The present paper assesses the causal effects of education on smoking and self-rated health in Canada. Education is instrumented using the changes in compulsory schooling laws. The sample is restricted to cohorts born between 1946 and 1964. The data are from the Canadian General Social Surveys of 1995 and 2016, allowing to observe the evolution of…

Alcohol remains readily available to youth in most countries. We examined the associations between both the on- and off-premises commercial availability of alcohol to youth and their alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, and alcohol-related harms. We conducted the study using data from a survey of a sample of 594 students in central Mexico between…

Adolescence marks a transitional phase between childhood and adulthood, in which engagement to the maladaptive behaviors is more likely to occur. Alcohol and substance use among adolescents is of particular concern because it may lead to multiple forms of injuries, hospitalizations, and premature mortality. With the wider availability of the…

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all spheres of life world-wide. Besides health, the social and economic consequences of COVID-19 altered patterns of alcohol consumption warrants further elucidation. This commentary addresses the implications of COVID-19 on alcohol use and alcohol education. Alcohol drinking is a modifiable risk factor that…

Policy makers in the UK are trying to improve school meals, by focusing on eating well. This article explores the way policies are framed by academic performance and health as a reason for providing school lunches. Using Nussbaum's capability approach we argue that the purpose of schooling should be to provide young people with the ability to lead…

High-risk drinking (HRD) is a public health priority on college campuses in order to decrease harm to individuals who engage in HRD, as well as others in their presence. We posit an underexplored impact of campus HRD culture: the exposure of marginalized students to instances of bias perpetrated by those under the influence. Therefore, our focus…

Conscientiousness has been shown to predict healthy behaviors, healthy social relationships, and physical health and longevity. The causal links, however, are complex and not well elaborated. Many extant studies have used comparable measures for conscientiousness, and a systematic endeavor to build cross-study analyses for conscientiousness and…

Background: While it is a national priority to support the health and education of students, these sectors must better align, integrate, and collaborate to achieve this priority. This article summarizes the literature on the connection between health and academic achievement using the Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child (WSCC) framework…

Regular family meals have been shown to reduce adolescents' engagement in various risk behaviors. In this article, we comprehensively examine the literature to review the association between family meals and eight adolescent risk outcomes: alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs; aggressive and/or violent behaviors; poor school performance;…

Alcohol media literacy is an emerging field that aims to address the link between exposure to alcohol advertising and subsequent expectancies and behaviours for children and adolescents. The design, rigour and results of alcohol media literacy programmes vary considerably, resulting in a number of unanswered questions about effectiveness. To…

This review examines the psychological benefits exercise is connected to in healthy children and adolescents. Studies on the effect of exercise on academic performance, self-esteem, emotions, and mood were examined. Academic performance is found to be maintained when normal academic classes are reduced and replaced by an increase in exercise,…

Objective: Type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and metabolic syndrome are increasingly relevant health problems for United States (US) college-aged students and their family members. This study's aim was to determine the extent to which these chronic conditions were covered in leading college-level personal health textbooks and to what degree the…

Objective: To review the literature on college student waterpipe use with a focus on undergraduates in the United States. Participants: Undergraduate students. Methods: Studies were accessed using the databases PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Academic Search Premier. Searches included combinations of the following keywords: "waterpipe," "hookah,"…

Parents play an important role in influencing adolescent health behaviors and parenting practices may be an important pathway through which social disadvantage influences adolescent health behaviors that can persist into adulthood. This analysis uses the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine how parenting practices mediate…

The purpose of this study is to see if encouragement from fellow church members helps older people develop and maintain healthy lifestyles. The findings indicate that informal church-based support is associated with healthy lifestyles among older African Americans but not older Whites. In addition, the influence of support from fellow church…