Describes the development of the Child Dietary Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSS) to measure self-efficacy for selecting and consuming healthful food. Third and fourth graders completed the CDSS, and results revealed acceptable estimates of internal consistency for the dietary self-efficacy scale. Self-efficacy strongly related to students' usual food…

Sixth graders completed a survey investigating the relationship of school and home self-esteem to history of substance use, membership in alternative education programs, gender, and race. Both school and home self-esteem inversely related to tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. Students in nonmainstream programs had significantly lower home and school…

Provides procedural guidelines, developed for the Edina (Minnesota) public school system, for dealing with crisis intervention in grades pre-K through 12. Focusing primarily on suicide, the guidelines address three levels of at-risk students/staff. Recommended actions following the death of any student or faculty member are included. (GLR)

Data from the health education component of the 1994 School Health Policies and Programs Study were analyzed. This report summarizes the findings, which indicate that although HIV prevention education has been widely implemented in U.S. schools, improvement in these programs is needed, particularly in numbers of teachers receiving inservice HIV…

Article examines whether school-based health centers (SBHCs) are available, affordable, community based, and culturally acceptable to the public. A literature review and examination of a rural SBHC for young children suggest that SBHCs are culturally acceptable and accessible to children and families. Ten strategies for successful SBHCs are…

Examined the effects of a three-year tobacco education curriculum, which included five lessons per year, on urban elementary students' knowledge, attitudes, and intentions. Pretesting and posttesting of experimental and control students indicated that experimental students' posttest knowledge and attitude scores were significantly higher than…

Examined the relationship between self-esteem and smoking behavior among Japanese elementary and junior high school students. Surveys of students indicated that those who had never smoked had higher cognitive, family, and global self-esteem but lower physical self-esteem than did smokers. Grade and gender were significantly related to self-esteem,…

This article describes the evaluation of a comprehensive school-based asthma management program in an inner-city, largely African-American school system. All 54 elementary schools (combined enrollment 13,247 students) from a single urban school system participated in this study. Schools were randomly divided between immediate and delayed…

This study examined how pharmaceuticals were dispensed in one Florida county's public elementary, middle, and high schools and in six private schools. Surveys indicated that of 28,134 children surveyed, 1,016 received 5,411 doses of medication from school personnel, who were not necessarily health care personnel. Methylphenidate was the most…

Discusses who school health nurses are and what they can offer, noting that policymakers and administrators are looking to expand the roles of schools and the professionals within them to enhance child health. The article discusses new models for school health, examining inside nursing issues and policy and administrative contexts. (SM)

Evaluated Jump into Action, a non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM)-prevention program that encouraged students to eat well and exercise regularly to reduce NIDDM risks. Surveys of predominantly Hispanic fifth graders and their teachers at Texas-Mexico border schools indicated that the program increased NIDDM-prevention knowledge and…

This study examined whether differences in social-cognitive determinants of activity behavior could account for gender differences in physical activity. Fifth graders (n=365) provided information on afterschool physical activity and determinants of activity behavior. Only differences in self-efficacy and participation in community sports accounted…

To examine the predictive value of family history in detecting children with high blood cholesterol, finger-stick screening was done in children (n=1,118) ages 9-10 with parental and grandparental history of cardiovascular disease and risk factors. Findings showed that screening only children with positive family histories will leave most problems…

Citing examples from a study of more than 600 elementary school students, this paper focuses on the importance of assessing children's understanding of disease processes rather than accepting their use of key phrases in appropriate contexts as reflecting knowledge. Includes guidelines for assessing how well children understand disease processes.…

Low-income Hispanic elementary students were surveyed to determine tobacco use patterns and sociobehavioral correlates. Tobacco experimentation rates increased by age, with boys more prone to starting than girls. Being offered cigarettes was the strongest environmental indicator of tobacco use, followed by having adult smokers at home, and having…