Background: The purpose of this study was to develop and test the psychometric properties of a questionnaire that assesses preschool teachers' self-efficacy in providing asthma care. Methods: A total of 407 teachers from 54 preschools in Taiwan participated in the study by completing the asthma management self-efficacy scale. We assessed validity…

Comprehensive childhood obesity prevention (COP) strategies should include increasing school nurse involvement. This study was conducted to determine the influence of key school nurse perceptions (self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers) on participation in COP practices at the individual child and school level. Florida…

Ten million children in the United States have asthma. Since children are in school about 6 hr a day, school nurses are positioned to intervene and influence asthma outcomes. A descriptive correlational study was designed to investigate performance of school nurses' asthma management behaviors in relationship to asthma knowledge, asthma attitude,…

The epidemic of childhood obesity, and its subsequent impact on negative health outcomes, continues to plague the United States. Better health outcomes have been linked to increased child achievement in school. Due to the strong influence parents have on children's healthful behaviors particularly in younger years, it's imperative to examine the…

New policy initiatives, such as those concerned with promoting young children's positive mental health, highlight the need for good quality professional education in the early childhood education and care sector. However, although a wealth of literature exists from the school sector, little is known about professional education in early childhood…

Introduction: Measures of parental self-efficacy (PSE) for healthy dietary or physical activity (PA) behaviors in children have been used in several studies; however, further psychometric validation of PSE for these behaviors is needed. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new PSE instrument. Methods:…

Childhood obesity remains a problem in the United States. Preschool teachers can help to attenuate it but need to have the confidence or self-efficacy to provide healthy practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to (a) develop and validate a preschool teacher self-efficacy tool to examine teachers' confidence in addressing the nutrition…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of a classroom management course as a public health intervention. Improved socio-emotional skills may boost children's developmental and academic trajectory, while the costs of behaviour problems are enormous for schools with considerable impact on others' well-being.…

This study assessed the impact of a youth-targeted multilevel nutrition intervention in Baltimore City. The study used a clustered randomized design in which 7 recreation centers and 21 corner stores received interventions and 7 additional recreation centers served as comparison. The 8-month intervention aimed to increase availability and…

Enhancing health literacy is a keystone in health promotion. Yet, most studies on health literacy are limited to functional literacy levels. Furthermore, little evidence is available from children. Based on Nutbeam's outcome model for health promotion, this study aims (i) to elaborate a set of short scales to measure important health literacy…

Purpose: Chances for a healthy life are not equally distributed across society. Instead, genetic, social, and environmental factors help determine the probability that a child will be healthy and active. We investigate the probability that youth will be physically active by examining 3 consistent correlates of physical activity. The individual and…

This study examines elementary school nurses' perceived efficacy expectations, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits to measuring body mass index (BMI) in students in schools with mandated BMI policies versus schools without mandated policies. Of the 2,629 school nurses participating in the study, 67% believe nurses should measure BMI in…

Higher rates of smoking initiation and continuation by female compared with male adolescents, as found in many developed countries, may call for gender-specific prevention programs. Risk factors of smoking initiation and continuation were examined prospectively (1997-2002) among 3205 Dutch elementary schoolchildren (mean age 11.64) in an…

Physical activity participation rates in the United States have been in steady decline for the last 25 years, so much so that 60% of youth ages 9-13 years get no physical activity outside of school. This state of inactivity indicates that promoting participation in physical activity at a young age is of importance. For the present study, a…

Theoretically grounded research on the determinants of Arab American children's physical activity is virtually nonexistent. Thus, the purpose of our investigation was to evaluate the ability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and social cognitive theory (SCT) to predict Arab American children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).…