scholarly journals Urban, Suburban, and Rural: Adolescents’ Use and Preferences for Fitness Promotion Technologies across Communities

ISRN Obesity ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Mikulec ◽  
Natalie Goniu ◽  
Megan Moreno

Introduction. An understanding of adolescents’ use of technology across ages and communities could allow for future targeted obesity intervention strategies. Methods. Focus groups of adolescents from rural, suburban, and urban cities in three states were conducted. Focus groups were led by a trained facilitator to explore how participants used technologies and whether they applied them for fitness purposes. All focus groups were audio recorded and manually transcribed. Analysis was conducted by three investigators using an iterative process. Results. Five focus groups included adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years (20 females and 8 males.) Three themes were derived from our data. First, we found age differences regarding technology applied to fitness. Younger participants described technology as a complement to fitness; older participants viewed technology as a motivator for fitness. Second, differences in fitness approaches existed between rural and urban adolescents. Adolescents in rural communities reported focusing on the outdoors for fitness, while urban adolescents relied on fitness-oriented video games. Both rural and urban teens related having a lack of fitness-focused resources in their communities. Conclusions. Our findings indicate differences in adolescents’ application of technology for fitness. Despite adolescents’ differing uses of technology across communities, a common need exists to expand their resources.

2021 ◽  
pp. 002202212110323
Author(s):  
Jessica McKenzie ◽  
José J. Reyes ◽  
Kajai C. Xiong ◽  
Alysia Corona ◽  
Chelsee Armsworthy

Although taboo given the traditional Thai value of female sexual conservatism, sex work is a practice for which Thailand has gained international attention. As in other rapidly globalizing contexts, however, Thai youth are increasingly exposed to global values of gender equality, self-fulfillment, and personal choice. This may, in turn, alter youth perspectives of this taboo yet pervasive practice. To understand how Thai youth negotiate local and global values when considering sex work, this study examined the moral evaluations and moral reasoning of adolescents residing in variously globalized communities. Forty participants (20 adolescents in each a more and a less globalized Thai setting) participated in interviews in which they discussed their perspectives of sex work. Quantitative analysis of moral evaluations revealed that rural and urban adolescents alike deemed sex work as mostly morally wrong. Qualitative analysis of moral reasoning revealed that both participant groups prioritized Thai values of sexual purity for women, shame avoidance, and reputation maintenance. Yet distinct values were also endorsed across participant groups. Rural adolescents centered local values (e.g., relational choice, women’s dignity, Buddhist divinity) and urban adolescents drew heavily from global values (e.g., autonomous choice, romantic love, international reputation) when reasoning about the morality and immorality of sex work. Findings point to the manner in which contextual realities shape—and reshape—cultural values in this rapidly globalizing nation.


Author(s):  
Dovilė VALIŪNĖ

Social innovation is very important for rural development. It is a lack of researchers about an individual level of social innovations in Lithuania. Adolescents’ aggression is an important social problem that can affect society and social innovations. It needs to find the differences in aggression between rural and urban adolescents because it could help to plan effective interventions for reducing aggressive behavior. The present study aimed to assess the aggression among rural and urban adolescents. It was hypothesized that rural and urban adolescents differ significantly on aggression. In order to verify the above hypothesis a sample of 479 (207 boys; 272 girls) students were selected from Lithuanian schools. The sample includes the similar size of rural (N=242) and urban (N=237) students. The age of participants was from 12 to 17. It was used Aggression Questionnaire developed by Buss and Perry (1992) in this research. The questionnaire involves four subscales: physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. The results showed that urban girls had more physical aggression than rural girls. However, it was not found statistically significant differences in physical aggression among urban and rural boys. Also, it was not found any statistically significant differences in verbal aggression, anger, hostility among urban and rural adolescents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (18) ◽  
pp. 1280-1285
Author(s):  
Sadashiva Basavantappa Ukkali ◽  
Nagamani Kulkarni ◽  
Thobbi A.N. ◽  
Ayesha Siddiqua ◽  
Shruthi Reddy

BACKGROUND Adolescent period is that part of exciting period of life which marks the transition from being a dependent kid to an independent and responsible adult. It is recognised as a fascinating period that poses specific challenges and has a great impact on the physical, social and emotional behaviour in the family and society. METHODS A comparative cross-sectional survey of a total of 1000 adolescents, 16 - 18 years of age – 250 each from 4 PU colleges (2 urban + 2 rural) were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire. Based on responses, their attitude towards social aspects of life were assessed, analysed and compared. RESULTS There were significant differences in attitude of adolescents residing in urban areas on various social aspects of life as compared to the adolescents residing in rural areas. Significant differences were observed in personality development traits like selfesteem and self-concept, shrewdness, tender mindedness, internal restraint and individual capacities. Risk taking behaviour was more common in urban adolescents and academic underachievement was more common in rural adolescents. There were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to home / college environment, safety at home / college, relationships with parents, siblings and friends, depression and social ideation. CONCLUSIONS We observed that rural and urban adolescents differed significantly in their attitude towards development of personality traits. Rural adolescents were academically underachievers because of poor facilities, less opportunities and lack of motivation. Urban adolescents exhibited high risk-taking behaviour compared to rural adolescents because of high peer-pressure, curiosity and more exposure to mass media. KEY WORDS Adolescent, Attitude, Rural, Urban, Social


Author(s):  
Sandeep Kataria

The main objective of the present study was to find out the relationship between Punctuality and Home Environment among school going adolescents. To achieve this objective, Punctuality and home environment Scale developed by the investigator were used. The sample consisted of 100 Government Secondary School students of 9th Class were selected randomly from Sri Muktsar Sahib District of Punjab, India. The sample was equally categorized between Boys- Girls and Rural- Urban students. The results revealed that there exists significant relationship between Punctuality and Home Environment among school going adolescents. It is also found out that urban adolescents are more punctual as compare to rural adolescents. No significant difference was found among rural and urban adolescents as well as boys and girls on the variable of Home environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-69
Author(s):  
Manoj Kar ◽  
Sasmita Behera

Obesity and overweight have become a worldwide public health challenge and there is an urgent need to examine prevalence of obesity among adolescents. The aim of the present research is to determine health status with respect to obesity of urban & rural adolescents. The data were derived from cross-sectional sampling of adolescent boys and girls of urban and rural population. Age, gender and body mass Index was used to define overweight and obesity. The overweight and obesity were considered using an updated body mass index reference based on the revised consensus guidelines for India. It is observed that the average height and weight, physical growth of adolescents of urban area is greater than that of rural area irrespective of their gender. The BMI (Body Mass Index) of urban adolescents are more than their counterparts in rural area, but the mean BMI of rural and urban adolescents are significantly different. On the other hand BMI do not show any variation due to gender, area and gender considered together. Most of the adolescents irrespective of their area of residence, in spite of their long hours of sedentary behavior are falling under normal category. The result showed physical activities did influence change in BMI, which has a strong independent association with family history of obesity in both rural and urban adolescents. This study analysis showed an increase in prevalence of overweight and obesity in urban adolescents especially with male gender, calling for an urgent need for targeted preventive measures targeting undernutrition and overweight involving public health nutrition interventions for healthy public policies and implementation of equitable nutrition interventions for optimizing public health outcomes for those populations in greater need.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McKenzie

Although the psychology of globalization is a burgeoning area of research, literature on the topic remains primarily theoretical to date. This study empirically examined the moral psychological impact of globalization in northern Thailand, a rapidly globalizing cultural context. Eighty participants (20 adolescents and 20 parents in both a rural and an urban community) took part in semi-structured interviews on perceptions of morality and globalization. This article shares three sets of mixed-methods analyses of participants’ private moral experiences. Results indicated varying conceptions of morality and self across cultural and dyadic lines, and thus revealed a double-gap in moral personhood across contexts of globalization. Whereas the moral experiences, evaluations, and reasoning of rural adolescents and parents were characterized by similitude, those of urban adolescents and parents were characterized by divergence. Findings indicate an emergent intergenerational moral disconnect in the urban Thai setting. Situating interview data in light of ethnographic evidence gathered in community, school, and home contexts, this study suggests that globalization profoundly impacts moral reasoning and perceptions of oneself as a moral person.


Author(s):  
Kristine Newman ◽  
Heather Chalmers ◽  
Yana Berardini ◽  
Arthur Ze Yu Wang ◽  
Vivian Stamatopoulos ◽  
...  

Canada has one of the largest cohorts of young carers aged 15 to 24 who provide unpaid care for a family member. Although the body of research on young carers is growing in Canada, knowledge on the experiences and needs of young carers living in remote and rural communities is almost absent. This study aimed to understand and address the needs of young carers in rural/remote communities to support our community partner’s goal of expanding their resources and support of this underserved population. The study was conducted in two phases with the first phase being a needs assessment and the second phase addressed those needs. In Phase 1 (conducted pre-COVID-19), three focus groups were conducted with young carers from rural and urban communities with 20 young carers participating in total. Six themes were identified: Internet Usage in Daily Life; Finding and Filtering Information; Concerns Related to Internet Use; Social and Mental Support; What Makes Caregiving More Challenging; and Designing Something to Make Caring Easier. During Phase 2 (conducted mid-COVID-19), 2 focus groups were held via Zoom for Healthcare with a mix of rural and urban young carers in each group. One of the focus groups was held with those under 18 years old and the other included those between 18 to 25 years old. Four themes were identified: Responses to Emergencies; Awareness of Emergency Planning; Potential Impact on Planned Behaviour; and Considerations and Suggestions for Improvement.


Author(s):  
Shiyam V. ◽  
Nishanthini N. ◽  
Niranjjan R. ◽  
Lokeshmaran A.

Background: Adolescence stage the most challenging periods and critical period in one’s life. Bowel habit an important process in day to day life which also shows changes in its pattern from daily life. These changes need to be evaluated for the cause and to prevent certain diseases involving colon and rectum. Objectives was to determine and compare the bowel habits among school going adolescents in rural and urban areas of Puducherry.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from Jun 2019 to Aug 2019. School students from 6th to 12th standard were selected by multistage random sampling method. A semi structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 20.Results: A cross sectional school-based study was conducted among 1350 school going adolescence, among them 618 students from rural area and 732 students from urban area participated in the study. Prevalence of constipation was higher among school going adolescents of urban area (21.9%) compared to that of rural area (19.2%). Prevalence of diarrhoea was higher among the school going adolescents of rural area (6.2%) compared to that of urban area (4.1%). Open field defaecation practice was high among the rural adolescents (26.9%) compared to that of urban adolescents (7.4%). Type 3 stool form was the predominant type in both rural (50.03%) and urban (51.8%) school which is the normal stool form in bristol stool chart.Conclusions: Total 87.2% of rural and 87% of urban school going adolescents have a normal bowel habit. Open field defaecation practice was high among the rural adolescents compared to that of urban adolescents.


Author(s):  
Remus Runcan

According to Romania’s National Rural Development Programme, the socio-economic situation of the rural environment has a large number of weaknesses – among which low access to financial resources for small entrepreneurs and new business initiatives in rural areas and poorly developed entrepreneurial culture, characterized by a lack of basic managerial knowledge – but also a large number of opportunities – among which access of the rural population to lifelong learning and entrepreneurial skills development programmes and entrepreneurs’ access to financial instruments. The population in rural areas depends mainly on agricultural activities which give them subsistence living conditions. The gap between rural and urban areas is due to low income levels and employment rates, hence the need to obtain additional income for the population employed in subsistence and semi-subsistence farming, especially in the context of the depopulation trend. At the same time, the need to stimulate entrepreneurship in rural areas is high and is at a resonance with the need to increase the potential of rural communities from the perspective of landscape, culture, traditional activities and local resources. A solution could be to turn vegetal and / or animal farms into social farms – farms on which people with disabilities (but also adolescents and young people with anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, and alexithymia issues) might find a “foster” family, bed and meals in a natural, healthy environment, and share the farm’s activities with the farmer and the farmer’s family: “committing to a regular day / days and times for a mutually agreed period involves complying with any required health and safety practices (including use of protective clothing and equipment), engaging socially with the farm family members and other people working on and around the farm, and taking on tasks which would include working on the land, taking care of animals, or helping out with maintenance and other physical work”


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