Urban Literacy Leadership: Examining One Principal’s Vision and Practice: A Sociocultural Investigation of One Principal’s Practice

School leadership research offers prescriptions for strong instructional and culturally relevant leadership for diverse and urban adolescent populations, yet little evidence describes how school principals impact adolescents’ in-school reading experiences. This qualitative inquiry sought to understand how one urban secondary principal perceived and enacted his role in a school’s effort to teach reading. It also investigated how staff and students perceived his actions. Framed by sociocultural perspectives of reading and a distributed leadership perspective, data analysis revealed that the principal made time and nurtured relationships to grow teacher capacity, support and participate in independent reading, and attend to individual readers and teachers. This study affirms the importance of context in shaping urban adolescents’ reading experiences and raises implications for the urban school principal’s role in their literacy instruction.

School Bag-Related Factors and Their Implications for Walking and Cycling to School among New Zealand Adolescents

Excessive school bag weight may be a modifiable barrier to active transport to school. This study examined correlates of school bag weight and adolescents’ perceptions of excessive school bag weight for walking and cycling to school among New Zealand adolescents living in diverse settlement types. Adolescents (n = 1512; 15.0 ± 1.3 years) completed a questionnaire and had their bag weight (n = 1190) and body weight (n = 1038) measured. Adolescents using active transport and rural adolescents had lighter school bags compared to their counterparts. One-third of adolescents reported excessive school bag weight for walking (31.2%) and cycling (37.2%) to school. Positive correlates of relative school bag weight were female gender (regression coefficient (95% CI): 0.53 (0.13, 0.93)), and underweight (2.21 (1.39, 3.02)), whereas negative correlates were Māori ethnicity (−0.87 (−1.41, −0.32)), overweight (−1.84 (−2.35, −1.34)) and obesity (−3.57 (−4.26, −2.87)), and school location in small urban areas (−2.10 (−4.19, −0.01)), and rural settlements (−3.58 (−5.66, −1.49)). Older adolescents, females, those with greater relative school bag weight, and those experiencing school bag-related pain symptoms and/or fatigue were more likely to report excessive school bag weight for both walking and cycling to school. Future initiatives should target reducing excessive school bag weight, particularly in female and urban adolescents.

Factors Facilitating the use of Contraceptive Methods Among Urban Adolescents and Youth in Guinea: A Qualitative Study

BackgroundThe use of modern contraceptive methods among adolescents and youth is a public health priority to prevent unwanted pregnancies. To our knowledge, no study has ever explored and documented the promoting factors for contraceptive use among urban adolescents and youth in Guinea. The objective of this study was to explore the personal, community, and health system factors that promote the use of contraceptive methods among urban adolescents and youth in Guinea. MethodsWe conducted a qualitative exploratory and descriptive study with adolescents and youth aged 15 to 24 living in Conakry, Guinea. Data were collected through twenty-six individual in-depth interviews, and 10 group interviews with an additional eighty individuals, for a total of 106 participants. The investigation was conducted from June to October 2019. Both individual and group interviews were audio-recorded, and the verbatims were afterwards transcribed. Data was analyzed using the “thematic analysis” method (deductive and inductive approaches).ResultsThe personal factors favoring contraceptive use among adolescents and youth pertained to perceived benefits of the methods, knowledge of the family planning service channels, means to afford the cost of the method, and spouse/sexual partner approval. The community factors included peer suggestions about contraceptive methods, and socio-cultural beliefs about the method. The health system factors referred to access to free contraceptive methods, availability of methods, clinical competence and attitude of the health care provider to advise or administer methods, and proximity of family planning services to users’ place of residence. ConclusionsThis research shows that many adolescents and youth living in Conakry are sexually active and want to avoid unwanted pregnancy by using modern, traditional or cultural contraceptive methods. Access to free or affordable methods, discretion of method use, proximity and availability of methods, and suggestions of methods by peers are factors that motivate adolescents and youth to use contraception. This knowledge can inform policies and programs to improve the use of effective contraceptive methods by adolescents and youth living in Conakry, Guinea, and ultimately contribute to the optimal sexual and reproductive health of this population.

Perceived stress, eating behavior, and overweight and obesity among urban adolescents

Background WHO estimated 20% of adolescents (10–19 years) have mental health problems. We examined the prevalence and associated risk predictors of overweight/obesity and perceived stress using eating behaviors and physical activity among school-and-college-going urban adolescents in Bangladesh. Methods A cross-sectional study with a multistage sampling technique was employed to select 4609 adolescent students, aged 13–19 years, from all eight Bangladesh divisions during January–June 2019. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire containing Turconi Physical Activity Questionnaire (PAQ), Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ), Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), and Anthropometric measurements. Logistic regression and different association measures assessed relationships among adolescent characteristics. Results The major 61.5% of adolescents were in moderate-to-extremely-severe levels of stress, 28.2% were overweight/obese, only 2.7% had a very active lifestyle, and 30.5% had a sedentary lifestyle. Perceived stress was positively and significantly correlated with eating behaviors and body mass index, whereas physical activity was significantly associated with the prevalence of overweight/obesity and high stress. The prevalence of overweight/obesity (53.8%) and high stress (52.5%) was higher in males. Adolescents’ obesity was 2.212 times more likely who had a sedentary lifestyle (95% CI 1.377–3.552), 1.13 times more likely for those who had experienced stress due to school/leisure conflict (95% CI 1.051–1.222), and 1.634 times more likely for those who were tempted by restrained eating behavior (95% CI 1.495–1.786). Conclusion Stress on secondary school-and-college-going students needs to be recognized, and strategies need to be developed to improve adolescents’ mental health.

Comparative Study of Risk Profiles for Non-Communicable Diseases in Urban and Suburb Adolescents in Padang City (Indonesia)

Adolescence is when we still like to experiment and often develop bad habits which may lead to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the future. This study aimed to understand the lifestyle at risk of non-communicable diseases in adolescents that live in the urban and rural areas of Padang city. This research method is comparative descriptive with a descriptive-analytical approach, with a total sample of 788 people. The study was conducted from March 2019 to November 2019. Results: A total of 57.77% of respondents in urban areas and 69.54% of respondents in rural areas like to eat junk food. 45.35% urban respondents and 60.21% rural respondents like to consume high-sweetened beverages. 73.4% of urban respondents and 7.6% of rural respondents like to smoke. 80.6% of urban respondents and 87.8% of rural respondents lack physical activity. 59.9% of urban respondents and 49.05% of rural respondents do not like to exercise. 67% of urban respondents and 80.2% of rural respondents sleep late at night. Conclusion: The risk behavior of non-communicable diseases in rural adolescents is higher than in urban adolescents. It is recommended that parents, teachers, and health workers work together to carry out intervention activities for healthy lifestyles for all adolescents.

Mothers’ emotional expressivity in urban and rural societies: Salience and links with young adolescents’ emotional wellbeing and expressivity

This research aims to investigate the salience of mothers’ emotional expressivity and its links with adolescents’ emotional wellbeing and expressivity in an urban society endorsing more individualism and a rural society ascribing to more collectivism. By comparing Chinese urban (N = 283, M age = 14.13) and rural (N = 247, M age = 14.09) adolescents, this research found that urban mothers’ expression of positive-dominant and positive-submissive emotions (PD and PS) were more common while expression of negative-dominant (ND) emotions was less common than rural mothers’. PD and PS had significant links with urban and rural adolescents’ increased emotional expressivity and self-esteem, however, only significantly related to urban adolescents’ decreased depression but not with rural adolescents’. ND had significant links with both urban and rural adolescents’ expression of negative emotions, however, only significantly correlated with urban adolescents’ less level of self-esteem and rural adolescents’ more expression of positive emotions. No significant difference was found in the salience of urban and rural mothers’ expression of negative-submissive (NS) emotions, which positively related to both urban and rural adolescents’ depression and emotional expressivity. Moreover, we found that adolescents’ emotional wellbeing (i.e., self-esteem and depression) mediated the relationship between mothers’ emotional expressivity and adolescents’ expressivity in both societies. Overall, the study findings document that the salience of mothers’ emotional expressivity and its relations with adolescents’ emotional adjustment differ between urban and rural societies.

Moderating Effects of Coping Style on Externalizing Behaviors and Substance Use in Urban Adolescents Exposed to Community Violence

Community violence exposure is associated with externalizing problems in adolescents, yet little research has examined the moderating role of coping in these relationships. Eighty-four low-income, urban adolescents (Mage = 13.36, 50%male, 95%African American) participated in two waves of a longitudinal study a year and a half apart. Youth reported their community violence exposure and coping styles at Wave 1, and their delinquent behavior, physical aggression, and substance use at Waves 1 and 2. Conduct problems were assessed by parent-report at Waves 1 and 2. Results showed that avoidant coping predicted less delinquency, aggression, substance use, and conduct problems over time. Further, avoidant coping attenuated the effect of community violence on delinquency. Problem-focused and emotion-focused coping did not moderate community violence exposure effects. Findings suggest that among low-income, minority urban youth, avoidant coping may protect against the development of externalizing problems in the context of community violence exposure.