ANN ARBOR, Mich. —University of Michigan kinesiology faculty and students will present their most recent research findings at Kinesiology Day on March 11. Also known as KinDay, this year’s conference will take place 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the Michigan League Ballroom. The event is open to the public. The studies listed here are among more than 30 presentations scheduled for KinDay. For more information or assistance in arranging interviews, contact Amy Reyes.

LIGHTING UP IN SEVENTH-GRADE. Children who experiment with smoking at a young age, could become full-fledged smokers by the time they reach seventh-grade, according to research by Anne W. Garcia, assistant professor of kinesiology. The study of 2,071 fifth- and seventh-grade students also shows that a zeal for risk-taking, susceptibility to social pressure, weight consciousness and how well they do in school would determine whether they would experiment with smoking in seventh-grade. The presence of peers, parents, siblings and other relatives who smoked also influenced their behavior. The study is based on a survey of 1,957 pre-adolescents who completed a survey in the spring of fifth-grade. The same students completed a similar survey in the fall of seventh-grade. The students were 41 percent African-American, 31 percent Caucasian and 28 percent from other ethnic backgrounds. By the time the second survey was done, 1,041 of the children had experimented with smoking while 275 children were classified as smokers.

DON’T MESS UP MY HAIR! Adolescents become less fit as they age, but especially girls, who, for a variety of reasons, are not as physically active as boys, said Anne W. Garcia, assistant professor of kinesiology. Garcia’s study examined 213 children as they progressed from elementary school to middle school and 99 children who graduated from middle school to high school. She and her co-authors found that both boys and girls were less active as they aged, but especially among students entering high school from middle school. The study also shows that African-American girls were less fit than Caucasian girls. Why are girls less active than boys? A second study will explore that question further, but Garcia has observed and has been told that one reason may be that girls don’t want to mess up their clothes, hair or make-up.

THE DRIVE TO “BE LIKE MIKE.” To some African-American or Latino children growing up in inner city America, football, basketball, boxing and other sports are their ticket out of poverty. In the barrios of Brazil, some children think of soccer as the passport out of the slums. C Keith Harrison, assistant professor of kinesiology, and Michigan Journalism Fellow Marcelo Barreto examine this phenomenon in a KinDay poster presentation that highlights the preliminary findings of an ongoing Harrison/Barreto study. “We rarely see this phenomenon among middle class African-American or Brazilian kids. They’re always from the inner city, never from the suburb,” Harrison said.

BABY’S FIRST STEPS. Learning to walk on a treadmill has been proven to speed up the onset of walking in infants and toddlers with Down syndrome, according to a new U-M study by Dale Ulrich, associate professor of kinesiology, and Beverly Ulrich, professor and director of the U-M Division of Kinesiology. Infants and toddlers who practiced walking on a treadmill walked independently 101 days earlier than Down syndrome children who did not learn to walk on a treadmill. “We look at this as being part of a family of many other developmental achievements,” Dale Ulrich said.

TREATING CEREBRAL PALSY. Botulinum Toxin A, a drug which has been used for years to help patients with cerebral palsy walk, could also have the same positive effects in cerebral palsy patients or stroke victims who struggle to move their arms. Preliminary results of a study by Susan H. Brown, associate professor of kinesiology, shows Botulinum Toxin A enhanced the ability of a patient with spastic cerebral palsy to move his arm. The first arm movements appeared after six weeks. By 18 weeks, the individual was able to reach for an object on the table. “The big questions we are trying to answer is how long this drug works and whether it really helps at all,” said Gerry E. Conti, assistant professor of occupational therapy at Eastern Michigan University who is co-author of the study. The study is also co-authored by Dr. Edward Hurvitz, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at U-M.