The influence of using substances with friends on future individual use was examined in the context of parental monitoring rules and the ecology of peer activities. A 1-year longitudinal study design included a combined sample of North Italian and French Canadian adolescents (N = 285, 53% girls, M = 14.25 years). Data analyses were conducted using…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the outcome of an education and public health collaboration investigating the impact of adapted training to enhance teachers' potential role to promote child health and wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted in three phases: a survey of the health education content in…

Dental caries, periodontal diseases, tooth loss and oral cancers have significant burden of disease effects, quality of life and cost implications for the Australian community. Oral health promotion is a key approach to addressing these conditions endorsed as part of the National Oral Health Plan. Understanding the evidence for effectiveness of…

The article discusses a research instrument developed and utilized by the Pittsburgh Girls Study that asked young girls (ages 7 and 8) and their caretakers to report on the girls' involvement in a variety of problem behaviors. In this article, the authors evaluate whether comprehension, prevalence, and caretaker-child concordance of problem…

Background: This study examined the prevalence of oral sexual activity in rural Midwestern adolescents. We also examined the correlates of a series of risk behaviors with oral sexual activity. Methods: A questionnaire based on the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System was distributed to 2121 rural middle and high school students in grades 6-12…

We provide new evidence on the effects of workplace smoking restrictions by studying more than 100 local smoking ordinances in Ontario, Canada from 1997-2004. We advance the literature by examining local (as opposed to state or provincial) laws in a quasi-experimental framework and by explicitly testing for effects on worksite compliance and…

Numerous studies have documented cognitive impairments and hypoactivity in the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices in drug users. However, the relationships between opiate dependence and brain structure changes in heroin users are largely unknown. In the present study, we measured the density of gray matter (DGM) with voxel-based…

Objective: Examine diet quality, food security, and obesity among female food pantry clients. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: A food pantry in Lee County, Alabama. Participants: Fifty-five female food pantry clients between 19 and 50 years of age. Main Outcome Measure(s): Diet quality using United States (US) Department of Agriculture…

Despite the dangers of smoking, tobacco companies continue to impede tobacco control efforts through deceptive marketing practices. Media campaigns that expose these practices have been effective in advancing anti-industry attitudes and reducing smoking initiation among young people, yet the association between knowledge of industry practices and…

The objective of the study was to develop and evaluate an effective whole-community approach to identifying a diverse group of influential young people to effectively diffuse health promotion messages among their peers. A peer nomination questionnaire, developed through extensive piloting work, was completed by 10 730 Year 8 students (aged 12-13…

To date, few Internet-delivered smoking cessation interventions have been tested. This study tested the efficacy, understandability, credibility and personal relevance of an e-mail-delivered computer-tailored smoking cessation intervention. It included tailored action plan feedback, as recent studies have demonstrated the importance of planning in…

Two separate studies were conducted to examine the contents and methodology of Latino/a-focused articles published during a period of 35 years in seven major journals used by counseling psychologists as well as the "Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences." Together, the two studies suggest that acculturation, academic achievement, assessment, and…

Background: Recent research evidence from the general population has shown that tobacco smoking and raised body mass index (BMI) are associated with worse asthma outcomes. There are indications that asthma morbidity and mortality may be higher among people with intellectual disabilities (ID) than the general population, but the reason for this is…

The main purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the association between four constructs of the Health Belief Model (HBM) (i.e. perceived severity of smoking-related health problems, perceived susceptibility to smoking-health related problems, perceived barriers to non-smoking and perceived benefits of non-smoking) and cigarette smoking …

This article reviews and assesses the existing research literature on the efficacy of motivational interviewing (MI) to promote lifestyle changes and improve functioning among older adults confronting serious health challenges. A comprehensive literature review was conducted of intervention studies that tested the use of MI to achieve behavioral…