Suchergebnisse

Information dissemination across the supply chain to consumers about chemicals' hazardous properties and presence in consumer products has been recognized as insufficient to improve to enable both producers and end-users to avoid hazardous chemicals and to manage risks to human health and the environment. A comparative analysis of the information requirements in four EU legislations (the CLP, the Cosmetics regulation, REACH, and the Toys Safety Directive) and three US legislations (California's Proposition 65 and Senate Bill 509, and the national TSCA) was conducted with the aim of studying to what extent existing regulatory information approaches require information to be disseminated to consumers. In general, the European legislations address and promote consumers' access to information on chemicals in products more comprehensively than the American legislations, but the amount and type of information required to be disseminated to consumers varies widely. These differences include which chemicals are prioritised, if the chemical is used in a mixture or an article, what information dissemination strategies are used, and who is responsible for consumers accessing the information. It is recommended that chemical information policies should, at minimum, require chemical suppliers to inform consumers of hazardous chemicals present in their products and, if possible, recommend risk management measures to ensure a safe use of consumer products.

A long-standing objective of American public education is fostering civically engaged youth. Identifying characteristics associated with likelihood of future voting, a measure of democratic participation that predicts future voting behavior, might yield targets for education programs to increase civic participation. Survey data from urban adolescents were analyzed to elucidate how civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and civic behaviors are associated with self-reported likelihood of future voting. In a multivariable ordered logistic regression model with latent constructs for civic knowledge, attitudes, and behavior, two civic knowledge constructs and two civic attitude constructs maintained a positive, statistically significant independent association with future voting likelihood after adjusting for race/ethnicity and advanced coursework: knowledge of American governance, current events knowledge, general self-efficacy, and skill-specific self-efficacy. Further research is necessary to determine whether education programs can intervene upon these civic knowledge and civic attitude factors to increase voting participation later in life.

This paper explores the connections between education for youth civic engagement and theories and strategies from public health (specifically, epidemiology). We illustrate this with four applications of epidemiologic theory to youth civic engagement: social determinants and fundamental causes, vulnerable populations and cumulative disadvantage, positive spillover, and herd immunity and critical mass. Formalizing concepts of current civics, in schools and the public, as a civic epidemic, we present a case for individual‐ and group‐level interventions based around targeted, school‐based, effective civic education initiatives. Grounded in epidemiological theory, such approaches call attention to the simultaneous need to improve broad civics education and ensure that particular populations receive necessary attentions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had wide-ranging impacts on college-going emerging adults and their communities, which may prompt them to engage civically. Using spring 2020 survey data from a national sample of college students aged 18–22 ( N = 707), we document the prevalence of pandemic-related civic engagement as well as differences in engagement by sociopolitical perspectives. The majority of participants (70.4%) reported engaging civically at least once, most commonly online (e.g., sharing information about COVID-19 on social media, volunteering virtually). Results showed differences in civic engagement by communal orientation and the candidate participants intended to vote for in the 2020 presidential election, but not by political party affiliation. Qualitative data provide insight into different motivations for pandemic-related civic engagement. We conclude that emerging adult college students' pandemic-related civic engagement is partially motivated by their sociopolitical perspectives and discuss implications for future work examining emerging adult civic engagement more broadly.

BackgroundYouth participatory action research (YPAR) is an equity-focused approach intended to generate local knowledge and democratise the production of research evidence.
Aims/objectivesWe explore the promise and challenges of YPAR to inform education policy decision making. We focus on California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)'s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) initiative, which requires districts to engage with diverse stakeholders to make decisions. We provide a case example of California's Stockton Unified School District. Stockton currently uses the Peer Leaders Uniting Students's YPAR curriculum to inform their LCAP work.
Key conclusionsYPAR offers opportunities for new insights, and can be implemented successfully at scale. While Stockton was doing YPAR before LCFF and LCAP existed, they enabled Stockton to expand its YPAR programming, with the goal of using YPAR evidence to provide useful information for educational decision making, policies, and programmes. For example, one YPAR project focused on student tardiness and, using data from multiple sources, proposed lengthening the passing period so that it was physically possible to walk to class in the time permitted. Here, YPAR supports those people most affected by education policy – the students – to have the power to inform decisions that affect them. YPAR can broaden the set of evidence and perspectives that decision makers review to inform policy decisions. We encourage researchers and practitioners to study and create policy structures that support using YPAR to inform policy. We also encourage policy makers to develop more policies that can facilitate the use of YPAR, in education and beyond.

Historically and contemporarily marginalized youth who are disproportionately exposed to community violence are often the same youth who are less likely to be civically engaged. However, the community violence and civic engagement literatures have not yet fully explored how these experiences may be linked in young people's lives and in relation to what other forces. Using developmental assets and ecological-transactional frameworks, we review the emerging literature on civic engagement among youth exposed to community violence and how external developmental assets and neighborhood collective efficacy may create opportunity for their increased civic engagement. We present numerous conceptually- and empirically-based hypotheses to further examine the intersections between exposure to community violence and youth civic engagement. Ultimately, we identify opportunities for intervention.

Abstract
In action civics education, an emerging promising practice, students learn civics through taking action on a community issue of interest. We examine the action civics programme Generation Citizen (GC) using quantitative and qualitative student survey data. Our quantitative analyses used a quasi-experimental study design and a multilevel model. Participation in GC was associated with increased action civics knowledge, and there were some variations in impact by programme and classroom characteristics. We also qualitatively analysed students' short reflections upon programme completion and found that students feel more prepared for civic action. Action civics shows promise for improving student civic outcomes, but more research, including longitudinal follow-up, is needed. Given the variations in impact that we observed, action civics practitioners should carefully choose the implementation setting.

We analyzed qualitative data from 707 USA college students aged 18–22 in late April 2020 regarding if and how their relationships had changed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most (69%) participants experienced relationship changes, most of whom (77%) described negative changes: less overall contact, feeling disconnected, and increased tension, some of which was due to conflict over pandemic-related public health precautions. Physical distancing from social contacts also created emotional distancing: it was harder to maintain affective connections via online platforms and within the isolating context of shelter-in-place. Due to emerging adulthood being a sensitive window for social development, the COVID-19 pandemic-induced emotional distancing could have long-term ramifications for this cohort's relationships over the course of their lives.