A growing evidence base indicates that health and educational attainment are synergistic goals. Students' relationships with teachers and other students in the school environment are consistently predictive of a broad range of health and well-being outcomes. Despite the potential importance of relationships between students and a broad range of…

The Tennessee Department of Education's office of coordinated school health (CSH) works with every school district in the state to address all aspects of student health, with a special emphasis on reducing Tennessee's childhood obesity rates. Encouraging adequate physical activity and providing physical education for all students are the central…

The articles in this special section bolster the already strong evidence base that personality differences in the trait of conscientiousness predict health. What is now needed is a research agenda for translating documented risk associations between low conscientiousness and poor health into policies and interventions that improve health outcomes…

As part of its 2011 commitment to the Partnership for Healthier America, the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) pledged that by 2015, 85 percent of its local Y associations with early childhood or afterschool programs would have at least one program site that met 100 percent of the Y-USA's healthy eating and physical activity (HEPA) standards. To inform…

Little is known about how the adoption of evidence-based physical activity (PA) curricula by out-of-school time (OST) programs affects children's physical fitness, and there are no clear guidelines of what constitutes reasonable gains given the types of PA instruction currently offered in these programs. Using a three-wave,…

Deinstitutionalisation has influenced the life situation for people with intellectual disabilities, whilst the experiences of health promotion in group homes now are limited. This study aimed to explore aspects important to consider when promoting health amongst persons with intellectual disabilities in group homes, from the perspective of…

Background: The benefits of exercise during and after cancer treatment represent research areas that have received increased attention throughout the past 2 decades. Numerous benefits have been observed for cancer survivors who are physically active, yet oncologists have been slow to incorporate exercise counseling into practice. Purpose: The…

The United States continues to have one of the highest teen birth rates in the developed world, and adolescent rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are also high. These factors highlight the need to identify effective evidence-based programs to improve adolescent reproductive health. This brief synthesizes findings from 118 experimental…

It has been claimed that physical activity has a positive effect on not only health but also on school performance. Using data from a randomised school-intervention study, this paper investigates whether different interventions promoting physical activity affect school performance in primary school children. The results indicate that on average,…

All around the world, partnerships among schools and other youth-serving systems are promoting more comprehensive school-based mental health services. This article describes the development of international networks for school mental health (SMH) including the International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools (INTERCAMHS)…

Pediatric cancer can disrupt the behavioral and emotional well-being of youth and their families, representing a potential psychological health risk for the entire family. Among ethnic minority families, cultural factors such as acculturation and language competency may affect the experience of this illness, which can, in turn, affect overall…

The history of family and consumer sciences (FCS) and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is discussed with an emphasis on the critical importance of the human dimension. EFNEP's focus on people, education for change, accountability, strategic partnerships, and public value are highlighted as an example and model for…

Purpose: The current Indian secondary school curriculum has been criticised for its failure to deliver relevant skills-based food and nutrition education for adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of adolescents, their parents, teachers and school principals on the present food and nutrition curriculum and the role of…

Purpose: Insufficient physical activity leads to an increase in chronic diseases. Skills-based health education methods are supposed to be more successful than traditional methods to promote healthy behaviors. Skills-based health education is an approach to create healthy lifestyles and skills using participatory methods. The purpose of this paper…

This study explored the cost-effectiveness and return-on-investment of a combined social and physical environmental worksite health promotion program compared with usual practice, and of both intervention conditions separately. Participants were randomized to the combined intervention (n = 92), social environmental intervention (n = 118), physical…