This report provides updated results from one of the most comprehensive studies of health-related policies and practices in U.S. public middle and high schools to date, which was released in August 2011. The major findings and trends presented in this report describe issues relevant to childhood obesity for four school years, from 2006-07 to…

Recreation center growth on college campuses has garnered national attention. According to Reisberg (2001), today's students have grown accustomed to utilizing elaborate workout facilities and have begun to demand that their college or university of choice provide that space. Through investing money into recreation facilities, college and…

Based on previous research, it is apparent that many National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions benefit from the existence of and success in intercollegiate athletics. However, there are few, if any, studies that have researched the impact of intercollegiate athletics at National Association of Intercollegiate…

Reinforcing earlier findings from other data, college senior fraternity/sorority members are more likely to consume alcohol frequently. Large reductions in estimates upon controlling for time spent partying, and to a lesser extent cigarette use and intramural sports involvement, suggest considerable unobserved heterogeneity in the relationship.…

Prevention of high-risk use of alcohol by college students has been studied for over 20 years. Most prevention methodology has focused on reducing supply to students rather than addressing the root causes that students use alcohol in self-abusive manner. One holistic health approach that addresses the root causes of alcohol abuse promotes the…

The purpose of this study was to understand the extent to which students' psychological sense of community was influenced by IM use using the psychological sense of community theoretical framework created by McMillan and Chavis (1986), and the student development theoretical frameworks created by Schlossberg (1989) and Astin (1984). Thus, this…

Active video games require players to be physically active. Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is an interactive dancing game that requires fast-foot movement coordinated with energetic music and visuals. The Wii and Xbox Kinect games have also become good active video games for the promotion of physical activity participation. These games are much more…

Many methods exist for imputing missing data but fewer methods have been proposed to test the missing data mechanism. Little (1988) introduced a multivariate chi-square test for the missing completely at random data mechanism (MCAR) that compares observed means for each pattern with expectation-maximization (EM) estimated means. As an alternative,…

In 1971, female professional physical educators in higher education formed the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) to govern women's college athletics. The AIAW presidents gathered at the University of Iowa in July 1980 for a five-day conference: "AIAW... A Decade of Progress: Presidential Review" to create a…

This study examined differences in the academic performance of students in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 in Seventh-day Adventist schools in the United States and Bermuda based on their level of involvement in school music organizations--band or choir--and school sports--varsity or intramural--as measured by standardized achievement and ability tests.…

The authors examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire using exploratory factor analyses (Study 1), and confirmatory factor analyses (Study 2). The relationships between obligatory exercise and other psychological variables including: motivation, subjective well-being, physical self-concept,…

Using the National Education Longitudinal Study, this study explored various factors that predicted bachelor's degree attainment among rural youth attending a four-year institution. Results showed that Hispanic origin, family income, parental educational expectations, the rigor of the high school curriculum, timing and intensity of college…

Background: School-based recreational opportunities for youth from low-income inner-city neighbourhoods are often lacking. School programs represent an ideal location for promoting youth development in low-income areas because they can provide safe, supervised, and structured activities. Such activities should include not only physical education…

Although weightlifting is part of most high school physical education curricula, the sport of powerlifting is a relatively overlooked activity that men and women of all ages can practice as a lifetime sport. This activity consists of three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. This article describes the benefits of teaching powerlifting as a…

Intramural activities are conducted on virtually every college campus throughout the United States, but there is a debate as to the role of intramurals in the overall development of the student (Rothwell & Theodore, 2006). Specifically for females, not every sport is offered for participation at youth or higher levels, but intramural sports is…