Background: Youth with obesity are likely to experience weight-based bullying victimization, and adolescents have the highest obesity rates among children. Factors that protect youth from traditional bullying victimization may protect youth from weight-based bullying victimization: internal assets such as positive identity and social competence,…

Purpose: Over the last couple of decades, health has become a central part of the subject content in physical education (PE) curricula in many countries. As a result, issues of health have been foregrounded much more clearly in the teaching of PE. The aim of this study was to explore how Swedish PE teachers make sense of health in relation to…

The present study investigates the effect of obesity and overweight on children's cognitive abilities and well-being using survey data from West Bank schools. The results show the significant adverse impact of obesity on a child's well-being by raising externalizing (behavioral) problems and increasing the probability of classifying a child with…

Background: Internationally 18% of youth are obese. Fitness testing can be used to establish fitness surveillance, which can inform policy and targeted interventions aimed at addressing obesity. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and low fitness in Idaho school-aged youth through a pilot study.…

This study examined the association between adolescents' obesity and sociometric status among their peers across 1 year. The participants were 2,528 junior high school students from Taiwan (mean age = 13.31 years). The negative associations discovered between obesity and sociometric status were both concurrent and cumulative. Moreover, the…

Background: The school environment has the potential to influence student body mass index (BMI) through programs and policies. Our objective was to examine the effect of modifying obesity-related school policies and programs on youths' BMI trajectories. Methods: Obesity-related school policies and programs related to physical activity and healthy…

The Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is administered by the Montana Office of Public Instruction every two years to students in grades 7 through 12. The purpose of the survey is to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health, but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems…

Given that the health of the nation is often interpreted in and through the health of the nation's youth, the threat of the "childhood obesity epidemic" garners much attention and it is hardly surprising that physical education has been recruited in the "war on [childhood] obesity". This paper explores how students aged 13-15…

Background: Social capital in neighborhoods and workplaces positively affects health. Less is known about the influence of school social capital on student health outcomes, in particular weight status. We sought to examine the association between individual- and school-level social capital and student body mass index (BMI). Methods: Analyzing data…

Increasing dropout rates in senior high school physical education, particularly among females, and unhealthy activity and obesity levels in youth have led to recommendations to assess potential contributing factors in physical education participation. Drawing from gender, body image, and social-cognitive theory, this study investigated relations…

A weak negative attitude towards learning science was noticed among the students in Qatar, a matter that was reflected on their achievement in national tests. To test if the use of PBL would improve the students' attitudes towards learning science, a sample of 25 nine graders from Hamza school were motivated to plan their own investigations and to…

This study was designed to determine if a female physical educator's appearance of body fatness affects 1) the cognitive performance of junior high school students on a test of health-related fitness knowledge, and 2) student attitudes toward the instructor. Ninety-three seventh through ninth grade students from two schools, participated in a…