The Experience of Direct Outreach Recruitment in the National Children's Study.

Objective: Few studies have reported the outcome of direct outreach methods for recruitment of research participants in population-based samples. We describe the relationship of outreach strategies that are tailored to specific community factors to recruitment and consent outcomes in 10 National Children's Study direct outreach study locations (all were single counties).

Methods: Each study center collected data from a target population of women who resided in selected county segments that were sampled based on a geographic area probability sampling design.

School programs and characteristics and their influence on student BMI: findings from healthy passages.

Background: Little is known about the contribution of school contextual factors to individual student body mass index (BMI). We set out to determine if school characteristics/resources: (1) are associated with student BMI; (2) explain racial/ethnic disparities in student BMI; and (3) explain school-level differences in student BMI.

Methods: Using gender-stratified multi-level modeling strategies we examined the association of school characteristics/resources and individual BMI in 4,387 5(th) graders in the Healthy Passages Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Factors associated with intention to vaccinate a daughter against HPV: a statewide survey in Alabama.

Purpose: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Adolescent and young adults aged 15-24 were estimated to account for three quarters of new infections in 2000. Two HPV vaccines are currently available.

Mediators of maternal depression and family structure on child BMI: parenting quality and risk factors for child overweight.

Risk factors for child obesity may be influenced by family environment, including maternal depression, family structure, and parenting quality. We tested a path model in which maternal depression and single parent status are associated with parenting quality, which relates to three risk factors for child obesity: diet, leisure, and sedentary behavior. Participants included 4,601 5th-grade children and their primary caregivers who participated in the Healthy Passages study.

Neighborhood characteristics favorable to outdoor physical activity: disparities by socioeconomic and racial/ethnic composition.

This paper uses a socioecological framework to investigate socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in neighborhood characteristics that are associated with outdoor physical activity. We surveyed 632 parents of 5th graders about perceptions of their neighborhood social processes and collected systematic observations of the physical environment on their block-face of residence. Higher poverty neighborhoods and non-White neighborhoods have better accessibility; however, they are less safe, less comfortable, and less pleasurable for outdoor physical activity, and have less favorable social processes.

Prevalence, characteristics, and associated health and health care of family homelessness among fifth-grade students.

Objectives: We describe the lifetime prevalence and associated health-related concerns of family homelessness among fifth-grade students.

Methods: We used a population-based, cross-sectional survey of 5147 fifth-grade students in 3 US cities to analyze parent-reported measures of family homelessness, child health status, health care access and use, and emotional, developmental, and behavioral health and child-reported measures of health-related quality of life and exposure to violence.

Results: Seven percent of parents reported that they and their child had experienced homelessness (i.

Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination among fifth-grade students and its association with mental health.

Objectives: We sought to describe the prevalence, characteristics, and mental health problems of children who experience perceived racial/ethnic discrimination.

Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from a study of 5147 fifth-grade students and their parents from public schools in 3 US metropolitan areas. We used multivariate logistic regression (overall and stratified by race/ethnicity) to examine the associations of sociodemographic factors and mental health problems with perceived racial/ethnic discrimination.

Physical environment of the home and adolescent injury risk.

Objectives: The home environment is one of the most significant contextual factors that contributes to young children's unintentional injury risk, but there are very limited data concerning risks present in the homes of adolescents. This study was designed to offer descriptive data on aspects of the home physical environment that might contribute to adolescent injury risk in the United States.

Methods: A diverse sample of 42 adolescents ages 14-16 participated.

Influences of physical and social neighborhood environments on children's physical activity and obesity.

Objectives: We investigated the association between physical and social neighborhood environments and fifth-grade students' physical activity and obesity.

Methods: We collected data on 650 children and their primary caregivers during phase 1 of Healthy Passages, a multisite, community-based, cross-sectional study of health risk behaviors and health outcomes in children. We conducted independent systematic neighborhood observations to measure neighborhood physical characteristics, and we analyzed survey data on social processes.

Positive parenting and early puberty in girls: protective effects against aggressive behavior.

Objective: To determine whether positive parenting practices are associated with less aggressive and delinquent behavior in early-maturing girls.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Interviews with a community sample of children and their caregivers were conducted in their homes or in a research setting.

A cross-cultural perspective on obesity and health in three groups of women: the Mississippi Choctaw, American Samoans, and African Americans.

This study compares obesity as assessed by Body Mass Index (BMI) and the relationship of BMI to hypertension and diabetes in adult females from three populations, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw (N=50), American Samoa (N=155), and an African American community in West Alabama (N=367). These groups were surveyed in the early to mid 1990s. All three groups of women have very high levels of overweight and obesity, with the Samoans being most extreme in this regard.

Body image and children's mental health related behaviors: results from the healthy passages study.

Objective: This study examined the relationship between body image discrepancy (BID) scores for actual versus ideal body image for children and indicators of child mental health.

Methods: Data were collected from 650 5th graders and their parents who participated in the Healthy Passages Phase I study. Participants were recruited through schools in Alabama, California, and Texas.

Healthy passages. A multilevel, multimethod longitudinal study of adolescent health.

Purpose: To provide an overview of a multisite, long-term study that focuses on risk and protective factors, health behaviors (e.g., dietary practices, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and violent activity), and health outcomes (e.

Disparities between public health educational materials and the scientific evidence that smokeless tobacco use causes cancer.

Background And Methods: We reviewed 4 dozen health education brochures on the dangers of smokeless tobacco (ST) use, printed between 1981 and 2001 and available to the public in 2002. Collectively, these brochures state that ST use causes oral leukoplakia, other oral conditions, and cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, lung, breast, prostate, bladder, and kidney. We then reviewed the scientific literature to determine whether these claims were substantiated.