Teachers play an important role in adolescent life. Adolescents face many challenges and must learn how to deal with stress and participate in physical activity to help them reduce the stress they feel. Teachers' perceptions play a significant role in educating their students and what information they provide; knowing what teachers perceive as…

Research in kinesiology suggests college students' sedentary behavior and habits increase the risk of premature chronic disease. Physical literacy has been proposed as a possible solution to increase physical activity participation. Participants in this study were community college students (n = 13) enrolled in a required kinesiology wellness and…

Research recognizes that physical activity habits developed earlier in life are likely to be continued throughout life. To combat rises in obesity rates and declining physical activity levels among adults, studies emphasize the responsibility higher education institutions have in targeting young adult's physical activity habits. Theories of…

The research problem for this study is that educators face increasing levels of stress that surpass other professions (Markan & Agrawal, 2022). This stress, unchecked, can lead to feelings of burnout, reduced self-efficacy, and affected mental health. These outcomes may impact student learning and mental health. Understanding practices that…

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the effectiveness and acceptability of mind-body physical activity (MBPA) interventions implemented within educational settings. Specifically, Study 1 was a systematic review with meta-analysis that examined the effectiveness of MBPA on stress-related physiological health markers in primary,…

Adverse life events and trauma have the potential to devastate college students' lives across all domains of well-being, including physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and social. Thriving despite these challenges requires academic resilience. Physical activity is one well-known strategy to support increased resilience. No research has…

College students report sub-optimal perceived wellbeing including fatigue and low energy. The health behaviors of sleep, particularly sleep quality (SQ), sedentary behavior (SED), and physical activity (PA), including both aerobic and resistance training (RT) activity are interrelated and linked to wellbeing. These associations may differ for male…

Overweight and obesity are national epidemics affecting 42.4% of adults in the U.S.; with the southeastern region exhibiting higher obesity rates than most other regions in the U.S. (National Center for Health Statistics, 2020; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). Alabama ranks 3rd…

Participating in health-promoting behaviors is essential for maintaining optimal physical and mental well-being. Nurses play a significant role in supporting the nation's health, however, nursing shortages impact the ability to meet the complex health demands in a growing population. Guided by Nola J. Pender's health promotion model, the purpose…

The United States has a weight problem. It's not just about food intake but also about energy consumption [97, 153]. This dissertation asks: "How can we encourage people to act in ways that are mutually beneficial for themselves and the environment?" To date, there is no single behavior intervention in the literature targets behavioral…

Persuasive technology (PT) has the potential to support individuals to perform self-management and social support as a part of health behavior change. This has led a few researchers in the intersection of the areas of health behavior change and software engineering to apply behavior change and persuasion theories to software development practices,…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are differences in weight status, aerobic and strength physical activity, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and perceived stress about having enough money to buy nutritious meals between United States college students who live on campus and college students who live off campus. A…

This study consists of three sub-studies. Sub-study 1 and 2 attempted to incorporate environmental variables as precursor background variables of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict quitting-related intentions among Texas adult smokers and university student smokers, respectively. Sub-study 1 and 2 analyzed different data sets and were…

With an increasing amount of overweight children, especially among racial and ethnic minorities, effective population-level interventions are urgently needed (Wang et al., 2006). The purpose of this study was to provide insight into nutritional and physical activity intervention programs at a Connecticut public school in an urban setting.…

This study explored the relationship between student adjustment theory and college student health behaviors. Specifically, this research examined first-year freshmen college student physical activity and nutrition behaviors and impact on adjustment to college (N = 37,564). The design for this study was a non-experimental "ex post facto"…