Taiwanese Youth Research Articles

Obesity, fitness and health in Taiwanese children and adolescents

To examine the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity in Taiwan and investigate the association between excess weight and physical fitness and blood pressure. Cross-sectional study. A total of 13 935 children and adolescents aged 6-18 years (boys: 7031, girls: 6904) were involved in the 1999 survey and 24 586 (boys: 12 367, girls: 12 219) were available in the 2001 survey. Weight, height, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and health-related fitness tests (bent-leg curl-ups, sit-and-reach test and step test) were measured. The overall prevalence of obesity (including overweight) in boys was 19.8% in 1999 and 26.8% in 2001. It was lower in girls with 15.2% in 1999 and 16.5% in 2001. The normal weight group performed better (P<0.05) than the overweight/obese group in all fitness tests except in the 2001 sit-and-reach test where there were no differences between the two groups. The risk of hypertension increased nearly two times for the overweight/obese-fit group and nearly three times for the overweight/obese-unfit group compared to the normal weight-fit group (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=1.93, 95%CI=1.514-2.451 and AOR=2.93, 95%CI=2.493-3.454, respectively). Overall, the findings demonstrated that there is an increasing trend in overweight/obesity prevalence for Taiwanese youth even in a 2-year period. The overweight/obese youngsters tend to have poorer muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance than the normal weight group. The overweight/obese and unfit group had a greater risk of hypertension than other groups. However, this risk was significantly lower if obese/overweight children had a higher than average level of cardiovascular fitness.

A comparative study of media cultures among Taiwanese and Japanese youth

This study used nation-wide surveys to explore how different media usage patterns were shaped in Taiwan and Japan. Taiwanese youth use the Internet to a much greater extent than Japanese youth, even though broadband services are cheaper and faster in Japan. Japanese youth use text-messaging services featured on mobile phones more than their Taiwanese counterparts. Since the 1980s, Taiwan has witnessed the development of a unique BBS (bulletin board system) culture, and this culture has led the Taiwanese to have a comparatively stronger degree of trust in the Internet than the Japanese. The Internet culture in Japan is more individualized. Japanese adolescents and young adults tend to avoid direct communication, resulting in the promotion of a unique mobile media culture among the Japanese youth. The findings discussed here suggest that, despite the worldwide standardization of communication technologies, the culturally different personal relationship patterns in the two countries studied have created different media trends for their youth.

A Panel Study of Physical Activity in Taiwanese Youth

The rate of inactivity among young people in Taiwan remains high. However, few studies have explored physical activity patterns with a longitudinal approach in this population. Based on the revised health-promotion model, this study used 2-wave panel data to test a structural model of how individual characteristics, cognitions, and interpersonal influences predicted physical activity of Taiwanese adolescents. The findings suggest that gender, social support, modeling, self-efficacy, and perceived benefits and barriers to performing physical activity directly and indirectly influence the behavior of physical activity in Taiwanese adolescents. The hypothesized model explained 25% of the variance in physical activity. The implications for parents and policy are discussed.

A Prospective Study on Changes of Cognitions, Interpersonal Influences, and Physical Activity in Taiwanese Youth

The decline of physical activity during adolescence is not well understood. This prospective study followed 969 Taiwanese students from eighth to ninth grade and examined their physical activity-related cognitions, interpersonal influences, and behavior of physical activity across the grade transition. Gender differences were found in the effects of the grade transition on physical activity and its related cognitions. The correlation coefficients showed moderate tracking for physical activity, cognitions, and interpersonal influences for both genders. The results also indicated that cognitions are more stable than behavior. The present study provides evidence of the decline in physical activity in Taiwanese youth across the grade transition as well as gender differences in the variables cognitions and interpersonal influences.

A Prospective Study on Changes of Cognitions, Interpersonal Influences, and Physical Activity in Taiwanese Youth

The decline of physical activity during adolescence is not well understood. This prospective study followed 969 Taiwanese students from eighth to ninth grade and examined their physical activity-related cognitions, interpersonal influences, and behavior of physical activity across the grade transition. Gender differences were found in the effects of the grade transition on physical activity and its related cognitions. The correlation coefficients showed moderate tracking for physical activity, cognitions, and interpersonal influences for both genders. The results also indicated that cognitions are more stable than behavior. The present study provides evidence of the decline in physical activity in Taiwanese youth across the grade transition as well as gender differences in the variables cognitions and interpersonal influences.

Lectures and Symposia

The decline of physical activity during adolescence is not well understood. This prospective study followed 969 Taiwanese students from eighth to ninth grade and examined their physical activity-related cognitions, interpersonal influences, and behavior of physical activity across the grade transition. Gender differences were found in the effects of the grade transition on physical activity and its related cognitions. The correlation coefficients showed moderate tracking for physical activity, cognitions, and interpersonal influences for both genders. The results also indicated that cognitions are more stable than behavior. The present study provides evidence of the decline in physical activity in Taiwanese youth across the grade transition as well as gender differences in the variables cognitions and interpersonal influences.

Relapse antecedents for methamphetamine use and related factors in Taiwanese adolescents

The purpose of the present study was to identify the relapse antecedents for methamphetamine (MAMP) use in Taiwanese youth, and to examine the relationships between attribution of these antecedents, demographic variables, psychiatric disorders, characteristics of MAMP use, attitudes toward MAMP use, and personality. A total of 60 Taiwanese adolescents who had previously experienced MAMP relapse were studied. Their relapse antecedents for MAMP use were evaluated using the Questionnaire for Relapse Antecedents of Methamphetamine Use. Their psychiatric disorders were also assessed. The relationships among the relapse antecedents of MAMP use, demographic variables, MAMP-use characteristics, psychiatric disorders, attitudes toward MAMP use and personality were analyzed. The results of the analysis reveal that social pressure to use MAMP was the leading antecedent of relapse. Social adaptation, emotional stability, and education level were the factors that influenced adolescents' attributions of relapse antecedents for MAMP use. However, psychiatric disorder status and attitudes toward MAMP use were not related to any of the relapse antecedents. The results indicate that multiple factors influenced adolescents' attributions of relapse antecedents for MAMP use, and may serve as a basis for construction of models for teaching adolescents to manage the antecedents and reduce the risk of relapse of MAMP use.

GEVA, Esther, Allan BARSKY and Fern WESTERNOFF, eds., INTERPROFESSIONAL PRACTICE WITH DIVERSE POPULATIONS

GEVA, Esther, Allan BARSKY and Fern WESTERNOFF, eds., INTERPROFESSIONAL PRACTICE WITH DIVERSE POPULATIONS. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Corp., Inc., 2000, 211pp., $67.50 hardcover.. A psychologist, a social worker, and a speech-language pathologist produced this edited volume. It is a casebook about interprofessional, diversity-informed practice. This text is designed to help students and professionals connect theory and practice in a way that is ....detailed, multifaceted, and realistic. The editors see this as an educational tool that can be used: * As a personal resource for practicing professionals; * As a primary textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on diversity and interprofessional practice; * As a casebook for professional development workshops, case discussions, and other forms of in-service training for various types of health, mental health, social welfare, and educational agencies and institutions; and * As a library resource for supplementary research and reading for students who do not use this book as a primary text. Chapter 1 looks at interprofessional practice in terms of team constituents and team dynamics and then analyzes the special issues that develop when clients come from diverse backgrounds. Chapters 2-9 look at different contexts of practice [mental health, neurological disorders, child abuse, education, addiction, and criminal justice]. The students, clients, and patients in the cases represent a range of ages, presenting problems, cultures, sexual orientations and genders, family dynamics, and other socioeconomic circumstances. A final chapter offers a summary of key issues and a case for readers to ponder in terms of interprofessional, diversity-informed perspectives. The editors hope that this casebook uses cases to bridge the gap between classroom theory and practice/implementation in the community. Interprofessional practice is also sometimes called multiprofessional or interdisciplinary practice. There are a number of axes along which diversity-informed practice takes place, such as culture, race, socioeconomic status, religion, mental and physical health status, gender, sexual orientation, language, and political identification. There are many challenges to this sort of very difficult and challenging research, and the editors list these challenges as power, politics, funding, territoriality, educational biases, humanistic concerns, and legal issues. The case studies that are used to illustrate interprofessional, diversity-informed practice are many and varied: the case of an African American woman with traumatic brain injury, the too-quiet adolescent, crisis intervention with a gay Irish American man, educational issues with a Vietnamese Canadian child, the case of a deaf Taiwanese youth, theft by a Cree woman and victim-offender mediation versus healing circle, the case of an Algerian adolescent with antisocial behavior, and neuropsychological and interprofessional practice with a Latina student with epilepsy. …