"Teens Talk Healthy Weight": the impact of a motivational digital video disc on parental knowledge of obesity-related diseases in an adolescent clinic.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of a 7-minute educational and motivational weight-management digital video disc (DVD) that uses real patient/parent testimonials and provider-patient interactions, on adolescent and parent knowledge of obesity-related diseases; readiness, motivation, and self-efficacy to lose weight; connectedness to care provider; and likelihood of return to clinic for follow-up care. A randomized controlled trial was conducted among 40 overweight/obese adolescent participants (22.5% male, 77.

Sexual risk avoidance and sexual risk reduction interventions for middle school youth: a randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of two, theory-based, multimedia, middle school sexual education programs in delaying sexual initiation.

Methods: Three-armed, randomized controlled trial comprising 15 urban middle schools; 1,258 predominantly African American and Hispanic seventh grade students followed into ninth grade. Both programs included group and individualized, computer-based activities addressing psychosocial variables.

Cultural tailoring and feasibility assessment of a sexual health middle school curriculum: a pilot test in Puerto Rico.

Background: To assess the need for cultural tailoring of an effective sexual health middle school curriculum, "It's Your Game: Keep It Real" (IYG), prior to implementation in Puerto Rican (PR) middle schools.

Methods: Seventy-three seventh-grade bilingual students participated in IYG curriculum activities (both group-based and computer-based) in two 2-hour testing sessions in spring 2008. Rating scales of acceptability, understandability, credibility, ease of use, and motivational appeal and qualitative feedback via open-ended responses and group process provided insight into needed surface and deep structure cultural tailoring.

The Fun Families Study: intervention to reduce children's TV viewing.

Media consumption may contribute to childhood obesity. This study developed and evaluated a theory-based, parent-focused intervention to reduce television and other media consumption to prevent and reduce childhood obesity. Families (n = 202) with children ages 6-9 were recruited from a large, urban multiethnic population into a randomized controlled trial (101 families into the intervention group and 101 into the control group), and were followed for 6 months.

Knowledge and Risk Perception Regarding HPV Among Latino Alternative School Students in Houston, Texas.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common STI among youth in the U.S. As alternative school students are at higher risk of acquiring STIs compared to regular high school students, this study examined HPV knowledge and risk perception among Latino youth attending 9 alternative high schools in Houston, Texas.

Media and risky behaviors.

Liliana Escobar-Chaves and Craig Anderson investigate two important trends among American youth and examine the extent to which the two trends might be related. First, the authors note that U.S.

Safer choices 2: rationale, design issues, and baseline results in evaluating school-based health promotion for alternative school students.

Background: Students attending 'alternative' high schools form relatively small, highly mobile high-risk populations, presenting challenges for the design and implementation of HIV-, other STI-, and pregnancy-prevention interventions. This paper describes the rationale, study design, and baseline results for the Safer Choices 2 program.

Study Design: Modified group-randomized intervention trial with cross-over of schools but not of students.