The Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda was introduced in the UK, as a policy aiming to improve child outcomes along five broad areas. The categories are Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution and Achieve Economic Wellbeing. The objective therefore, is to move beyond the traditional focus on child academic outcomes, to…

It was hypothesized that children identified by their peers at school as anxious solitary would report more symptoms of social anxiety disorder on a self report questionnaire and, on the basis of child and parent clinical interviews, receive more diagnoses of social anxiety disorder and additional anxiety and mood disorders. Participants were 192…

One important goal of Swedish educational policies is to integrate all pupils within regular education, irrespective of disability or difficulties in school, and to adjust education to individual needs. The aim of this paper was to explore how schools "socially construct", i.e. identify and support, pupils with special educational needs.…

Research has shown a strong connection between birth weight and future outcomes. We ask how health problems after birth affect outcomes using data from public health insurance records for 50,000 children born between 1979 and 1987 in the Canadian province of Manitoba. We compare children to siblings born an average of three years apart. We find…

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have experienced increasing levels of community participation since deinstitutionalization. This freedom has facilitated community inclusion, access to alcohol and drugs, and the potential for developing substance abuse (SA) disorders. People with ID, who are known to have high rates of co-occurring…

Backers of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) based their support on the belief that teachers and administrators primarily were responsible for low levels of achievement by America's poor. But this one-sided view is both inadequate and unsupported by the evidence. The author argues that harsh social policies and the pernicious effects of poverty are more…

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment for all…

In Washington, D.C., the vast majority of children have health insurance. Yet District children often lack sufficient access to medical care and face significant health threats from chronic conditions and risk factors such as exposure to violence in schools and neighborhoods. These findings emerged from an assessment of children's health in…

Concerns about child obesity have raised questions about the quality of meals served in the National School Lunch Program. Local, State, and Federal policymakers responded to these concerns beginning in the mid-1990s by instituting a range of policies and standards to improve the quality of U.S. Department of Agriculture-subsidized meals. Schools…

Concerns about child obesity have raised questions about the quality of meals served in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Local, State, and Federal policymakers responded to these concerns beginning in the mid-1990s by instituting a range of policies and standards to improve the quality of USDA-subsidized meals. While most of USDA's…

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the best practices (quality indicators) related to recess placement before lunch in elementary schools; compile a best practices checklist that can be used as an assessment tool for school nutrition programs; and validate and evaluate the usefulness of the best practices checklist.…

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neuro-behavioural disorder that presents frequently in paediatric and mental health settings. Children with ADHD present with symptoms of hyperactivity, inattention, distractibility and impulsivity. The purpose of this paper is to provide clinicians with a summary of contemporary issues relevant…

Physical activity is a proven form of diabetes management and is considered a cornerstone in the prevention of diabetes. In children with diabetes, physical activity may improve insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. Aerobic-based physical activity lasting 40-60 minutes daily for a minimum of four months is shown to enhance…

School engagement is an important theoretical and practical cornerstone to the promotion of school completion. The current study explores the influences of childhood peer relationships in the third grade predicting school engagement at Grade 5. Participants are among the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child…

Objective: Interorganizational relationships (IORs) between child welfare agencies and mental health service providers may facilitate mental health treatment access for vulnerable children. This study investigates whether IORs are associated with greater use of mental health services and improvement in mental health status for children served by…