Background: Prescription drug misuse among youth aged 12-18 remains high in the United States. Grounded in Social Norms Theory, school-based curricula have been shown to effectively challenge students' misperceptions of peer norms and safety regarding prescription drug misuse (PDM). Objective: The present study is a quasi-experimental evaluation…

The aim of this grounded theory study was to explore late-adolescents' process of sexual development along with their information- and support-seeking behaviors in a Swedish context. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews with late-adolescents aged between 18 and 21 years in high schools in central Sweden. The results showed that…

Gray for a Day is an interactive educational curriculum that centers on use of an empathic model to improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to sensory and functional aging, empathy toward older adults, and one's own health behaviors. The program has been disseminated by Extension educators with varied audiences and evaluated with 2,440…

This article examines the tactical (counter) politics of inclusive and 'norm-critical' approaches in Swedish sex education, focusing on the enactment of this critical agenda in sex education practices and how teachers interpret and negotiate the possibilities and pitfalls of this kind of work. The analysis draws on participant observation in sex…

Background: Much of the research literature on sexual consent and sexual consent education has been focused on college students, providing a significant gap in our understanding of high school students, especially ethnic minority youth, who are at greatest risk for unwanted sexual contact and sexual activity. Furthermore, recent research suggests…

A performance-based measure of peer influence susceptibility was examined as a moderator of the longitudinal association between peer norms and trajectories of adolescents' number of sexual intercourse partners. Seventy-one 9th grade adolescents (52% female) participated in an experimental "chat room" paradigm involving…

Purpose: To examine the utility of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for explaining physical activity (PA) intention and behavior among a large population sample of overweight and obese adolescents (Alberta, Canada), using a web-based survey. Secondary objectives were to examine the mediating effects of the TPB constructs and moderating effects…

This study investigated the attitudes of 43 teachers and school administrators towards sex education, young people's sexuality and their communities in 19 secondary schools in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and how these attitudes affect school-based HIV prevention and sex education. In interviews, teachers expressed judgemental attitudes…

Few studies have examined school-based factors associated with variability in the victimization and health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Among 15,965 students in 45 Wisconsin schools, we identified differences based on Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) presence. Youth in schools with GSAs reported less truancy,…

Previous studies have investigated social images in health-risk behaviors, suggesting that these images are important factors in adolescents' health-related decisions. In this study, 548 secondary school students (aged 14-21 years, M = 16.5 years, SD = 1.3) in Szeged, Hungary, were tested to determine how social attitudes influence the development…

Rates of sexually transmitted infections and HIV transmission in Russia remain high. Official attitudes do not yet appear to recognise fully their significance. There is increasing knowledge of the population's sexual behaviour and attitudes, including of young people, emerging from local and externally funded programmes. This is leading to…

This is a study of how heterosexual girls construct the meaning of their health issues within their dating relationships. We found that a number of barriers contributed to girls' difficulty with articulating their needs and desires in their romantic relationships. Adolescent girls who participated in our study blamed themselves for their…