Middle School Girls Research Articles

EHealth Communication Intervention to Promote Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among Middle-School Girls: Development and Usability Study.

As the age of initiating sexual intercourse has gradually decreased among South Korean adolescents, earlier vaccination of adolescents for human papillomavirus (HPV) is necessary before their exposure to HPV. Health communication includes "cues to action" that lead to preventive health behaviors, and recently, social networking services, which operate with fewer time and space constraints, have been used in various studies as a form of eHealth communication. This study aims to investigate the feasibility and usability of an eHealth communication intervention for HPV vaccination in middle-school girls aimed at the girls and their mothers. The eHealth communication intervention for HPV vaccination was developed using a 6-step intervention mapping process: needs assessments, setting program outcomes, selection of a theory-based method and practical strategies, development of the intervention, implementation plan, and testing the validity of the intervention. A review of 10 studies identified effective health communication messages, delivery methods, and theories for HPV vaccination among adolescents. Barriers including low knowledge, perceived threat, and the inconvenience of taking 2 doses of the vaccine were identified through focus groups, suggesting a need for youth-friendly and easy-to-understand information for adolescents delivered via mobile phones. The expected outcomes and the performance objectives are specifically tailored to reflect the vaccination intention. Behavior change techniques were applied using trusted sources and a health belief model. Health messages delivered through a KakaoTalk chatbot improved awareness and self-efficacy. Quality control was ensured with the use of a log system. The experts' chatbot usability average score was 80.13 (SD 8.15) and the average score of girls was 84.06 (SD 7.61). Future studies need to verify the effectiveness of health communication strategies in promoting HPV vaccination and the effectiveness of scientific intervention using a chatbot as a delivery method for the intervention.

Yo! Chisme Is Good! Latina/x Girls’ Cultivando Confianza in an After-School Program

Background or Context: Middle-school Girls of Color experience complex systems of relationships, structures, and situations in and out of school spaces. Their experiences, however, are often at the margins or excluded from middle school curricula and after-school programming. In this article, we focus on how young women engage with chisme to liberate themselves from social and academic pressures placed upon them. Purpose and Research Questions: Our study seeks to center and explore the ways of knowing and being of Latina/x middle school girls with particular attention to the role of chisme. We draw on Chicana/Latina feminist perspectives to address the following research questions: (1) How do middle school Latina/x girls define chisme? (2) How and why was chisme enacted or leveraged to co-create a trusting space in an after-school program for middle school Latina/x girls? Research Design: We employed a practitioner research inquiry design to explore chisme as a literacy practice of Latina/x middle-school girls in an after-school program. The after-school program, Latina/x Girlhood Narratives, was implemented in a middle school in a mid-sized, urban city in the Midwest region of the United States. Analytically, we engaged in video data analysis and qualitative coding analysis to examine the data. Results and Conclusions: Three main findings emerged from the study: (1) shared understandings: chismes, rumors, and snitching; (2) todo or la mitad del chisme: a process and product of confianza; and (3) from chismes to liberatory literacy practices of desahogamiento. Our study demonstrates how chisme, in particular, not only was vital to building and deepening confianza, but also allowed access to the girls’ ideas for activities and pedagogies. The field of education must continue to work to make visible the ways in which Latina/x girls engage with themselves and the world in order to sustain better relationships with and for them, and to build pathways for Latina/x girls to see themselves as successful in schools and in society.

STEM-It-Yourself: Increasing Participation of Girls and Minorities in STEM

Have you ever wondered why, when browsing the internet looking for scientists, technologists, engineers, or mathematicians, most of the results show men? Or have you ever wondered if there was someone out there who might look like you doing work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)? Our research aimed to better understand why STEM fields are not diverse in gender or race, and to empower the next generation of STEM leaders through a project called STEM-It-Yourself (SIY). Through SIY, we introduced middle school girls to women in STEM who are representative of the girls’ races. By hearing about the STEM journeys of the presenters, who were women, and Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC), the girls participating in SIY could cultivate STEM identities, which could motivate them to stay in STEM and help diversify the STEM workforce.

Comparative study of strength development in middle school girls

Comparative study of strength development in middle school girls

Middle school girls PE: pushed to compete or pushed aside

ABSTRACT Physical education (PE) class can be the first-time students experience structured physical activities, and competitive activities may comprise the majority of activities. If a student experiences success they may want to continue participation; however, after middle school, female participation declines sharply. The framework used in this study, the Theory of Planned Behaviour, guided the examination of the perceptions and experiences of middle school female students in competition in PE. Forty-six seventh- and eighth-grade students identifying as female, from four suburban northeastern school districts, participated in focus groups and were observed during competitive activities in PE. Informal interviews with the PE teacher were conducted. Two major themes emerged: (1) students had insight into organizing teams and skill development and (2) pushed to compete or pushed aside. This study suggests students identifying as female in middle school have well-developed perceptions based upon their experiences in PE and provide a strong indication that how teachers organize class and behaviour management influence these perceptions.

Longitudinal Analysis of Physical Activity Levels and Characteristics Among Boys and Girls in Middle School During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2019, 2020, 2021)

PURPOSE This study conducted a longitudinal analysis of physical activity levels and characteristics of middle-school boys and girls over a three-year period before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.METHODS This study used a sequential mixed-methods research design. In the quantitative study; three-dimensional accelerometers were used to measure weekly physical activity and sedentary time over three years (2019, 2020, and 2021) among 33 middle-school boys and girls, and the data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance. In the qualitative study, data were collected and analyzed through focus group interviews with five participants.RESULTS The quantitative study indicated a significant increase in sedentary behavior and significant decrease in low-intensity activity and MVPA during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second year of the pandemic, no significant difference was observed in sedentary behavior, low-intensity activity, and MVPA compared to the data collected in the first year. During the pandemic’s first year, qualitative study identified the following physical activity problems: “lockdowns,” “sedentarization of leisure,” and “reduced structured physical activity.” The following reasons were identified for the lack of improvement in physical activity during the second year: “intensified sedentary lifestyle habits,” “weak social networks,” and “lack of energy to exercise.”CONCLUSIONS The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant decrease in physical activity and a significant increase in sedentary behavior among middle-school students in South Korea, and even as the environments for physical activity have recovered, the physical activity problems of the early stages of the pandemic have not improved.

코로나19 시대의 청소년 비만 예측요인 분석: 의사결정나무분석방법을 이용하여

This study built a prediction model for BMI by sex of middle and high school students in the COVID-19 era by using 2021 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This study used data from 30,015 middle school and 24,833 high school students. The data was analyzed by using decision tree analysis. For male middle school students, if they did not engage in strenuous physical activity and spent more than 11 hours on a smartphone during the weekend, the obesity rate was the highest at 37.4%. Male high school students, those who did 0-1time strenuous physical activity a week and had medium-low level academic performance showed the highest level of obesity(36.2%). Middle school girls, when the academic performance was low and the anxiety disorder level was severe or conversely, the obesity rate was the highest at 18.4%. High school girls, the obesity rate was the highest at 20.5% when there was a significant change in the economic situation due to COVID-19 and the time spent on smartphone over the weekend was 9.8 hours or more. It is needed to develop a customized management and counseling program for obese adolescents.

Enhancing body image satisfaction and well-being among early adolescents: Feasibility and preliminary outcomes of the mind. body. voice. program

Although most research has emphasized high-school and college-aged women, body dissatisfaction and eating disorder behavior are also a concern for middle-school girls. We partnered with Girls Inc., a community-based organization to explore feasibility and preliminary outcomes of the mind. body. voice. (m.b.v.) program with a middle-school-aged cohort. The program was collaboratively designed with youth, focusing on body image satisfaction, disordered eating risk factors, and mental health and well-being. The work occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a unique opportunity to assess the promise of the program under difficult extenuating circumstances. In an open-trial design, we assessed change from pre- to post-program administered with two cohorts, one delivered remotely in 2020 (n = 17) and one in-person in 2021 (n = 13). Findings indicated that participation in the m.b.v. program was associated among both cohorts with significant decreases in negative body judgment and adherence to cultural appearance biases, and significant increases in body awareness, agency, and positive self-regard, as well as significant reductions in negative affect. Results support the feasibility and promise of both remote and in-person administration of the program targeting young adolescents, and in partnership with a well-established community-based organization.

Inspiring Middle School Girls to Pursue STEM Careers

Inspiring Middle School Girls to Pursue STEM Careers

How Constructivist Learning Impacts Secondary Girls’ STEM Career Interests

This is a quantitative study that examines how constructivist learning in a summer camp impacted middle school and high school girls’ STEM knowledge, self-efficacy, and ultimately, their interests in future STEM learning and growth. An online survey was used to collect information from thirty-one girls at the end of a five-week summer camp. The results are mostly confirmative of past studies that used student-centered project-based authentic STEM learning with significant gains in students’ understanding of STEM, self-efficacy, and interests in STEM for future development. The unique contribution of the study, though, is the finding that, when given the opportunity to engage in active learning and problem-solving, girls’ interest in STEM subjects could be substantially boosted; the constructivist learning environment along with their gains in STEM knowledge can compensate any insufficiency in self-efficacy in this regard. This study provides insight about the importance of instructional approach in STEM education.

Body Dissatisfaction and Health Risk Behaviors Among Middle School Girls.

Previous studies demonstrate a relationship between body dissatisfaction and substance use and suicidal ideation among older adolescent girls and young women while less documentation exists for early adolescence. This study explored the relationship between reported weight loss attempts and substance use history and suicidal thoughts among younger female adolescents. Participants (n = 1656) were middle school female students who participated in the 2019 Youth Behaviors Risk Survey. Participants were coded as "Trying to lose weight" and "Not trying to lose weight." Two hierarchal multiple binary logistic regressions were conducted, 1 for each of the dependent variables: (1) substance use history and (2) suicidality. Fifty-seven percent of the participants were trying to lose weight, 40% reported suicidal thoughts and 45% reported substance use history. Trying to lose weight was a significant predictor for both substance use (p < .01) and suicidality (p < .001). Body dissatisfaction and its association with risky health behaviors highlight the need for prevention education at earlier ages while reinforcing the need for availability of school counselors.

FOSTERING STEM INTEREST IN MIDDLE-SCHOOL GIRLS THROUGH COMMUNITY-EMBEDDED INTEGRATED STEM

Women are underrepresented in STEM, with the decline in attitudes among girls occurring during the middle-school years. The purpose of this study is to explore STEM interest in girls through their participation in integrated STEM in order to find ways to motivate, engage, and sustain their STEM interest. The following research question guided this study: What components of a community-embedded, integrated STEM experience promote STEM interest in middle-school girls? This single explanatory case study took place at an emerging urban STEM middle school in the midwestern United States. The entire seventh grade participated in two integrated STEM units. All seventh graders had the opportunity to participate in an additional project based on one of the two STEM units. Seven target girls were purposefully selected as participants based on their consent to complete all research requirements. This study illuminated five themes, each emerging as an important aspect of community-embedded STEM integration that may help to foster STEM interest in middle-school girls: (a) community and personal connections to helping others, (b) self-confidence and self-efficacy, (c) supportive and collaborative community, (d) student agency and choice, and (e) perseverance, persistence, and learning from failure. Findings from this study can be used to develop and guide further integrated STEM curricula that focuses on improving STEM interest, with the ultimate goal of increasing representation of women in these areas. The authors of this study challenge educators to find ways to support female success in STEM by improving their STEM interest.

Female Undergraduate Students’ Experiences Facilitating an Out-of-School Physical Activity Program for Middle School Girls

Purpose: To explore undergraduate students’ experiences leading and facilitating an out-of-school-time (OST) physical activity program for middle school girls. Method: Five female undergraduate students (N = 4 Black or African American) participated in semistructured individual interviews and submitted weekly reflections during their time leading the OST Girls Empowering Movement (program). The data were analyzed inductively by conducting systematic searches across interview transcripts and artifacts. Results: Four themes were generated, including: find something that they would like, sometimes it is hard to calm chaos, those girls cling to me, and this experience was really good for me. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the undergraduate students who facilitated the Girls Empowering Movement program experienced significant growth and learned the complexities involved in facilitating and leading an OST program. These findings have practical implications when considering physical activity leadership practices and experiences leading OST physical activity programming.

Research on the Development Status and Countermeasures of Middle School Girls’ Football in Northeast Sichuan —Take Xichong Middle School in Nanchong City as an Example

Research on the Development Status and Countermeasures of Middle School Girls’ Football in Northeast Sichuan —Take Xichong Middle School in Nanchong City as an Example

Development of a Counseling Package Based on the Lived Experiences of Middle School Girls for Preventing Academic Procrastination

Development of a Counseling Package Based on the Lived Experiences of Middle School Girls for Preventing Academic Procrastination

지방도시 보행로의 범죄 안전을 위한 CPTED 연구

This study was conducted to identify crime vulnerable factors of walking street of local cities and to seek alternatives along with CPTED perspective. The streets around A University and B Girls' Middle School in J City, which were selected as the target site, are divided into three sections: 1) a sparsely populated residential area, 2) a street around underutilized urban infrastructure and retaining walls, and 3) a street connected to the middle school entrance. The results of user perception analysis through crime statistical analysis, field surveys, surveys, and design workshops can be summarized as follows.&#x0D; On the street of the first residential area, pedestrians' anxiety was high due to the university-linked retaining walls, piloties of multi-family houses, and spaces between buildings, so it was necessary to strengthen the visibility of lighting for night safety and crime prevention facilities.&#x0D; The second street extends 300m long, and it was necessary to install facilities to respond to emergency situations because the general stadium was left unattended and there were few people day and night.&#x0D; The third street is used as a way to and from school for middle school girls, and it was found that alternatives are needed to prevent traffic accidents along with sex crimes (trying to steal them).&#x0D; Summarizing the above results, although it must be used in daily life, there is a lack of facilities for space activation on deserted pedestrian paths, and the existing crime prevention facilities have a lack of number or low visibility, so the risk of personal crime is very high. For the safety of such pedestrian paths, environmental improvement by applying the principle of enhancing the legibility and activity support of CPTED is necessary, and additional facilities for traffic safety are also needed.

Period poverty’s impact on the futures of its most marginalized groups

&#x0D; The main objective in this paper was to conceptualize how period poverty impacts the upward mobility of women and girls in the United States. With the topic of period poverty gaining awareness and the idea of menstruation becoming more mainstream, the impacts of menstruation on a menstruator’s future must be acknowledged also. One of the main ways to identify these impacts, specifically from a financial perspective, is through socioeconomic growth as it demonstrates an intersection between a person’s economic stability and the opportunities they have been given from a younger age. In this paper, period poverty and its influence on upward mobility is broken into demographic groups of girls in middle and high school, women in college, low-income women, and incarcerated women. This research connects the areas of period poverty and upward mobility to identify how financial precarity and menstruation limit the futures of its most struggling groups.&#x0D;

Understanding Racially Minoritized Girls’ Perceptions of Their STEM Identities, Abilities, and Sense of Belonging in a Summer Camp

Informal science education researchers have become increasingly interested in how out-of-school spaces that offer STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs inform learners’ STEM achievement, interests, and affective outcomes. Studies have found that these spaces can offer critical learning and developmental opportunities for underrepresented racially minoritized (URM) students (Black, Latinx, low socioeconomic status) in STEM subjects. Shifting away from the leaky STEM pipeline analogy, researchers have posited contemporary understandings to explain why the minoritization of URM girls persists. Informal learning environments such as STEM summer camps are being studied to assess how URM girls experience and interact with STEM in novel ways. These environments can inform the research field about how URM girls’ perceptions of their STEM identities, abilities, efficacy, and belonging in STEM develop as they engage in those spaces. This mixed-method study used a multiple-case-study approach to examine how aspects of URM middle school girls’ STEM identities positively changed after participating in a one-week, sleep-away, single-gender STEM summer camp held at a university in the Southwestern U.S. Drawing on intersectionality and STEM identity, we used ecological systems theory to design our research study, examining how URM middle school girls narrate their STEM identities in this informal learning environment. Using quantitative analyses and deductive coding methods, we explored how elements of girls’ STEM identities were shaped during and after their participation in the STEM summer camp. Findings from our study highlight (1) quantitative changes in girl participants’ STEM identities, sense of belonging in STEM, and perceived STEM ability belief, (2) qualitative results supporting our quantitative findings, and (3) how the intersectionality of participants’ race and gender played a role in their STEM identities. This study points to the potential of STEM informal learning camps as a way of developing and fostering URM girls’ STEM identities.

Disparities in Days Assigned to an Exclusionary Discipline Consequence by the At-Risk Status of Texas Middle School Girls: A Statewide Multiyear Investigation

Examined in this study was the extent to which differences occurred in the assignment to and in the number of days assigned to an in-school suspension for Grades 6, 7, and 8 girls in the State of Texas as a function of their at-risk status in the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2020-2021 school years. Similar percentages of girls were assigned to an in-school suspension, regardless of their at-risk status. Across all three grade levels and all four school years, however, clear inequities were documented in the average number of days girls who were at-risk were assigned to an in-school suspension. Grades 6, 7, and 8 girls who were at-risk were assigned a statistically significantly higher average number of days to an in-school suspension than were Grades 6, 7, and 8 girls who were not at-risk. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research were discussed.

Analysis on the implementation of payment policies for four non-national immunization program vaccines in China

This study systematically retrieved information on the payment policy of vaccination fees for pneumococcal vaccines, human papillomavirus vaccines, haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines and rotavirus vaccines using a Python-based crawler. The proportion of the population covered by policies among the total applicable population was estimated based on the medical insurance coverage ratio and population data in 2020. This study showed that the payment policies included two categories, government-funded free vaccination policies and medical insurance payment policies. Among the four non-national immunization program vaccines, the free vaccination policies only involved pneumococcal vaccines and human papillomavirus vaccines. Among them, the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, and the human papillomavirus vaccine were provided free of charge in 1, 10 and 15 provinces, respectively. For these policies, the corresponding covered population and the proportion among the total applicable population were children aged 6 months to 2 years old (2.5%), older people (1.2% to 21.5%) and middle school girls (1.1% to 12.2%). Medical insurance payment policies were implemented in 14 provinces, and nearly covered the four types of vaccines in the policy implementation areas, with the proportion of the covered population about 10.9% to 41.5% among the total applicable population.