Examined the establishment and function of Texas school health advisory councils (HEACs) following 1995 legislation containing guidelines on school HEAC duties and membership representation. Survey data indicated that 67.3 percent of the 217 responding districts had formed school HEACs. Council size, membership, training, and number of meetings…

Reviews the popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches in health education, suggesting a proposed CAM course for health education professional preparation and offering a course outline which can be used as a self- standing course or integrated into existing courses. It includes a proposed course description and goals,…

Examined students' perceptions of alcohol promotion at a large public university. Student surveys of how they perceived alcohol promotion both in terms of their drinking behavior and the extent to which they perceived it occurred on campus indicated that abstainers and nonbinge drinkers believed alcohol was promoted to a greater extent than did…

Introduces service learning for those who teach health or the methods of health promotion, tracing the development of service learning, identifying two schools of service learning practice (the service-first orientation and the learning-first orientation), and proposing a definition of service learning that is broad enough to include both schools.…

Surveyed college and university health education degree granting programs to investigate the status of training in epidemiology and biostatistics for health education students. Surveys of all schools from a national directory of programs indicated that programs were offering training in epidemiology and biostatistics for community/public health…

Assessed the influence of fitness- and health-related goal setting on exercise adherence. Students in a college fitness program participated in goal setting, reading, or control groups. No significant differences in exercise adherence were found. Students enrolled for letter grades had more fitness center visits and hours of activity than students…

To help with the problem of nonresponse bias in mail survey research, this paper provides health education researchers with effective inducement strategies based on a comprehensive review of the professional literature, examining five areas of consideration regarding mail survey research: return envelopes and postage, cover letter, incentives,…

Surveyed 267 health educators to measure job satisfaction in the profession and investigate whether individual credentialing affected overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with work, pay, opportunity for promotion, coworkers, and supervision. Results indicated satisfaction with coworkers, work, supervision, and pay, but dissatisfaction with…

Examined the applicability of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) to understanding exercise among nontraditional college students. Over half were in the precontemplation, contemplation, or preparation stages (sedentary or irregular exercisers), and 17 percent were in the action stage (regular exercisers). All TTM constructs differed significantly…

Assessed an interactive, computer-mediated intervention to help smokeless tobacco users quit by providing a user-friendly, personalized approach that engaged clients in the quitting process. Participant evaluation indicated that at 6-week follow-up, most had made an attempt to quit, and 58 percent were able to quit for at least 24 hours. Responses…

This Surgeon General's Call to Action emphasizes the need to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behavior throughout the lifespan, discussing the public health approach to this issue, the current public health problem with sexually transmitted diseases, risk and protective factors for sexual health, evidence-based intervention models, the…

Surveyed college students regarding their acceptance of rape-myth beliefs expounded by the date rape backlash movement. Results indicated that gender, adversarial attitudes toward sexual relationships, political and sex role views, perception of false accusation vulnerability, academic honorary membership, Greek affiliation, and knowledge of a…

Assessed the effectiveness of personal and social skills development lessons on urban and suburban middle school students' tobacco-related behavior and behavioral intention. Results suggest that when taught with fidelity, the intervention provides students with skills to resist certain health- compromising behaviors. Experimental students showed…

Assessed health education faculty members' perceptions of ethical scenarios pertaining to university, community, and professional service, examining differences by sex, tenure,and whether service counted for yearly pay raises. Faculty differed greatly in what they considered ethical in the areas of service. Most considered one-third of the…

Evaluated the literature related to dance forms having sociocultural or traditional/ceremonial influences (cultural dance). Research documented the benefits of dance- related cultural activity interventions among various subgroups of the population and the role and importance of cultural dance forms within diverse communities. The scant available…