Within the Canadian context, vaping among adolescents had increased in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescent vaping behavior is influenced by individual, social, and environmental factors. The onset of COVID-19 further altered these influences due to lockdowns and physical distancing policies. Using a qualitatively driven convergent mixed methods design, the aim of this study was twofold: (1) to quantitatively measure changes in adolescent vaping behaviors during the first wave of the pandemic; and (2) to qualitatively explore perceptions and experiences of adolescent vaping during this time. Data were used from a larger study including 851 Canadian adolescents, however, only those who reported they had ever vaped were included (n = 174; Mage = 16.8). Descriptive analysis revealed 52.4% of vape users reduced use, 13.1% quit, and 34.5% reported an increase in or no change in vaping frequency. Following an inductive summative content analysis, four themes were identified: (1) reduced access and perceived support, (2) fewer negative peer norms and influence of the school environment, (3) coping mechanism, and (4) minimized resistance skills (boredom). It is evident that the pandemic was a key factor underlying vaping behavior, thus understanding these patterns may help inform policy, prevention, and lessen health risks associated with use.

Even though regular engagement in physical activity (PA) among children can support their development and encourage the adoption of healthy lifelong habits, most do not achieve their recommended guidelines. Active travel (AT), or any form of human-powered travel (e.g., walking), can be a relatively accessible, manageable, and sustainable way to promote children’s PA. One common barrier to children’s engagement in AT, however, is a reported lack of education and training. To support children’s participation in AT, this paper presents the development of a comprehensive 4-module online road safety education intervention designed to improve children’s knowledge and confidence regarding AT. Using a qualitative integrated knowledge translation (iKT) approach undertaken with community collaborators (n = 50) containing expertise in health promotion, public safety, school administration, and transportation planning, our inductive thematic analysis generated fourth themes which constituted the foundation of the intervention modules: Active Travel Knowledge: Awareness of Benefits and Participation; Pedestrian Safety and Skills: Roles, Responsibilities, and Rules; Signs and Infrastructure: Identification, Literacy, and Behaviour; Wheeling Safety and Skills: Technical Training and Personal Maneuvers. Each theme/module was then linked to an explicit learning objective and connected to complementary knowledge activities, resources, and skill development exercises. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Population Medicine considers the following types of articles:• Research Papers -reports of data from original research or secondary dataset analyses.• Review Papers -comprehensive, authoritative, reviews within the journal's scope.These include both systematic reviews and narrative reviews.• Short Reports -brief reports of data from original research.• Policy Case Studies -brief articles on policy development at a regional or national level.• Study Protocols -articles describing a research protocol of a study.• Methodology Papers -papers that present different methodological approaches that can be used to investigate problems in a relevant scientific field and to encourage innovation.• Methodology Papers -papers that present different methodological approaches that can be used to investigate problems in a relevant scientific field and to encourage innovation.

Increasing prevalence of vaping (e-cigarette use) among youth in Canada and elsewhere has become a serious public health concern. The Teens Talk Vaping project sought to co-produce research about teen vaping with teens to generate in-depth qualitative evidence about the everyday socio-environmental dimensions of teen vaping experiences and exposures across perspectives of both teens who vape and those who do not. Our participatory approach included a capacity-building programme to train teen team members to contribute to the project as 'co-researchers', equipping them with the research skills necessary to contribute to all phases of the project, from data collection through to knowledge translation. Paired with adult researchers, teen co-researchers facilitated 7 online focus groups with teens (n=17) from across Canada, including teens who vaped (n=3) and those who did not (n=14). Our participatory thematic analysis generated five themes: (1) Secrecy and surveil-lance at school; (2) Online omnipresence; (3) Social pressures and positionings; (4) (Un)restricted mobilities and access; and (5) Re-thinking school-based vaping education. Our findings reveal the extent to which exposure to vaping is deeply embedded and normalized in the everyday micro-geographies of teens in Canada as seemingly 'everywhere.' Teen vaping prevention efforts must be equity-centred, youth-driven, and take account of the nuanced ways in which vaping is layered into the day-to-day online and offline contexts of young people's lives.

A child’s ability to participate in active school travel (AST) is complicated by several factors. Of particular note are parental controls, which are informed by their perceptions of the local built and social environments, assessments of their child’s skills, and convenience preferences, among other considerations. However, there is currently a lack of AST-specific scales that include validated parental perception measures related to such notable barriers and enablers, or those that tend to frame their AST decision-making processes. Framed within the social-ecological model of health behaviour, the aims of the present paper were thus threefold, specifically to (1) outline and test the construct validity of measures delineating parental perceptions of barriers and enablers to AST, (2) evaluate the reliability and consistency of the developed measures, and (3) connect these measures to develop broader constructs for use in the Perceived Active School Travel Enablers and Barriers–Parent (PASTEB–P) questionnaire. To achieve these aims, a mixed-methods approach featuring cognitive interviews and surveys, along with qualitative (thematic analysis) and quantitative (Cohen’s Kappa, McDonald’s Omega, and confirmatory factor analysis) analyses, was applied across two studies. The validation processes of the two studies resulted in the development of fifteen items comprising seven distinct constructs (barriers: AST Skills, Convenience, Road Safety, Social Safety, and Equipment Storage; enablers: Supportive Environment and Safe Environment) related to parental perceptions of AST. The developed PASTEB–P questionnaire can be used to inform and evaluate AST intervention programming and can be applied for AST research purposes.

BACKGROUND:COVID-19 has drastically changed the everyday lives of children, including limiting interactions with peers, loss of regularly organized activities, and closure of schools and recreational facilities. While COVID-19 protocols are in place to reduce viral transmission, they have affected children's access to physical activity opportunities. The purpose of this study was to understand how COVID-19 has affected children's engagement in physical activity and to identify strategies that can support children's return to physical activity programming in public places.METHODS:Parents of past participants in the Grade 5 ACT-i-Pass Program in London, Ontario, Canada were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview online (in November and December 2020) via Microsoft Teams. The script was comprised of questions about their child's physical activity levels (before, current, and anticipated following COVID-19), lifestyle changes due to COVID-19, and what service providers can do to assist children's return to public programming. Interviews were transcribed in Microsoft Teams, reviewed by a member of the research team, and analyzed in NVivo 12 using thematic analysis.RESULTS:Twenty-seven parents participated in an interview. Four themes and two subthemes were identified during analysis: (1) modifications to everyday life (a. activity options available and b. altered social environment), (2) safety in public spaces, (3) accessibility of activities, and (4) utilizing outdoor spaces.CONCLUSIONS:COVID-19 protocols have decreased children's physical activity levels due to the loss of their regular activities, recreational spaces, and peer support. Implementing facility and activity-specific health protocols, providing outdoor activity options, and offering a variety of activity types, times, and locations are three strategies recommended by parents to help facilitate their children's return to public recreational places. Due to the negative consequences of physical inactivity on children's health and well-being, service providers need to implement programming and safety protocols that support children's engagement in physical activity throughout the remainder of, and the years following, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Qualitative research is lacking on the mental well-being of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to explore the feelings and emotions adolescents experienced during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the coping strategies they identified and employed to manage those emotions. Methods: Participants living in Canada aged 13–19 years were recruited through social media platforms and youth-serving organizations. Qualitative data were gathered from 2 open-ended questions included in a youth-informed cross-sectional online survey: “What feelings and emotions have you experienced around the pandemic?” and “What coping strategies have you used during the pandemic?” We collected data from June 2020 to September 2020. A summative content analysis was undertaken to analyze survey responses inductively. Results: A total of 1164 open-ended responses from Canadian adolescents (n = 851; mean age 15.6, standard deviation 1.7, yr) were analyzed. We identified 3 major themes within the category of feelings and emotions associated with the pandemic: sociospatial and temporal disconnections, emotional toll of the pandemic and positives amid the pandemic. Within the category of coping strategies used during the pandemic, 2 major themes were identified: connecting online and outdoors, and leisure and health-promoting activities. Interpretation: Although the emotional toll of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is evident, participants in our study adopted various positive coping strategies to mitigate their distress, including physical activity, safe peer interactions and hobbies. The results have important implications for public health policy and practice during pandemic times, emphasizing the importance of accessible mental health resources for those experiencing psychological distress.

Background It is commonly believed that nature has positive impacts on children’s health, including physical, mental and social dimensions. This review focuses on how accessibility to, exposure to and engagement with nature affects the mental health of children and teenagers. Methods Ten academic databases were used to systematically search and identify primary research papers in English or French from 1990 to 1 March 2017. Papers were included for review based on their incorporation of nature, children and teenagers (0–18 years), quantitative results and focus on mental health. Results Of the 35 papers included in the review, the majority focused on emotional well-being and attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorder. Other outcome measures included overall mental health, self-esteem, stress, resilience, depression and health-related quality of life. About half of all reported findings revealed statistically significant positive relationships between nature and mental health outcomes and almost half reported no statistical significance. Conclusions Findings support the contention that nature positively influences mental health; however, in most cases, additional research with more rigorous study designs and objective measures of both nature and mental health outcomes are needed to confirm statistically significant relationships. Existing evidence is limited by the cross-sectional nature of most papers.

Using self-determination theory as the theoretical framework, the purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of (a) a guided imagery intervention on children's active play, and (b) intrinsic motivation as a mediating variable between the intervention and active play. Fifty-nine students were randomized into an imagery group (“tigers”) or a control group (“lions”). The imagery group reported higher levels of active play at the end of the intervention compared to the control group. Results supported the mediating role of intrinsic motivation on active play. Findings highlight imagery use as a method to positively influence children's activity levels.

Telephone-delivered physical activity interventions have proven to be effective with adults, yet there is no research using this strategy with children.The purpose of the current study was to examine the feasibility of implementing a participant-initiated automated telephone imagery intervention with children.The outcomes of interest were compliance rates to and cost-analysis of the telephone system.Fifty-nine Grade 5 and 6 students (M age = 10.24,SD = 0.80; 36 females) from two schools were randomized into either an imagery group or a short story group, and some individuals in both of these groups received an individual incentive and some received a class incentive.All participants were asked to call the automated system from home 3x/week for the duration of the study.The high compliance rate, the minimal cost of implementing such a system, and the ability to reach more children than a face-to-face intervention makes the telephone an attractive modality for behavior change researchers.

This study was designed to explore the coach identity through the meanings and prominence ascribed to the coaching role from a role identity theory perspective (McCall & Simmons, 1978). Participants (n = 8), ranging in age from 22 to 61 years old, reported coaching on average about 19 years and primarily coached university-to national-level athletes. Results from the semistructured interview with the participants yielded a thematic tree that consisted of two higher-order themes (coach meanings and coach identity prominence). Coach meaning was refined into three categories: coaching behavioral expectations, coaching characteristics, and ultimate coaching purposes. Coach identity prominence was composed of two categories: coaching centrality/importance and coaching emotions. There were 21 lower-order themes that were associated with these categories. Results from this study provided initial support for the conceptualizations put forth by role identity theorists, and offered initial insight for (a) the development of identity-based coaching scales, and (b) examination of the coach identity nomological network.

The purpose of the current study was to develop an instrument, the Children's Active Play Imagery Questionnaire (CAPIQ), to assess imagery use during children's (7-14 years) active play. Phase 1 involved an assessment of content validity using experts (N=7), while Phase 2 assessed the factorial validity of the CAPIQ using a sample of children (N=302). Phase 3 contributed to the factorial validity of the CAPIQ by utilising confirmatory factor analysis among an independent sample of children (N=252). The final version of the CAPIQ consists of 11 items across three factors: fun, social and capability. Further use of the CAPIQ will aid in identifying types of imagery used among children (7-14 years) in their active play, which may contribute to physical activity interventions.

A 4-week active play imagery intervention aimed to increase children’s physical activity participation was implemented with grade 6 students. For the duration of the intervention participants listened to imagery scripts via a telephone system, completed questionnaires on a weekly basis, and tracked daily pedometer step counts. The purpose of the present study was to investigate children’s perceptions of this imagery intervention. A 45-minute semi-structured focus group interview was conducted with seven children (four females and three males) aged 9-10. These children were a sub-sample of the larger study (N = 57). The interview was transcribed verbatim and organized into meaning units. The meaning units were divided into themes using an inductive approach (Patton, 1990). Two researchers worked together as a coding team to reduce individual coder bias (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). A total of six main themes emerged. Four of the themes were further divided into ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ and included overall experience, using the telephone system, content of imagery scripts, and wearing the pedometer. The fifth theme, assistive factors, included various influences (e.g., teachers) aiding participants in effectively completing the intervention. The sixth theme reflected children’s suggestions for future active play imagery interventions using similar procedures. Taken together, the findings support Tobin et al.’s (2013) assertion that active play imagery can be used as a mechanism to motivate children to engage in physical activity. The main themes will be expanded upon and discussed.Acknowledgments: This research was supported by SSHRC to the last two authors.

In competitive sport, the coach has been identified as an important social agent that can influence many factors including participation, motivation, and performance. Research has established that interpersonal styles (i.e. autonomy-support, involvement, and structure) provided by the coach can influence motivation through the fulfillment of the athletes’ basic psychological needs (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). However, the majority of research focuses solely on autonomy-support. The purpose of our study was to examine how the perceptions of all three interpersonal coaching styles influence motives through the fulfillment of basic needs in competitive athletes. A total of 132 male (n=66) and female (n=66) competitive athletes completed three questionnaires: Interpersonal Supportiveness Scale-Coach (ISS-C; Wilson et al., 2009), English version of “L’echelle de Satisfaction des Besoins Fondamentaux en Context Sportif” (Gillet et al., 2010), and Behavioural Regulation in Sport Questionnaire (BRSQ; Lonsdale et al., 2008). Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the hypothetical model, and the following index scores were reported; χ2 (86) = 192.5, p<.05; CFI= .928; TLI=.912; RMSEA= .097 (90% CI=.079-116). The results demonstrated that interpersonal coaching styles significantly positively predicted the satisfaction of athlete’s basic needs. Athlete’s basic needs significantly positively predicted autonomous motives and significantly negatively predicted controlled motives. This study demonstrates that an athlete’s perception of a coach’s interpersonal style can influence the athlete’s motivation. In addition, the inclusion of all three interpersonal coaching styles allows for further examination of factors in the coach-athlete relationship that have received little empirical attention.

Research has shown that children's physical activity levels are decreasing, with only 7% of Canadian children meeting the required daily physical activity levels (Active Healthy Kids, 2011). Given imagery use in adult exercisers has been linked to exercise motivation (Wilson et al., 2003) the same may be true for children and active play. This study examined whether the three types of active play imagery (fun, capability, and social) were related to the three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) postulated by self-determination theory. A total of 253 children (118 males; 134 females; 1 missing) aged 7-14 years old (Mage=10.35,SD=2.26) completed the Children's Active Play Imagery Questionnaire (CAPIQ; Cooke, Munroe-Chandler, & Hall, 2012) and the Basic Needs Questionnaire for Children (BNQ-C; Gray, Prapavessis, & McGowan, 2009). Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the hypothetical model. It was hypothesized that fun imagery would be related to the need for autonomy, capability to competence, and social to relatedness. The chi square value was 5.622, p < .05 and the fit indices of this model were acceptable: CFI =.998; NFI= .982; RMSEA= .022; SRMR= .043. Furthermore, the three types of active play imagery predicted two of the basic psychological needs, competence and relatedness. The results from this study demonstrate the potential for establishing imagery interventions aimed at increasing children's physical activity levels.Acknowledgments: This research was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council