The Cooperative Extension National Framework for Health and Wellness calls on Extension professionals to operate in new ways that will shape "the context in which people grow, learn, work, and play" and to practice multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches in communities. In this article, we present three cases in Oregon as examples…

Background: Given its ability to exacerbate health inequities through its disproportionate impact on low-income communities, the need exists to better understand factors that influence substance use among adolescents. Moreover, given its multi-etiological nature, preventing adolescent substance use requires addressing intrapersonal, interpersonal,…

Adolescents may especially need social and emotional help. They are learning how to handle new demands in school and social life while dealing with new, intense emotions (both positive and negative), and they are increasingly feeling that they should do so without adult guidance. Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are one way to help…

Nearly all private, government and non-governmental organizations that receive government funding to run social or health promotion programs in the United States are required to conduct program evaluations and to report findings to the funding agency. Reports are usually due at the end of a funding cycle and they may or may not have an influence…

Researchers have been making use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and other study designs that sample feelings and behaviors in real time and in naturalistic settings to study temporal dynamics and contextual factors of a wide variety of psychological, physiological, and behavioral processes. As EMA designs become more widespread,…

Theater has been used as an educational tool since the Great Depression era, and it is currently considered an effective tool for health promotion and reducing risk-taking behaviors among youth. Theater projects are well suited for communicating prevention messages to youth audiences because they can depict real-life settings and characters who…

This article describes three studies that were designed to provide undergraduate students with opportunities for hands-on experience in research. Students were involved in all aspects of the studies--from the development of the research questions to the reporting of the results. The studies examined the effectiveness of signs and posters in…

Data from a survey of students who participated in the School Health Curriculum Project (SHCP) are analyzed to determine the effect of the SHCP on student smoking behavior three years after participating in the program. (JD)

Provides an overview of the Start SMART smoking cessation program which combines nicotine withdrawal therapy with behavior modification. The Start SMART program provides seven, intensive one-hour group sessions that are shown to be a most effective intervention with a specific population--motivated, yet highly dependent smokers. (GLR)

Community participation in program decision-making and implementation is an ideal that community and academic stakeholders aspire to in participatory research. This ideal, however, can be difficult to achieve. We describe lessons learned about community participation from a quasi-experimental trial aimed at reducing the uptake of smoking among…

Relapse prevention remains a major challenge to smoking cessation efforts. T. H. Brandon, B. N. Collins, L. M. Juliano, and A. B. Lazev (2000) found that a series of 8 empirically based relapse-prevention booklets mailed to ex-smokers over 1 year significantly reduced relapse. This study dismantled 2 components of that intervention: the amount of…

In 1983 the Nebraska Prevention Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse began a project to develop and evaluate an educational program designed to discourage young people from taking up the smoking habit and to encourage those who smoke to quit. The second evaluation of this smoking curriculum had two components: a 1-year follow-up evaluation of the…

This review summarizes end-of-program quit rates from 6 controlled and 10 field-based Not on Tobacco (NOT) evaluations. Approximately 6,130 youth from 5 states and 489 schools participated. Intent-to-treat and compliant quit rates were calculated at 3 months postbaseline (end-of-program). Results from controlled evaluations revealed an aggregate…

The Minnesota Heart Health Program's Quit and Win smoking cessation contests occurred between 1982 and 1989. The contests used large prizes to encourage smokers to quit smoking. Evaluations indicated that the contests succeeded in recruiting relatively large proportions of smokers in entire communities, and abstinence outcomes were encouraging.…

Objectives: To describe the Better Practices model and its application to review youth tobacco cessation practices. Methods: Growing emphasis on evidence-based practice in health has drawn attention to methods for the identification of "best practices." Canadian organizations and government collaborated to develop a framework for…