Reading Comprehension and Culturally Diverse Schools in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart McNaughton ◽  
Rebecca Jesson ◽  
Aaron Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Research Partnerships ◽  
Diverse Schools ◽  
Over Time

It has proven difficult to establish how best to promote valued outcomes in reading comprehension for students in culturally diverse schools. Efforts are constrained by the disparities communities served by these schools often experience in physical, social, economic, and political conditions. However, principles are being developed for the effectiveness of schools, using four perspectives. The first is consideration of reading comprehension as a cognitive, linguistic, and cultural activity, which includes aspects of well-being such as cultural identity. The activity takes different forms, including one new form of digital literacy. Second, principles need to be underpinned by an understanding of how disparities in comprehension develop over time, through adopting a “life course” perspective. Over the life course, channels of socialization are afforded by both family practices and instructional conditions, and features of each are associated with disparities over time. Finally, criteria for what counts as success include enhancing distributions of achievement, promoting and protecting cultural identity, and overcoming system variability. Four principles of note are (a) increasing opportunities for students to learn; (b) providing textual depth and breadth; (c) making discourse and culture central to intervention designs; and (d) design-based research partnerships that can change practices at scale. However, achieving successful educational outcomes for students using these and other principles depends on considerable commitment, resourcing, and time, including reconfiguring of the role and responsibilities of researchers.

scholarly journals The dyad is not enough

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Bildtgård ◽  
Marianne Winqvist ◽  
Peter Öberg
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Older Parents ◽  
Biological Children ◽  
Over Time

The increasing prevalence of ageing stepfamilies and the potential of stepchildren to act as a source of support for older parents have increased the interest in long-term intergenerational step relationships. Applying a life-course perspective combined with Simmel’s theorizing on social dynamics, this exploratory study aims to investigate the preconditions for cohesion in long-term intergenerational step relationships. The study is based on interviews with 13 older parents, aged 66–79, who have raised both biological children and stepchildren. Retrospective life-course interviews were used to capture the development of step relationships over time. Interviews were analysed following the principles of analytical induction. The results reveal four central third-party relationships that are important for cohesion in intergenerational step relationships over time, involving: (1) the intimate partner; (2) the non-residential parent; (3) the bridge child; and (4) the stepchild-in-law. The findings have led to the conclusion that if we are to understand the unique conditions for cohesion in long-term intergenerational step relationships, we cannot simply compare biological parent–child dyads with step dyads, because the step relationship is essentially a mediated relationship.

scholarly journals Time and Collective Biology: Relationships Between Individual and Societal Life Course Ideologies in Mexican Men’s Sexual Health Treatment

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-80
Author(s):  
Emily Wentzell
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Health ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Aging Treatment ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mexican Population ◽  
Medical Decisions ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Over Time

People may seek to embody cultural ideals of the life course through their use or rejection of medical interventions, including but not limited to anti-aging treatments. Here, I analyze this phenomenon via interviews with men engaging with two different forms of sexual health medicine in urban Mexico: erectile-dysfunction treatment and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). I argue that, in contrast to the biomedical understanding of patients as individuals who change during their lives, my interlocutors understood themselves as components in broader “collective biologies” that change on a longer timeline. These are culturally-defined groups that people understand to be comprised of interrelated members whose behaviors concretely affect the group’s physical and social well-being over time. In both medical arenas discussed here, men used or rejected sexual health interventions in response to local narratives about the nature of the Mexican population as a collective biology, including ideas about how it should change over time away from its roots in the colonial past. They characterized predispositions to machismo and disinterest in preventative health care as embodied inheritances that the Mexican population should reject in order to achieve health-promoting modernity in the future. My analysis describes how these interlocutors sought to live out desirably modern forms of race and gender through their medical decisions in a way that they hoped would contribute to positive, embodied change in the Mexican social body over time. These findings show that, despite the assumptions of individualism generally naturalized in anti-aging treatment and biomedicine, people may make medical decisions in an effort to aid collective change over population-level timescales.

Predictors of Alcohol Use Disorders Among Baby Boomers Across the Life Course

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 880-888
Author(s):  
Adam Quinn ◽  
Orion Mowbray
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Baby Boomers ◽  
Alcohol Use Disorders ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Over Time

Research suggests that baby boomers entering older adulthood may possess unique alcohol use patterns over time. Using the life course perspective as a guiding framework, this empirical study sought to examine correlates of alcohol use disorders among baby boomers by examining representative data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health at two points in time, 1998 ( N = 6,213) and 2010 ( N = 5,880). Results from logistic regression analyses suggest that predictors of alcohol use disorders evolve over time as baby boomers continue to age. Risk factors for alcohol use disorders among baby boomers may include concurrent unprescribed pain reliever use, p < .01, while protective factors such as income, p < .01, and social supports, p = .01, may be of increased importance. Based on the findings of this study, practice implications and future research are discussed.

From 9 to 91: health promotion through the life-course—illuminating the inner child

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margareta Sjöblom ◽  
Lars Jacobsson ◽  
Kerstin Öhrling ◽  
Catrine Kostenius
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
World Health ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Inner Child ◽  
The Life Course

Summary A life-course perspective is according to the World Health Organization about increasing the effectiveness of health promotion interventions at all ages. This targets the needs of human beings throughout their life. Descriptions of the phenomenon of the inner child invite the possibility that it may be of help when promoting health throughout the life-course. The aim was to describe and understand schoolchildren’s, adults and older person’s experiences of childhood in connection to health and well-being in the present and through the life-course, illuminating the inner child. The research strategy used was a secondary analysis of the original transcribed data from three Swedish studies investigating new questions. In total, 53 individuals aged 9–91, 20 school children, 20 adults and 13 older persons were interviewed about childhood experiences. The schoolchildren were invited to create a drawing, and to narrate about it during the interview. The main question in the secondary analysis was ‘How do the participants’ narrations about childhood experiences illuminate the inner child, useful for health promotion through the life-course?’ The findings showed the importance of a secure atmosphere and trusting relationships, indicating that experiences during childhood can help us to adapt and pass along life lessons across generations. There were narratives about play as an activity where they learned to promote a healthy childhood, struggle for independence and learning how to be responsible when growing up. Dimensions of mental, social and existential well-being can be seen as examples of the inner child’s role in health promotion through the life-course.

scholarly journals The Life Course Construction of Inequalities in Health and Wealth in Old Age

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Michel Oris ◽  
Marie Baeriswyl ◽  
Andreas Ihle
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Differential Mortality ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Cumulative Processes ◽  
The Life Course

AbstractIn this contribution, we will mobilize the interdisciplinary life course paradigm to consider the processes through which individual heterogeneity in health and wealth is constructed all along life, from the cradle to old age. Considering altogether historical, family and individual times, the life course perspective has been developed in sociology, (lifespan) psychology and epidemiology, and has framed many important studies during the last four decades. The theory of cumulative disadvantage is for sure the most popular in social sciences, explaining how little inter-individual differences early in life expand all along life to reach maximal amplitude among the “young old” (before the selection by differential mortality at very old age). In lifespan psychology, the theory of cognitive reserve (educational level being a proxy) and its continuation, the theory of use or disuse (of cognition during adult life) have more or less the same explanatory power, cognition being a decisive precondition for active ageing and quality of life in old age. However, in spite of the success of those theoretical bodies, a prominent figure in the field, Glen Elder, recently observed that there is surprisingly little evidence for cumulative processes and that a wide variety of model specifications remain completely untested. This finding makes even more important a critical review of the literature which summarize several robust evidences, but also discuss contradictory results and suggest promising research tracks. This exercise considers the life course construction of inequalities in the distribution of objective resources older adults have (or not) “to live the life they own value” (to quote A. Sen 2001). But it is also crucial to consider the subjective component that is inherent to the understanding of well-being.

scholarly journals Marital Strain and Support and Subjective Well-Being in Later Life: Ascribing a Role to Early-Life Conditions

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 407-407
Author(s):  
Laura Upenieks ◽  
Yingling Liu
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Marital Support ◽  
Lagged Dependent Variable ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Marital Strain

Abstract Decades of research have the beneficial effects of marital support and the detrimental consequences of marital strain on health and well-being. However, we know relatively less about how circumstances in childhood—a key developmental period of the life course—influence the relational structure in which later life is embedded and any implications this may hold for well-being. We integrate the life course perspective with the stress process model to offer a framework for how childhood conditions (childhood happiness, family structure, and financial strain) moderate the relationship between marital support/strain and subjective well-being in older adulthood in potentially different ways for men and women. The consequences of marital strain may be more severe and the benefits of marital support may not be as strongly felt for those adults who experienced greater adversity during childhood. Drawing on longitudinal data from Waves 2 (2010-2011) and 3 (2015-2016) of the NSHAP project (N = 1,376), results from lagged dependent variable models suggest that marital support buffers the effect of not living with both parents in childhood on subjective well-being for men. Meanwhile, women raised in families that experienced financial hardship reported lower subjective well-being in the context of marital strain in later life. No significant interaction effects were obtained for childhood happiness. Taken together, our findings suggest that adverse experiences in childhood can be scarring, particularly in the context of strained intimate relationships. However, a supportive marriage can, in some cases, offset the effects of childhood hardship on subjective well-being in later life.

scholarly journals Rank Prize Lecture Global nutrition challenges for optimal health and well-being

2008 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Uauy ◽  
Camila Corvalan ◽  
Alan D. Dangour
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Effective Prevention ◽  
Optimal Health ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Global Nutrition

Optimal health and well-being are now considered the true measures of human development. Integrated strategies for infant, child and adult nutrition are required that take a life-course perspective to achieve life-long health. The major nutrition challenges faced today include: (a) addressing the pending burden of undernutrition (low birth weight, severe wasting, stunting and Zn, retinol, Fe, iodine and folic acid deficits) affecting those individuals living in conditions of poverty and deprivation; (b) preventing nutrition-related chronic diseases (obesity, diabetes, CVD, some forms of cancer and osteoporosis) that, except in sub-Saharan Africa, are the main causes of death and disability globally. This challenge requires a life-course perspective as effective prevention starts before conception and continues at each stage of life. While death is unavoidable, premature death and disability can be postponed by providing the right amount and quality of food and by maintaining an active life; (c) delaying or avoiding, via appropriate nutrition and physical activity interventions, the functional declines associated with advancing age. To help tackle these challenges, it is proposed that the term ‘malnutrition in all its forms’, which encompasses the full spectrum of nutritional disorders, should be used to engender a broader understanding of global nutrition problems. This term may prove particularly helpful when interacting with policy makers and the public. Finally, a greater effort by the UN agencies and private and public development partners is called for to strengthen local, regional and international capacity to support the much needed change in policy and programme activities focusing on all forms of malnutrition with a unified agenda.

scholarly journals Depression Over the Adult Life Course for African American Men

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne C. Watkins
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Quality Health Care ◽  
Quality Health

Rarely are within-group differences among African American men explored in the context of mental health and well-being. Though current conceptual and empirical studies on depression among African American men exists, these studies do not offer a framework that considers how this disorder manifests over the adult life course for African American men. The purpose of this article is to examine the use of an adult life course perspective in understanding the complexity of depression for African American men. The proposed framework underscores six social determinants of depression (socioeconomic status, stressors, racial and masculine identity, kinship and social support, self-esteem and mastery, and access to quality health care) to initiate dialogue about the risk and protective factors that initiate, prolong, and exacerbate depression for African American men. The framework presented here is meant to stimulate discussion about the social determinants that influence depression for African American men to and through adulthood. Implications for the utility and applicability of the framework for researchers and health professionals who work with African American men are discussed.

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