A sample of 656 undergraduate students from multiple sections of an introductory nutrition course, a personal health course, and a physical fitness course at a large Midwestern University completed one of four surveys. Using matrix sampling, each participant completed a survey measuring one of four personal and social competence constructs; coping skills, interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills, or judgment skills; 11 health risk behaviors, and college grade point average (GPA). Descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple regression analyses were calculated to determine relationships among these variables. Thirteen statistically significant correlations were found among personal and social competence constructs and health risk behaviors. Health risk behaviors statistically significantly correlated with one or more constructs of personal and social competence included: frequency of marijuana use, number of days cigarettes were smoked, number of days alcohol was consumed, incidences of binge drinking, incidences of driving and drinking alcohol, alcohol or drug use prior to last incidence of sexual intercourse, non-use of condoms during sexual intercourse, feelings of sadness or hopelessness for two weeks or more that resulted in ceasing some usual activities, and number of physically inactive days. Statistically significant correlations were found most often among perceived judgment skills and health risk behaviors and perceived intrapersonal skills and health risk behaviors. Variance in academic success due to perceived personal and social competence and health risk behaviors was limited. Only a small percentage of variance in self-reported, college GPA could be attributed to perceived coping skills and judgment skills, while no variance could be attributed to perceived intrapersonal skills or interpersonal personal skills. Also, few health risk behaviors accounted for any variance in self-reported, college GPA. Results suggest strategies to improve undergraduates' personal and social skills may reduce engagement in some health risk behaviors.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-02-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:42:50Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 oliveira_ra_dr_mar.pdf: 673641 bytes, checksum: 73ef0456c52c57180a27ff2f733f4147 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho identifica a emissão de comportamentos de risco para acidentes infantis durante interações de crianças em playgrounds escolares e as características de risco dos brinquedos recreativos, bem como analisa as opiniões dos profissionais da educação infantil em relação a tais interações e aos possíveis acidentes que possam delas decorrer, em especial dos professores, mediante intervenção com cenas das interações. São participantes 52 escolares do Pré-I e Pré-II, 33 profissionais e 31 docentes de duas escolas municipais de educação infantil de uma cidade do interior do Estado de São Paulo. Utiliza filmagem, roteiros de investigação (questionários) pré-testados e cenas selecionadas das filmagens para intervenção breve com professores. Como resultados, identifica, por meio das filmagens, a emissão de diversos comportamentos de risco nos playgrounds, como o “uso inadequado dos brinquedos”, “imitação” (de brincadeiras perigosas), “competição por um brinquedo” e “desafio/competição entre si”, bem como diversas características de risco nos brinquedos, como permanência de brinquedo no sol acumulando energia solar e ausência de barreiras físicas ao redor dos equipamentos. As opiniões dos profissionais, obtidas por meio dos questionários, apontam: quedas e choques com brinquedos e/ou com outras crianças como os acidentes mais freqüentes, motivados pela falta de atenção/cuidado da criança; o trepa-trepa como brinquedo de maior risco, bem como as situações interativas entre crianças e brinquedos, sobretudo no balanço, e das crianças entre si, durante o correr; as orientações às crianças sobre o uso correto dos brinquedos como medidas preventivas já adotadas e que poderiam ser realizadas e as conversas informais/regras como os trabalhos sobre prevenção de acidentes já realizados com as crianças... / This work identifies the emission of risk behaviors for children injury during children interaction in school playgrounds and the risk characteristics of toy, as such analyses the preschoolar professionals´opinions (specially teachers´one) in relation to those interactions and to the possible accidents that can occur intervention, by intervention with interaction scenes. 52 preschoolar students, 33 professionals and 31 teachers of two city infant schools of a city of São Paulo state. It uses movie takes, pré-tested questionnaires, and selected taken scenes, for brief intervention with teachers.As results, it identifies, by movie takes, the emission of risk behaviors at playgrounds, like “inapropriated use of toys”, “imitation (of dangerous behaviors)”, “competition for a toy”, and challenges (self-competition), such as several risk characteristics of toys, like toys standying at sun getting Sun energy and lack of physical barriers around the toys. The professionals’ opinions, got by questionnaires, shows: falls and schocks with toys and/or other children are the most frequent accidents, cause lack of attention by children; the trepa-trepa as the most dangerous toy, as well interactive situations between children and toys, mainly at slalow, and among children, during running; the orientation to children about the correct use of toys, as already taken measure, and that could be done, and chats and rules as already adopted works of injury prevention. At intervention, teachers saw risk behavior for injury prevention scenes and justify as variables to the occurance of these behaviors to the lack of perception of risk/danger, and that children want to explore the possibilities that toys get. They point as consequences injuries and traumas and point as injury prevention and promotion of safety the teachers’ attitudes, such as orientation and diary chats ...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below)

Background: Adolescence is a period of immense behavioral, psychological and social changes and challenges and characterized as a stage of increased imitation and exploration with a range of health-risk behaviors (HRBs). Although there is no uniform definition of HRB worldwide, it is generally considered as behavior that negatively affects health. Prior studies reported that HRBs among adolescents mainly include substances use that consist of the use of alcohol, tobacco, psychoactive drugs; behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence; sleep behaviors that mainly consist of sleep disturbance and insomnia; mental health including depression, suicidal behaviors and so on. Since the 1980s, with the Open Up policy, living conditions and annual incomes have improved dramatically in both urban and rural households in China, and Chinese adolescents are becoming more and more easily exposed to HRBs. Adolescent HRB has been a major public health problem in China. However, to our knowledge, there are only few small scale studies on HRBs among Chinese adolescents: A previous study in Zhejiang province indicated that approximately 40.0% of Chinese adolescent smokers started smoking before 10 years of age; previous studies in Beijing reported that approximately 70.0% of the study adolescents reporting prior alcohol consumption, about 15.9% of juvenile school students and 1.1% of secondary vocational school students admitted illicit drugs use; 20.8% of Chinese adolescents in Guangdong province reported being involved in bullying behaviors; 16.9% of the Chinese adolescents in Shandong province was troubled with sleep disturbance; 15.8% of adolescents in Guangzhou reported having depressive symptoms; 19.0% of Chinese rural adolescents in Shandong province reported having had suicidal ideation, and 7.0% reported having made a suicidal attempt during the past 6 months. It is necessary to conduct large scale survey studies to determine the sheer number of adolescents with HRBs in mainland China and whether HRBs and their correlates occur in Chinese adolescents in similar way to their manifestation in Western countries. Additionally, although HRBs among Chinese adolescents are prevalent, there is few existing policies for preventing or controlling HRBs in China. For example, although China has signed the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003 and ratified the treaty in 2005, there is no national smoke-free law in China. So far, only 13 cities of China revise or formulate local smoke-free regulations in accordance with FCTC Article 8 Guidelines. Therefore, we conducted a large-scale survey study using a multistage, stratified cluster, random sampling method to obtain a representative sample of high school students and a scoping review summarizing and accessing the existing policies in China to prevent or control adolescent HRBs, in order to estimate the prevalence of current drinking, current smoking, sleep disturbance, depressive symptoms, nonmedical use of prescription drug, illicit drugs use, being bullied, bullying others, both being bullied and bullying others, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts among Chinese adolescents; to explore the relationships between sociodemographic, family, school, psychosocial characteristics and each type of HRBs; to examine the internal associations between the HRBs, including the association between sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms, the association between depressive symptoms, bullying and current smoking, and the association between non-medical use of prescription drugs and suicidal behaviors; and to make suggestions for helping develop prevention and intervention programs to reduce adolescent HRBs in China.Methods: A large-scale cross-sectional study was conducted in three provinces of China, and a multistage, stratified cluster, random sampling method was used to a representative sample of junior and senior high school students. Data were collected from a structured questionnaire between 2011 and 2012. Additionally, we conducted a scoping review to summarize the existing policy strategies relating to adolescent HRBs in China. The framework outlines a five-stage approach including identifying the research question; searching for relevant studies; selecting studies; charting data; and collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. Findings: Our survey study findings demonstrated that substance use was prevalent among Chinese adolescents, adolescents’ alcohol use was the highest substance use, and illicit drugs use among Chinese adolescents was lower than other countries; the prevalence rates of bullying behaviors, depressive symptoms, and suicidal behaviors were similar with other previous reports. Moreover, our study found that gender differences were significant in the extent of alcohol use, cigarette use, and drugs use; boys had a higher level of substance use than girls. Students who reported below average family economic status were at a higher risk of HRBs, and poor classmate relations, poor relationships, and below average academic performance were positively associated with most of the HRBs. Furthermore, our scoping review demonstrated that current Chinese national and local efforts focus on expanding smoke-free environments by restricting smoking in schools, hospitals, workplaces, or public places; many of these environments have limited or no restrictions on smoking. Moreover, although more and more public are aware of the problems (e.g. liver and cardiovascular disease, mental disorders, and unintentional injuries) caused by alcohol drinking, there is almost no alcohol control policy in China. Additionally, although the Chinese public are aware of the negative consequences of school bullying behaviors, there is no existing law related to anti-school bullying in China now.Conclusions: In conclusion, Chinese adolescent HRB is a major public health problem nationally, and an adolescent’s family, school, and psychosocial factors have influences on their substance use habits. We suggest that effective prevention and intervention programs should be established and the role of the government, school, family, and individual should be considered. Our study recommends strengthening regulations to limit the sale of substances to adolescents, establishing a surveillance system to monitor and control the adolescent substances use, and providing health services to promote resilience among adolescents involved in mental health problems or bullying behaviors. / Doctorat en Sciences de la santé Publique / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

As youth in foster care mature into adulthood, they face enormous challenges (Jaudes, 2012). They lose help and support as they change into their independent live style. A lot of youth do not get the proper help they need. For example research supports that 47 percent of youth aged out of the system had health insurance coverage. One study reported that 40% of foster care youth endorsed some type of maltreatment while in foster care (Salazar,Keller, & Courtney, 2011). Yet, services that address the unique ongoing mental healthcare needs of foster care youth are not systematically required, and only a fraction of foster care youth who evidence clinically significant psychiatric symptoms receive mental health care (Burns et al., 2004; Valdez, 2015). Youth like this need someone to help them with their mental state when entering the transition to adulthood. A benefit they lack is support from family, or a mentor. In this research study, we examine what happens to the children who aged out of the foster care system, and how they continue with their life now that they are on their own. We will present the prevalence of services utilized, and outcomes experienced pertaining to the transition from being in state custody from state and national fostercare

Hispanic youth living in the U.S. share a disproportionate burden of risk for HIV, other STIs, and teen pregnancies. They also tend to report lower rates of condom use and higher rates of inconsistent condom use than other racial/ethnic groups. Furthermore, immigrant Hispanic adolescents experience a unique burden of sexual risk compared to their non-immigrant counterparts. These negative sexual health outcomes can severely derail the overall health, social mobility, and life opportunities of these adolescents. Social researchers have tried to explain these sexual risk disparities using the concept of immigrant acculturation, which is broadly defined as the process of adopting the cultural values and beliefs of a host society. Immigrant acculturation has been shown to play a key role in shaping youth attitudes and behaviors, including sexual risk behaviors (see Lee & Hahm, 2010). Yet, studies have largely overlooked the contextual components of acculturation that have been proposed in theoretical literature, specifically characteristics of the immigrant's receiving community. Furthermore, studies have not adequately explored the influence of acculturation on two crucial measures of sexual risk: teen pregnancy norms and condom use. Therefore, the current dissertation consists of two unique studies that examine the influence of acculturation, at both the individual and neighborhood level, on Hispanic adolescent teen pregnancy norms and condom use over time. The aim is to fill these important gaps in the literature and expand on earlier explanations of the relationship between cultural, place, and long-term sexual health. Both studies use nationally-representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Overall, findings suggest an immigrant advantage for both teen pregnancy norms and condom use, although this advantage functions differently for males and females. Furthermore, the studies demonstrate the importance of including contextual measures of acculturation into studies related to Hispanic adolescent sexual health.

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Casual sex culture, also known as hook-up culture, is an experience adversely affecting teens in America. The intent of this study was to test the association between sports participation and sexual risk behaviors among high school males. For the purpose of this study, sports participation, the independent variable, was defined by having played on a sports team in the last 12 months. The sexual risk behaviors, dependent variables, were defined by sexual engagement with multiple partners, drug and alcohol use before intercourse, and sex without condoms. The ecological model provided the theoretical foundation for the study. Secondary analysis of the 2015 Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System using logistic regression was employed to test if there was an association between sports participation and sexual risk behaviors in 7,749 high school males. Using regression analysis, a significant association was found between sports participation and abstinence status, number of sexual partners, and drug and alcohol use at last sexual intercourse. As the number of sports teams increased, the number of abstinent participants increased, the number of sexual partners decreased, and the number of participants who used drugs and alcohol at last sexual intercourse decreased. However, there was no association between sports participation and condom use at last sexual intercourse. Recommendations for next steps include using sports programs as a vehicle to influence behavior change. This study aimed to promote social change by improving the understanding of how sports programs benefit individuals, families, and communities from reducing sexual risk behaviors in teen males.

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The current body of individual risk behavior research has been mainly driven by two streams of literature. Stable risk researchers propose individuals tend to display similar risk behaviors across time and situations due to individuals' underlying propensity to either engage in risk averse or risk seeking behaviors. Changeable risk researchers have sought out to examine variability in risk behaviors due to factors such as personality and contextual characteristics. However, might it be the case that there are subgroups of individuals who may be more prone to display static risk behaviors and other subgroup whose risk behaviors are more amendable? To better address this question, the current study integrates literature on risk behavior, psychological safety, and personality to investigate the existence of these potential risk behavior classes. Furthermore, supervisor rated performance is captured in order to better understand the potential organizational value of these various risk behavioral classes. Latent class growth modeling revealed five different risk classes: stable risk seeking, stable risk averse, highly adaptive, moderately adaptive, and mixed risk behaviors. Individual personality traits were shown to be significant predictors of class membership, although the pattern of results was somewhat in contrast to predicted relationships. Furthermore, in support of proposed hypothesis, individuals in the highly adaptive risk behavior class received the highest ratings of supervisor rated performance. I discuss results in terms of risk research and organizational practice, and specifically advocate for the increased examination of risk behavior within organizational research.