizations, presents ideas and reviews research on the nature and effectiveness of organizational environments and linkages, and outlines implications for educational policy formulation and policy implementation. (Author/IRT)

Addressing sexting in sexual health education classrooms is one way of supporting young people to become good sexual citizens and to emphasise respect and consent in their sexual practices and in their lives. While a fair amount of research has worked with youth to understand their motivations for sexting, less research has been conducted with in-service teachers to understand their perspectives, pedagogical approaches, and beliefs regarding young people and sexting. Set in this context, this paper discusses findings from interviews with Canadian teachers who were teaching a new Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum that included discussions of sexting. Our findings suggest that many teachers are still engaging discourses of risk, shame and blame when they talk to their students about sexting. Likewise, longstanding gender norms and stereotypical sexual scripts are evident in the ways in which many teachers both understand and teach sexting. Some teachers, however, are engaging in more promising pedagogical practices that frame sexting as having a range of uses, outcomes, and purposes, painting a more holistic picture of young people's sexting landscapes. Findings from this paper may be useful for educators and policymakers creating sexting curriculum for young people in educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Insufficient sleep is a growing public health concern. Thirty percent of Canadian children and youth are not meeting national sleep recommendations. Inadequate sleep can negatively influence students' academics and physical and psychosocial health. Schools have been identified as ideal health promotion settings to influence children's health including their sleep behaviors. The objective of this study was to explore teachers' perspectives on sleep behaviors and their role in school‐based sleep promotion. METHODS: Nineteen elementary teachers were purposively sampled from the greater Edmonton area, Alberta, Canada. Interpretive description was used as the guiding method, and data were generated through one‐on‐one semi‐structured interviews. Inductive descriptive thematic analysis was used to identify interview themes. RESULTS: Three themes related to teachers' perspectives on sleep behaviors and school‐based sleep promotion were identified: the importance of students' sleep, prioritizing sleep as part of teaching and learning, and a culture of healthy sleep habits. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that teachers considered sleep to be essential for elementary students' academic success and wellbeing, and a whole school approach was necessary to support a healthy sleep culture in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools must address immigrant and refugee children's specific needs to enhance their psychosocial development. While most existing programs focusing on children's emotional and developmental needs assume that they have a basic knowledge of the language of schooling, less verbal interventions, especially sandplay, provide other promising avenues. This article describes a classroom-based sandplay intervention with immigrant and refugee preschool children in Canada, involving teachers. Based on individual and class-level observations, we examine the creation of emotional safety during the workshops and teachers' role in its development, focusing on the process of two children from Syria. Analyses suggest that teachers provided a safe-enough space that allowed children to express, during the workshops, emotions related to their life experiences. While implementing sandplay in non-clinical settings with non-art-therapists involves challenges, offering sandplay workshops in classrooms should be considered as a valid avenue of intervention to support the social adjustment of immigrant and refugee children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the global rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) for Indigenous women have been acknowledged as substantial, few studies have incorporated an analysis of the impacts of colonization in the context of IPV. This secondary mixed-methods analysis explored the experiences of 40 Indigenous women from the Canadian prairie provinces who were abused by their intimate partners. The women discussed the impact of colonization, including the use of residential schools, to break down family life, spiritual beliefs, and languages, at times linking this to IPV. Of the 40 women, 38 described male partners as the abusers and two identified female abusive partners. Consistent with the literature, many of the male partners physically assaulted the respondents so severely that the women were injured and were at risk of death. Almost half of the men (47.4%) used sexually coercive strategies and/or sexually assaulted the women. Implications include the importance of professionals considering the broader historical experiences and possible trauma of Indigenous women who seek assistance for IPV from abusive partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and medication use has increased over time around the world, but significant regional differences remain. This paper aims to determine and explain disparities in ADHD prevalence and medication use among school-aged children in two distinct school systems, in Flanders (Belgium) and Québec (Canada). We present detailed descriptive and comparative analyses of data from 35 schools, 114 teachers, and 1046 parents (children) that were collected as part of a comparative international project. The data concern teacher and parent suspicions, teachers' ratings of ADHD-related behaviors in children, teachers' views of medication use, and teachers' beliefs about ADHD. The results show that, compared with Flanders, Québec had significantly more children diagnosed with ADHD and more frequent suspicions of ADHD in children by teachers and parents. We refer to the conceptual, institutional, and interactional levels of medicalization to interpret our findings and conclude that social and cultural readings of children's behaviors differ greatly between regions. Medicalization of children's behaviors is more common in Québec than in Flanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental/guardian support can be a key input for policy decision-making for sexual health education curriculum development and it is, therefore, critical to examine parental/guardian attitudes towards the principles underlying comprehensive sexual health education. The Canadian Guidelines for Sexual Health Education (SIECCAN, 2019) specify nine Core Principles of Comprehensive Sexual Health Education that should inform the planning and delivery of sexual health education programs. This study examines parental/guardian attitudes towards the Core Principles and determines whether attitudes vary based on demographic and regional variables. Two thousand parents/guardians from across Canada completed an online questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics and overall agreement with each of the Core Principles. There was strong consensus among parents/guardians; 73% to 85% support the inclusion of the nine Core Principles in the planning and development of sexual health education programs. We tested agreement with Core Principles in two ways: first using averaged scores across all Core Principle items, then across individual Core Principles. We found some statistically significant effects based on parent/guardian gender, educational attainment, region of residence, and importance of religion, however all effect sizes were small (between 1%–4% variance accounted for) suggesting these were not particularly meaningful. Therefore, findings demonstrate parental/guardian support across Canada for the Core Principles of Comprehensive Sexual Health Education. Understanding parents'/guardians' attitudes towards the philosophical underpinnings of sexual health education provides policymakers with a firmer understanding of parental perspectives which may be particularly salient as new issues emerge in public discourse about the content of sexual health education in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe GuysWork, a school‐based healthy living program for adolescent boys, and share results from a pilot evaluation in Nova Scotia, Canada, during COVID‐19. The team hypothesized the program would reduce loneliness, perceived stress, and adherence to key traditional male gender role norms postprogram. A longitudinal cohort pre‐ and postsurvey design was used. One‐hundred fifty‐two participants completed sections of UCLA Loneliness Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and the Meanings of Adolescent Male‐Role Norms Scale (MAMS). Results were nonsignificant for loneliness and perceived stress. MAMS results were statistically significant with a medium effect size (r = −.26) but there are limitations in the study. This pilot study of GuysWork has resulted in important lessons learned that will ensure a forthcoming Atlantic Canada‐wide evaluation results in robust evidence with the potential to support the need for masculinity norm‐changing work specifically for adolescent boys in schools. Practitioner Points: Boys showed less adherence to adolescent masculinity norms after completing the GuysWork program.GuysWork uses a circle format for engaging boys in thought‐provoking, meaningful conversations related to their health, and the health of those around them.More evidence is needed to support this unique school‐based and curriculum‐aligned program for adolescent boys. This evidence will be gathered over the next 4 years as part of a larger longitudinal cohort pilot of the program in schools across Canada's Atlantic provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application of evidence‐based mental health literacy (MHL) curriculum resources by classroom teachers has been demonstrated to significantly improve knowledge and decrease stigma in the short term. Aims: To report results that extend these positive findings for a period of one year. Method: In a naturalistic cohort study, 332 grade 9 students (ages 14–15) in a Canadian school district learned from an evidence‐based curriculum resource (the Guide) applied by classroom teachers who trained in its use. Evaluations of knowledge and stigma were conducted before the Guide, immediately following the Guide delivery and at one‐year follow‐up. Results: Students showed significant (p <.001) and substantial (d = 0.68 and 0.67) short‐term and significant (p <.001) and substantial (d = 0.44 and 0.58) long‐term improvements in knowledge and reductions in stigma. Significant stigma reduction was found among female students than male students, but no gender differences on knowledge were found at long‐term follow‐up. Educators showed significant and substantial short‐term improvements in knowledge (p <.001; d = 1.03) and reductions in stigma (p <.05; d = 0.35). Conclusions: The Guide resource delivered by trained classroom teachers may have value in enhancing MHL outcomes for young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Children's independent mobility (IM) may facilitate both active transportation (AT) and physical activity (PA), but previous studies examining these associations were conducted in single regions that provided limited geographical variability. Method: We recruited 1699 children (55.0% girls) in 37 schools stratified by level of urbanization and socioeconomic status in 3 regions of Canada: Ottawa, Trois-Rivières, and Vancouver. Participants wore a SC-StepRx pedometer for 7 days and completed a validated questionnaire from which we derived a 6-point IM index, the number of AT trips over a week, and the volume of AT to/from school (in kilometer per week). We investigated relationships among measures of IM, AT, and PA employing linear mixed models or generalized linear mixed models adjusted for site, urbanization, and socioeconomic status. Results: Each unit increase in IM was associated with 9% more AT trips, 19% higher AT volume, and 147 more steps per day, with consistent results across genders. Both measures of AT were associated with marginally higher PA when pooling boys' and girls' data. Children in Vancouver engaged in more AT. PA did not vary across site, urbanization, or socioeconomic status. Conclusion: IM was associated with more AT and PA regardless of where children lived, underscoring a need for IM interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Guidance is lacking for medical cannabis use in Canadian schools in both legislation and approach; the impact of ambiguous policy on patient care is unknown. A qualitative study was undertaken to explore the experiences of clinicians who care for school-aged children who take medical cannabis. Methods Semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative content analysis performed using the Dedoose qualitative software ascribed meaning units and codes, which were further consolidated into categories and subcategories. Results Thirteen physicians were interviewed virtually, representing seven provinces in Canada. The physicians provided care for between five and hundreds of school-aged children who took medical cannabis. The most common indications were refractory seizure disorders and autism. The interviews provided rich descriptions on perceptions of medical cannabis in schools, and in general. Five overarching categories were identified across both domains including variability, challenges (subcategories: lack of knowledge, stigma, lack of policy, and pragmatic challenges), potential solutions (subcategories: treat it like other medications, communication, education, and family support), positive experiences and improvements over time. Conclusion In Canada, cannabis-based medicine use in schools still faces important challenges. Effective education, communication, family support and policy refinements that allow cannabis to be treated like other prescription medications are recommended to improve the status quo. These findings will guide the C4T Medical Cannabis in Schools Working Group's future priorities and initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Implementing medical cannabis (MC) into a child's daily routine can be challenging and there is a lack of guidance for its therapeutic use in schools in Canada. Our objective was to learn about the experiences of caregivers of school-aged children who require MC. Methods Qualitative description was used and caregivers were interviewed about MC in schools and in general. The transcripts were entered into Dedoose software for qualitative analysis and content analysis was performed. Sentences and statements were ascribed line by line into meaning units and labelled with codes, and organized according to categories and subcategories. Results Twelve caregivers of school-aged children who take MC participated. The most common reasons for treatment were drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), autism, or other developmental disorders. Approximately half of the participants' children (n = 6) took MC during the school day and most (5/6) perceived their experiences to be positive or neutral but reported a lack of knowledge about MC. While data saturation was not reached regarding MC in schools, rich dialogues were garnered about MC in general and three categories were identified: challenges (subcategories stigma, finding an authorizer, cost, dosing, and supply); parents as advocates (subcategories required knowledge, attitudes, skills, and sources of information); and caregiver relief for positive outcomes. Conclusions Caregivers demonstrate remarkable tenacity despite the many challenges associated with MC use. Education and practice change are needed to ensure that children using MC can benefit from or continue to experience its positive outcomes within the school environment and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across different faith traditions, Sabbath day observance shares a close relationship with theological conceptions of rest. Sabbath-keeping, with its promise of rest, may be a valuable spiritual practice in the context of teaching as prior research has consistently documented the adverse effects of teacher burnout. Yet no research has examined Sabbath-keeping and its connections to teaching practices and teacher burnout. We aim to fill this gap with a quantitative study of Sabbath-keeping and burnout among 1,300 teachers in Christian schools throughout the USA, Canada, Indonesia, and Paraguay. We report their conceptions of Sabbath and how those conceptions inform their teaching practice. We find an inverse and statistically significant relationship between Sabbath-keeping and burnout that is robust across several model specifications, suggesting that Sabbath-keeping may be helpful in reducing burnout among educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends developmental surveillance and screening in early childhood in primary care. The 18-month visit may be an ideal time for identification of children with delays in language and communication, or symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little is known about the predictive validity of developmental screening tools administered at 18 months. Our objective was to examine the predictive validity of the Infant Toddler Checklist (ITC) at the 18-month health supervision visit, using school readiness at kindergarten age as the criterion measure. METHODS: We designed a prospective cohort study, recruiting in primary care in Toronto, Canada. Parents completed the ITC at the 18-month visit. Teachers completed the Early Development Instrument (EDI) when the children were in Kindergarten, age 4-6 years. We calculated screening test properties with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used multivariable logistic and linear regression analyses adjusted for important covariates. RESULTS: Of 293 children (mean age 18 months), 30 (10.2%) had a positive ITC including: concern for speech delay (n = 11, 3.8%), concern for other communication delay (n = 13, 4.4%), and concern for both (n = 6, 2.0%). At followup (mean age 5 years), 54 (18.4%) had overall EDI vulnerability, 19 (6.5%) had vulnerability on the 2 EDI communication domains. The ITC sensitivity ranged from 11% to 32%, speci- ficity from 91% to 96%, false positive rates from 4% to 9%, PPV from 16% to 35%, NPV from 83% to 95%. A positive ITC screen and ITC concern for speech delay were associated with lower scores in EDI communication skills and general knowledge (β = -1.08; 95% CI: -2.10, -0.17; β = -2.35; 95% CI: -3.63, -1.32) and EDI language and cognitive development (β = -0.62; 95% CI: -1.25, -0.18; β = -1.22; 95% CI: -2.11, -0.58). CONCLUSIONS: The ITC demonstrated high specificity suggesting that most children with a negative ITC screen will demonstrate school readiness at 4-6 years, and low false positive rates, minimizing over-diagnosis. The ITC had low sensitivity highlighting the importance of ongoing developmental surveillance and screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diet quality and food security are a concern in school-aged children in Canada. In 2019, the Canadian federal government announced the intention to work towards a national school food program. Understanding the factors that impact school food program acceptability can inform planning to ensure that students are willing to participate. A scoping review of school food programs in Canada completed in 2019 identified 17 peer-reviewed and 18 grey literature publications. Of these, five peer-reviewed and nine grey literature publications included a discussion of factors that impact the acceptance of school food programs. These factors were thematically analyzed into categories: stigmatization, communication, food choice and cultural considerations, administration, location and timing, and social considerations. Considering these factors while planning can help to maximize program acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative study examines the extent to which the 21st-century skills are integrated into the 4th and 8th-grade public school science curriculum in Canada in relation to that of the United States of America (USA) by analyzing the 4th and 8th grade Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes of Canada and the 4th and 8th grade Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) of the United States in relation to the 21st-century skills as listed by the Applied Educational System (AES). The results predicted a huge economic decline of the United States in the nearest future in contrast to that of Canada if an intervention is not instituted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents living in both rural and urban settings experience the same mental health care needs at similar rates, but those living in rural environments experience exacerbated consequences because of localized barriers to receiving support. These barriers are often summarized as the three A's: availability, accessibility, and acceptability. Because Canada has many rural and remote communities, it is important to implement effective interventions that address these barriers within the community context. Tiered intervention at the school level is one such intervention framework that produces positive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI) is effective for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parental measures are rarely included in EIBI effectiveness studies, yet parental distress and lower self-efficacy are associated with poorer child outcomes. Parents of preschoolers with ASD (N = 485) were surveyed at baseline (T1), one-year post-intervention (T2), and school entry (T3) about family distress/crisis, parental self-efficacy, and satisfaction with services in two Canadian provinces. Family distress/crisis decreased and parental self-efficacy increased from T1 to T2. Increases in self-efficacy were largely maintained at T3. Parents were highly satisfied with services. Greater satisfaction for those residing in the province utilizing a parent-coaching model suggests that parent involvement is associated with positive parent outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the measurement invariance of the School Connectedness Scale for Chinese, Canadian, and Tanzanian adolescents, and to explore the inter association between school connectedness and cyberbullying/cybervictimization. Participants included 3872 adolescents from urban settings in China (N= 2053, Mage=16.36 years, SD = 1.14 years; 44.6% boys), Canada (N = 642, Mage = 12.13 years, SD = 0.77 years; 50.1% boys), and Tanzania (N = 1056, Mage=15.87 years, SD = 2.03 years; 52.8% boys). Adolescents selfreported their cybervictimization and cyberbullying experiences, as well as their perceived school connectedness. Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed an approximate measurement invariance of the scale across the three countries. Chinese students showed the lowest levels of school connectedness while Tanzanian students showed the highest. The findings of the multivariate multigroup regression analyses across the three countries revealed similar relationships between school connectedness and cyberbullying/cybervictimization, thus broadening our understanding of school connectedness and its relationship to cyberbullying/cybervictimization across these three different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The comprehensive school health (CSH) framework has four components: social and physical environment; partnerships and services; teaching and learning; and policy. This study examines associations between CSH and student physical activity (PA). METHODS: Using 2015/2016 COMPASS study survey data of 37,397 students (grades 9‐12) from 80 secondary schools in Ontario and Alberta, Canada, associations between school‐level factors within CSH and student PA outcomes (weekly moderate‐to‐vigorous PA [MVPA] minutes and achieving the national PA recommendations of ≥60 min of MVPA daily, vigorous PA ≥3 days/week, strengthening activities ≥3 days/week) were analyzed using multilevel regression models stratified by gender and grade. RESULTS: Factors within all four CSH components were associated with student PA. Four student subgroups were more likely to achieve the recommendations if their school had youth organization partnerships (Range of AORs:1.15‐1.33, p <.05) and female students were less likely if their school had low prioritization of PA (AOR = 0.77, 95% CI: [0.65‐0.92]). Grade 9 students had higher MVPA when provided non‐competitive PA opportunities (β = 100.4, 95%CI: [30.0‐170.9]). All student subgroups had better PA outcomes when schools provided access to equipment during non‐instructional time. CONCLUSION: There is opportunity to improve student PA through CSH‐guided interventions, but different strategies may be more effective for each gender/grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Schools play an important role in promoting physical activity (PA) through school day schedules and policies. To investigate different intensities of children's movement behavior during instructional time, recess, and in relation to the Ontario Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy. Movement behavior intensities were assessed using accelerometers during 5 school days. Behaviors were calculated for learning blocks, recesses, and physical education classes. Participants with ≥20 min of moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA)/day were considered compliant with the DPA policy. The sample included 159 children (52% female, 9.03 ± 1.66 years old). In all school day segments, sedentary behavior was higher than light PA and MVPA combined, and 21% met the DPA requirement. Females spent more time sedentary and less time in light PA and MVPA than males in all school day segments. Age was inversely associated with light PA and positively related to sedentary behavior. Participants who met the DPA requirement spent less time in sedentary behavior and more time in light PA and MVPA during school segments. Most of the time spent at school is sedentary behavior. There is room to potentialize the promotion of physical activity in physical and health education classes and enhance DPA. Our findings suggest that there is a need to strengthen DPA and improve the physical activity levels of children in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]