Zika virus infection-associated microcephaly has generated public health and media concern. Unsettling images emerging from Brazil of infants with abnormally small heads have raised concern among women of childbearing age, international travelers, government officials, and health care professionals. The World Health Organization declared the most…

Objective: To describe first-year college student-athletes' friendship contexts and test whether their perceptions of alcohol use and approval by different types of friends are associated with their own alcohol use. Participants: First-year student-athletes (N = 2,622) from 47 colleges and universities participating in National Collegiate Athletic…

Purpose: Tobacco use is a major public health issue in developing countries, with substantial initial exposure in childhood. School-based educational resources promise to reduce tobacco initiation and experimentation among children from low-income countries. Research in this area is scant. The study goal was to test the impact of an evidence-based…

HIV disproportionately impacts young African American men who have sex with men (MSM). In this study, we sought to understand how previous relationship experiences and expectations for romantic relationships influence condom use among young African American MSM. Twenty African American MSM aged 16 to 24 years completed a semi-structured interview…

Through engaging stories and the use of students' voices, this book corrects persistent misconceptions about youth who drop out of high school. Based on research conducted with high school dropouts in both urban and rural communities, the authors argue that, contrary to popular belief, most dropouts are not disengaged from school at an early age.…

Current cybersecurity measures have become a major concern for commercial organizations in the United States. As the cyber-attack landscape expands and the skills and knowledge of the cyber-attacker become broader, the current measures that are taken and the laws structured around them are making it increasingly difficult for commercial…

Research shows that compared to other groups, African Americans have historically had less access to swimming skills and thereby have a higher rate of drowning while swimming. Knowing how to swim is an important drowning prevention strategy, yet many African Americans residing in a county in South Carolina do not know how to swim, despite living…

In 2014-15, the high school graduation rate reached a record high of 83 percent (U.S. Department of Education 2016). Despite the gains, over half a million students still drop out of high school each year (U.S. Department of Education 2015). High schools have adopted various strategies designed to keep students who are at risk of not graduating in…

School preparedness is strengthened by prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery activities (also known as the five preparedness mission areas). This fact sheet describes: (1) what recovery is; (2) how recovery is connected to the other preparedness missions; (3) what recovery efforts planning teams may want to consider; and (4)…

Research shows that students who participate in early college programs are more likely to enroll in and persist through college than non-early college students. This fact sheet examines the impact of a districtwide early college program in Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District in Texas. The fact sheet includes a series of questions…

The School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS) is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health policies and practices at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. SHPPS 2016 assessed the characteristics of selected components of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model: (1) health education; (2)…

Alcohol abuse among college students has become a major public health concern. Individual, environmental, and demographic factors have each been associated with alcohol abuse in that population. In response to the enormous physical, emotional, and legal consequences that occur as a result of the abuse, colleges and universities are developing…

After eighteen months of school closure and disrupted learning, civic leaders, researchers, and educational leaders are getting a clearer picture of how students fared through the pandemic, and what new reality school systems face as they return to in-person schooling in 2021-22. Increases in community infection rates and parent hesitancy have…

Part of a mini series of Focus books on COVID-19 in Malaysia, the chapters in this book address the pandemic's impacts on education and literacy. Covering a range of teaching and learning challenges impacting learners and teachers, the contributors highlight the pervasiveness of the pandemic on Malaysian society and how Malaysians have found ways…

To address chronically low primary school completion rates and the disconnect between learners' skills at the end of primary school and the skills learners need to thrive in secondary school identified in many low- and middle-income countries, more investment is needed to improve the quality of teaching and learning in upper primary grades.…