Karen Pfeffer

The influence of demographic factors, processing speed and short-term memory on Iranian children's pedestrian skills

OBJECTIVES Young children, children from lower socioeconomic status and boys have the highest risk of pedestrian injury. This study examined the relationship between cognition and specific pedestrian skills of these groups of children in Iran. METHODS 180 Iranian children aged 7 and 11 years from lower- and higher-socioeconomic status backgrounds participated in the study. A task to identify safe and dangerous road crossing sites and to plan a safe route to cross a road was administered to measure pedestrian skills. Coding and Digit Span subscales of WISC-R were administered to assess processing speed and short-term memory. RESULTS Identifying safe/dangerous road crossing-sites and safe route-construction abilities increased with age. Boys scored higher than girls when identifying road crossing sites but did not differ to girls in route-construction. Lower socioeconomic status children scored higher than higher socioeconomic status children on the route-construction task. Girls from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds scored lowest on the identifying safe/dangerous sites task and girls from higher socioeconomic status backgrounds scored lowest on the route construction task. Speed of processing was a significant predictor for identifying crossing sites and socioeconomic status was a significant predictor for route-construction. CONCLUSIONS Pedestrian skills are complex and influenced by age, gender, socioeconomic status and cognitive development. Results are discussed in relation to child pedestrian safety research in Iran and road safety education for children.

Adult Pedestrian Behavior When Accompanying Children on the Route to School

Objective: Pedestrian injuries are a major cause of morbidity and mortality to children, especially boys. Adults serve as pedestrian role models and provide learning opportunities for children when walking to school. The research objectives were to investigate adult pedestrian behavior when accompanying boys and girls. Methods: Behavioral observation of 140 adult pedestrians accompanying 4- to 9-year-old children was done in British residential locations. Observations took place at light-controlled crossings, speed-restricted school safety zones, and mid-block unmarked crossing sites. Behaviors observed included stopping at the curb, waiting at the curb, looking left and right before and during road crossing, holding hands, talking, and walking straight across. Results: In general, adults modeled safe road crossing behaviors. Adult safe behavior scores were higher when accompanying girls than when accompanying boys. No statistically significant differences were found by child age group. The fewest safe pedestrian behaviors were observed at light-controlled crossings. Conclusions: Adult pedestrians behave differently when with boys and girls and at different types of road crossing site. Interventions aimed at reducing pedestrian injuries to children may need to take these different everyday experiences into consideration.

Animal-assisted interventions in the classroom: a systematic review

The inclusion of animals in educational practice is becoming increasingly popular, but it is unclear how solid the evidence for this type of intervention is. The aim of this systematic review is to scrutinise the empirical research literature relating to animal-assisted interventions conducted in educational settings. The review included 25 papers; 21 from peer-reviewed journals and 4 obtained using grey literature databases. Most studies reported significant benefits of animal-assisted interventions in the school setting. Despite this, studies vary greatly in methods and design, in intervention types, measures, and sample sizes, and in the length of time exposed to an animal. Furthermore, a worrying lack of reference to risk assessment and animal welfare must be highlighted. Taken together, the results of this review show promising findings and emerging evidence suggestive of potential benefits related to animals in school settings. The review also indicates the need for a larger and more robust evidence base driven by thorough and strict protocols. The review further emphasises the need for safeguarding for all involved—welfare and safety are paramount.

The Effects of Peer Influence on Adolescent Pedestrian Road-Crossing Decisions

Objective: Adolescence is a high-risk period for pedestrian injury. It is also a time of heightened susceptibility to peer influence. The aim of this research was to examine the effects of peer influence on the pedestrian road-crossing decisions of adolescents. Methods: Using 10 videos of road-crossing sites, 80 16- to 18-year-olds were asked to make pedestrian road-crossing decisions. Participants were assigned to one of 4 experimental conditions: negative peer (influencing unsafe decisions), positive peer (influencing cautious decisions), silent peer (who observed but did not comment), and no peer (the participant completed the task alone). Peers from the adolescents own friendship group were recruited to influence either an unsafe or a cautious decision. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between peer conditions. Participants least often identified safe road-crossing sites when accompanied by a negative peer and more frequently identified dangerous road-crossing sites when accompanied by a positive peer. Both cautious and unsafe comments from a peer influenced adolescent pedestrians’ decisions. Conclusions: These findings showed that road-crossing decisions of adolescents were influenced by both unsafe and cautious comments from their peers. The discussion highlighted the role that peers can play in both increasing and reducing adolescent risk-taking.

Risk and injury portrayal in boys' and girls' favourite television programmes

Objectives: To analyse the injury-related content of children’s television programmes preferred by boys and by girls, and to determine whether there are more televised models of unsafe behaviour in programmes preferred by boys. Methods: Parents of 4–11-year-old children identified their children’s favourite television programmes. Content analysis of 120 episodes of children’s favourite programmes was used to quantify safe and risky behaviours, actual injuries and potential injuries. The gender of the characters portraying the behaviours was also analysed. Results: More risky behaviour was portrayed in the boys’ favourite programmes (mean per episode  = 6.40) than in the girls’ favourite programmes (mean = 2.57). There were almost twice as many potential injuries (n = 310) as actual injuries (n = 157). Potential injuries were portrayed more often by male characters (mean = 1.92) than female characters (mean = 0.98), mostly in the boys’ favourite programmes. Actual injuries occurred more often to male characters (mean = 1.04) than to female characters (mean = 0.27) overall. Conclusions: Television programmes preferred by this sample of boys portrayed male role models engaging in risky behaviours and injuries more often than the programmes preferred by the sample of girls.

689 British parents’ self-reported road safety beliefs, practices and rules

Background Children are at high risk for pedestrian deaths and injury (World Health Organisation, 2009). Parents play an important role in teaching children pedestrian skills in context. The aims of this research were to investigate parents’ self-reported beliefs, practices and road safety rules when crossing streets with their children. Methods A questionnaire was administered to parents of 234 children aged 3–10 years (mean = 6.23 years, SD = 1.83). Participants were parents of children who were attending a university children’s event in a small British city. The majority of respondents were mothers. Questions were about pedestrian experiences, safety rules and risks, also who they think is best suited to teach children about road safety. Results The majority (61.5%) normally walked to school on a daily basis. The age parents thought it was appropriate for boys and girls to walk to school alone was significantly lower than the appropriate age to walk to school with peers. Parents ranked themselves as the most suited to teach children about road safety in comparison to professionals such as teachers and road safety education officers. Only 3 parents said that they did not have any specific road safety rules and the majority of parents reported that they hold their child’s hand when crossing the road. The road safety rules that parents reported were similar across child age groups. Conclusions Our sample of parents reported that they walk with their children frequently. Parents’ self-reported rules and behaviour did not differ with child age. The younger age at which British parents considered it appropriate for children to walk to school with peers compared to alone needs further investigation. In this respect, further research should consider comparisons of road risk and ‘stranger danger’ (abduction risk). Also, further research should focus on reasons that parents considered road safety professionals less suited to teach children about road safety than parents.

Children's Perceptions of Dangerous Substances

The aim of this research was to examine age differences in childrens perceptions of dangerous substances. Childrens responses to photographs of child models encountering alcohol, a syringe, medicine, glue, and household bleach were coded for recognition of substance, awareness of potential danger, and understanding of danger or harm. Responses from 59 children (28 girls and 31 boys, who were all children of the required age in an urban primary school) were compared across three age groups (6–7 years, 8–9 years, and 10–11 years). 15 to 18 of 20 children in each of three age groups recognised all the dangerous substances. Significant differences across age groups were found for awareness of the potential harm from alcohol, glue, and medicine, but not for the syringe or bleach. Children reported less serious consequences from ingesting alcohol than other substances, the consequences of sniffing glue tended to be confused with the sticking properties of glue, childrens understanding of transmission of germs, disease, and AIDS through syringes was varied, and there was a tendency among the older children to underestimate the potential harm of self-administration of medicines. Findings were discussed in relation to childrens concepts of danger and safety education.

Measuring Cortisol in the Classroom with School-Aged Children—A Systematic Review and Recommendations

The collection of salivary cortisol has been chosen as one of the least intrusive, easiest to collect, analyze, and store methods of obtaining information on physiological changes. It is, however, not clear what the best practice is when collecting salivary cortisol from children within the school setting. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the feasibility of cortisol collection in schools for future research and to make recommendations for best practice. The review included 25 peer-reviewed articles from seven databases. The hypotheses of the included studies vary, but they all use cortisol as a diurnal, baseline, or acute measure, or to measure the effect of an intervention. Two methods of salivary cortisol collection were preferred by most of the research, i.e., passive drool or cotton Salivettes. The review has concluded that cortisol is a physiological marker that can be successfully measured in school-based research. However, there are discrepancies across studies when evaluating the collection guidelines, protocols, and instructions to participants as well as transparency of the success rate of obtaining all samples. Recommendations are made for future research to address and avoid such discrepancies and improve cross-study comparisons by implementing standard protocol guidelines.

The effects of polygamy on children and adolescents: a systematic review

ABSTRACT The objective was to review research that examined the effects of polygyny (a specific form of polygamy) on children and adolescents. A systematic literature search and review was conducted of research published 1994–2014 that focused on psychological variables, primary data collection, and compared data on children and adolescents from polygynous families with monogamous families. Critical analysis included the relevance of methods to the culture, including the psychometric properties reported. A total of 13 papers satisfied the inclusion criteria. The review found more mental health problems, social problems and lower academic achievement for children and adolescents from polygynous than monogamous families. Similarities between children and adolescents from polygynous and monogamous families included self-esteem, anxiety and depression scores. Although polygynous family structures appear to have detrimental effects on children and adolescents, the mediating effects of parental education, economy and family functioning need to be investigated.

REMOVED: Creative thinking abilities among children and adults with dyslexia

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