The purpose of this article is to bring attention to the 10 most pressing questions relevant to musculoskeletal physical fitness testing in children and adolescents. The goal is to stimulate research to answer these questions. The most pressing needs include establishing definitive links between valid, reliable, and feasible field test measures of…

The way an individual uses one's time can greatly affect his or her health. The purpose of this article was to examine the cross-sectional cross-elasticity relationships for use of time domains in a sample of Australian adolescents. This study analyzed 24-hour recall time use data collected using the Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate if the effects of the parental component of a school-based intervention on dietary fat intake from snacking were mediated by changes in home-related factors. A random sample of 10 schools with 2232 pupils aged 11-15 years was randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups [one with (n =…

Objectives: We sought to explore the association between childhood maltreatment (e.g., neglect, physical and sexual abuse) and longitudinal growth trajectories of body mass index (BMI) from adolescence to young adulthood. Methods: We used latent curve modeling to examine data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 8,471),…

Objective: To quantify food consumption (based on food group classification) during several time periods in a sample of adolescents and to identify potential differences in food patterns between normal-weight and overweight participants. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants were classified as normal weight and overweight/obese. Dietary…

Evidence is building regarding the association between inadequate amounts of sleep and the risk of obesity, especially in younger children. Less is known about the relationship between change in sleep and change in weight during adolescence. The objective of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between change in sleep duration…

Time perspective is a cultural behavioral concept that reflects individuals' orientations or attitudes toward the past, present, or future. Individuals' time perspectives influence their choices regarding daily activities. Time perspective is an important consideration when teaching adolescents about the importance of being physically active.…

The Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) provides grants to districts and community-based organizations (CBOs) to initiate, expand, and improve physical education for students in kindergarten through grade 12. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education issued new regulations for PEP that included the following: (1) requiring grantees to…

We use data from The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health to estimate effects of adolescent girls' overweight on their propensity to engage in risky sexual behavior. We estimate single equation, two-stage, and sibling fixed-effects models and find that overweight or obese teenage girls are more likely than their recommended-weight…

Motivational interviewing is a counseling method used to bring about behavior change; its application by school nurses for preventing obesity in children is still new. This study, based on in-depth interviews with 12 school nurses, shows how school nurses adapted motivational interviewing and integrated it into their daily practice along with…

Children and adolescents spent a considerable portion of their time watching television, movies, playing videogames and on the internet. Media has proved to be a very useful tool in the fields of education, arts, science, sports, and culture. Over the past few decades, there has been a surge in the use of media by the younger generations and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the complexities of recruiting overweight and obese adolescent boys for qualitative research, discuss specific recruitment considerations for this population, and offer guidance to researchers interested in recruiting overweight adolescent boys. Three overweight adolescent boys and six community…

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors such as obesity and reduced cardio-respiratory fitness. It has also been shown that adolescents with probable DCD (p-DCD) have elevated cardiac output (CO) and stroke volume (SV) compared to typically developing (TD)…

Scant attention has been given to the consequence of actual weight status for adolescents' sexual wellbeing. In this article, we investigate the race-specific connection between obesity and risky sexual behavior among adolescent girls. Propensity scores and radius matching are used to analyze a sample of 340 adolescents aged 16-17 who participated…

Despite substantial increases in the prevalence of adolescent overweight and obesity documented in recent decades, few studies have prospectively tracked their development during the entire adolescent period. The aims of this study were to characterize developmental trends in prevalence, incidence, and remission of overweight and obesity using…