Licensed child care providers, and the early care and education settings in which they operate, are uniquely situated to influence children's healthy eating and physical activity through practices, attitudes, and supportive physical and social environments. However, preliminary research indicates that child-, family-, and provider-level…

Facebook advertisements were used to recruit nulliparous women in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy for an online survey about their childbirth preferences. A campaign of ads was targeted to women, aged 18 to 44 years, residing in the United States. The ads were viewed 10,577,381 times by 7,248,985 unique Facebook users over 18 weeks in 2011. The ad…

Objective: In an effort to develop targets for childhood obesity interventions in non-Hispanic-Black (Black) families, this study examined parental perceptions of stress and identified potential links among parental stress and children's eating patterns, physical activity, and screen-time. Method: Thirty-three self-identified Black parents or…

Childhood obesity is a public health threat that disproportionally affects Latino youth in the United States. Active and Healthy Families (AHF) is a culturally tailored, family-based program for addressing obesity disparities in a predominantly immigrant Latino population. AHF was the first primary care, culturally tailored intervention for Latino…

Patient-centered care is now front-and-center in health care reform. The federal government has established the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study this new phenomenon and health care delivery systems such as patient-centered medical homes. Where is the health education profession in all of this? Despite what it has to offer, to…

Although designated as a high-risk group during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic, only about 40% of U.S. children received the vaccine, a relatively low percentage compared with high-risk groups in seasonal influenza, such as the elderly, whose vaccine rates typically top 70%. To better understand parental decision making and predictors of acceptance…

National guidelines on the effective management of pediatric asthma have been promoted for over 20 years, yet asthma-related morbidity among low-income children remains disproportionately high. To date, household and clinical interventions designed to remediate these differences have been informed largely by a health behavior framework. However,…

This study engaged parents to develop concise, informative, and comprehensible text messages for an immunization reminder system using Human Factors techniques. Fifty parents completed a structured interview including demographics, technology questions, willingness to receive texts from their child's doctor, and health literacy. Each participant…

Objectives: To explain vaccine confidence as it related to parents' decisions to vaccinate their children with recommended vaccines, and to develop a confidence measure to efficiently and effectively predict parents' self-reported vaccine behaviors. Method: A sample of parents with at least one child younger than 6 years ("n" = 376) was…

Introduction: Measures of parental self-efficacy (PSE) for healthy dietary or physical activity (PA) behaviors in children have been used in several studies; however, further psychometric validation of PSE for these behaviors is needed. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new PSE instrument. Methods:…

The Central Texas Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Middle School Project is a 3.5-year school-based project aimed at promoting physical activity (PA), healthy eating, and obesity prevention among public middle school students in Texas. This article describes the CATCH intervention model and presents baseline findings from spring 2009.…

Background: School-entry characteristics predict adult educational attainment, which forecasts dispositions toward disease prevention. Health and education risks can also be transmitted from one generation to the next. As such, school readiness forecasts a set of intertwined biopsychosocial trajectories that can influence the developmental…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine (a) whether distance from home to school is a determinant of active commuting to school (ACS), (b) the relationship between distance from home to heavily used facilities (school, green spaces, and sports facilities) and the weight status and cardiometabolic risk categories, and (c) whether ACS has a…

This study explores how religious congregations interact with other community organizations to address health and, in particular, HIV-related needs within their membership and/or local communities. Case study data from a diverse sample of 14 urban congregations (6 Black, 4 Latino, 2 White, and 2 mixed race-ethnicity) indicate that they engaged in…

This study assessed the impact of a youth-targeted multilevel nutrition intervention in Baltimore City. The study used a clustered randomized design in which 7 recreation centers and 21 corner stores received interventions and 7 additional recreation centers served as comparison. The 8-month intervention aimed to increase availability and…