College students experience negative sexual health outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections (STI) and unintended pregnancies. Increasing their use of clinical sexual health services may help reduce these poor outcomes. Currently, little is known about the sexual health service utilization of college students in Alabama or the factors that…

One of the most problematic habits of college students, binge drinking, has been of particular interest among researchers as a result of the increased risk of harm experienced by students engaging in this high-risk behavior. Fraternity and sorority students have also come under scrutiny for habitually engaging in binge drinking and experiencing…

The leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States is tobacco product use. The 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which was completed in 2022, showed that the e-cigarette epidemic among youth continues to remain a public health threat. The survey revealed that over 2.5 million middle and high school students…

Sleep is a vital element of human life, health, and wellbeing. It plays a critical role in cognitive function, physiological processes, regulating emotions, physical development, and in one's overall quality of life. Knowledge of sleep behaviors, as well as the attitudes and perceptions surrounding sleep in collegiate student-athletes may serve as…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the United States in early 2020, individuals have been motivated to protect themselves against the risk of the virus by the wearing of masks, social-distancing, and receiving vaccinations. This study utilizes Rogers' (1975) Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to test motivations of collegiate student-athletes to…

COVID-19 offered an unprecedented opportunity to apply two well-established theories in the context of a pandemic within a specific environment. The theory of planned behavior and expectancy violations theory brought insight into health behaviors and behavioral intention of college students on one major university campus. In addition, this study…

Research recognizes that physical activity habits developed earlier in life are likely to be continued throughout life. To combat rises in obesity rates and declining physical activity levels among adults, studies emphasize the responsibility higher education institutions have in targeting young adult's physical activity habits. Theories of…

Prescription Drug Misuse (PDM) among college students is a concerning public health issue in the United States. Little research has examined misuse behaviors as they occur in college students' daily lives, limiting our understanding of the context of misuse and real-time misuse predictors. The goal of my dissertation was to better understand PDM…

Participation in drinking games has been identified as one specific alcohol-related context linked to increased risk among college students. Despite advances in drinking game research, questions remain about the different types of individuals at risk from participating. The current study utilized latent class analysis to classify individuals based…

This study explored the issues surrounding adolescent sleep (middle school students in grades 7-8) in a suburban school district in Columbus, Ohio. This study assessed the effects of a KidsHealth.org sleep education program through middle school physical education class to potentially improve daytime sleepiness as measured by the Epworth…

This study examines the influence of teaching digital resources of MyPlate on the nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to healthy eating habits among first and second-grade students. A pre-and post-assessment of this quasi-experimental research study measured the baseline KAP levels of 45 participants regarding healthy…

Food insecurity is highly prevalent among U.S. college students and is associated with poor eating behaviors, physical and mental health, and academic performance. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense income loss in the United States. Income loss is associated with increased food insecurity. Little is known about how college students' food…

Young adults are very socially active. During infectious disease outbreaks, their interpersonal interactions serve as a mode of viral transmission, especially to vulnerable populations such as the elderly and immunocompromised. A lack of compliance with recommended health behaviors among college students during the early months of the COVID-19…

Overweight and obesity are national epidemics affecting 42.4% of adults in the U.S.; with the southeastern region exhibiting higher obesity rates than most other regions in the U.S. (National Center for Health Statistics, 2020; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). Alabama ranks 3rd…

Teachers are leaving the teaching profession before reaching the age of retirement at increasingly high numbers, many citing increased stress as a factor in their decision to quit, contributing to a national teacher shortage. This qualitative study investigated the stressors experienced by eight K-12 teachers in a rural Pennsylvania school…