As young adults transition from secondary education to post-secondary education, they enter a time of life when they are able to independently and potentially for the first time make all of their own food decisions. This shift from childhood to young adulthood and the new-found freedom to make food decisions makes students vulnerable to weight…

Graduate students are an ever-growing population in the United States that has historically lacked targeted health behavior research and promotion. This paper presents findings from a larger study based on a qualitative application of the Integrated Model of Behavioral Prediction to interpret the eating behaviors of graduate students. Through a…

Worksite wellness programs continue to demonstrate a high return on investment by controlling and reducing employer shares of health care expenditures. Health risk assessments (HRA) are commonly used to establish priorities. This crosssectional study utilized an online HRA grounded by constructs from the Health Belief Model and the Theory of…

This teaching technique asks students to evaluate the "badness" of 5-7 health-related behavioral statements of a specific health topic. Following the presentation of each statement, each students selects one of five choices: "Really Bad", "No Big Deal", "It Depends", "Go for It", or…

Adolescent consumption of screen media continues to increase. A variety of theoretical constructs hypothesize the impact of media content on health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. This study uses a coding instrument based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey to analyze health behavior contained in…

Objective: Graduate females represent a substantial and growing proportion of the college student population, yet health promotion research and programming has traditionally focused on undergraduates. This study compared health status and health behaviors of female graduate and undergraduate students at a public university in the northeastern U.S.…

The purpose of this study was to examine prevalence of eating breakfast and associated health compromising behaviors. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey methodology. A purposive cluster sampling technique was utilized to collect data from a representative sample of college students in a Midwestern university in the U.S. A total of 1,257…

Healthful eating and regular physical activity are vitally important for low-income adolescents who are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes (T2DM). To design a relevant, community-based intervention for these at risk adolescents, parent perceptions of barriers to healthful eating and physical activity should be assessed. Such barriers have been…

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence (i.e., recognizing, expressing, monitoring, managing, and reflecting on emotions) (Presbury, Echterling, & McKee, 2007) and self-reported health behaviors among college students. A convenience sample of 418 undergraduates completed online surveys…

Research on whether health education, specifically personal health classes affects behavior change is inconclusive. In this study, a sample of students from two large southeastern universities enrolled in a required personal health course and an elective personal health course were administered the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey…

During the last two decades, obesity rates in the United States have escalated dramatically, and intense media coverage of obesity issues has fueled consumer interest in low-carbohydrate diets designed to promote rapid weight loss. The food industry has fostered the assumption that a drop in carbohydrate consumption will translate into a drop in…

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans [Dietary Guidelines] provides science-based advice to promote health and to reduce risk for major chronic diseases through diet and physical activity. Major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States are related to poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. Some specific diseases linked to poor diet and…

Investigated African Americans' dietary patterns in light of national nutrition recommendations. Questionnaires and focus groups indicated that most respondents rated their diets good or excellent, but most had unhealthy eating habits. Most had recently tried to lower fat intake. Milk, whole grains, vegetables, and water were the most difficult…