Horticultural therapy program for improving emotional well-being of elementary school students: an observational study.

BACKGROUND: Children in modern society are exposed to high levels of stress. Various previous studies have reported that horticultural activities help children's emotional stability. The objective of this study is to develop and implement a horticultural therapy program to improve the emotional intelligence, resilience, and self-efficacy of elementary school students. METHODS: A total of 582 Korean students (11-13 years old) from 28 schools participated in this study. The horticultural therapy program consisted of seven sessions and was conducted once a week for 60 min per session, during regular or after-school classes. Before and after the horticultural therapy program, emotional intelligence, resilience, and self-efficacy of the elementary school students were assessed using questionnaires. At the end of the program, students evaluated their satisfaction with the program. RESULTS: The horticultural therapy program significantly improved emotional intelligence (p = 0.000), resilience (p = 0.001), and self-efficacy (p = 0.003) of the elementary students participating in this study. After the program, emotional intelligence improved both male and female students. In resilience and self-efficacy, male students improved after the program, but female students did not. CONCLUSIONS: This study may show a potential of horticultural therapy for psycho-emotional health of children.

An Estimated Structural Equation Model to Assess the Effects of Land Use on Water Quality and Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Streams of the Nam-Han River System, South Korea.

The extent of anthropogenic land use in watersheds determines the amount of pollutants discharged to streams. This indirectly and directly affects stream water quality and biological health. Most studies have therefore focused on ways to reduce non-point pollution sources to streams from the surrounding land use in watersheds. However, the mechanistic pathways between land use and the deterioration of stream water quality and biological assemblages remain unclear. This study estimated a structural equation model (SEM) representing the impact of agricultural and urban land use on water quality and the benthic macroinvertebrate index (BMI) using IBM AMOS in the Nam-Han river systems, South Korea. The estimated SEM showed that the percent of urban and agricultural land in the watersheds significantly affected both the water quality and the BMI of the streams. Specifically, a higher percent of urban land use had directly increased the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total phosphorus (TP), and deteriorated the BMI of streams. Similarly, higher proportions of agricultural land use had also directly increased the BOD, total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations, and lowered the BMI of streams. In addition, it was observed that the percent of urban and agricultural land use had indirectly deteriorated the BMI through increased BOD. However, we were not able to observe any significant indirect effect of the percent of urban and agricultural land use through increased nutrients including TN and TP. These results indicate that increased urban and agricultural land use in the watersheds had directly and indirectly affected the physicochemical characteristics and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in streams. Our findings emphasize the need to develop more elaborate environmental management and restoration strategies to improve the water quality and biological status of streams.

Health-related quality of life and cognitive functioning at on- and off-treatment periods in children aged between 6-13 years old with brain tumors: a prospective longitudinal study.

PURPOSE: Our study aimed to examine the relationship between intelligence and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children (6-13 years old) diagnosed as having a brain tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We administered a Korean version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III, the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, version 4.0 (PedsQL), the Korean version of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, and the Korean Version of the Parenting Sense of Competence (K-PSOC) scale before or after initial radiotherapy (T1) and after treatment termination (T2). In total, 13 patients completed both the T1 and T2 interviews. RESULTS: Scores significantly declined between T1 and T2 on the full-scale intelligence quotients (FIQ), verbal intelligence quotients (VIQ), performance intelligence quotients (PIQ), similarity and coding tests, as well as the K-PSOC, which measures parental anxiety. FIQ scores at T1 were correlated with the self-reported PedsQL total scores (r=0.739) and the parent proxy-report PedsQL scores for school functioning (r=0.706) at T2. Also, the FIQ scores at T2 were correlated with the self-reported PedsQL total scores (r=0.748) and scores for physical health (r=0.728) at T2. CONCLUSION: The cognitive ability and intelligence level of the patients significantly declined between on and off treatment periods, and higher intelligence functioning at both on and off treatment was correlated with long-term higher HRQOL. Further investigations that monitor intelligence, HRQOL and parenting stress over a longer period, using a greater number of participants, are needed.

Health-related quality of life, activities of daily living and parenting stress in children with brain tumors.

OBJECTIVE: To compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL), activities of daily living (ADL), and parenting stress between children with brain tumors and those of normal control (NC). METHODS: Participants were 31 brain tumor patients who had received chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation after surgical resection and 125 NC subjects. We administered the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, version 4.0 (PedsQL), to assess HRQOL; the Korean version of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (K-PSI-SF), to assess parenting stress; and examined ADL. RESULTS: The mean self-report PedsQL scores for physical health, emotional functioning, social functioning, school functioning, and total scores in the patients were significantly lower than those of the NC group. The mean parent proxy-report PedsQL scores for all scales except emotional functioning in the patient group were significantly lower than those of the NC group. The ADL impairment for the patients was significantly more than that of the NC group. The K-PSI-SF mean scores for stress related to having a difficult child and for stress related to parent-child interaction in the patient group tended to be higher than those of the NC group (p=0.09). CONCLUSION: The children with brain tumors had lower HRQOL and difficulties in performing ADL. The parents of children with brain tumors tended to experience stress related to having a difficult child and to parent-child interaction. We suggest that long-term monitors for the child's HRQOL and ADL, and parenting stress in children with brain tumors are needed.