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Young Users (young + user)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

Changes in the initiation of heroin use after a reduction in heroin supply

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 4 2006
CAROLYN DAY
Abstract Increasing heroin use in Australia over the past 30 years has been associated with a decline in the age of initiation to heroin use. The 2001 Australian heroin shortage was used to assess the effects of a reduction in heroin supply on age of initiation into heroin injecting. Data collected from regular injecting drug users (IDU) over the period 1996,2004 as part of the Australian Illicit Drug Reporting System were examined for changes in self-reported age of first heroin use after the onset of the heroin shortage. Estimates were also made of the number of young people who may not have commenced injecting heroin during the heroin shortage. The proportion of IDU interviewed in the IDRS who were aged ,24 years decreased from 46% in 1996 to 12% in 2004, with the most marked drop in 2001, the year in which there was an abrupt and marked reduction in heroin availability. Of those who reported first injecting between 1993 and 2000, similar proportions reported heroin and amphetamine as the first drug injected. After 2000, methamphetamine was the drug most often reported as being the first injected. Estimates suggested that between 2745 and 10 560 young people may not have begun to inject heroin in 2001 as a result of reduced heroin supply. If around one in four of these young users had progressed to regular or dependent heroin use, then there may have been a reduction of between 700 and 2500 dependent heroin users. There was an increase in amphetamine injecting but it is unclear to what extent any reduction in heroin injecting has been offset by increased amphetamine injecting. Reduced heroin availability probably resulted in a reduction in the number of new heroin injectors in Australia. Efforts need to be made to reduce the chances that young people who have initiated methamphetamine injecting do not move to heroin injecting when the heroin supply returns. [source]

Design criteria for children's Web portals: The users speak out

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 2 2002
Andrew Large
Four focus groups were held with young Web users (10 to 13 years of age) to explore design criteria for Web portals. The focus group participants commented upon four existing portals designed with young users in mind: Ask Jeeves for Kids, KidsClick, Lycos Zone, and Yahooligans! This article reports their first impressions on using these portals, their likes and dislikes, and their suggestions for improvements. Design criteria for children's Web portals are elaborated based upon these comments under four headings: portal goals, visual design, information architecture, and personalization. An ideal portal should cater for both educational and entertainment needs, use attractive screen designs based especially on effective use of color, graphics, and animation, provide both keyword search facilities and browsable subject categories, and allow individual user personalization in areas such as color and graphics. [source]

Web portal design guidelines as identified by children through the processes of design and evaluation

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2006
Andrew Large
The Web is an important source of information for school projects, but young users do not always find it easy to locate relevant material. A critical factor in success is the portal through which they search or browse web content. Traditionally web portals have been designed by adults with young users in mind, but there is very little evidence that the latter make use of them. In this paper design guidelines are elaborated for such portals that are based upon focus group and operational evaluations by elementary school students of two prototype web portals designed by two intergenerational teams, each comprising elementary school students and adult designers. The evaluations offer strong support for involving children throughout the design process for portals that both in presentation and functionality reflect the cognitive and affective needs of young users rather than adults. [source]

Assistive devices and cerebral palsy: the use of assistive devices at school by children with cerebral palsy

CHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2009
I-C. Huang
Abstract Background Although the importance of providing disabled children with assistive devices has always been highlighted, most studies in the field of assistive device research seek the participation of adult users or adult carers. Accordingly, the opinions of young users themselves seem to be overlooked. To start to address the gap, this study aimed to understand the children's perspectives regarding device use in school and to explore the factors related to their device utilization in this setting. Methods Semi-structured interviews were adopted as the main data collection instrument. A total of 44 participants were involved, including 15 Taiwanese children with cerebral palsy, aged between 8 and 15 years, 15 mothers and 14 teachers. Results The interview results show a high frequency of device use in school which can be attributed to children's willingness, teachers' attitudes, mothers' support, physical environmental factors and device-related features. Conclusions The findings not only demonstrate the significance of child,environment interaction but also provide evidence that children's views may be different from those of adults because they are at a different developmental stage and act out different roles in their environment. [source]