Background: Sleep plays an integral role in a child's physical and neuropsychological development. Children with sleep disorders are at risk of developing inattention, hyperactivity, and learning difficulties, challenges that impact them, their families, their classmates, and their communities. There is a paucity of pediatric sleep medicine…

Background: Few cessation studies have examined their recruitment methods to determine the most effective methods for enrollment and retention. Purpose: Data from a randomized controlled trial of yoga for smoking cessation was used to evaluate recruitment methods (e.g., radio, referral) and their relationship to enrollment, participant…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown was particularly challenging for elementary students who experienced disruptions in almost all aspects of their daily activities. Our study addressed a dearth of U.S. studies documenting the adverse effects the pandemic created and continues to have for children by analyzing their drawings. This…

Resuming in-person teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic implies that schools must deploy strategies to enforce adherence to the safety protocols to help contain and reduce the spread of the corona virus disease among school children. Thus, the current qualitative study adopted a case study design to explore strategies that were…

Visual displays, such as icon arrays and risk ladders, are often used to communicate numerical health information. Number lines improve reasoning with rational numbers but are seldom used in health contexts. College students solved ratio problems related to COVID-19 (e.g., number of deaths and number of cases) in one of four randomly-assigned…

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the effectiveness and acceptability of mind-body physical activity (MBPA) interventions implemented within educational settings. Specifically, Study 1 was a systematic review with meta-analysis that examined the effectiveness of MBPA on stress-related physiological health markers in primary,…

Reproductive interconception care provided at maternal postpartum visits may help reduce unintended pregnancies and elongate birth intervals for women experiencing homelessness. To improve interconception care uptake, this qualitative study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to reproductive interconception care from the perspectives of…

This study investigated the concerns and perceptions associated with COVID-19 and its variants among faculty, students, staff, and administrators at an R2 research university. Participants: n = 189 participants from the university community. A Qualtrics™ survey was used to draw responses from the university community. The results of this study…

Introduction: The burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a major challenge for countries, regardless of their level of development. Social branding is an emerging approach to health promotion for NCD prevention. In this paper, the process of social branding is documented as a case study to help researchers develop similar kinds of…

Despite the national impact on students due to COVID-19, for Black students living in the state of Florida, the disruption of their social, emotional, psychological, and academic normalcy was complicated further. At the height of the pandemic, Florida consistently ranked in the top three states in the U.S. for total COVID-19 cases; moreover, even…

This case study explores the experiences of student/players (n=2), coaches (n=2), faculty/staff advisors (n=2), and Lone Wolves' (n=6) experiences in eSports environments relevant to American Indian education and cultures. Specifically, this study explored the intersection of eSports, 21st century skills, and Indigenous futurisms and was guided by…

This study examined how changes in cumulative peer victimization are associated with depressed mood and suicidality among adolescents over time, as well as whether certain protective factors (e.g., school mattering) moderate these associations. Middle and high school students (N = 2,539) from a small city in the Great Plains responded to five…

The CDC reports that 30% of high school students have engaged in sexual intercourse. Evidence suggests biological, personal, peer, societal, and family variables affect when a child will initiate sex. The school environment plays an important role in a child's development. Evidence suggests that greater attachment to the school community can…

Background: The origin of inequalities in health outcomes has been explained by health selection and social causation models. Health selection processes operate particularly at school age. We study, if student allocation to teaching groups with aptitude tests (selective vs general class) differentiates adolescents by health behaviors and mental…

This report provides data on health behaviors and experiences of high school students in the United States. Data highlight students' behaviors and experiences in 2023, changes from 2021 to 2023, and 10-year trends. The report focuses on: (1) Sexual behavior; (2) Substance use; (3) Experiences of violence; (4) Mental health; (5) Suicidal thoughts…