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Seventh Grade (seventh + grade)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Progression of oral snuff use among Finnish 13,16-year-old students and its relation to smoking behaviour

ADDICTION, Issue 4 2006
Ari Haukkala
ABSTRACT Aims To examine the progression of oral moist snuff use among adolescents and its relation to smoking behaviour and nicotine addiction. Design and setting A 3-year smoking prevention study in 27 schools of Helsinki, Finland, starting with the seventh grade to the ninth grade., Participants and measurements Pupils (n = 2816) completed questionnaires four times, which included information on smoking behaviour, snuff experiments, nicotine addiction (Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire) and other activities. Findings The prevalence of snuff experimentation rose among boys from 7% in the seventh grade to 43% 3 years later in the ninth grade, and among girls from 2% to 13% for the corresponding period. Among boys, smoking predicted later snuff use in all assessments and snuff experimentation predicted later weekly smoking. The impact of snuff experimentation upon later smoking experimentation was smaller than vice versa. Among boys active in sports, smoking was less common but snuff use was more common. Combined use was common; by the end of the follow-up only 10% of weekly smokers had not tried oral snuff. Nicotine dependence scores increased linearly with snuff use among weekly smokers., Conclusions Despite the European Union sales ban on oral snuff products since 1995, in Finland snuff use is common among boys. Although combined use of snuff and cigarettes is associated with higher levels of nicotine dependence among adolescent boys, the direction of causality is not known. Unlike cigarette smoking, oral snuff use was tried among boys who spent their free time with sports-related activities. [source]

Accuracy of scale conceptions in science: Mental maneuverings across many orders of spatial magnitude

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 10 2006
Thomas R. Tretter
The use of unifying themes that span the various branches of science is recommended to enhance curricular coherence in science instruction. Conceptions of spatial scale are one such unifying theme. This research explored the accuracy of spatial scale conceptions of science phenomena across a spectrum of 215 participants: fifth grade, seventh grade, ninth grade, twelfth grade, and doctoral students in science. Conceptions spanning sizes from one nanometer to one billion meters were investigated through use of written assessments and individual interviews. Results showed that accuracy of conceptions at small scale were not symmetrical with respect to conceptions at large scale. Large scale accuracy tended to decline in a smooth, uniform fashion as the scale increased, whereas small scale accuracy displayed a discontinuity at the microscopic level. To conceptually interact with scales far removed from human scale, experts used strategies of mentally jumping to a new scale-world. Experts tended not to transition smoothly between the differently scaled worlds but rather to make a discontinuous leap, maintaining abstract linkages between the worlds via mathematics. Implications of these findings for curriculum development and classroom instruction are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 1061,1085, 2006 [source]

Boyfriends, Girlfriends and Teenagers' Risk of Sexual Involvement

PERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, Issue 2 2006
Barbara VanOss Marín
CONTEXT: Having a boyfriend or girlfriend, especially an older one, is associated with increased sexual risk in early adolescence. The mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. METHODS: Middle school students in Northern California were surveyed annually from 1997 to 2000. For a sample of 1,214 males and 1,308 females who were sexually inexperienced in seventh grade, logistic and linear regression were used to explore associations between relationship status in seventh grade and sexual activity in ninth grade, controlling for sixth-grade and eighth-grade characteristics. RESULTS: Males who had had a girlfriend their age by seventh grade were more likely than those who had had no relationship to report sexual activity in ninth grade (odds ratio, 2.1). Similarly, for females, the odds of being sexually active in ninth grade were elevated among those who had had a boyfriend their age (2.9); however, they also were higher among those who had had an older boyfriend than among those who had had one their age (2.1). With sixth-grade risk factors controlled, relationship status in seventh grade remained significant only for females; the association was explained by early menarche and by participation in situations that could lead to sex and riskier peer norms in eighth grade. For males, eighth-grade situations that could lead to sex, Hispanic ethnicity and sixth-grade peer norms explained ninth-grade sexual behavior. CONCLUSIONS: To reduce the risk of adolescent sexual activity, parents and communities should encourage youth in middle school, especially females who experience early menarche, to delay serious romantic relationships. [source]

The 4 year stability of psychopathic traits in non-referred youth,

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 6 2003
Paul J. Frick Ph.D.
One significant limitation in research extending the construct of psychopathy to youth has been the absence of longitudinal studies testing the stability of psychopathic traits prior to adulthood. To begin to address this limitation, the current study estimated the stability of psychopathic traits over a 4 year period in a sample of non-referred children in the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh grades at the first assessment. For parent ratings of psychopathic traits, stability estimates using intra-class correlation coefficients ranged from 0.80 to 0.88 across 2,4 years, with a stability estimate of 0.93 across all four assessments. There were also distinct trends in the patterns of stability found in the sample. Specifically, children rated as being initially high on these traits were more likely to be rated lower at later assessments than was the case for children rated initially low on these traits. Finally, the child's level of conduct problems, the socioeconomic status of the child's family, and the quality of parenting the child received were the most consistent predictors of stability of psychopathic traits. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]