High School Attendance Research Articles

Spirituality and natural mentoring relationship among adolescent girls and boys in Slovakia

ABSTRACT The aim of the article is to explore the association between natural mentoring relationships and spirituality among adolescent boys and girls, controlling for perceived parental support and year of high school attendance. The sample consisted of 177 Slovak adolescents (53% girls; Mage = 16.92, SD = 1.69). Spirituality was measured by the Expressions of Spirituality Inventory, the existence of a mentoring relationship by single item measure, and the perceived parental support was examined via the Resilience and Youth Development Module questionnaire. Binary logistic regression was used for data analysis. Results confirm an association between spirituality and the existence of a natural mentoring relationship. Mentoring relationships were associated with a lower level of cognitive orientation towards spirituality among boys and girls and with a lower level of existential well-being among girls. Results confirm the importance of mentoring due to the development of adolescent spirituality and emphasize the need to examine its correlates.

El peso de los factores contextuales en la asistencia a la secundaria entre los adolescentes costarricenses según la información censal

El abandono del sistema escolar es un problema social común en América Latina. Se propone un análisis de la asociación entre la asistencia a la educación secundaria entre los jóvenes en edad escolar en Costa Rica y las variables agregadas que describen las características de las áreas en que residen estas personas, con el fin de aproximarse a los posibles “efectos de barrio”. Se utiliza un modelo logístico multinivel con datos censales. Se encuentra una asociación positiva entre la asistencia a la educación secundaria y el nivel socioeconómico tanto del joven como del barrio. Se observa también que los jóvenes con discapacidad, los nicaragüenses, los que migraron recientemente dentro del país, y sobre todo aquellos que están laborando, tienen menor probabilidad de asistir a un centro de enseñanza. Los hallazgos refuerzan la idea de que las políticas públicas para la educación tienen que tomar en cuenta el contexto social en el que vive el joven para mantenerlo estudiando.

Hospital-Based Study of Maternal, Perinatal and Neonatal Outcomes in Adolescent Pregnancy Compared to Adult Women Pregnancy.

BACKGROUND:Adolescent pregnancy, defined as a pregnancy in girls aged 10 to 19 years. Adolescent mothers are at high risk for maternal and neonatal complications.AIM:To compare maternal, perinatal and neonatal outcomes in adolescents and adult women aged 20-24 years.MATERIAL AND METHODS:This retrospective cohort study included all singleton pregnancies during a three-year period (January 2016-December 2018) who gave birth in a Clinical Hospital in Tetovo, Republic of Macedonia. After exclusion criteria, a total of 932 cases were reviewed and divided into two groups: one of the teenage mothers (< 19 years old) (115 women) and the other of adult mothers (20-24 years old) (817 women).RESULTS:Of the total number of 5643 births, 128 (2.27%) were from adolescent pregnancies. Of them, nulliparous adolescent women were 115 (2.04%). Adolescents compare to adult mothers had a higher rate of urinary tract infections (33% vs. 22%), increased rate of maternal anemia (26% vs. 15%), preterm birth, small for gestational age newborns (25.2% vs. 17.1%), lower high school attendance (0 vs. 21.9%) and inadequate prenatal care. Spontaneous labour was more common in adolescents (73% vs 63.5%), while Caesarean sections were less common than in women aged 20-24 years (25.2% vs 33.5%). The rate of other perinatal outcomes was not significantly different between the 2 groups.CONCLUSIONS:The results of the study showed that the frequencies of some maternal, perinatal and neonatal complications were considerably higher in adolescent mothers.

Globalization and the Transition to Adulthood in a Maya Community in Mexico: Communication Technologies, Social Networks, and Views on Gender.

The present article examines continuity and change in views on gender in a Maya community before and after a communication tower was installed in 2010. Interview data were collected in 2009 when participants were adolescents (n= 80) and then again in 2015 when they were young adults (n= 68). Values and beliefs for gender were measured using vignettes that were created through previous fieldwork (Manago, 2014). Young adults were also asked about their use of mobile phones and social media, and completed a social network mapping activity (Antonucci, 1986). Results showed continuities across time in self-expression values for gender roles and relations, which was predicted by high school attendance during adolescence. Young adult men and those who had been to high school were more likely to use the internet and Facebook. Internet use did not predict values beyond the effects of schooling; however, it predicted greater proportions of nonkin in participants' social network maps, which predicted greater self-expression values for gender relations. Qualitative analyses of participants' emic perspectives of the affordances of communication technologies illustrate how education and cultural values shape perceptions of the opportunities and risks of media use.

Unexpected HIV Infections in Young Women in South Africa

Unexpected HIV infections (not from sex, mother-to-child, or injection drug use) are common in Africa’s generalized epidemics. A 2011-2015 randomized controlled trial of cash transfers conditioned on high school attendance to reduce HIV incidence in young women in South Africa had no impact on HIV incidence but could nevertheless lead to more effective HIV prevention messages and programs. The study team has provided enough information on women’s self-reported sexual behaviour to estimate sex accounts for only a small minority of their HIV infections. At baseline 7.5% of 2,533 women aged 13-20 years reported unprotected sex in the previous three months. During 1-3 years of follow-up, women reported unprotected sex in the previous three months at 9% of annual visits. From published accounts of women’s self-reported sexual behaviour, with some (intended high) estimates to fill in for collected but unreported data, we estimate sex accounts for 7.6 (4.0%) of 188 HIV infections recognized during the trial, including 2.2 (2.7%) of 81 prevalent infections at baseline and 5.4 (5.0%) of 107 incident infections during follow-up. This conclusion challenges researchers to improve their efforts to find the sources of women’s infections, including tracing and testing partners and asking about blood exposures. This conclusion also challenges the Government of South Africa to investigate unexpected infections to find and stop their sources.

Supplemental Material for Adolescent Recovery Capital and Recovery High School Attendance: An Exploratory Data Mining Approach

Supplemental Material for Adolescent Recovery Capital and Recovery High School Attendance: An Exploratory Data Mining Approach

Research-supported practices for improving attendance in high schools: a review of the literature

ABSTRACTHigh rates of absenteeism are often an early warning sign for negative long-term outcomes. Typical high school attendance policies, especially those that are punitive in nature, can make attendance problems worse. Fortunately, evidence suggests that even small improvements in student attendance can lead to meaningful outcomes. To support this recovery, high schools must have access to the most effective and efficient attendance interventions. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to summarize the current empirical research related to improving attendance in high schools. Results indicate that the 3 most common elements of high school attendance interventions with desired outcomes were skills training, family support, and incentive-based strategies. We discuss implications for future research and suggest that developing a continuum of research-supported practices within a multi-tiered system of support framework may be an effective way for schools to proactively and efficiently improve student attendance at the high school level.

Developing a Data-driven Approach to inform Planning in County Health and Human Services Departments in the Context of a Case Study on Obesity

Since the 1970s, the obesity rate has steadily increased due to growing availability of food and declining physical activity. The existing environments within a community, including active recreation opportunities, access to healthy food options, the built environment, and transportation options, can moderate obesity. In Virginia, Fairfax County Health and Human Services (HHS) system is interested in developing the capacity for data-driven approaches to gain insights on current and future issues, such as obesity, to characterize factors at the county and sub-county level, and to use these insights to inform policy options. In exploring these questions, we developed statistical methods to combined data from a multitude of different sources including local administrative data (e.g., tax assessments, land use, student surveys), place-based data, and federal collections. Using synthetic data methods based on imputation, we recomputed American Community Survey statistics for non-Census tract geographic regions for political districts and high school attendance areas. We combined this with environmental factors, such as land dedicated to parks and recreation facilities, as well as measures of the density of healthy and unhealthy food locations to create a map of potentially obesogenic factors. Finally, we combined these data sources with Fairfax County’s youth survey and trained a random forest model to predict the effects of the environment on healthy food consumption and exercise. Our analysis highlights the need for (administrative) data at a fine scale and recommends policy changes concerning the recording and sharing of local data to better inform the policy and program development.

Insights from a Multi-Level Analysis of Corruption Determinants in Developing and Transition Countries

Because of shared norms of ethics, trust, and coordination prevailing in a given society or a social group, corrupt micro-level decisions are related to each other. In micro empirical analysis, this interdependence of corruption decisions can be addressed through the hierarchical modelling of corruption data. Exploiting a baseline sample of 34,358 bribe reports of firms from 71 developing and transition countries, I use a three-level estimation framework to re-examine the contribution of five major determinants of corruption emphasized by the literature: the economic and human development levels, the size of governments, trade openness and democracy. Multilevel estimations stress that the negative effect of income per capita on bribery is found to be mostly driven by improvement in human capital, more particularly by the decline in fertility rates. They also allow reconciling some contrasting findings of the literature on other corruption determinants. First, higher school attendance may increase corruption incidence by inducing larger public spending, but may also reduce the size of bribes by improving the scrutiny over public agents. Second, public intervention has a positive effect on bribery through public spending, but a negative effect through taxation. Third, trade openness has a positive effect on bribery, explained by state interventions on the one hand and by the country’s geographical distance from main world markets on the other hand. Fourth, results reveal a negative effect of political rights and press freedom on corruption, but also show that young democracies may experience higher corruption levels because of larger scope for private transactions. All in all, the significance of random coefficients across estimations, and the sensitivity of some coefficient estimates to their inclusion, point that the contribution of key corruption determinants emphasized in this study is nevertheless highly context-dependent.

Do Human Capital Decisions Respond to the Returns to Education? Evidence from DACA

This paper studies human capital responses to the availability of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary work authorization and deferral from deportation for undocumented, high-school-educated youth. We use a sample of young adults that migrated to the United States as children to implement a difference-in-difference design that compares noncitizen immigrants (“eligible”) to citizen immigrants (“ineligible”) over time. We find that DACA significantly increased high school attendance and high school graduation rates, reducing the citizen-noncitizen gap in graduation by 40 percent. We also find positive, though imprecise, impacts on college attendance. (JEL H52, I21, I26, J13, J15, J24)

Perimenarchal air pollution exposure and menstrual disorders

What is the association between perimenarchal exposure to total suspended particulate (TSP) in air, menstrual irregularity phenotypes and time to menstrual cycle regularity? Exposures to TSP during high school are associated with slightly increased odds of menstrual irregularity and longer time to regularity in high school and early adulthood. The menstrual cycle is responsive to hormonal regulation. Particulate matter air pollution has demonstrated hormonal activity. However, it is not known if air pollution is associated with menstrual cycle regularity. Cross sectional study of 34 832 of the original 116 430 women (29.91%) enrolled in 1989 from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII). The follow-up rate for this analytic sample was 97.76% at the 1991 survey. Annual averages of TSP were available for each year of high school attendance. We created three case definitions including high school menstrual irregularity and androgen excess. The time to menstrual cycle regularity was reported by participants as <1 year, 1-2 years, 3-4 years, 5 years or longer, or never on the baseline questionnaire. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for 45 μg/m3 increases in TSP exposure, adjusted for risk factors for menstrual irregularity. In multivariable adjusted models, we observed that for every 45 μg/m3 increase in average high school TSP there was an increased odds (95%CI) of 1.08 (1.03-1.14), 1.08 (1.02-1.15) and 1.10 (0.98-1.25) for moderate, persistent, and persistent with androgen excess irregularity phenotypes, respectively. TSP was also associated with a longer time to cycle regularity, with stronger results among women with older ages at menarche and those living in the Northeast or the West. The outcomes of menstrual regularity and time to cycle regularity were retrospectively assessed outcomes and may be susceptible to recall bias. There is also the potential for selection bias, as women had to live until 2011 to provide addresses. Temporal exposure to air pollution in the adolescent and early adulthood window may be especially important, given its association with phenotypes of menstrual irregularity. The data from this study agrees with existing literature regarding air pollution and reproductive tract diseases. Shruthi Mahalingaiah: Reproductive Scientist Development Program HD000849, and a research grant from the Boston University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stacey Missmer: R01HD57210 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Environmental Health Sciences Translational Pilot Project Program, R01CA50385 from the National Cancer Institute, Jaime Hart and Francine Laden: 5R01ES017017 from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, Jaime Hart: P30 ES00002 from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institute of Health, The Nurses' Health Study II is supported by infrastructure grant UM1CA176726 from the National Cancer Institute, NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Effects of Recovery High School Attendance on Students' Mental Health Symptoms.

Recovery high schools are one form of continuing care support for adolescents with substance use or other co-occurring disorders. Using a controlled quasi-experimental design, we compared mental health symptom outcomes at 6 months for adolescents who attended recovery high schools vs. non-recovery high schools (e.g., traditional or alternative schools). The propensity score balanced sample included 194 adolescents (134 in recovery schools, 60 in non-recovery schools) enrolled in schools in MN, WI, or TX (average age = 16; 86% White; 51% female). Baseline data indicated that this is a dually diagnosed population-94% of students met criteria for at least one mental health diagnosis and 90% had received mental health treatment distinct from treatment for substance use disorders. Results from multilevel logistic regression models indicated that at the 6-month follow-up, adolescents attending both recovery and non-recovery high schools reported substantial improvements in mental health symptoms. However, there were no significant differences in mental health outcomes between the two groups. We conclude that although recovery high schools offer promise for reducing substance use and improving academic success, and while adolescents' mental health symptoms improved between baseline and follow-up, recovery high schools may have minimal differential effects on adolescents' mental health symptoms.

Improving Child Health and Cognition: Evidence from a School-Based Nutrition Intervention in India

We present experimental evidence on the impact of the use of double-fortified salt in school meals on anemia, cognition, and the learning outcomes of primary school children in rural Bihar, one of the poorest regions of India. We find that year-long intervention had statistically significant positive impacts on hemoglobin levels and reduced anemia by 20%, but these health gains did not translate into significant impacts on cognitive performance, test scores, and school attendance. Treatment effects on anemia and test scores were larger for children with higher school attendance. The findings indicate that school-based health programs are cost-effective and scalable intervention to reduce anemia among school children in resource-constrained countries.

The Unequal Opportunity for Skills Acquisition during the Great Recession in Europe

This paper is the first to investigate the extent to which the high levels of jobless-ness resulting from the Great Recession across Europe have translated into higher school attendance among youth. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the EU-SILC for 28 countries, we establish a robust counter-cyclical relationship between rising unemployment rates and school enrolment. The same is true of transitions back to education. Our analysis by subgroups reveals a worrying trend, with youths who have the most disadvantaged backgrounds (measured by low household income) less likely to enrol in tertiary studies when unemployment rises.

Mayan Homegardens in Decline: The Case of the Pitahaya (Hylocereus undatus), a Vine Cactus With Edible Fruit

Homegardens are small-scale agroforestry systems consisting of parcels of land on homesteads in which diverse plant species are cultivated in several strata, often integrating herbaceous, tree, vine, crop, and animal components. Among the vines in Mayan homegardens in Yucatán is the pitahaya ( Hylocereus undatus), a cactus with edible fruit. We use this species as a model to identify changes in the level of knowledge and management of homegardens due to modernization (increased tourism, paved roads, and urban expansion) in order to propose conservation strategies. Structured interviews were carried out in 100 homegardens; information regarding economics, language, school attendance, and the distance to cities were gathered. Currently, pitahaya is mostly eaten as a sorbet, and women harvest its fruit more often than men do. It is the elderly who teach the next generations about the use and care of pitahayas. The model that best explained the level of knowledge and management about pitahaya included variables such as the location of homegardens; their distance to the nearest city; as well as language, gross domestic product, and school attendance rate of home gardeners. We found that there is less traditional knowledge about pitahayas when home gardeners have higher school attendance and that not only pitahayas but also homegardens near cities are being neglected. We suggest that conservation planning for pitahayas and homegardens should include education programs on their ecological, nutritional, and economic importance. Homegardens, whose owners have the highest level of knowledge about their management and biodiversity, should be interactively conserved, and the knowledge of home gardeners should be acknowledged.

A photovoice study of school belongingness among high school students in Norway

ABSTRACTAlthough high school graduation is important for living conditions and health throughout life, many students do not complete. In Norway’s northern most county, Finnmark, up to 45% of students do not complete high school. Contrary to prior research that has primarily focused on causes for dropout, this study’s aim was to deepen understanding of factors that support high school attendance. A strengths-based participatory approach using photovoice addressed attendance factors as perceived by seven participating students from one high school in Finnmark. Qualitative content analysis of data generated through group dialogue about participant-generated photos and individual interviews identified six factors important for students’ school attendance: a supportive school environment, a good learning environment, recuperation and recreation, family and friends, goals and ambitions, and place attachment. Related aspects of a supportive environment and belongingness, where school staff made important contributions to promoting a positive environment, were essential.

The Effect of National/Private Junior High School Attendance on Educational Expectations and Academic Self-Concept in Japan

The Effect of National/Private Junior High School Attendance on Educational Expectations and Academic Self-Concept in Japan

Nonlinear Processes in Time-Ordered Observations: Self-­Organized Criticality in Daily High School Attendance

In the United States, high school attendance and drop-°©‐‑out are important policy concerns receiving extensive coverage in the research literature. Traditionally, the focus in this work is on the summary of dropout rates and mean attendance rates in specific schools, regions or socio-economic groups. However, the question how stable those attendance rates are over time has received scant attention. Since instability in attendance may affect how long individual students stay in school, the issue deserves attention. Theschool districts that have begun to keep record of daily attendance rates in their schools over multi-year periods, such as those in New York City, have created an opportunity to investigate the temporal dimension of daily attendance, and thereby explore its stability. This paper will focus on its long-term characteristics, specifically the following: self-similarity, meta-stability or pink noise, and the impact of sudden departures from the central tendency of the series. Such departures can be used to estimate the impact of exogenous influences on the behavior of the system. The findings illustrate the importance of describing the dynamical patterns underlying attendance that remain concealed in traditional summary measures.

Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use Are Important Factors for School-Related Problems among Adolescents.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between alcohol and drug use, and school-related problems measured by low grade point average (GPA) and high school attendance. We also examined potential confounding effects from mental health problems. Although the issue is not new within current literature, the present study has its strengths in a large number of participants and the utilization of registry-based data on school-related functioning. A cross-sectional design is employed in this study using data from a large population-based sample of adolescents, youth@hordaland, in a linkage to official school registry data, and the current study presents data from N = 7,874. The main independent variables were alcohol use and drug use, as well as potential alcohol- and drug-related problems. The dependent variables were registry-based school attendance and grades. All the alcohol- and drug measures included were consistently associated with low GPA (Odds ratios (OR) ranging 1.82–2.21, all p < 0.001) and high levels of missed days from school (ORs ranging 1.79–3.04, all p < 0.001) and high levels of hours missed from school (ORs ranging 2.17–3.44, all p < 0.001). Even after adjusting for gender, age, socioeconomic status and mental health problems all the associations between alcohol and illicit drug use and the school-related outcomes remained statistically significant. Increasing number of indications on alcohol/drug-related problems and increasing levels of alcohol consumption were associated with more negative school-related outcomes. The results suggest that alcohol- and drug use, and particularly alcohol/drug-related problems, are important factors for school-related problems independently of mental health problems.

The impact of remittances on school attendance: The evidence from the Republic of Moldova

This article examines the effect of remittances on high school attendance of youth 16–20 years old in the Republic of Moldova in the districts of Causeni, Floresti, Straseni and in the municipalities of Balti and Chisinau. Using an instrumental variable approach, it was found that remittances have an insignificant effect on high school attendance. While the education level of the mother seems to play an important role in a youth’s education, the father’s level of education had no significant effect. The higher the number of siblings and residence in a rural area had a negatively affect high school attendance. The results showed that almost 3/4 of the young people surveyed intend to migrate abroad mainly due to economic reasons such as the lack of suitable and well – paid jobs.