Publications from Positively Aging: Optimizing Mobility Across the Lifespan

Abstract about this project

Keywords: general science, gender, equity, evaluation, theory, secondary

Abstract: The Women in Science Survey (WiSS) was first developed in 1984 and is still being used in contemporary studies, yet its psychometric properties have not been evaluated with current statistical methods. In this study, the WiSS was administered in its original 27-item form to 1439 middle and high school students. Confirmatory factor analysis based upon the original description of the WiSS was modestly supportive of the proposed 3-factor structure, but the claimed dimensions showed substantial redundancy. Therefore, we split our sample and performed exploratory factor analyses on one half. The most satisfactory solution, a 2-factor model, was then applied to the cross validation sample with a confirmatory factor analysis. This 2-factor structure was supported with a total of 14 items. Factor 1, Equality, contains 7 items and factor 2, Sexism, 10 items (??2(17) = 23.12, p = .12, CFI = .92, RMSEA = .04 (.90 CL = .04 - .04). Although our data are limited to adolescents, the WiSS, with improved psychometric properties may be used descriptively to assess attitudes toward women in science and with additional stability and repeatability testing, may be used in evaluation research. The shortened WiSS should result in shorter administration time, fewer missing data, and increased acceptance among survey administrators in classroom settings.

Keywords: heart disease, cardiovascular health

Abstract: Heart disease starts early, studies show. But it doesn't have to.

Keywords: middle school, education, sentence completion, health promotion

Abstract: Purpose: Sentence completion exercises require students to give open-ended responses to prompts. The first purpose of this article is to describe the method of sentence completion to assess middle-school children's attitudes and beliefs about aging. The second purpose is to describe the patterns of characteristics that children associate with aging. Design and Methods: Two middle schools in San Antonio, TX agreed to have their students participate in the sentence completion exercises at the beginning of the 1998¿1999 school year. Teachers asked students to write responses to the following prompts: "Old is ...," "You know you are old when ...," "You know your parents are old when ...," "When I am old, I ...," and "Old people ...." We coded the responses for their characteristics and whether they were positive, negative, or neutral. Results: Of the 2,476 students, 1,874 (75.6%) wrote responses to at least one prompt. Overall, we collected 3,700 responses and coded 9,438 characteristics (2.6 characteristics per response). The most common characteristics of aging were having wrinkles (21.1%), having gray hair or being bald (20.0%), and being less active (17.5%). Students had a much more positive view of their future (55.4%) compared with their view of aging elicited by the other prompts (range of 4.9¿25.7% positive responses). Students infrequently associated old age with specific conditions; only 4.6% mentioned diseases, 6.0% mentioned being ill or taking medications, and 5.7% mentioned sensory problems. Implications: Middle-school students view their futures much more positively than the changes they observe in their parents and other elders. Students infrequently identified specific diseases or impairments as responsible for the changes they observe with aging. These observed responses provide a starting point for educators to develop and deliver gerontologically based materials that teach about healthful habits to maintain independence across a life span.

Keywords: stereotype, aging, elderly, drawings

Abstract: Objectives. The purpose of this study was to determine whether combinations of characteristics, abstracted from drawings of elders made by middle school students, grouped together to form cohesive perceptions, or stereotypes, of human aging. Methods. We abstracted 49 characteristics from drawings of elders made by 1,944 students at two middle schools in San Antonio, Texas, at the beginning of the 1998¿1999 school year. Correlational and factor analyses were used to determine if there was an underlying structure or grouping to the characteristics. Logistic regression was used to determine the variables associated with the investigators' classification of the images as positive, neutral, or negative. Results. The standardized alpha coefficient for the 49 variables was low ( = 0.37). The Spearman rho correlations between the variables were also low, with 90.2% of the 1,176 comparisons being < 0.10. Exploratory factor analyses did not provide a useful grouping of characteristics drawn by the students, including analyses stratified by gender and restricted to the most common 34 characteristics. Among the 49 characteristics that emerged from the drawings, 11, 4, and 11 traits were directly associated with classifying the drawings as positive, neutral, or negative, respectively. Discussion. These analyses indicate that middle school students have not formed strong images regarding aging: No clear cohesive stereotypes of elders emerged from the images drawn by these children. Absence of stereotypic views implies that middle school students may not have a built-in bias toward older people and age-associated changes. This suggests that young adolescents are at a point where instruction including gerontological content can be used to effectively teach about aging and health promotion.

Keywords: dissemination, evaluation

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of two dissemination methods for the Positively Aging® teaching materials. Design and Methods: Four middle schools in San Antonio , Texas participated in a 3-year controlled study of dissemination via distance electronic support alone (control) compared to distance electronic support plus in-school support from the Positively Aging® staff (intervention). Website and classroom utilization of lessons were actively tracked during the study. Results: Intervention school teachers accessed an average of 57 web pages/month (SD=81) compared to 17 web pages/month (SD=56) by control teachers (p=0.011). Classroom use of materials increased during the study and the interaction between the schools and study year was statistically significant (ß=1.32, SE=0.39, p=0.0008). The odds ratio for use of materials in an intervention school was 5.94 (95% CI=3.32-10.61). The odds ratio for use of materials per year of study was 2.66 (95% CI=1.86-3.81). Implications: This controlled study demonstrated that in school support by study staff was necessary to disseminate the Positively Aging ® teaching materials. Identified barriers to dissemination included competition for classroom time with other curricular content, variability in teacher use of computers, teacher and student turnover, and the effects of mandatory testing on the educational process.

Keywords: teacher professional development, teacher workshops

Abstract: Preparing youngsters for an aging world requires teachers who keep pace with health science research. The Stealth Gerontology¿ program instructs teachers (N=100, 78% middle school, 82% female, averaging 12 years experience) in aging-related topics. The design and assessment of the program is reported herein. Teachers attended sessions (1999-2001) including direct instruction (e.g., neurosensory changes) and hands-on participation (e.g., laboratories). Sound educational methods were modeled through interactions with university researchers and lessons from the Positively Aging® curriculum, while highlighting aging topics matched to educational standards. Participants showed significant improvement (p= 0.05) in eight of nine topics (range from 5% to 26%) in multiple-choice pre-/posttests. Evaluations indicated a high degree of satisfaction.

Keywords: oral health, reading classroom

Abstract: Current national educational recommendations suggest incorporating health topics across secondary school curricula. Application of the Positively Aging®: Choices and Changes materials, specifically Unit 9 "Watch Your Mouth! Oral Health and Aging," illustrates that oral health education can be successfully incorporated into middle school reading classrooms. A teacher's successful implementation of the unit and the alignment of oral health concepts with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills reading objectives are described herein. Compared to pre-test results, increases in student posttest scores were statistically significant (all 2p less than or equal to 0.001) and reflected concept attainment as linked to learning cluster objectives within the unit.

Keywords: review, science attitude, evaluation, psychometric properties

Abstract: The purpose of this review is to present a comprehensive evaluation of science attitude instruments based on published psychometric evidence. A multitude of instruments have been used through the years and some have been linked to career choice and school performance. Substantiating such associations is of paramount importance if researchers wish to influence educational policy. However, associations are reduced, or hard to discover, if instruments have weak psychometric properties. Several databases were searched for peer reviewed articles that discussed the development and use of science attitude instruments. Instruments were grouped into the following categories: attitudes toward science, scientific attitudes, nature of science, scientific career interests, and other. A data abstraction and scoring rubric was used to summarize and evaluate 150 published articles that spanned 66 instruments. Most instruments had single study usage and showed an absence of psychometric evidence. This review demonstrated that there are few instruments available with the necessary psychometric data to merit recommendation. This review quantifies the current state of the research regarding the measurement of science attitude in students; the results should elicit further discussion and encourage more rigorous analyses of instruments. The findings may assist other researchers to select an instrument and alert them to its strengths and weaknesses. This review points the way forward for research in this field. Instruments already in existence should be used in repeat studies, and reliability and validity evidence should be collected and shared.

Keywords: general science, attitude, evaluation, theory, statistic, multivariate, survey

Abstract: If questionnaires to measure scientific attitude are to have utility in assessing students¿ inclinations toward careers in science or mastering science based curricula, it is incumbent that these instruments have the psychometric data to back them up. The central purposes of this paper were to review the development and evolution of the Scientific Attitude Inventory (SAI), to collect new empiric data from a sample of school children, and then re-evaluate the psychometric properties of the revised form of the SAI, the Scientific Attitude Inventory II (SAI-II). The SAI-II was administered to a convenience sample of 543 middle and high school students from 5 teachers in 4 schools in 4 school districts in San Antonio, TX at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year. Confirmatory factor analysis on the full data set failed to support the existence of a 12-factor structure (as proposed by the scale developers) or a 1-factor structure. The data were then randomly divided into exploratory (EFA) validation and confirmatory (CFA) cross-validation sets. Exploratory and confirmatory models yielded a 3-factor solution that did not fit the data well (?2 (321) = 646, p< .001; RMSEA = .061 [.90 CI = .054 - .068]; and CFI = .81). The three factors were labeled ¿Science is About Understanding and Explaining¿ (13 items), ¿Science is Rigid¿ (6 items), and ¿I Want to Be a Scientist¿ (8 items). The a-coefficients for these three factors ranged from 0.59 to 0.85, but whether these scales are valid will require independent investigation. In our sample, and consistent with prior publications, the SAI-II in its current form does not have satisfactory psychometric properties and cannot be recommended for further use.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease, health education

Abstract: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has roots in childhood; since CVD begins early, a clear strong case for early education focused on CVD primary prevention exists. Scientists are not traditionally involved in disseminating health knowledge into public education. Similarly, public school teachers typically do not have access to biomedical research that may increase their students¿ health science literacy. One way to bridge the `cultural¿ gap between researchers and school teachers is to form science education partnerships. In order for such partnerships to be successful, teams of scientists and teachers must `translate¿ biomedical research into plain language appropriate for students. In this article, we briefly review the need for improving health literacy, especially through school-based programs, and describe work with one model scientist/teacher partnership, the Teacher Enrichment Initiatives. Examples of cardiovascular research `translated¿ into plain language lessons for middle school students are provided and practical considerations for researchers pursuing a science education partnership are delineated.

Keywords: attitude, evaluation, statistics, survey

Abstract: In the current study, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the dimemsionality of the 29-item ISSS, which was administered to 531 middle school students in three San Antonio, Texas school districts at the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year. The results failed to confirm the presumed 1-factor structure of the ISSS, but instead showed a 3-factor structure with only marginal fit with the data, even after removal of 12 inadequate items. Shortening the scale from 29 to 17 items makes it more feasible to use in a classroom setting. Determining whether the three dimensions identified in our analysis, "Positive Imgaes of Scientists," "Negative Images of Scientists," and "Science Avocation" contain usefull assessments of middle school student impressions and attitudes will require independent investigation in other samples.