فهرست مطالب

International Journal of School Health
Volume:7 Issue: 1, Winter 2020

  • تاریخ انتشار: 1399/01/16
  • تعداد عناوین: 8
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  • Mahdie Tehrani, Ata Pourabbasi * Pages 1-5
    Background

    With the increasing prevalence of obesity among adolescents, many studies have been conducted on the impact of body mass index (BMI) on adolescents’ health-related quality of life. The objective of this research was to study the association among eating behavior constructs, anthropometric parameters of BMI, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

    Methods

    Random cluster sampling was employed to select 250 female high school students and their mothers in six schools located in District 3 of Tehran, Iran, in October 2017. The research tools were: Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ), Short Form of Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (Kidscreen-10), and BMI measurements. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and analysis of variance.

    Results

    The findings of the research showed a significant indirect correlation between certain practices of eating behavior with HRQOL variables such as emotional over-eating (r=“0.13”, P=0.038) and emotional under-eating (r=“0.14”, P=0.022); a weak significant indirect correlation was further observed between slowness in eating (r=“0.11”, P=”0.078”) and variables of HRQOL. The results showed no association between BMI and HRQOL.

    Conclusion

    The present study showed that controlling behaviors such as slowness in eating, emotional over-eating, and emotional under-eating are able to significantly improve the quality of life regardless of anthropometric indices. Eating behaviors ultimately make up a major component of adolescents’ lifestyle; therefore, they play a key role in improving their quality of life.

    Keywords: Health-related quality of life, Eating behaviors, Anthropometric Indices, Adolescent
  • Maysam Rezapour, Hamid Soori, Abbas Nezam Tabar, Narges Khanjani * Pages 6-13
    Background

    There are few studies on the association between bullying types and psychosomatic issues in pupils. The current study aimed to examine the association of verbal, relational, physical, and cyber bullying with psychosomatic problems among students.

    Methods

    This was a cross-sectional study conducted in northern Iran on 834 participants, which were in 8th and 9th grades in 2014. Bullying and psychosomatic problems were measured by the Iranian-version of the Olweus Bullying and the Health and Illness Questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and multilevel logistic regression analysis were used for data analysis.

    Results

    Findings revealed that bad temper was the most prevalent psychosomatic problem and the prevalence of headache (P=0.021), feeling low (P=0.009), bad temperedness (P=0.004), nervousness (P<0.001), sadness (P=0.001), and anxiety (P<0.001) was higher in girls than boys. Only-bullies and bully-victims in the verbal form, and only-victims and bully-victims in the physical form had more psychosomatic issues. Difficulties in getting to sleep, anxiety, feeling low, dizziness, sadness, and headache were the most common conditions related to the types of bullying. For instance, the risk of difficulties in getting to sleep increased 1.5 to 3 times among the victims of verbal bullying (OR=1.54 for only-victim, OR=2.22 for bully-victims, and OR=3.08 for onlybully), relational only-bully (OR=2.69), physical only-victim and bully-victim, cyber only-bully and only-victim.

    Conclusions

    The results showed the different psychological and somatic burdens associated with various types of bullying. Therefore, it is necessary to implement preventive and interventional programs so as to reduce bullying behaviors in Iran. Implications of these findings for health care professionals, educational systems, and parents were further discussed.

    Keywords: School Bullying, Psychosomatic Problems, Adolescents, Education System
  • Benjamin Oluwasegun Adesina, Ayodeji Matthew Adebayo, Oluwatomi Funbi Iken * Pages 14-22
    Background

    The use and abuse of psychoactive substances among adolescents pose serious health problems in society. It is crucial to ascertain the factors predisposing adolescents to this in order to enable action by stakeholders. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and factors associated with psychoactive substance use among in-school adolescents in Zaria Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State, Nigeria.

    Methods

    A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in nine secondary schools selected by balloting with a sample size of 639 students. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographics and lifetime/current use of psychoactive substances. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and logistic regression at P=0.05.

    Results

    The mean age of respondents was 15.98±1.52 years, 51% were male, and 54.6% were aged 14-16 years. The lifetime and current prevalence of psychoactive substances were 69.3% and 46%, respectively. Kolanut was the most widely used substance with a lifetime and current use prevalence rates of 56% and 37.6%, followed by 14.4%, 12.8%, and 11% of respondents with lifetime use of sedatives, alcohol, and tobacco, respectively. Respondents’ age (OR 2.493 95% CI=1.670-5.185; P=0.001), mothers’ educational level (OR 1.703 95% CI=4.201-5.057; P=0.001), family (OR 3.428 95% CI=9.778–8.856; P=0.023) and friends’ (OR 2.252 95% CI=1.315–3.856; P=0.003) use of psychoactive substances were predictors of substance use.

    Conclusions

    The study revealed that both lifetime and current use of psychoactive substances among the adolescents were high, especially among the males. Kolanut was the most used psychoactive substance among in-school adolescents, followed by sedatives and alcohol. Age, mothers’ educational level, and parents’ occupation were predisposing factors to psychoactive substance use.

    Keywords: In-school adolescents, Psychoactive Substances, Lifetime prevalence, Public-private schools, drug abuse
  • Sareh Shakerian, Maryam Fallahi * Pages 23-29
    Background
    Known as a health and medical problem in the community, osteoporosis (OP) is the most prevalent metabolic bone disease. The most facile approach to dealing with osteoporosis is prevention and lifestyle modification. In adolescents, in particular, lifestyle plays the most important role in preventing from osteoporosis in the adulthood. This study was conducted to determine the level of osteoporosis preventive lifestyle and awareness among 13-15-year-old students in Garmsar city in 2018.
    Methods
    This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 high school students selected by two-stage cluster sampling method in Garmsar city in 2018. The data were collected with a three-part questionnaire containing 38 questions related to personal data and measurement of the awareness and lifestyle dimensions associated with osteoporosis prevention, including habits (smoking cigarettes and hookah and exposure to the sun to mention a few), nutrition, and physical activity. Cronbach’s alpha of awareness (0.84), habits (72. 5), and nutrition (0.72) was calculated to specify the reliability of the tool and the content validity was calculated with Lawshe method containing CVR (0.9) and CVT (0.86). For data analysis, use made of descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression by SPSS software version 24.
    Results
    The results of awareness dimension with merely 42.77% correct answers indicated the low awareness of students. The dimension of habits in the preventive lifestyle was in optimal condition with a score of 61.1%. With scores of 33.4 and 25.2%, physical activity and activity without mobility were optimum (score: 70%). There was a direct and significant correlation between students’ awareness and their performance regarding osteoporosis (P<0.05). A direct correlation was further observed between awareness and lifestyle (r=0.255).
    Conclusions
    The studied population had inadequate awareness and poor lifestyle. Given the existing risk factors, it is necessary to pay close attention to education and lifestyle changes in adolescents and their families.
    Keywords: Awareness, Osteoporosis, Students, Preventive lifestyle
  • Marjan Kian *, Zeynab Adibnasab, Balal Izanloo Pages 30-39
    Background
    Formation of social skills in elementary students is usually dependent on several factors, which need to be identified for the improvement of school outputs. The purpose of this study was to predict social skills of students based on attitude towards school and school environment.
    Methods
    A descriptive-correlational method was used. The statistical population consisted of all high school female students in Qazvin in the academic year 2018-2019. Using cluster sampling, 240 students were selected as the sample. The tools included Delaware School Climate, Gresham and Elliot’s Social Skills, and McCook and Siegel’s Attitude to School questionnaires. To analyze the data, some descriptive and inferential statistics were used for multivariate analysis of variance and structural equation modeling.
    Results
    The findings showed that “responsibility” (22.03), “attitude toward teacher and class” (35.42), and “student-teacher relations” (21.35) had the highest mean in public schools. Furthermore, in non-public schools, “responsibility” (22.24), “motivation/self-regulation” (51.90) and “student-teacher relations” (25.15) had the highest mean. In addition, there was a positive correlation between some “school climate” dimensions and “attitude to school” and “social skills”, by P=0.001 (cooperation=0.023, assertiveness=0.012, accountability=0.0001, participation=0.020, self-control=0.024). The highest effect belonged to “cooperation” and “responsibility”, and the lowest effect pertained to “sympathy”. There was no significant difference between public and non-public schools regarding “communication” (P=0.021) and “cooperation” (P=0.0154). Moreover, “school environment” was different in school type (P=0.001), but “attitude to school” did not differ significantly (P>0.05).
    Conclusions
    Based on the results, it could be said that the association between school environment and attitude to school can be an important factor in dealing with social skills; therefore, to improve students’ social skills, it is recommended that the educational planners pay more attention to the quality of schools’ environment and attitude to school.
    Keywords: Social Skills, Attitude to school, School environment, Elementary Student
  • Behrouz Sfandyari, Saeed Ghorbani *, Reza Rezaeeshirazi, Saharnaz Noohpisheh Pages 40-47
    Background
    Understanding how to enhance the motivation of inactive students to do physical activity is of great importance for school health. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of an autonomous exercise training intervention on intrinsic motivation, physical activity intention, and health-related fitness of sedentary students in middle schools of Aliabad Katoul city, Golestan province, in 2019.
    Methods
    The present causal-comparative field study was conducted on 45 middle school boys (mean age: 15.08 years) who were sedentary according to Godin-Shephard Questionnaire. The subjects were randomly assigned into three groups: Choice (autonomy training), No-Choice (training without autonomy), and control (no training). Subjects in Choice and No-Choice groups practiced physical fitness items (including flexibility and endurance) for eight weeks, such that the Choice group was allowed to the chosen order of exercises while the No-Choice group was trained in a predetermined order. Intrinsic motivation and physical activity intention were measured by questionnaire and health-related physical fitness components including flexibility, upper-body endurance, and cardiovascular endurance were evaluated by standard tests. One-way and mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Tukey test was also used as follow-up test.
    Results
    The participants in the Choice group reported higher intrinsic motivation (6.11±0.53) and physical activity intention (6.20±0.62) scores compared with other groups in post-test. Moreover, the results showed that autonomy training compared with training without autonomy and no training significantly increased intrinsic motivation (F=36.03, P<0.001) and physical activity intention (F=36.68, P<0.001). However, autonomy training did not improve physical fitness components such as flexibility (P=0.847), upper-body endurance (P=0.572), and cardiovascular endurance (P=0.982) more than non-autonomous training.
    Conclusions
    These results may indicate that the feeling of autonomy during exercise training has a greater effect on psychological components (including intrinsic motivation and physical activity intention) compared with physical components (including physical fitness).
    Keywords: Autonomy, Motivation, Intention, Fitness, Sedentary students
  • Shakiba AsadiMelerdi, Elnaz RajabiShamli, Rahman Sheikhhoseini *, Hashem Piri Pages 48-55
    Background

    Postural abnormalities are prevalent among elementary school students. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of the upper quarter posture with depression, anxiety and level of physical activity in elementary school students of Karaj.

    Methods

    In this cross-sectional study, 346 sixth grade students were randomly selected from 10 elementary schools. Levels of physical activity, anxiety, and depression were measured and the data were collected employing International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short form (IPAQ-SF), Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), respectively. Photogrammetric method and a flexible ruler were used to assess the students’ posture. Pearson correlation test and linear regression model at the confidence level of 95% (P<0.05) was utilized to analyze the data.

    Results

    There was a significant relation between depression and the craniovertebral angle (P=0.003); physical activity levels were also correlated with the sagittal head angle (P=0.012), and kyphosis (P=0.012).

    Conclusions

    Certain postural abnormalities were associated with physical activity and psychological problems. Therefore, preventive actions are of great necessity to decrease postural and psychological problems.

    Keywords: Posture, Students, Physical Activity, depression, Anxiety, Photogrammetry
  • Abdulaziz Aflakseir *, Mohammad Ziaee, Mehdi Imani Pages 56-60
    Background
    A great number of high school students expecting university entrance exam experience a high level of stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of self-acceptance group therapy on stress reduction in a group of school students expecting university entrance exam in Hamadan, Iran.
    Methods
    Thirty 12th grade male students participated in this study. Using convenience sampling, the participants were recruited from Farzanegan pre-university center in Hamedan, Iran from April to August 2016. Next, the subjects were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups and they completed the Stress Response Inventory (SRI). The SRI includes different components such as aggression, tension, fatigue, frustration, anger, depression, and somatization. The experimental group attended self-acceptance group therapy while the control group did not participate in any group therapy. To analyze the data, statistical tests such as mean, standard deviation, and analysis of covariance were used via SPSS software.
    Results
    The findings showed after intervention, the experimental group’s means and standard deviations of depression (M=11.33, SD=1.71), tension (M=9.46, SD=1.40), aggression (M=7.86, SD=1.12), fatigue (M=10.73, SD=2.21), anger (M=10.40, SD=1.72), and frustration (M=11.13, SD=1.50) were lower than the control group. Analysis of covariance showed a significant difference between experimental and control group concerning most dimensions of stress responses, including aggression (F=“32.88”, P=“0.003”), tension (F=“26.39”, P=“0.008”), fatigue (F=“29.39”, P=“0.004”), frustration (F=“53.78”, P=“0.001”), anger (F=“37.19”, P=“0.002”), and depression (F=“51.39”, P=“0.001”). In other words, self-acceptance group therapy significantly reduced aggression, tension, fatigue, frustration, anger, and depression in the experimental group.
    Conclusions
    This study underscored the pivotal role of self-acceptance in reducing stress among pre-university students expecting university entrance exam.
    Keywords: High school student, Stress, Self-acceptance