The incidence of overweight conditions among children and adolescents is a growing national concern. Although current literature suggests that parental health behaviors could influence health behaviors of children, studies have not explored the actual predictive relationships of parents' and their children's weight statuses and weight-related behaviors. In addition, current studies have not tested the influence of parental authority, family communication, or demographic characteristics on the relationships. This study first examines factors that contribute to overweight conditions among children and adolescents and the associated costs. Studies of interventions that target children's and adolescents' weight-related health are then reviewed and provide evidence that parental involvement contributes to intervention success. The theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory, social action theory, and systems theory are discussed and support the notion that parental influences contribute to the development of children's weight-related health behaviors. To test the relationships, 151 young adults and their parents were recruited and completed a series of questionnaires to describe their weight statuses, dietary behaviors, and physical activity behaviors. In addition, the young adult participants completed questionnaires to further describe their parents' parental authorities and their family communication environments during childhood and adolescence. Comparisons of body mass index, average daily energy consumption, average weekly energy expenditure, and physical activity enjoyment of young adult participants and their parents were conducted with correlation analyses and paired-samples t-tests. Further, multiple regression analyses were used to explore the influence of parental authority and family communication, and demographic characteristics were also considered. The empirical results of the current study indicate that, overall, parents' weight statuses and dietary behaviors help predict weight statuses and dietary behaviors of their young adult children. Further, parental authority scales interact with the relationships. At high levels of authoritarian and permissive parental authorities, young adults tend to have weight statuses that are opposite to those of their parents; at high levels of authoritarian parenting, young adults also tend to follow opposite dietary consumption patterns. The findings in this study have implications for professional practice, parenting practices, and the design of intervention activities. Recommendations for future research are provided.

The problem of the study was to investigate the health education content areas taught by home school educators in Indiana. The study was designed to answer the following research questions: (a) What was the content taught in home schools health education curricula? (b) To what extent were home educators presenting health education curricula? (c) What were the means by which health education is delivered by home school educators? (d) What was the amount of training home educators have received in preparation to teach health education?An instrument was developed, pilot tested, and administered to a random sample of 600 home school educators registered with the Indiana Department of Education. Eighty five instruments were returned for a response rate of 14% and appropriate descriptive statistics were generated.From the analysis of the data it was found that home school educators were teaching health education 87.05%, the majority of health education was taught during non-structured teachable moments, the Bible was the most used curriculum guide 55.41%, the number one resources used was the public library 62.16%, and the majority of home school educators in the study had at least some college education 75.31%. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Parents have increasingly participated in their children’s bedside care. Parental participation has led to more provider-parent interactions and communication during such stressful events. Helping parents through such stressful events requires nurses to be skilled communicators. Brief methods of training emotion-focused communication with newly licensed nurses are needed, but as yet are rare. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a validated brief communication (Four Habits Model) training program for newly licensed pediatric nurses. The intervention focused on ways to improve nurses’ emotion-focused conversations with parents. Information processing and Benner’s novice to expert informed this study. The intervention is based on the four habits model, with “habits” providing a structure for nurses to organize their thinking and behavior during emotion-focused conversations with parents. Thirty-five pediatric nurses with 0–24 months of nursing experience at a large mid-western children’s hospital participated in the study. Mixed methods provided data for this experimental study, using a group-by-trials repeated measures ANOVA design. Participants randomized to the intervention group participated in a one-hour three-part training: adapted four habits model content, simulated nurse-parent communication activity, and debrief. Participants randomized to the control group observed a one-hour travel video. Key outcome variables were Preparation, Communication Skills, Relationships, Confidence, Anxiety, and Total Preparation. Compared with the controls, the intervention group improved significantly in the following areas: Preparation, F(1,33) = 28.833, p < .001; Communication Skills, F(1,33) = 9.726, p = .004; Relationships, F(1,33) = 8.337, p = .007; Confidence, F(1,33) = 36.097, p < .001; and Total Preparation, F(1,33) = 47.610, p < .001. Nurses’ experience level had no effect, with the exception of Anxiety. Nurses with more experience (≥ 12 m) showed a greater reduction in Anxiety, when compared to nurses with less experience (< 12 m), F(1,31) = 5.733, p = .023. Fifty-two percent of the nurses involved in the intervention later reported specific examples of implementing the four habits when working with parents in clinical settings. A one-hour four habits communication-training program is effective in improving newly licensed nurses’ preparation for emotion-focused conversations with parents.

Stakeholder involvement in strategic planning: a strategy to mitigate the effects of HIV and AIDS on secondary education in Botswana. This study explores the involvement of stakeholders in strategic planning to mitigate the effect of HIV and AIDS in secondary education in Botswana. The prevalence of HIV and AIDS-related illness and deaths is high in Botswana and affects both teachers and learners. Education provision has been affected through increased mortality and morbidity and increased absenteeism which affect education-related personnel and the demand for education has been reduced due to growing numbers of orphaned and vulnerable children as a consequence of parent/guardian mortality and morbidity related to HIV and AIDS. The problem was investigated by means of a literature review and an empirical inquiry which combined quantitative and qualitative data collection. Based on the findings, in addition to medical and other interventions, an education management approach is required to mitigate the effects of HIV and AIDS on secondary education in Botswana. The strategies of coping, caring and preventing have been effective in this regard. Some internal stakeholders of the Department of Secondary Education (DSE) are not meaningfully involved in strategic planning. Similarly, most of the selected external stakeholders were not involved in the DSE HIV and AIDS strategic plan. Both external and internal stakeholders should be involved at all stages of planning. Furthermore, inducement-contribution exchanges and teacher credibility should be considered in a strategic plan. To improve the current DSE strategic plan, a stakeholder involvement model to involve internal and external stakeholders was designed. Based on this model and the above findings, recommendations for practice and suggestions for future research are made. / Educational Studies / D.Ed.(Educational Management)

Stakeholder involvement in strategic planning: a strategy to mitigate the effects of HIV and AIDS on secondary education in Botswana. This study explores the involvement of stakeholders in strategic planning to mitigate the effect of HIV and AIDS in secondary education in Botswana. The prevalence of HIV and AIDS-related illness and deaths is high in Botswana and affects both teachers and learners. Education provision has been affected through increased mortality and morbidity and increased absenteeism which affect education-related personnel and the demand for education has been reduced due to growing numbers of orphaned and vulnerable children as a consequence of parent/guardian mortality and morbidity related to HIV and AIDS. The problem was investigated by means of a literature review and an empirical inquiry which combined quantitative and qualitative data collection. Based on the findings, in addition to medical and other interventions, an education management approach is required to mitigate the effects of HIV and AIDS on secondary education in Botswana. The strategies of coping, caring and preventing have been effective in this regard. Some internal stakeholders of the Department of Secondary Education (DSE) are not meaningfully involved in strategic planning. Similarly, most of the selected external stakeholders were not involved in the DSE HIV and AIDS strategic plan. Both external and internal stakeholders should be involved at all stages of planning. Furthermore, inducement-contribution exchanges and teacher credibility should be considered in a strategic plan. To improve the current DSE strategic plan, a stakeholder involvement model to involve internal and external stakeholders was designed. Based on this model and the above findings, recommendations for practice and suggestions for future research are made. / Educational Studies / D.Ed.(Educational Management)