Background: Body image refers to an individual's thoughts and feelings about his or her body and physical appearance. To date, several qualitative and quantitative findings implicate sociocultural influences, such as the media or parental pressure, in shaping female adolescents' body image perceptions. Overall, there is not much quantitative…

Background: Previous interventions to increase physical activity among middle school students have not produced long-term results. Often, students lack the self-regulation skills needed to support long-term adherence to physical activity. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a formative evaluation of a self-regulation based physical…

Background: Over-the-counter (OTC) drug use is an increasing health issue among adolescents. Purpose: This study investigated OTC drug use among 7th through 12th grade multiracial students in one metropolitan area. Methods: A total of 2134 students completed the PRIDE Questionnaire, which examines alcohol and other drug use. Results: A total of…

For the four leading causes of death in the United States (heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic respiratory disease), tobacco use is a common risk factor. Tobacco use is responsible for almost 450,000 deaths per year and impacts the health of every member of our society. Tobacco is a gateway drug for substance abuse. That role is critical to…

Background: Whereas much attention has been focused on adolescent risk behaviors such as substance use, much less has been devoted to self-injury in the general adolescent population. Purpose: This study had two purposes: (1) describe the prevalence of self-injury among early adolescents in the general middle school population, and (2) identify…

Background: Wizards of Motion is a program of curriculum delivery through which experts in Kinesiology introduce grade 7 students to applications of physics for human movement. The program is linked closely to Ministry of Education curriculum requirements but includes human movement applications and data analysis experiences. Purpose: The purpose…

Objectives: By participating in this Stop the Tears teaching strategy, students will be able to: (1) analyze how alcohol and drug abuse could affect their lives as well as the lives of their friends and family and, (2) create a media message, such as a poster, pamphlet, poem, or song, in which alcohol and drug prevention is advocated specific to…

Background: Previous research has posited that significant relationships exist between health status and psychological measures of health (e.g., self-esteem). Less is known about the relationship between perceived quality of life (e.g., life satisfaction), weight perceptions, and dieting behaviors, particularly among middle school adolescents.…

Background: To date, few studies have been conducted to investigate the preparedness of health educators in Canadian school systems. Purpose: This study assessed practicing and pre-service teachers' self-perceptions of preparedness to teach health education in British Columbia K-12 classrooms. It also investigated factors related to their…

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a middle school epidemiology curriculum called Detectives in the Classroom. The curriculum presents epidemiology as the science of public health, using health-related issues that capture the interest of young students and help prepare them to make evidence-based health-related decisions.…

Children and adolescents in the United States are increasingly overweight at younger ages. Many studies have investigated the issue from the perspective of professionals and other adults. This study assessed early adolescents' perceptions regarding the magnitude of, effects of, causes of, solutions for, and learning preferences related to…

Many commentators have indicated that our nation is in a crisis of character. This study examined the relationship between cheating and lying behaviors and constructs previous research has shown to be associated with health behaviors. Participants in the study were 700 students in grades 6-12 from a single southern school district. The…

The Minnesota Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Plus project augmented the DARE curriculum with community, parent involvement, and extracurricular activity components. Of the 24 schools in the DARE Plus project, the 8 receiving the DARE Plus intervention are examined in this study. The association of participation in the extracurricular…

This study examined area-specific self-esteem scores by sexual behavior relative to adolescents' values concerning participation in sexual intercourse as an unmarried teenager. The sample consisted of 332 students in grades 7-12 from a Southern rural school district. Students were asked if they had ever had sexual intercourse (yes/no) and if they…

This study reports on CHAMPS, a youth tobacco and prevention program intervention that focused on peer-led educational activities. Nineteen schools implemented a CHAMPS tobacco prevention program in grades 5, 6, and 7. Six schools served as nonintervention comparison sites. Baseline and follow-up questionnaires were completed by 1,412 students.…