Communication-intervention strategies for reducing vaccine hesitancy have been primarily based on survey and interview data. Virtually absent is an understanding of how vaccine hesitancy is organized interactionally in its primary, natural environment of medical consultations between parents and healthcare providers. This article uses conversation…

Background: Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) are important building blocks for children's sport-participation and lifelong physical activity. In the last decade, several international studies have reported delays in the development of FMS. To get better insight into the Dutch situation and to provide future directions, this study examined the…

Most actions targeting children's health behaviors have limited involvement of children in the development, potentially contributing to disappointing effectiveness. Therefore, in the 3-year "Kids in Action" study, 9- to 12-year-old children from a lower-socioeconomic neighborhood were involved as coresearchers in the development,…

Telomeres are the protective DNA-protein sequences appearing at the ends of chromosomes; they shorten with each cell division and are considered a biomarker of aging. Shorter telomere length and greater erosion have been associated with compromised physical and mental health and are hypothesized to be affected by early life stress. In the latter…

In this article, the association between parental and professional caregivers' perceptions of early life stress (ELS) and the level of preschool social participation was examined, as was the possible moderating effect of parental health. In a community-based study, both parents and professional caregivers of 346 children aged 3 years provided…

From 1948 the World Health Organization expected child hygiene to include mental health. This article discusses the way school doctors adapted their activities and concerns accordingly in the mid-twentieth century in an agrarian-industrial area of the Netherlands. In spite of an improvement in pupils' physical health they shifted their attention…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of classroom-based physical activity interventions that integrate academic content and assess the effectiveness of the interventions on physical activity, learning, facilitators of learning, and health outcomes. Method: Six electronic databases (ERIC, PubMed, Google Scholar,…

Frequent somatic complaints are not only a problem in themselves but also related to other difficulties. So far, no conclusive findings have been reported about the prevalence of and factors underlying these complaints in children and adolescents who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). Such information would be valuable for prevention and…

The aim of this study was to explore inhibiting factors in the prevention of overweight in infants younger than one year, among practitioners working for municipal child healthcare organisations in the Netherlands. Twelve in-depth interviews with child healthcare physicians and nurses were conducted. All interviews were tape-recorded, after which…

Part 1 of the Report Card presents a league table of child well-being in 29 of the world's advanced economies. Part 2 looks at what children say about their own well-being (including a league table of children's life satisfaction). Part 3 examines changes in child well-being in advanced economies over the first decade of the 2000s, looking at each…

Background: Problem perception and perceived need for professional care are important determinants that can contribute to ethnic differences in the use of mental health care. Therefore, we studied ethnic differences in problem perception and perceived need for professional care in the parents and teachers of 5- to 6-year-old children from the…

Valid community-based data on the prevalence of chronic diseases in adolescents (12-18 years) with intellectual disability (ID-adolescents) are scarce. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence rates and the nature of chronic diseases in a population of ID-adolescents and to compare them with the rates among adolescents in the general…

Health promotion programs benefit from an accompanying process evaluation since it can provide more insight in the strengths and weaknesses of a program. A process evaluation was conducted to assess the reach, implementation, satisfaction and maintenance of a school-based program aimed at the prevention of excessive weight gain among Dutch…

The purpose was to investigate the degree of implementation and appreciation of a comprehensive school-randomized fruit and vegetable intervention program and to what extent these factors were associated with changes in reported fruit and vegetable intake. The study was conducted among 10- to 13-year old children exposed to the intervention during…

Higher rates of smoking initiation and continuation by female compared with male adolescents, as found in many developed countries, may call for gender-specific prevention programs. Risk factors of smoking initiation and continuation were examined prospectively (1997-2002) among 3205 Dutch elementary schoolchildren (mean age 11.64) in an…