Search results for "Background factors"

Relationship between students' opinions, background factors and learning outcomes: Finnish 9th graders learning English

2017

An experimental controlled study on postural sway and therapeutic exercise in subjects with low back pain.

2000

Objectives: To describe postural sway and its associations to background factors, low back pain and functional capacity. To evaluate the changes in postural sway after three months of therapeutic exercise in the gym or at home. Design: A one-year randomized experimental trial evaluated postural sway in three study groups: intensive training, home exercise and control group. Setting: Subjects were recruited from seven local occupational health care centres in Central Finland and were examined at Central Finland Hospital by medical doctors. Measurements and therapeutic exercise programmes were carried out in the Research Laboratory of Sport and Health Sciences at Jyväskylä University. Subjec…

The role of peer groups in adolescents' educational trajectories

2009

The present study investigated whether the members of adolescents' peer groups show similar educational trajectories from comprehensive school to either senior secondary or vocational education, and to what extent their educational expectations, academic achievement, family structure, and parents' SES predict these trajectories. Five hundred thirty adolescents filled in a questionnaire focusing on their educational expectations, academic achievement and family background variables before the transition to post-comprehensive education. They were also asked to nominate three peers with whom they most liked to spend their time. After the transition, they reported the school form they were in. …

2021

Objectives: Energy drink consumption among adolescents has become a notable global phenomenon, and has been associated with numerous negative health outcomes. In order to understand the popularity of energy drinks among adolescents, and to target interventions, it is important to identify the determinants underpinning consumption.Methods: The nationally representative data (cross-sectional) were drawn from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) surveys, conducted in 2014 and 2018, each comprising 13- and 15-year-old Finnish adolescents (n = 7405).Results: Weekly energy drink consumption increased among Finnish adolescents between 2014 (18.2%) and 2018 (24.4%), especially among …

Maternal teaching of reading and children's reading skills in Grade 1: Patterns and predictors of positive and negative associations

2013

Abstract The main aim of the study was to identify subgroups of children based on the associations between the reported frequency of maternal teaching of reading and children's reading skills, and whether these subgroups differ with respect to mother-related (i.e., education, controlling behavior, and emotions in homework situations) and child-related (i.e., reading habits and gender) background factors. Data were gathered from 1460 mother–child dyads. The reading skills of 6- to 7-year-old Finnish-speaking children were measured at the beginning and at the end of Grade 1. Information from mothers was gathered by questionnaires. Regression Mixture Modeling identified four latent subgroups o…

Is there a need for a new cultural policy strategy in the Nordic welfare state?

1996

Cultural policies have existed as a structural element of the Nordic welfare states from the very beginning. Today these policies are being re‐evaluated, and there are some indications that they may be gradually dismantled. Local cultural politicians in municipalities (cultural boards) and professionals (e.g. cultural secretaries) have become uncertain and anxious about their future role and legitimacy. This new situation is addressed and analysed by using the ideas of Goffman's on‐and off‐stage representations, and Foucault's governmentality. Important background factors in the development of cultural policies both in the past, present and future are identified and used to explain the pres…

Sensitivity of the central visual field in 70- to 81-year-old male athletes and in a population sample.

1994

The sensitivity of the central visual field (0°–30°) was studied using an automatic Octopus 500E perimeter in elderly male athletes and in a population sample of men of corresponding age. The athletes (N=96) were endurance and power athletes, who were still active in competitive sports with training histories spanning tens of years. The athletes’ results were compared with those of a sample of men of the same age (70–81 years, N=41) randomly selected from the local population register. The sensitivity values of the athletes, and the endurance athletes in particular, were significantly better than those of the controls, with differences varying from 1 to 2.5 dB in the different areas of the …

People Who Run the European Parliament: Staff Demography and Its Implications

2014

AbstractWith few exceptions, parliament administrations, including secretariat officials and party group staff, have been relatively unexplored. However, a small, but growing, literature on the administration of the European Parliament (EP) indicates that officials play a role in the policy process that goes beyond technical and procedural questions. On this background, this article therefore aims at, first, finding out who the people working in the EP secretariat and group secretariats are, and, second, investigating whether it matters who these people are. Based on an online survey, we unveil the bureaucrats’ nationality, gender, educational background and former and future career (plans)…