Purpose: Within the modern cultural climate, those in larger bodies face high levels of weight stigma, particularly in sport and physical activity spaces, which serves as a strong barrier to their participation. However, given the strong link between physical activity and general health and well-being for participants, it is important to explore…

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…

Background: Declines in physical activity (PA) in children and youth have contributed to increases in childhood overweight and obesity. The Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program was developed to promote school active transportation (AT) and reverse the trend. Methods: Adopting concepts of a realist approach, this article seeks to understand…

The Heart and Stroke Foundation's Spark Together for Healthy Kids™ (Spark) is a multiyear initiative in Ontario, Canada, that takes a population approach to obesity prevention. It focuses on creating healthy environments by improving access to healthy foods and physical activity, with an emphasis on strengthening the advocacy capacity of…

This article offers a brief and personal account of the historical background, implementation and principal findings from the Trois-Rivieres regional project, a large-scale quasi-experimental intervention that tested the impact of providing a daily hour of specialist-taught quality physical education upon the physical and mental development of…

Purpose: Identification of factors that relate to physical activity behavior in children at higher risk for weight problems--namely, children with obese parents--is key to informing the development of effective interventions to promote physical activity and reduce obesity. The purpose of our study was to examine children's perceptions of parental…

The objective is to examine school-level program and policy characteristics and student-level behavioural characteristics associated with being overweight. Multilevel logistic regression analysis were used to examine the school- and student-level characteristics associated with the odds of a student being overweight among 1264 Grade 5-8 students…

Imagine a partnership of university and community which addresses the needs of the community to keep its citizens healthy as long as possible. Through a planning exercise to address the community's needs in primary health care and health promotion, the university has developed key strategic directions to help support the needs of the community it…

Few studies have examined how school characteristics are associated with obesity. The purpose of this study was to examine the student- and school-level characteristics associated with being overweight and obese among 12,049 students in grades 9 and 10 ("junior students") attending 76 secondary schools in Ontario, Canada. The sample was…

Among rising rates of overweight and obesity, schools have become essential settings to promote health behaviors, such as physical activity (PA). As schools exist within a broader environment, the social ecological model (SEM) provided a framework to consider how different levels interact and influence PA. The purpose of this study was to provide…

It is obviously possible to argue that education is always an arm of social policy. However, there are just as surely degrees of directness between the agendas of noneducational authorities and what happens in school and university classrooms. This article considers what appears to be a direct example of a particular public policy agenda, the…

The introduction of a NEW physical education (PE) program at Ancaster Senior Public School had, at its root, the desire to make physical activity an inclusive domain for both athletic students and those not so inclined. With the growing concerns over the rapid and consistent rise in childhood obesity rates it was evident that the current model of…