Phil Gainous is in a sticky spot. The board of education in Montgomery County, Md., decided this was the year when sugary sodas and non-nutritious snacks must disappear from high school vending machines, replaced by healthier options. Gainous isn't against promoting healthy habits. But as the veteran principal of Montgomery Blair High School, the…

The purpose of the qualitative study was to understand how social factors might help or hinder the training transfer process. Specifically, this qualitative research looked at the meanings a group of women attached to social factors that might influence their practice of breast self-exam. Implications for transfer of training are suggested.…

A sample of 410 university students (96% response rate) completed a four-page survey regarding their perceived effectiveness of high school health education in increasing their knowledge and adoption of healthy behaviors. Results indicated that the majority of students felt health education was important and that healthy behaviors were important…

Although sororities are often perceived as contributing to eating-disordered behavior, limited research has investigated eating disorders in sorority members. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of a highly interactive cognitive dissonance prevention program in reducing empirically supported risk factors in sorority members.…

This article addresses conceptual challenges and theoretical approaches for examining the role of the family in responding and adapting to genetic testing for inherited conditions. Using a family systems perspective, family-based constructs that are relevant to genetic testing may be organized into three domains: family communication, organization…

Objective: To describe the effects of a controlled family-based health education/counseling intervention on health behaviors of children with a familial history of cardiovascular diseases (FH-CVDs). Methods: The intervention group (IG, n=432) received 5 counseling sessions. The control groups 1 (CG1, n=200) and 2 (CG2, n=423) received no…

Increased tobacco consumption, specially among adolescents and females, has been observed recently in Mexico. The goal of this study is to describe tobacco consumption and motives for use among university students. A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed using data provided by 282 students aged 15-24 studying at the University of…

Parents are believed to play a role in influencing their children's health behaviours. This longitudinal study of two generations (parents and their children) examined associations between parents' self-reported leisure-time physical activity changes and the self-reported physical activity changes of their offspring in a sample of 557 adolescents…

The late teens is an important transitional period as adolescents move into new social worlds which support or challenge their smoking. This paper draws on research with 99 Scottish 16- to 19-year olds which explored their understanding of their smoking and attitudes towards quitting and cessation support. The study involved qualitative interviews…

This paper sets out to examine the impacts of schooling and health knowledge on the level of obesity in Taiwan. The results obtained from a sample of Taiwanese females support the hypothesis of Grossman that schooling has a direct positive effect on health by reducing the likelihood of a person being obese. The awareness of obesity-disease…

Over the past forty years various changes in the U.S. "built environment" have promoted sedentary lifestyles and less healthful diets. James Sallis and Karen Glanz investigate whether these changes have had a direct effect on childhood obesity and whether improvements to encourage more physical activity and more healthful diets are likely to lower…

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to undertake a formative evaluation of a young person's Smokebuster club and to examine how young people's experience of being a club member can be used to inform the club's future development. Design/methodology/approach: After seeking and being granted Local Research Ethics Committee approval to undertake the…

The aims of this study were to: (a) compare physical activity across two seasons and, within those seasons, across school and vacation time, and (b) compare the proportion of children meeting the activity thresholds recommended by Tudor-Locke et al. (2004) at each time point. Thirty-six boys, between the ages of 8 and 10 years (M age = 8.8 years,…

To date, limited attention is paid to how partners influence the condom negotiation process. This study examined whether partner ethnicity and age were associated with condom negotiations (i.e., verbal-direct, verbal-indirect, nonverbal-direct, nonverbal-indirect) in heterosexual Chinese and Filipina American college women. Results from 181 women…

A study of sexual behavior in migrant men was conducted in construction sites, markets, and factories in Shanghai, the largest city in China. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was completed by the migrants. Among 986 sexually active men, 14% had had more than one sexual partner in their lifetime, 31% premarital sex, 3.3% oral sex, and…