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BACKGROUND: Adolescents are in a unique developmental stage, ideal for initiating healthy behaviors and benefiting from health promotion interventions. In this study, we used positive youth development and resilience frameworks, to investigate the role of internal assets as a protective factor for bullying and emotional distress among early adolescents, with attention to whether those associations vary by sex. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of the 2013 Minnesota Student Survey, a cross‐sectional, population‐based survey of Minnesota youth. Participating eighth grade students (N = 42,841) reported on internal assets, physical, relational and cyberbullying involvement, and emotional distress. RESULTS: Logistic regression analyses, stratified by sex and controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, revealed that students with higher internal assets had lower odds of all forms of bullying victimization and perpetration than those with lower internal assets. Higher levels of internal assets were also associated with lower odds of emotional distress. All associations were significant for boys and girls, but appeared stronger for girls. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that internal assets may buffer young teens from bullying and from the emotional distress that may result from bullying involvement. Approaches bolstering internal assets may be beneficial for combating bullying and emotional distress during early adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Peer harassment can have serious implications for students' success and well-being, and prevention programs need to consider the school context. This study aimed to: (1) identify groups of similar schools based on their risk and protective factors and demographic characteristics and (2) examine associations between school profiles and students' bullying involvement. METHODS Data came from 505 schools and 122,106 students who completed the 2013 Minnesota Student Survey. School-level risk and protective factors and demographic characteristics were included in a latent profile analysis ( LPA) to identify profiles of schools. Multilevel logistic regression was used to assess associations between school profiles and peer harassment. RESULTS Six qualitatively different school profiles were identified. Unadjusted models showed that schools with higher levels of risk had greater odds of peer harassment. However, after controlling for student-level risk and protection, regardless of school-level risk, students in metro-area schools with a more diverse student body reported lower odds of bullying involvement. CONCLUSIONS These findings highlight the importance of the social environment into peer harassment. In addition to addressing student-level risk and protection, larger community factors and norms also need to be taken into account for developing, selecting, and implementing the most effective approaches to bullying prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Although nearly all states in the United States require school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies, little research examines the effect of these policies on student bullying and health. Using a statewide sample, we investigated associations between the quality of school district anti-bullying policies and student bullying involvement and adjustment. METHODS School district anti-bullying policies (N = 208) were coded for their quality based on established criteria. District-level data were combined with student reports of bullying involvement, emotional distress, and school connectedness from a state surveillance survey of 6th, 9th, and 12th grade students (N = 93,437). RESULTS Results indicated that policy quality was positively related to bullying victimization. Furthermore, students reporting frequent perpetration/victimization who also attended districts with high-quality policies reported more emotional distress and less school connectedness compared with students attending districts with low quality policies. Although statistically significant, the magnitude of these associations was small. CONCLUSIONS Having a high-quality school district anti-bullying policy is not sufficient to reduce bullying and protect bullying-involved young people. Future studies examining policy implementation will inform best practices in bullying prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Competitive foods are often available in school vending machines. Providing youth with access to school vending machines, and thus competitive foods, is of concern, considering the continued high prevalence of childhood obesity: competitive foods tend to be energy dense and nutrient poor and can contribute to increased energy intake in children and adolescents. METHODS: To evaluate the relationship between school vending machine purchasing behavior and school vending machine access and individual-level dietary characteristics, we used population-level YouthStyles 2005 survey data to compare nutrition-related policy and behavioral characteristics by the number of weekly vending machine purchases made by public school children and adolescents (N = 869). Odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed using age- and race/ethnicity-adjusted logistic regression models that were weighted on age and sex of child, annual household income, head of household age, and race/ethnicity of the adult in study. Data were collected in 2005 and analyzed in 2008. RESULTS: Compared to participants who did not purchase from a vending machine, participants who purchased ≥3 days/week were more likely to (1) have unrestricted access to a school vending machine (OR = 1.71; 95% CI = 1.13–2.59); (2) consume regular soda and chocolate candy ≥1 time/day (OR = 3.21; 95% CI = 1.87–5.51 and OR = 2.71; 95% CI = 1.34–5.46, respectively); and (3) purchase pizza or fried foods from a school cafeteria ≥1 day/week (OR = 5.05; 95% CI = 3.10–8.22). CONCLUSIONS: Future studies are needed to establish the contribution that the school-nutrition environment makes on overall youth dietary intake behavior, paying special attention to health disparities between whites and nonwhites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Violence and bullying perpetration among boys are major public health problems. We address gaps in the literature by examining: (1) how risk and protective factors co‐occur, and (2) how different risk/protection profiles are associated with violence and bullying perpetration among adolescent boys. METHODS: Data came from the population‐based 2016 Minnesota Student Survey. The analytic sample included boys in grades 8, 9, and 11 (N = 63,818). Latent profile analyses identified patterns of 22 behavioral, intrapersonal, family, and school and community risk/protective factors. Logistic regression analyses examined how these patterns related to violence and bullying perpetration. RESULTS: We identified 5 groups: Class 1: Low risk, high safety, high connectedness; Class 2: Low risk, moderate safety, moderate connectedness; Class 3: Moderate risk, high safety, moderate connectedness; Class 4: High risk, moderate safety, low connectedness; and Class 5: High risk, low safety, low connectedness. Compared to Class 1, Class 5 students had the highest odds of all for violence and bullying perpetration. Class 4 students also demonstrated high odds of violence and bullying, compared to Class 1. Though not as high as Classes 4 or 5, Class 2 and 3 students showed higher odds for both outcomes, compared to Class 1. CONCLUSIONS: Substantive variations exist in boys who engage in violence and bullying. We highlight cumulative, co‐occurring risk factors, connectedness to parents and other prosocial adults (eg, teachers), and school and neighborhood safety as important factors to address in school health programs seeking to prevent violence and bullying perpetration among boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Workplace safety and health is a major public health concern, but largely absent from the school health curriculum. Little is known about teachers' perceptions of teaching workplace safety and health topics. METHODS: We administered a 41‐item questionnaire reflecting the theory of planned behavior, modified to measure knowledge, to 242 middle and high school teachers in career and technical education and academic subjects. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis to assess the measures' psychometric properties and factorial ANOVAs to compare differences among participants' knowledge, attitude toward, self‐efficacy, and intention (to teach) workplace safety and health by sex, prior work injury, and main subject taught. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analyses indicated the measures reflected the theory. Factorial ANOVAs suggested female teachers had statistically significantly lower mean self‐efficacy scores than did male teachers to teach workplace safety and health. Male occupational career and technical education teachers demonstrated higher mean knowledge scores than male teachers in other subjects. Participants not injured at work had higher knowledge scores than those who had been injured. CONCLUSION: Self‐efficacy (influenced by sex) and knowledge (influenced by subject taught and previous workplace injury) revealed factors that may affect teachers' provision of workplace safety and health education, a critical yet overlooked component of school health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Gay-Straight Alliances ( GSAs) are school-based clubs that can contribute to a healthy school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning ( LGBTQ) youth. While positive associations between health behaviors and GSAs have been documented, less is known about how youth perceive GSAs. METHODS A total of 58 LGBTQ youth (14-19 years old) mentioned GSAs during go-along interviews in 3 states/provinces in North America. These 446 comments about GSAs were thematically coded and organized using Atlas.ti software by a multidisciplinary research team. RESULTS A total of 3 themes describe youth-perceived attributes of GSAs. First, youth identified GSAs as an opportunity to be members of a community, evidenced by their sense of emotional connection, support and belonging, opportunities for leadership, and fulfillment of needs. Second, GSAs served as a gateway to resources outside of the GSA, such as supportive adults and informal social locations. Third, GSAs represented safety. CONCLUSIONS GSAs positively influence the physical, social, emotional, and academic well-being of LGBTQ young people and their allies. School administrators and staff are positioned to advocate for comprehensive GSAs. Study findings offer insights about the mechanisms by which GSAs benefit youth health and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the effects of the LiveWell@School Food Initiative (LW@SFI), a Colorado-based childhood obesity prevention program that partners with school districts to enable them to serve more scratch cooked foods through culinary training, action planning, and equipment grants. METHODS: This evaluation used a quasi-experimental design that examined menu cycles prior to entering the LW@SFI and approximately 1 year later. A review of school menus with food service directors from 9 Colorado school districts was conducted. RESULTS: Data show that districts changed an average of 17.4 entr´ees and 19.7 side dishes over the course of the year. Changes to serving scratch cooked foods were highest for sauces (an increase of 40.5%). No districts were cooking beans/legumes from scratch during baseline or at follow-up. Across the 9 districts, 7 observed statistically significant pre-post reductions in sodium, 4 in fat, 5 in saturated fat, and 3 in calories. CONCLUSIONS: Within a year of implementing the LW@SFI, school districts increased the proportion of fresh, scratch cooked foods they offered and this was associated with some decreases in calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium, contributing to healthier school food environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sun-induced skin damage, which increases skin cancer risk, is initiated in early life and promoted through later sun exposure patterns. If sun safety determinants are well understood and addressed during the school years, skin cancer incidence might be reduced. This study tested psychosocial influences on youth’s sun safety and assessed their strength within and across gender and ethnicity in a sample of 1782 middle school students. Methods: Predictors included sunburn and skin cancer knowledge, tanning attitudes, peer norms, and barriers regarding sun exposure and were assessed with a self-administered, validated questionnaire. The hypothesized relationships were tested with structural equation models and confirmed with multilevel regression. Results: Across gender and ethnicity, knowledge emerged as an important sun safety predictor with both direct and indirect effects mediated through tanning attitudes. The relationship with barriers did not reach statistical significance within any of the subgroups, possibly due to measurement limitations. An indirect effect of peer norms on sun safety, mediated through tanning attitudes, was confirmed only among girls. Also, an indication that peer norms operate differently within the ethnic groups was found, since this predictor had a statistically significantly stronger relationship with sun safety among non-Hispanics. Conclusions: Youth’s sun safety is a multifactorial practice, partially determined by ethnicity- and gender-based standards. In order to ensure health-promoting school environments, needed are multicomponent programs where peer norms and knowledge are salient and where sun safety is addressed individually and together with other health risk behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]