Mary Sissons Joshi

Children's journey to school : Spatial skills, knowledge and perceptions of the environment

The growth in accompanied travel to school, particularly by car, has led to speculation about the cognitive and emotional impact of this change on child development. Spatial skills, knowledge of the environment, and perceptions of the environment were assessed in 93 children aged between 7 and 12 years. Children who were accompanied to school performed as well as their unaccompanied peers on spatial ability tests and showed no greater concern with stranger danger. However, they showed a greater tendency to cite traffic danger in their responses, and a greater knowledge of the environment as indicated by the use of landmarks in their drawings of their locality. Children who had more freedom to travel without adults on nonschool journeys also showed a greater use of landmarks. Mode of transport had no effect on the studys measures. These results are discussed with reference to the nature of the journey to school and to other places.

A diary study of the risk perceptions of road users

ABSTRACT Employing an in situ diary, 291 road users in Oxford (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers and bus drivers) recorded details of all journeys made during 1 week and noted any incidents and near-misses which occurred on these journeys. On average, pedestrians and cyclists reported 0.18 incidents per mile travelled (one incident every 5.59 miles) and motorcyclists, car drivers and bus drivers reported 0.02 incidents per mile travelled (one incident every 41.67 miles). Analysis revealed mutual conflict between cyclists and buses, and irritation on behalf of pedestrians towards cyclists on pavements. Only 35% of incidents involving cyclists occurred at junctions and the paper discusses likely reasons for the discrepancy between this and the usual two-thirds figure quoted in official accident records. While the rate of incident perception reflected the vulnerability of pedestrians and cyclists, the amount of distress experienced did not, as bus drivers rated more of their incidents as distressing than did any other group. When incident reporting was compared to accident figures, the data suggest that car drivers were paying more attention to near-misses with the less vulnerable road users (i.e. those who could harm them) than they were to near-misses with more vulnerable road users (i.e. those whom they could harm).

Parental attitudes to children's journeys to school

The growth in accompanied travel to school has been one of the most pronounced changes in travel behaviour over the last 20 years. Hillman et al. (1990) have noted how the proportion of seven-eight year old children who travel independently to school in England has declined from 80 per cent in 1971 to 9 per cent in 1990. A full understanding of parental views on the journey to school is required if policy makers wish to encourage parents to behave differently. The implication of Hillman et al.s finding is that, since traffic danger is of prime significance to parents, improvements in traffic calming, safe routes to school etc. would result in a decrease in parental accompaniment. However, if parental reasoning is more multifaceted than Hillman et al.s data acknow- ledges, a single policy measure focusing only on traffic is unlikely to affect parental behaviour. The current study aimed to discover more about parental preferences and how these influence childrens travel behaviour. KW: SR2S

Maternal Expectations of Child Development in India, Japan, and England

Maternal expectations of child development were compared in India, Japan, and England. Fifty mothers from both India and Japan, and 70 mothers from England were asked to indicate the age at which they expected a child to achieve competence in 45 tasks, reflecting education/self-care, compliance, peer interaction, communication, emotional control, and environmental independence competencies. On average, competence was expected at a slightly earlier age in Japan than in England, and altogether later in India. However, differences between cultures were domain specific. Japanese expectations only exceeded English expectations in the education/self-care and environmental independence domains. Indian expectations were significantly later than Japanese and English expectations in all domains except environmental independence, where they were later than Japanese but earlier than English expectations.

'Home from home': risk perceptions, malaria and the use of chemoprophylaxis among UK South Asians.

Objectives. Malaria is a serious disease hazard facing travellers to tropical countries. On average around 2000 cases of malaria are annually imported into the UK, with an over-representation of ethnic minority members. The current research examined adherence to chemoprophylaxis among UK South Asians travelling to malarial regions in South Asia and East Africa. Design. Four hundred South Asians were interviewed with a questionnaire investigating use of malaria prophylaxis, knowledge of malaria, risk perceptions and reasons for inadequate or zero adherence to chemoprophylaxis. Two hundred interviews were conducted in 1994, and a further 200 interviews in 2004. Participants were recruited from areas of known ethnic density in Leicester, London and Oxford. Results. In 1994, although 49% embarked on taking anti-malaria tablets, only 22% took tablets for 2 or more weeks upon return to the UK (and only 6% for the medically advisory period of 4 weeks). In 2004, 32% embarked on taking tablets but only 9% took tablets for 2 or more weeks upon returning to the UK (and only 2.5% for 4 weeks). Good adherence was associated with greater knowledge about the symptoms and transmission of malaria, and being more likely to define the trip as a ‘holiday’ rather than as a visit to ‘family and friends’. Zero adherence was associated with a failure to recognise the potential severity and critical nature of malaria. Common reasons for partial and zero adherence were the perception that the personal risk of getting malaria was low and an erroneous belief in immunity. Conclusions. The specific cognitions available to ethnic minority members travelling ‘home’ contribute to a very low use of chemoprophylaxis, thus placing them at a heightened risk of acquiring malaria. Health messages need to stress that malaria is a serious health hazard and that émigrés visiting malarial regions cannot rely on personal immunity.

Journey to work: the potential for modal shift?

A questionnaire about mode of transport to work was posted to the entire workforce of Oxford Brookes University. Replies were received from 926 people which constituted a 62 per cent return rate: 87 per cent of the sample owned or had access to a car, and 67 per cent owned or had access to a bicycle; 16 per cent usually walked to work, 17 per cent cycled, 2 per cent rode a moped or a motorbike, 8 per cent used public transport, and 57 per cent travelled to work by car (5 per cent as a passenger and 52 per cent as a driver). When those who lived within two miles were asked what would persuade them to walk to work, approximately 60 per cent saw time or distance as the greatest barrier. A change in their personal circumstances such as their childcare responsibilities was nominated by 11 per cent as their most important requirement. Sixteen per cent stated that nothing would persuade them to walk to work. When those who lived within five miles were asked what would persuade them to cycle to work, approximately one third saw distance as the greatest barrier. Only 6 per cent gave less risk of an accident as their main reason, and 25 per cent stated that nothing would persuade them to cycle to work. The implications of the results of the survey for employers and others interested in health pro motion and environmental awareness are discussed.

Children’s acquisition and retention of safety skills: the Lifeskills program

Objectives: Assessment of safety skills performance and knowledge, to evaluate the education offered by the Lifeskills “Learning for Living” village, Bristol, UK which emphasizes interactive learning-by-doing. Design: Two quasi-experimental matched control group studies. Study 1: knowledge and performance three months post-intervention. Study 2: knowledge pre-intervention and post-intervention at three time points, to distinguish between immediate learning and longer term retention. Setting: The Lifeskills training village, Bristol, UK; primary schools in four education authorities in the area. Participants: Study 1: 145 children aged 10–11 years; 109 from the Lifeskills program, 36 control. Study 2: 671 children aged 10–11 years; 511 Lifeskills, 160 control. Outcome measures: Three areas (road, home, and fire safety). Five performance tests: observation of children’s safety skills. Five knowledge tests: pictorial quiz. Results: Study 1: Lifeskills/intervention children did better than control children on performance and knowledge tests. The knowledge-performance correlation was r = 0.51. Study 2: intervention children did better than control children immediately after the intervention and three months later on all five knowledge tests. On three tests the intervention group showed retention of knowledge from immediately post-intervention to three months, but on two tests there was some loss. This loss was primarily among children from scholastically lower achieving schools. In all other respects the intervention was equally successful for boys and girls, and for children from higher and lower achieving schools. Conclusions: The Lifeskills package improved both knowledge and performance but had shortcomings. Complexity of material did not affect knowledge acquisition but did affect its retention.

Unrealistic Optimism: East and West?

Following Weinstein’s (1980) pioneering work many studies established that people have an optimistic bias concerning future life events. At first, the bulk of research was conducted using populations in North America and Northern Europe, the optimistic bias was thought of as universal, and little attention was paid to cultural context. However, construing unrealistic optimism as a form of self-enhancement, some researchers noted that it was far less common in East Asian cultures. The current study extends enquiry to a different non-Western culture. Two hundred and eighty seven middle aged and middle income participants (200 in India, 87 in England) rated 11 positive and 11 negative events in terms of the chances of each event occurring in “their own life,” and the chances of each event occurring in the lives of “people like them.” Comparative optimism was shown for bad events, with Indian participants showing higher levels of optimism than English participants. The position regarding comparative optimism for good events was more complex. In India those of higher socioeconomic status (SES) were optimistic, while those of lower SES were on average pessimistic. Overall, English participants showed neither optimism nor pessimism for good events. The results, whose clinical relevance is discussed, suggest that the expression of unrealistic optimism is shaped by an interplay of culture and socioeconomic circumstance.

Active but not consistent: dietary behaviour and the stages of change model

In Stages of Change studies on dietary fat, standard algorithms allocate many respondents to the maintenance stage and their stage allocations are not always supported by objective criteria. In defining the preparation stage standard instruments emphasise inactivity allied to confident intention to change. In contrast Lamb and Joshis (1996) staging instrument emphasises inconsistent effort, and thereby allocates inconsistently active respondents to preparation when a standard instrument might place them in action or maintenance. In the current cross-sectional study 375 respondents completed a standard algorithm, the Lamb and Joshi instrument and a 24-hour recall food diary. They also gave judgements of their current weight and diet. Unlike the standard instrument, the Lamb and Joshi instrument: (a) allocated fewer respondents to action/maintenance, (b) discriminated key behavioural stages by percent fat in diet, and (c) captured non-linear discontinuities in the respondents’ weight and diet self-perceptions. Such discontinuities in the psychosocial processes are predicted by the transtheoretical model, and support the claim that its stages are categorically distinct rather than artificially isolated points on a continuum. Distinguishing between respondents who describe themselves as consistently active and those who describe themselves as inconsistently active may help to overcome some apparent problems in the application of the transtheoretical model to behavioural change.

New Foods for Old? The Diet of South Asians in the UK

South Asians in Britain suffer from a higher rate of coronary heart disease than the indigenous population and it has been suggested that elevated levels of di etary fat play an important role in this disease pattern. Ahmed (1999) has ar gued that these fat levels are primarily due to the traditional South Asian methods of cooking, while McKeigue and Chaturvedi (1996) have additionally implicated Western fast food. A survey was conducted of 149 South Asians residing in and around London to ascertain their dietary beliefs and practices in relation to the percentage of energy derived from dietary fat. Subjects were drawn from two groups in order to investigate the effects of age and acculturation: employees at ICI (mean age 39 years) and students at London University (mean age 21 years). The data showed that both vegetarians/nonvegetarians and younger/older South Asians were consuming far too much fat in their diet. Western fast foods (i.e., potato chips) played a part but the primary factors were curried meat for older nonvegetarians, and butter for everyone else. Despite this high fat content and their awareness of the general relationship between fat and coronary heart dis ease, the subjects erroneously believed that they had a healthy diet. Butter was consumed on toast, sandwiches and potatoes, and the responses of the younger participants revealed that they considered this high fibre food healthy and over looked the amount of fat content in butter. Results are discussed in relation to their implication for health education and concepts of a multicultural diet.