This KIDS COUNT Report details statewide trends in the well-being of Maine's children. The statistical portrait is based on a variety of indicators in the areas of: (1) physical and mental health; (2) social and economic opportunity; (3) education and learning; and (4) child health care access. The report contains a special section on Maine…

Maintains that discriminations against children have increased recently, despite Convention on the Rights of the Child. Examines present condition of childhood in different countries of the ex-Communist bloc and Western world, particularly the levels of well-being and poverty. Attempts to understand the events that have marked reforms of the last…

This article presents statistics on school health education, looking at selected federal support and related research and focusing on the School Health Policies and Programs Study, which used questionnaires to provide data on the status of health education at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. (SM)

The School Health Policies and Programs Study assessed state, district, and school health policies prohibiting tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use (AOD), and violence. Most states required AOD use policies, but few required violence or tobacco use policies. Most districts and schools had written policies prohibiting all such behavior. (SM)

As school health services are broadening, the role and scope of school nursing is changing. The paper describes challenges facing today's school nurses and nurses' roles in new health service delivery models, offering recommendations for improving and expanding school nursing services. Descriptions of several cases and model programs are included.…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of V.I.K. (Very Important Kids), a school-based, multi-component intervention designed to prevent teasing and unhealthy weight-control behaviors among fourth through sixth grade students. The effectiveness of the V.I.K. intervention was evaluated using a pre-post…

Children from low-income families are more likely to have dental disease and less likely to have regular dental care. Children's dental-related illnesses are responsible for more than 880,000 lost school days each year. The lack of reliable state-level data often makes monitoring the oral health of children a challenge. By conducting oral health…

This article examines the individual components of bipolar disorder in children and the behaviors that can escalate as a result of misdiagnosis and treatment. The brain/behavior relationship in bipolar disorders can be affected by genetics, developmental failure, or environmental influences, which can cause an onset of dramatic mood swings and…

This article describes the challenges and strengths of asthma management in 14 low-income, predominantly African American urban elementary schools serving more than 5,000 students. Asthma prevalence was 24.5%. Teachers, school principals, parents, and children described how asthma was managed at school. Data from classmates of students with asthma…

This paper will discuss the recent establishment of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust's Child and Adolescent Therapy Service. This service was set up in response to an expressed need within the police family to provide evidenced-based psychological therapies for child and adolescent psychopathology caused either directly by…

Purpose: The purpose of the Nutrition Education Students and Teachers (NEST) project was to develop a model of collaboration between University of Delaware dietetics students and elementary teachers to promote nutrition education in the classroom. Design/methodology/approach: Junior and senior level students in a nutrition education course…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review current programmes and major issues surrounding preventive interventions for body image and obesity in schools. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was carried out by analysing papers cited in major literature databases from the last 50 years. This review describes and summarises…

Objective: To study how early father involvement and children's biobehavioral sensitivity to social contexts interactively predict mental health symptoms in middle childhood. Method: Fathers' involvement in infant care and maternal symptoms of depression were prospectively ascertained in a community-based study of child health and development in…

War and violence are part of day-to-day life for many of the world's children. This book explores the lives of the children of Cambodia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and inner-city Chicago. Through research on the psychological and developmental effects of trauma in early life and interviews with children in war zones…

Every two years the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) administers the DoDEA Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) to all parents with children attending DoDEA schools and all 4th-12th grade students enrolled in a DoDEA school. Parents were asked to complete one survey for each school in which they had a child enrolled. The purpose of…