Background: Asthma is a leading chronic childhood disease in the United States and a major contributor to school absenteeism. Evidence suggests that multicomponent, school-based asthma interventions are a strategic way to address asthma among school-aged children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages the 36 health…

Adverse parenting practices, including child maltreatment, interfere with children's adjustment and life outcomes. In this article, Ronald Prinz describes the Triple P--Positive Parenting Program, designed to improve parenting population-wide. Prinz offers four main reasons to take a population approach. First, official records grossly…

Objective: This study investigated the feasibility of delivering health-related short text messages to parents with the goal of reducing obesity risk among their children aged 3--5 years. Design: Quasi-experimental design involving one experimental group of 17 parents. Setting: Rural American Indian reservation. Methods: During the 5-week…

For more than a decade, the Foundation for Child Development, through the Young Scholars Program (YSP), funded studies about the early education, health, and well-being of children from low-income, immigrant families. Through YSP, the Foundation aimed to fill a gap in policy and practice-relevant research on young immigrant children. It invested…

Two-thirds of high school students get less than eight to 10 hours of sleep per night according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Sleep deprivation in teens has been linked to poor academic performance, reduced immunity, obesity, ADD-like symptoms, and even drug and alcohol use. For years, experts have said that early school…

Background: Whereas legislation for body mass index (BMI) surveillance and screening programs has passed in 25 states, the programs are often subject to ethical debates about confidentiality and privacy, school-to-parent communication, and safety and self-esteem issues for students. Despite this debate, no comprehensive analysis has been completed…

Child abuse has negative health consequences. Early detection and preventive measures lead to avoidance of prolonged and more complex problems. School nurses have a child protection role and should pay attention to vulnerable children. Through health dialogues and other interactions with pupils, school nurses have the opportunity to detect child…

Food assistance programs--including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), the National School Lunch Program, and the School Breakfast Program--have been remarkably successful at their core mission: reducing food insecurity among low-income children. Moreover, writes Craig Gundersen, SNAP in particular has also been…

Consumption of fast food has been linked to weight gain in adults. Fast food has also been associated with higher caloric intake and poorer diet quality in children and adolescents. From 1994 through 2006, caloric intake from fast food increased from 10% to 13% among children aged 2-18 years. This report presents the most recent data on the…

About one-quarter of Canadian adults and more than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. Obese children are at risk of becoming obese adults and can experience immediate health consequences such as psychosocial stress, elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, and abnormal glucose tolerance. Monitoring trends in childhood obesity is…

In Ethiopia there is a severe shortage of child mental health professionals. Identification and intervention for young children's mental health problems is crucial to improve developmental trajectories and reduce the severity of emotional and behavioral disorders. Teachers can play an important role in early problem detection. This role is…

There is a growing body of evidence linking childhood exposure to environmental toxins and a range of adverse health outcomes, including preterm birth, cognitive deficits, and cancer. Little is known, however, about what drives mothers to engage in health behaviors to reduce such risks. Guided by the integrative model of behavioral prediction,…

A sample of 1047 parents completed an online survey about their experiences and opinions regarding the process of attaining a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder for their children. The results revealed that parents usually waited a year from when they first had concerns about their child's development before they sought professional help. On…

In Brazil there are at least 2.247 shelters for children and adolescents, and of these 5% are in the North Region. The conceptions of development exert influence on the care practices adopted and vice versa, both being mutually altered by the institutional environment. This study investigated the association between the conceptions of child…

Objective: Australia has implemented a nation-wide programme providing a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to girls and boys through school-based programmes. Previous research has identified three distinct areas for attention: (1) lack of understanding about HPV and HPV vaccination, (2) young people's desire for involvement in decision-making…