Background: Obesity is a complex health problem affecting more than one-third of school-aged youth. The increasing obesity rates in Kansas and Missouri has been particularly concerning, with efforts being made to improve student health through the implementation of school wellness policies (SWPs). The primary purpose of this study was to conduct a…

Pre-participation physical exams (PPEs) hold great potential for addressing adolescents' health-risk behaviors. School nurses may be well positioned to assist with PPEs, yet little is known about their involvement. In this mixed methods study conducted in 2015, we collected data from school nurses in Texas (surveys, n = 208; key informant…

Objective: As children become increasingly exposed to health information and education, it is important to understand how these messages affect the way children speak about health and health behaviours. Children are social agents and co-constructors of their social worlds. Exploring how pre-school children speak about health and health-promoting…

Evolution can be a difficult concept for students, even though it is an organizing principle in biology. It can also be a challenge for teachers to cover evolution properly (or at all) in the classroom, whether due to personal attitudes or lack of knowledge or confidence in the material (Rutledge and Mitchell 2002). Even in some states where…

Purpose/Objectives: To describe: 1) the implementation of a fruit and vegetable education program developed to improve produce intake among youth and their families in a rural Mississippi school district; and 2) satisfaction data for the program. Methods: A six-week produce education program was implemented in the cafeterias of three (two control…

Background: Generating interest in health interventions is an important first step towards engagement with health promotion and effecting behaviour change. This study explored whether framing health information about physical activity and diet from an evolutionary mismatch perspective could help to generate interest in health promotion among…

Adolescents often face hurdles that may interfere with accessing contraceptive services. School-based health centers (SBHCs) are available to many teens in the United States; however, only half of SBHCs that serve adolescents are permitted to provide contraception. The aim of this descriptive phenomenological study was to describe the lived…

In the past few decades, digital technologies have profoundly altered virtually every aspect of human life. While the direct impact of digital technologies on individuals' economic welfare or personal behaviors has attracted considerable attention, the interplay of digital technologies with social connections remains underexplored. Indeed,…

Background: Mobile health platforms can facilitate social support and address HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) stigma but pose challenges for intervention design and participant engagement. Giddens's structuration theory, that individuals are shaped by--and shape--their communities through rules and resources that give them power to operate…

Structural racism in the United States through federal and state legislation and public policies has systematically disadvantaged families of color leading to societal inequities and generations of families living in poverty. Further, racist ideas have led to the exclusion of families of color from systems of support that could prevent involvement…

School-based physical activity can promote health and improve learning outcomes, but efforts to increase school physical activity have had limited success. This study evaluates the sustainability of a multicomponent school-based physical activity intervention and identifies important factors for implementation and sustainability. Results are based…

This study examined the contribution of several risk and protective factors to the development of anxiety, depression, and somatic problems among college students in Ukraine. A cross-sectional survey (N = 997) was conducted to determine the extent to which various predicting factors such as family communication, family satisfaction, social…

The purpose of this article is to describe the concept of an outside-of-school physical activity requirement for physical education and provide suggestions for implementation.

There are many organizations that provide grants (both monetary and in the form of equipment) to help promote healthy lifestyles. This article shares a few tips on how to find grants and write grant proposals.

Over the past few decades, the reciprocal and interactive nature of student health and academic outcomes has been well established. A multitude of research has demonstrated how both common student health issues (e.g., asthma, poor vision) and poor health-related behaviors (e.g., lack of physical activity, poor nutrition) can severely inhibit…