The toll of HIV/AIDS and drug abuse on economically disadvantaged women of color in the United States is a public health problem of epidemic proportions. Malnutrition, believed to be pervasive in this population, exacerbates the devastating health effects of addiction and HIV. This study documented dietary deficiencies in this population and…

Objectives: This exploratory study examined pre-event drinking, or pregaming, by US college students. Participants: 112 undergraduates from 10 Pennsylvania colleges participated. Method: A focus group, including a written questionnaire, was conducted at each institution. Results: Only 35.7% of the participants had not pregamed during the last 2…

Although seatbelts save lives, adolescents may be disproportionately likely to omit their use. Using data from the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a national survey of more than 16,000 U.S. public and private high school students, the authors employed a series of logistic regression analyses to examine cross-sectional associations between past…

Objective: This study investigates the relationship between exposure to armed conflict and terror events, and an array of mental and behavioral outcomes within a large cross-cultural scientifically representative sample of 24,935 Palestinian (7,430 West Bank and 7,217 Gaza) and Israeli (5,255 Jewish and 6,033 Arab) 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old school…

Health education researchers have called for research articles in health education to adhere to the recommendations of American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association regarding the reporting and use of effect sizes and confidence intervals (CIs). This article expands on the recommendations by (a) providing an overview of…

Liliana Escobar-Chaves and Craig Anderson investigate two important trends among American youth and examine the extent to which the two trends might be related. First, the authors note that U.S. youth are spending increasing amounts of time using electronic media, with the average American youngster now spending one-third of each day with some…

Objective, Participants, and Methods: In this study, the authors explored the psychometric properties of the Hooked on Nicotine Checklist (HONC) among 300 college students who were current smokers. The HONC is a 10-item survey instrument designed to measure diminished autonomy over smoking, a key aspect of dependence. Autonomy is diminished when…

We conducted a qualitative analysis of 148 college students' written comments about themselves as sexual decision makers. Most participants described experiences in which they were actively engaged in decision-making processes of "waiting it out" to "working it out." The four patterns were (a) I am in control, (b) I am experimenting and learning,…

Policy and practice on sex and relationships education (SRE) in England often has the stated objectives of delaying sexual activity, reducing sexually transmitted infections and lowering rates of teenage conception. Underlying these objectives is the desire to support young people in making "informed choices" and developing the skills…

This article introduces the Major Contribution on integrating health and vocational psychology, using persons with HIV who have work-related concerns as an example. The authors describe the demographics associated with HIV disease and new treatments that have allowed people with HIV to remain healthy and continue working, or consider returning to…

Objective: The authors assessed the knowledge, beliefs about, and practices of vaginal douching among women attending 2 universities in the southeastern United States. Participants: There were 416 participants in this study; 46.9% were black and 44.5% were white. Methods: The authors administered a 30-item questionnaire to women enrolled in…

Objective and Participants: The authors designed this cross-sectional study to examine sports team differences in hazardous alcohol use and drinking game participation, as well as the social correlates of these behaviors among female college athletes (N=176; M age=19.9 years, SD=1.24, range=18-22). Methods: Respondents completed self-report…

Since 1997 the federal government has invested more than $1.5 billion dollars in abstinence-only programs--proven ineffective programs which censor or exclude important information that could help young people protect their health. In fact, until recently, programs which met a strict abstinence-only definition were the only type of sex education…

We review the growing literature on health numeracy, the ability to understand and use numerical information, and its relation to cognition, health behaviors, and medical outcomes. Despite the surfeit of health information from commercial and noncommercial sources, national and international surveys show that many people lack basic numerical…

Objective: To assess students' human papillomavirus (HPV) knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Participants/ Methods: Students (N = 1,282) at a large, public university in the Northeast United States completed a questionnaire during February 2008 assessing HPV knowledge, prevalence, transmission, cervical cancer risk and stigma; sexual behavior,…