Background: Previous research has identified individual and school-level characteristics that are associated with sexual risk-taking, but the impact of school-level mechanisms on sexual risk-taking is not well understood. We examine the aggregated effects that early sex at the school level have on risky sexual behaviors. Methods: We use 3 waves of…

Background: Email surveys of health behaviors are convenient and low cost, but concerns remain regarding data accuracy and implications for health promotion. Purpose: Compare the accuracy of email-collected survey data with classroom-collected data on college students' alcohol use, and compare strategies for addressing inaccuracies, including…

Several studies have reported a relation between race-related stressors and the poor health of Black Americans. Such findings raise questions regarding the mediating biological mechanisms that might account for this link. The present study investigated elevated systemic inflammation, a factor shown to be a strong predictor of chronic illness and…

Objective: Home food environments are important contexts for children and their food intake. It is unknown whether neighborhood economic context plays a role in explaining the association between a national economic crisis and children's home food environments. This study attempts to investigate neighborhood economic changes after the Great…

Background: Alternative (or continuation) high schools are institutions designed for students at risk for not graduating due to behavioral, educational, or medical problems. The present study explored the relationship between negative substance use consequences (eg, having trouble at school or work) and noncondom use in this at-risk population and…

Background: In the general population, the transition from adolescence to adulthood has been identified as a "high-risk" period for weight gain. There has been no research examining health behaviours over this transition in adults with intellectual disabilities. Methods/design: The feasibility of recruitment, retention and relevant…

Peer sexual harassment (PSH) occurs frequently and across contexts during adolescence. The current study examined the relations among PSH in school, psychological distress, sexual experimentation, and sexual risk-taking in a sample of African American middle and high school girls. Results indicate that negative body appraisals mediated the…

In recent years, there has been a growing social, educational, and public policy focus on investigating the correlates associated with youth carrying weapons in their communities and schools. Victimization and other correlates such as drug use and violent risk behaviors among youth have been linked to deviant behavior including weapon carrying.…

Objective: Young adult cancer survivors living in rural areas have reported barriers to participating in health behaviours due to their geographical location and the developmental milestones associated with their age. Existing health behaviour change interventions have generally been delivered face-to-face and have not been tailored to the…

Hispanics have the lowest colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates of all racial/ethnic groups and comprise the largest proportion of low-income manual laborers in the nation. We partnered with businesses to implement a community health worker (CHW)-led intervention among Hispanic workers in service-related and manual labor occupations, which often…

General practitioners (GPs) play a pivotal role in dementia recognition, yet research suggests that dementia often remains undetected in primary care. Lack of knowledge might be a major contributing factor to low recognition rates. Our objective was to address a gap in the scientific literature by exploring GPs' knowledge on dementia and mild…

Children from low-income families are at greater risk for poor social-emotional development and physical health and may be in need of intervention. This study examined the extent to which the "Positive Action" ("PA") preschool lessons improved low-income children's social-emotional competence and health behaviors. Mixed…

Addictive disorders are a public health crisis that affects our society by draining our workforce, health care, judicial, education, and law enforcement, resources. Adolescents are particularly susceptible to social influence--for better and for worse--and addiction. Through social media, today's youth experience a whole new way of communicating.…

Children from low-income families are at greater risk for poor social-emotional development and physical health and may be in need of intervention. This study examined the extent to which the "Positive Action" ("PA") preschool lessons improved low-income children's social-emotional competence and health behaviors. Mixed…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is a long-term study of American adolescents, college students, and adult high school graduates through age 60. The study is funded under a series of investigator-initiated, competing research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and has been conducted annually by the University of Michigan's Institute for…