Background: While vaccines have reduced the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine hesitancy threatens the re-emergence of childhood infectious diseases. Purpose: This randomized controlled study evaluated an online vaccine education program to advance vaccine acceptance among middle-school students. Methodology: Study participants…

The purpose of this preliminary study was to identify oral problems and promote a healthy lifestyle at gimnazial school pupils, from a Romanian disadvantaged area. We wanted to identify the progress made by pupils following theoretical or practical interventions. Thus, along with the theoretical notions transmitted, either in the optional course…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the socioscientific issue (SSI) method as a way of improving seventh graders' nutrition know-how on dietary supplements (DS), and to describe how students experience learning nutritional issues through the SSI method. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were seventh graders from three different…

Health promotion and education researchers and practitioners advocate for more democratic approaches to school-based health education, including participatory teaching methods and the promotion of a broad and positive concept of health and health knowledge, including aspects of the German educational concept of "bildung." Although…

The purpose of this study was to implement a weight-related teasing prevention program and evaluate the effectiveness of the program among adolescents. One hundred forty-three students in 7th-grade in health classes at the middle school were asked to participate in the study. The weight-related teasing prevention program was implemented as part of…

The authors used an ABCBC design to compare the effects of a single-student response strategy and unison handraising strategy on a teacher and two middle school students (a targeted student and typical achieving student) during a 7th grade health science class. During baseline the teacher had high rates of redirections and low rates of praise…

While spiritual health has been gaining respect among researchers and academic scholars as a vital component of human wellness, little research has focused on the implementation and assessment of spiritual education in public schools. The present study examined the effects of spiritual health education on students' ability to choose positive…

Background: Wizards of Motion is a program of curriculum delivery through which experts in Kinesiology introduce grade 7 students to applications of physics for human movement. The program is linked closely to Ministry of Education curriculum requirements but includes human movement applications and data analysis experiences. Purpose: The purpose…

The use of reliable and valid tools to evaluate theory-based health interventions is widely accepted as critical to the behavioral sciences. However, quite often the psychometric properties of survey instruments used to evaluate behavioral interventions are not published, limiting our understanding of how the theory works. The purpose of this…

Mediation analysis is a statistical technique that can be used to identify mechanisms by which intervention programs achieve their effects. This paper presents the results of a mediation analysis of Ngao, an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) education program that was implemented with school children in Grades 6 and 7 in Tanzania in the…

Written pre- and posttests were used to assess the smoking-related knowledge of 1,068 seventh graders in three comparable communities. Students in two communities participated in interventions designed to enhance knowledge acquisition, social activism, and non-use of tobacco. The interventions influenced respondents' health concerns, but not…

As violence becomes one of society's greatest concerns, schools are faced with decisions on implementing violence prevention strategies. One such program was implemented into the health education curriculum for middle-level students in the seventh grade (n=130) in rural Mississippi. An adaptation of the Prothrow-Stith "Violence Prevention:…

The effects of school policy on cigarette smoking among seventh graders were investigated in this study. All of the schools involved had restrictive smoking policies and many had smoking prevention education plans. Although punitive measures were found to have no effect, smoking policy generally was found to decrease adolescent smoking. (AF)

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality worldwide (American Lung Association, 2002). Statistics show that youth who do smoke report having their first cigarette while in middle school, thus this is a critical opportunity for prevention (Eissenburg & Balster, 2000). This…