We examined the role of older siblings in protecting adolescents from engaging in unsafe sexual practices. Participants included 297 midwestern high school students who were approximately 17 years old and who responded to questionnaires assessing their attitudes toward sexual intercourse, self-efficacy for engaging in safe sex, and discussions…

We are concerned with the ways in which social constructions of age can contribute to reducing or exacerbating the vulnerability of young people, and for this reason we refer to the issue as one of "the politics of innocence". The focus of this paper is on gender, youth and HIV prevention/AIDS awareness in the context of South Africa and…

RBackground: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is being increasingly recognized in children and adolescents. Yet comparatively little attention has been given in the literature to management. Methods: Description of the main features of the disorder, precipitating and maintaining factors and diagnostic assessment. Outline of different views on the…

Autism is a heritable disorder characterized by phenotypic and genetic complexity. This review begins by surveying current linkage, gene association, and cytogenetic studies performed with the goal of identifying autism disease susceptibility variants. Though numerous linkages and associations have been identified, they tend to diminish upon…

Analogue functional analysis methodology was used to assess potential maintaining contingencies of episodic self-injurious behavior (SIB) of a 4-year-old child diagnosed with autism. Analogue conditions were presented within a multielement design when the child did, and did not exhibit signs of a possible sinus infection, and when the participant,…

Disparities in chronic disease risk by occupation call for new approaches to health promotion. WellWorks-2 was a randomized, controlled study comparing the effectiveness of a health promotion/occupational health program (HP/OHS) with a standard intervention (HP). Interventions in both studies were based on the same theoretical foundations. Results…

Purpose: This article reports on the development and field testing of the Savvy Caregiver Program, the transformation of a successful, academic-based caregiver psychoeducational program into a self-contained program that can be adopted in other locations. Design and Methods: Program development began with a prototype of a 12-hr course with the…

Researchers in many fields agree. The physical, social, and economic health and well-being of adults and society as a whole are strongly influenced by the early experiences of children, when the foundation for effective cognitive and social skills and abilities are developed. Children who have developmental delays or disabilities require and often…

This pilot study examined the relational-behavior model (RBM) as an HIV/AIDS assessment tool for at-risk college populations. Based on this theory, a survey was constructed to assess the six areas associated with HIV/AIDS prevention: personal awareness, knowledge deficiency, relational skills, HIV/STD stigmatization, community awareness, and…

There is a disproportionate incidence and prevalence rate of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among African Americans. HIV/AIDS is one of the leading cause of death among Blacks, aged 25-44. It is likely that many of these individuals contracted HIV while they were college aged. Black college students are an understudied group. The behaviors of…

Given the difficult social and economic situation in Russia, the lives and health of young people are getting increasingly worse, as can be seen from the data of state statistics. In this article, the author investigates the self-preservation aspect of the health of college students. The health of any social-demographic group has two…

This study compared the associations between social support and HIV injection risk among Puerto Rican migrant (n = 221) and nonmigrant (n = 340) injection drug users in New York City. Practical and emotional support scales were developed from 8 items and examined by migrant status as predictors of risk. Bivariate and regression analysis were…

Fifteen 1-year-olds without otitis media were compared to 12 babies who were otitis positive. No significant differences were detected on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development or the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD) Receptive scale. However, the otitis-positive group exhibited lower SICD Expressive scores than the…

The number of overweight children and adolescents in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2000, the CDC estimated that 15 percent of the nation's youth were overweight. Overweight children and adolescents are exposed to many health risks, most notably the increased risk…

Twenty outbreaks of foodborne illness in schools were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during 1997; however, only 8 cases were associated with food served in the school meal programs. Preliminary findings identified nine outbreaks in 1998, affecting an estimated 1,609 individuals. CDC notes that such outbreaks are…