Traditional approaches to improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) have focused on changing individual behavior, with little emphasis on addressing the factors that contribute to this behavior: biological changes; the influence of family and friends; the communities in which young people live; and access to economic and academic opportunities. This article provides an overview...

One of the strongest risk factors for dementia is the ε4 variant of the APOE gene. Yet, many who carry it never develop dementia. The current study examined for the first time whether positive age beliefs that are acquired from the culture may reduce the risk of developing dementia among older individuals, including those who are APOE ε4 carriers. The cohort consisted of 4,765 Health and Retire...

The rise in suicide by African Americans in the United States is directly attributable to the dramatic, nearly three-fold increase in suicide rates of African American males. Gibbs (1997) hypothesized high social support, religiosity, and southern residence are protective factors against suicidality for Black people. This hypothesis was tested among 5,125 participants from the National Comorbid...

OBJECTIVES To (1) identify the temporal order between oral and vaginal sex onset; (2) test whether oral sex or vaginal sex is a risk or protective factor for the other; and (3) determine whether the relationship between oral and vaginal sex varies across time. DESIGN Prospective, longitudinal study with 6-month assessments conducted between 2002 and 2005. SETTING Self-administered surveys c...

The main goal of this study is to investigate social influences of adolescent smoking and drinking. These social influences include social motives, parental attitudes, communal mastery and peers' substance use patterns. Literature suggests that communal mastery (as a form of social competence) may be related to adolescent substance use. In addition, gender differences may be hypothesized in the...

The processes underlying environmental, economic, and social unsustainability derive in part from the food system. Building sustainable food systems has become a predominating endeavor aiming to redirect our food systems and policies towards better-adjusted goals and improved societal welfare. Food systems are complex social-ecological systems involving multiple interactions between human and n...

The association between SES and health is well established; however, only a handful of studies have investigated the relationship between SES and daily cortisol parameters. Further, within this small literature, virtually no studies have looked at psychological factors that might mitigate this relationship. In this study, we tested whether life satisfaction--the overall subjective affective ass...

This article describes the development of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study for Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) questionnaire. We first address the selection of topics whose contents have to cover the knowledge available on the complex causal network of outcomes and allow comparability with similar studies. Then we deal with the "translation and adaptation of measurement instruments" including neighb...

OBJECTIVE To examine how one aspect of family life, notably family rituals and routines, may protect children with asthma from anxiety-related symptoms. METHODS Eighty-six families (43 children with asthma, 43 healthy comparison children) participated in the study. Children completed measures of anxiety (Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale) and health. Parents completed measures of stress (P...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the association between active commuting and blood pressure in adolescents. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study with high school students from public education network in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Data from 6039 students (14 to 19 years) were collected using a questionnaire. "Physically inactive" were considered those who reported not to walk or ride a bicycle ...