Explored the limitations of identifying sedentary people via an existing screening question on a questionnaire. Data from responses on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System indicated that many who initially reported no leisure time activity actually engaged in various types of physical activity, highlighting the difficulty of measuring a…

Examines the reliability and validity of the Youth Support Inventory, a tool designed for community coalitions to assess the availability of local resources and supports that previous research indicates are important for preventing adolescent alcohol and other drug use. (BF)

A total of 371 university students were asked to estimate the amount of alcohol contained in a standard drink and to estimate the number of standard drinks contained in popular alcoholic beverages. In addition, students completed questionnaires assessing their perception of short and long term harm related to the consumption of beer, wine, spirits…

The purpose of this study was to assess awareness and use of a university recreational trail. The authors used an Internet questionnaire developed by the university's Institutional Research Department, with questions derived from the Environmental Supports for Physical Activity Questionnaire and the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey…

Context: Of 2.4 million American Indians, approximately 60% are eligible to receive Indian Health Service (IHS) benefits, leaving many to seek care elsewhere. It is unknown if their quality of care, health behaviors, and health status vary by source of care, as demonstrated for other populations. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine…

This study investigated the dental health knowledge and oral hygiene practices of 95 students with visual impairments and 286 sighted students in Taiwan. It found that the students with visual impairments were less knowledgeable about dental health and less frequently completed oral hygiene practices than did the sighted students.

The aim of this study was to examine propositions stemming from Self-Determination Theory (SDT) that contend motivational consequences vary as a function of different regulations in the exercise domain. Participants (N = 276; n = 98 men; n = 178 women) completed inventories assessing exercise regulations, current exercise behavior, and behavioral…

This paper provides a description of and rationale for components of a theoretically based conceptual model that guided the development and implementation of the Fathers and Sons Intervention Program. Using a community-based participatory research process, this intervention was designed to prevent risky health behaviors through strengthening…

Standardizing the measurement tools that researchers use to assess the effectiveness of interventions would strengthen our ability to compare results across studies. In practice, however, standardization is difficult to implement, in part, because researchers prefer to use measurement tools that focus specifically on the components of their…

In 1987, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the use of universal precautions in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the demand for medical gloves dramatically increased. Unfortunately, the manufacturing techniques for the most widely-used gloves--natural rubber latex--also changed, in order to expedite production.…

Concern has been mounting about the increasing numbers of adolescents who engage in risky behaviours. This qualitative study aimed to identify adolescents' perception of risk and explored the factors that adolescents felt influenced their decisions about engaging in risky behaviours. The results indicated that adolescents perceived risk to be…

This investigation describes what smoking means to adolescents, and attempts to better understand it as a rite of passage. Applying a social ontology to an often-individualized issue, interviews were conducted with 20 adolescent smokers between the ages of 13 and 19. Results show that adolescents possess detailed information about the risks of…

Amidst the hustle and bustle and stress and strain of their professional lives, public school leaders often put their own physical well-being at the bottom of the priority list. What they forget is how important physical health is to their overall health and effectiveness as leaders. The author invited five veteran school system leaders to…

The importance of examining health behaviors, such as physical activity, among Filipino Americans is highlighted by their higher rates of chronic disease. As physical inactivity has been linked to chronic diseases (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996), this study investigated the physical activity levels of older Filipinas. This…

The present study examined relationship status, psychological orientation toward sexual risk taking, and other characteristics as potential correlates of risky sexual behavior in a sample of 223 heterosexual African American college students. Risky sexual behavior was investigated as a multinomial variable (i.e., abstinence, consistent condom use,…