Objective: As childhood obesity continues to threaten the overall health of young people, K-12 teachers are uniquely poised to advocate for, and support food and nutrition, school lunch and student health. Yet, classroom teachers are largely uninvolved in school lunch. School lunch is typically viewed as separate from the rest of the school day…

Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents. Whereas school-based prevention programs are effective, obtaining active consent for youth participation in public health programming concerning sensitive topics is challenging. We explored several active consent procedures for improving participation rates. Methods: Five…

Background: The school environment has the potential to influence student body mass index (BMI) through programs and policies. Our objective was to examine the effect of modifying obesity-related school policies and programs on youths' BMI trajectories. Methods: Obesity-related school policies and programs related to physical activity and healthy…

Since the late 1990s, Aleksandar Štulhofer has been involved in debates over school-based sexuality education in his country. Introduced to this sensitive and often divisive topic by several research studies on sexual risk taking in youth, he recently participated in two education-policy processes dealing with school-based health and sexuality…

This article reports the findings of a web-based survey of Ontario health and physical education teachers conducted in 2017. The purpose of the study was to understand teachers' views of the aims of the 2015 revised "sex ed" curriculum and the public debate that surrounded it, as well as to explore their own values around the teaching of…

Purpose: Though the benefits of social-emotional competence (SEC) are well-recognized, measuring it and designing appropriately matched interventions remains elusive and methodologically challenging. This paper shares formative research designed to uncover the SEC of one secondary school health teacher's students and to help her make…

School-based sexuality education provides a means of disseminating valuable information about decision making and avoidance of risky behaviors that may result in an unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection; however, effective teacher training is required for efficacious sexuality education programs. The purpose of this paper is to…

The Institute of Medicine and SHAPE America, among other national and international organizations, are promoting comprehensive school physical activity programs or whole-of-school approaches to creating healthy and active schools. The purpose of this article is to briefly describe what a comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) is,…

Sub-Saharan Africa carries a high burden of the HIV epidemic, with young adults being particularly affected. Well-designed school-based HIV prevention interventions can contribute to establishing protective behaviour. The aim of this study was to explore the needs of primary school students and teachers in the region of Kagera, Tanzania, regarding…

Purpose: Physical educators may be the responsible people for implementing comprehensive school physical activity programs (CSPAPs) in schools. However, it is unclear whether physical education teacher education (PETE) programs provide the relevant learning opportunities to preservice teachers for CSPAP implementation. The purpose of this study…

In Finland, Young people's sexuality education has not been examined from a multicultural perspective, with the exception of a few policy-oriented papers. This paper examines how cultural diversity is addressed in chapters on sexuality and sexuality education in Finnish health education textbooks. The analysis is based on material contained in…

The successful implementation of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes in schools depends on the development and implementation of strong policy in support of CSE. This paper offers a comparative analysis of the policy environment governing school-based CSE in four low- and middle-income countries at different stages of programme…

Purpose: Coordinated school health programs (CSHPs), a type of health promoting school (HPS) program adopted by Canada and the USA, were developed to provide a comprehensive approach to school health in the USA. Community partnerships are central to CSHP and HPS efforts, yet the quality of collaboration efforts is rarely assessed. The purpose of…

Background: School-based sex education is a strategy that can help prevent sexual and reproductive health-related problems. In Nepal, sex education is taught to secondary school students; however, it is thought that the approach taken to school-based sexual health education (e.g. the type of student-learning materials) is not sufficient to address…

Background: Health literacy evolved from a standard of English language proficiency designed to promote patient compliance into an inferential for promoting positive health decision-making and health outcomes. In turn, the United States relegated health literacy as a national strategy to improve personal health and health care outcomes as well as…