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…

Background: Little information is available on the provision of supportive health environments for persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) in institutions. The aim of this study was to present an overview of supportive environments for health in institutions in Taiwan. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to examine the perceptions…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore individual and social factors that are associated with children's F&V (fruit and vegetable) intake in order to develop a school-based intervention to increase their F&V consumption. Design/methodology/approach: Group interviews were conducted with ten groups of Dutch children (n=104),…

Objective: To describe how content analysis of the news assists media advocates. Methods: A description of how findings from the Berkeley Media Studies Group's research on how 2 public health issues have been portrayed in the news has informed media advocacy. Results: For media advocates, the research suggests they make themselves available to…

This article presents a conceptual framework that was developed to guide a national evaluation of the American Legacy Foundation's (Legacy) Statewide Youth Movement Against Tobacco Use (SYMATU) program. This program was designed to develop youth-led, youth-directed initiatives within local communities. Two evaluation studies were designed and…

The Cafeteria Power Plus project examined whether a cafeteria-based intervention would increase the fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption of children. Twenty-six schools were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control condition. Baseline lunch observations of a sample (N = 1668) of first- and third-grade students occurred in the spring…

This article describes two models for thinking about the purposes of health education--a medical model and an education model--and traces how concerns about the validity of research have driven preference for the medical model. In the medical model, the purpose of health education is to develop effective interventions that will prevent people from…

Context: Every social group shares beliefs about health and illness. Knowledge and understanding of these health beliefs are essential for education programs to address health promotion and illness prevention. Purpose: This analysis describes the diabetes Explanatory Models of Illness (EMs) of low-income, rural, white Southerners who have not been…

Strategies to fix America's ailing health-care system seemed to fly off the presses every month in 2007. Doctors, journalists, and policymakers clamored to have their say, as did supporters and opponents of the controversial life-extension movement. These top trends, which registered in 2006 as well, and will only balloon in this election year,…

Background: There has been much educational verbosity over the past decade related to building capacity for effective schools. However, there seems to be a scarcity of clarification about what is meant by school capacity building or how to accomplish and sustain this process. This article describes the preexisting conditions and ongoing processes…

Although large scale national surveys provide extensive data about the nature and frequency of alcohol use among American college students, survey research on alcohol does not provide detailed information on the context of college alcohol consumption that may contribute to drinking-related negative consequences. This research sought to gather…

Objectives: This teaching idea is designed to increase students' understanding about the principles of a Coordinated School Health Program and apply these principles as they plan a community health program. As students work through the planning process, they will address many of the AAHPERD/AAHE Standards for Health Education Programs. Target…

The abuse of anabolic steroids by teenagers--that is, their use without a prescription--is a health concern. Anabolic steroids are synthetic forms of the hormone testosterone that can be taken orally, injected, or rubbed on the skin. Although a 2006 survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that less than 3 percent of 12th…

This paper concentrates on a software prepared as a series of Health Education for K8 students in Turkey. Bearing in mind that healthy mind rests in a healthy body, the researchers prepared a series of software on different aspects of health. This specific software tries to donate the K8 students with healthy use of computers in everyday life.…

The purpose of this study was to develop a knowledge base on factors associated with performance-enhancer usage among female athletes at the high school level in order to identify markers for a future prevention-education program. The study used a pretest-only, between-subjects Likert Scale survey to rank the importance of internal and external…