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Positive Activities (positive + activity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Best practices in community-based prevention for youth substance reduction: towards strengths-based positive development policy

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2008
Jeong Woong Cheon
Substance use among youth remains a major public health and safety concern. One fundamental way to address youth substance use prevention is to keep young people on a positive trajectory by engaging them in positive activities from early years of their childhood. In this article, the author offers a best practice analysis of systematic review about 12 selected community-based preventions, and proposes policy changes towards incorporating a strengths perspective. A substantive, methodological, and value-based critical analysis of the strongly effective preventions was conducted. A strengths-based positive youth development perspective is specified as one feasible needed improvement and subsequent policy changes in the school district as well as in the local, state, and federal levels are proposed along with the suggestion of a mandated community youth participation strategy. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Investigation into the occupational lives of healthy older people through their use of time

AUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010
Rachel Chilvers
Background/aim:,Older people are one of the largest groups using health-care services; therefore, it is important for occupational therapists to have an understanding of their occupational lives. Temporality is a key element of occupation, yet little research exists regarding older people and time use, despite the considerable temporal adjustments taking place at this lifestage. The aim of this study was to identify the occupational lives of healthy older people through the activities they undertake in a 24-hour period. Method:,Data analysis of time-use diaries from 90 older UK residents (aged 60,85 years) who considered themselves to be healthy was undertaken, using 15 activity codes and three pre-coded terms: necessary, enjoyable and personal. Results:,The participants spent most of their time sleeping and resting (34%), followed by performing domestic activities (13%), watching television, listening to the radio or music, or using computers (11%), eating and drinking (9%) and socialising (6%). Enjoyable activities occupied most of their time (42% of the day), followed by necessary (34%) and personal activities (16%). Conclusion:,These data contribute to the growing evidence base regarding older people as occupational beings, indicating that they are a diverse group of individuals who are meeting their needs with dynamic, positive activities. This highlights the importance of a client-centred approach to occupational therapy, as it enables the clients to have choice, control and diversity in their activities when meeting their needs. [source]

Exploring spirituality among youth in foster care: findings from the Casey Field Office Mental Health Study

CHILD & FAMILY SOCIAL WORK, Issue 1 2010
Lovie J. Jackson
ABSTRACT This study examined spiritual coping mechanisms, beliefs about spirituality and participation in spiritual activities and in other positive activities among adolescents in foster care. A multidimensional measure of spirituality was developed for face-to-face interviews with 188 youth (ages 14,17) from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds in the United States. Findings revealed 95% of youth believe in God, over 70% believe God is ,creator' and God is ,love', and 79% considered prayer a spiritual practice. Most youth said love and forgiveness help them heal. Two-thirds (67%) reported responding to ,bad or tragic things happening' by spending time alone, and over half responded by praying (59%) or sharing the problem with someone else (56%). Youth's top three spiritual goals were to follow God's plan for them, become a better person, and know their purpose in life. Based on the value youth ascribed to spiritual coping mechanisms, recommendations for policy and practice focus on the integration of spirituality into practice and caregiving for youth in foster care. [source]

A framework guiding critical thinking through reflective journal documentation: A Middle Eastern experience

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING PRACTICE, Issue 4 2007
Elaine Simpson PhD RN
The purpose of this paper is to present a framework to guide critical thinking through reflective journaling, and describe how a group of 20 Middle Eastern nurses used reflective journaling to enhance their practice. Journal documentation was used during clinical practicum to foster the development of critical thinking in order to assist nurses when analysing and evaluating their clinical experiences. The findings from this study demonstrated that nurses accepted the framework for journal documentation because it provided structure for reflection, speculation, synthesis and metacognition of events experienced during clinical practice. Journaling gave nurses the opportunity to transfer thoughts onto paper and write down subjective and objective data, and created dialogue between the nurse educators and nurses. They were engaged in productive and positive activity to enhance their nursing practice. Nurses also commented that writing helped to develop their confidence in writing English. [source]