Background: Food literacy can encourage adolescents to develop healthy dietary patterns. This study examined home economics teachers' (HET) perspectives of the importance, curriculum, self-efficacy, and food environments regarding food literacy in secondary schools in Australia. Methods: A 20-item cross-sectional survey was completed by 205 HETs.…

Background: School-based recommendations for nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were issued in response to the threat of 2009 pandemic influenza A (pH1N1). The implementation and effectiveness of these recommendations has not been assessed. Methods: In November 2009, a Web-based survey of all Pennsylvania public schools was conducted to assess…

Background: HealthCorps provides school wellness programming using curricula to promote changes in nutrition, mental health, and physical activity behaviors. The research objective was to evaluate effects of implementing its curricula on nutrition, mental health, and physical activity knowledge and behavior. Methods: Pre- and postsurvey data were…

Background: Bullying litigation is an emerging area of law that has increased in response to serious cases of bullying at school. Weight-based bullying is prevalent at school, but no research has examined the use of litigation to address this problem. We assessed public support for litigation approaches to address weight-based bullying at school,…

Background: Healthy, productive employees are an integral part of school health programs. There have been few assessments of work productivity among secondary school staff. This study describes the frequency of 3 common health risk factors--obesity, depressive symptoms, and smoking--and their impact on work productivity in secondary school…

Background: Schools in the United States are increasingly being urged to address the problem of adolescent dating violence (DV) with their students. Given the limited time available to implement prevention programming during the school day, brief programs are needed. The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of a widely disseminated,…

Background: This study attempted to determine whether state laws regulating low nutrient, high energy-dense foods and beverages sold outside of the reimbursable school meals program (referred to as "competitive foods") are associated with children's weight status. Methods: We use the Classification of Laws Associated with School…

Background: Weight misperception has been documented among children although the impact on health risk behaviors is less understood, particularly among middle school students. The goals of this study were to describe sociodemographic differences in actual and perceived weight, correspondence between actual and perceived weight, and weight-related…

Background: Some adolescents are victims of negative appearance-related feedback, and this may have lasting adverse effects on their self-evaluation. The aim of this study was to examine the frequency and impact of appearance teasing across sex and weight status. Methods: The participants were 570 Czech adolescents (47.9% girls) evaluated at age…

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the beliefs and attitudes of preservice health and physical education (HPE) specialist and nonspecialist schoolteachers toward obese children. Methods: A total of 177 nonspecialist and 62 HPE specialist trainee teachers completed a series of pen-and-paper validated measures of attitudes and beliefs…

Background: Two risk behaviors, alcohol consumption and early initiation of sexual intercourse (ISI), can have devastating consequences for youth. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of school connectedness and school-related behaviors (eg, academic performance, skipping school, getting into trouble at school) with these 2…

Background: The purpose of this investigation was to determine if waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) or body mass index (BMI) is the better indicator of cardiovascular disease risk in children and adolescents of varying ages. Methods: Data from children and adolescents (N?=?2300) who were part of the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination…

Background: Although there are several evidence-based recommendations directed at improving nutrition and physical activity standards in schools, these guidelines have not been uniformly adopted throughout the United States. Consequently, research is needed to identify facilitators promoting schools to implement these recommendations. Therefore,…

Background: Active travel to school has been on the decline, despite its beneficial influence on children's current and future well-being. Adults' safety perceptions have been shown to influence children's active travel. Children's perceptions, particularly of safety, may be an important link not only to their present health and travel behaviors,…

Background: Bullying is a widespread problem for school-aged children and adolescents. Interventions to reduce bullying are not well disseminated. Extracurricular involvement is, however, common. This study aims to examine the relationship between parent-reported participation in extracurricular activities and bullying perpetration. Methods: Using…