Sacred Heart School, a bilingual, Catholic school in Washington, D.C., partnered with a team of researchers from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, to launch a new project, Children Are Citizens (CAC). The project aimed to support early childhood teachers in amplifying the voices of our youngest learners. The ultimate mission was…

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…

Youth are particularly vulnerable to adverse outcomes from substance use, and there is limited evaluated drug education targeting youth in Canada or the United States of America (US). This scoping review identified and synthesized existing literature on evaluated harm reduction substance use education programs for school-aged youth in Canada and…

Background: In 2023, the US state of Texas passed a bill on vaping in school -- House Bill 114 (HB 114) -- which took effect in Texas public schools on 1 September of that year. HB 114 mandates that any student caught vaping in school be placed on a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP). The efficacy of HB 114 may be contingent, at…

The current study assessed whether risk factors associated with vaping were distinct from risk factors associated with other substance use (e.g., alcohol, cannabis) during adolescence. Participants (N = 848, ages 10-16 years) completed a self-report survey to assess frequency and age of onset of substance use, risk perceptions of use, risk factors…

Research is mixed on the common patterns of substance use within a college student population after trauma. Data was collected from students from a mid-sized, Midwestern university. Respondents often reported the use of combinations of medications and drugs that could lead to dangerous effects. Alcohol use was predicted by the substance use…

This occasional paper presents national demographic subgroup data for the 1975-2022 Monitoring the Future (MTF) national survey results on 8th, 10th, and 12th graders' use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The study covers all major classes of illicit and licit psychoactive drugs for an array of population subgroups. The 2020 subgroup data presented…

This is part II of a two-part series on integrating a physical activity component in delivering health lessons to elementary and middle school students. The purpose of this series is to illustrate how health content can be implemented with hands-on activities, physical experiments, visual illustrations that are associated with a specific lesson…

An earlier trial of a school-based, preventative intervention, HealthWise South Africa, demonstrated some efficacy in preventing adolescent drinking and smoking in the Western Cape, South Africa. This was followed by the current implementation trial, which examined how implementation support conditions influenced adolescent drinking and smoking…

Teachers experience learner challenging behaviour in primary schools worldwide. In South Africa, learner behaviour is undermining teaching and learning and compromising safety in some primary schools. To understand teachers' experiences of learner challenging behaviour, a qualitative data-collection approach was applied. Data from 15 teachers from…

The paper investigates gender differences in coolness dynamics among early and middle adolescents in a Hungarian panel dataset, which followed students from grade 5 (age 11-12) to grade 8 (age 14-15). Drawing on Gender Prototypicality Theory, we expected significantly different gendered patterns in the association between coolness and various…

Background: Tobacco smoke exposure (TSE), defined as secondhand smoke (SHS) and third-hand smoke (THS), is associated with negative health consequences. This study's objective was to assess the associations between home TSE status and school engagement, school success, and afterschool activity participation among school-aged children. Methods: We…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) has become one of the nation's most relied upon scientific sources of valid information on trends in use of licit and illicit psychoactive drugs by U.S. adolescents, college students, young adults, and adults up to age 60. During the last four decades, the study has tracked and reported on the use of an ever-growing…

Historically, students of color have experienced an increased risk for exclusionary discipline outcomes (Children's Defense Fund, 1975). Discipline disproportionality continues to be a major problem in our schools today (McIntosh et al., 2018). The focus of most of the research has been on African American males; however, African American females…

Today, countries implement policies and programs for childhood obesity. However, the effect of classroom teachers in preventing obesity is in a position to be a role model for students. Therefore, the awareness of the pre-service classroom teachers about nutrition and their nutritional behaviors have an important place on the students. On the…