Describes the Modeling and Reinforcement to Combat HIV (MARCH) approach to behavior change, which educates through entertainment (entertainment figures modeling positive behaviors) and community-level interpersonal reinforcement (support from friends, family, and others to encourage behavior change). MARCH focuses as much on enabling people to…

Purpose: Although increased participation in physical activity by older adults is a major public health goal, little is known about the supply and use of physical activity programs in the United States. Design and Methods: Seven academic centers in diverse geographic areas surveyed physical activity programs for older adults. Five sites conducted…

Using an ecological conceptual framework, this article describes a health promotion pilot project designed for children, their families, and other community members. The program was based in a full-service community school that evolved from a university-community collaboration. Efforts to increase adults' access to health promotion information are…

The focus of this article is on examining Norwegian teachers' perception of what factors at the school's organisational level have facilitated their participation in a school-based health promotion project. The study is based on 12 semistructured interviews with teachers from two of the pilot schools participating in the European Network of Health…

The purposes of this study were to describe and compare the specific physical activity choices and sedentary pursuits of African American and Caucasian American girls. Participants were 1,124 African American and 1,068 Caucasian American eighth-grade students from 31 middle schools. The 3-Day Physical Activity Recall (3DPAR) was used to measure…

The article focuses on the overall health of American Indians. Native people living on reservations and in urban areas face a broad array of health problems. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta is committed to improving the health of Native Americans. CDC is one of the agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human…

Assessment and evaluation of children's physical fitness should be an educational process. This process is described as the "personalized self-testing" approach. This approach is a form of self-assessment that teaches children to assess their personal level of health-related physical fitness, interpret the results, and use the information (with…

Quietly, at least beyond the awareness of many psychologists, a relatively new technology based on school-wide behavior management strategies has emerged in special education to answer the call to build healthy communities. The success of these strategies in changing the practices of school systems and creating positive school climates may offer…

In response to growing rates of obesity and health-related problems in children, schools are beginning to shift Physical Education classes from competitive games to lessons on leading healthier lives. This article discusses some creative ways implemented by school administrators to help children get fit and fight what some call an epidemic. The…

In this trial, adolescent girls with body dissatisfaction (N = 481, M age = 17 years) were randomized to an eating disorder prevention program involving dissonance-inducing activities that reduce thin-ideal internalization, a prevention program promoting healthy weight management, an expressive writing control condition, or an assessment-only…

This study examined practitioners' understandings of cultural sensitivity in the context of pregnancy prevention programs for Latina teens. Fifty-eight practitioners from teen pregnancy prevention programs in California were interviewed in a guided conversation format. Three themes emerged in our analysis. First, practitioners' definitions of…

In this article, the authors discuss the important role that coaches play in the overall development of athletes' ability, physical well being, mental maturity, discipline and sportsmanship. It is crucial for coaches to provide quality coaching to younger athletes so they can obtain a positive experience through athletic activities. This article…

Nationwide efforts to protect the public against the health effects of secondhand smoke have prompted college and university administrators to adopt more restrictive smoking policies. Some campus officials are concerned that new policies will lead to student backlash, increased staff workloads, and an increased economic burden. To understand the…

In response to aggressive marketing of tobacco to college students, Florida's legislature allocated multi-settlement agreement dollars to fund tobacco prevention programming at state institutions of higher learning. The Student Tobacco Reform Initiative: Knowledge for Eternity (STRIKE) was one such program. Its purpose was to increase awareness…

The dietary intake of children in the United Kingdom and other minority world countries is an area that is causing increasing concern. These concerns are often expressed around the high levels of childhood obesity and the early onset of dental caries. In this review of the literature, I examine a range of approaches to the study of food and…