Background: It has not been determined conclusively whether greater knowledge of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is associated with lower rates of STIs. Purpose: This study sought to determine STI knowledge among high school students and factors associated with such knowledge, and to determine whether poor STI knowledge is associated with…

The national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) monitors priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States. The national YRBS is conducted every two years during the spring semester and provides data representative of 9th through 12th grade…

Characteristics of learners who become peer educators are rarely explored despite the potential relevance to the success of peer education programmes. Fifteen high schools selected to implement peer education HIV prevention programmes in South Africa were recruited. A total of 2339 Grade 10 learners were surveyed and comparisons were made between…

Background: HIV/AIDS is one of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States with individuals between the ages of 13 and 19 years being especially vulnerable for infection. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes, perceptions, and instructional practices of high school health teachers toward teaching HIV prevention.…

The aim of this study was to assess whether coping styles, social stress, and sexual sensation seeking were predictors of HIV/STD risk behaviours in adolescents. A representative sample of 4,456 female and male Spanish high school students aged 13 to 18 years participated. A stratified random sampling procedure was used. Self-report questionnaires…

This paper promotes the use of adapted primary literature as a curriculum and instruction innovation for use in high school. Adapted primary literature is useful for promoting an understanding of scientific and mathematical reasoning and argument and for introducing modern science into the schools. We describe a prototype adapted from a published…

This paper estimates the impact of binge drinking on sexual activity among a nationally representative set of high school students during the 1990s and 2000s. The main innovations are explicitly controlling for time-invariant preferences regarding sexual behavior and alcohol use, and eliminating non-drinkers from the comparison group. I find that…

In this study, a two-tier diagnostic test for understanding malaria was developed and administered to 314 Bruneian students in Year 12 and in a nursing diploma course. The validity, reliability, difficulty level, discriminant indices, and reading ability of the test were examined and found to be acceptable in terms of measuring students'…

For a university service learning educational research project addressing Legionnaires' disease (LD), a Yes/No questionnaire on community awareness of LD was developed and distributed in an urban community in North Carolina, USA. The 456 questionnaires completed by the participants were sorted into yes and no sets based on responses obtained to…

Nationally, the United States has a higher rate of teen pregnancy than any other industrialized nation. Native American youth have a higher birth rate than the national rate. A full-year healthy relationship program, based on Native American teachings, traditions, and cultural norms, was delivered to all eighth-grade students at a rural tribal…

The reality is that many adolescents are engaging in sexual activity. It is also a reality that the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is high and continues to be a major problem. What are schools doing about this continued problem and the rise in STDs? More specifically, what are Northern California high schools doing to address this…

This study was designed to evaluate potential preventive effects of a cultural adaption of the Focus on Kids (FOK) program among Chinese adolescents through a quasi-experimental intervention trial in Nanjing, China. High school students were assigned to either experimental groups (n = 140) or control groups (n = 164) by schools (with three schools…

Students with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have a degenerative disease that requires ongoing changes in assistive technology (AT). The AT team needs to be knowledgeable about the disease and its progression in order to meet these students' changing needs in a timely manner. The unique needs of students with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in…

Methicillin-resistant "Staphylococcus aureus" (MRSA) is an emerging cause of skin and soft-tissue infections among athletes. To determine statewide incidence among high school athletes, we surveyed all 312 Nebraska high schools regarding sport programs offered, program-specific participation numbers, number of athletes with…

Each year since 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has published a report on the well-being of children and families. The "America's Children" series provides accessible compendiums of indicators drawn across topics from the most reliable official statistics; it is designed to complement other more…