(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) Farm to school nutrition programs are emerging in many countries as the next innovative approach to healthy eating. Three articles in Issue #4, 2012 of Childhood Obesity provide excellent analyses, along with others on school salad bars, school gardens and the elimination of processed foods by cooking from scratch in schools. All of these are good but in this commentary, we want to illustrate how narrow our focus can become, even when we use evidence-based logic models and behaviour theory. One article in this journal issue presents an excellent linear logic model that correctly depicts the multiple inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes associated with FtoS programs. As well, the model correctly seeks to take local context and feedback loops within the social system of the school and community into account. In summary, the paper presents one of the better linear logic models that we have seen. But here is the rub: what about the complexity of the school-neighbourhood-family setting and the competition from the many, many other school programs also entering that same context? If we do consider these things, then program innovations like this can become pretty academic pretty quickly. Read more

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) As with many other behaviours, healthy eating is a social construction that is built differently by different people. As we design education and information campaigns, we need to address those different understandings and perceptions. An article in Issue #4, 2012 of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior draws from several qualittative research sources to describe how people perceive and act upon the idea of healthy eating.  The researchers found studies emphasized a social constructionist approach, and most used focus groups and/or individual, in-depth interviews to collect data. Study participants explained healthy eating in terms of food, food components, food production methods, physical outcomes, psychosocial outcomes, standards, personal goals, and as requiring restriction. Researchers described meanings as specific to life stages and different life experiences, such as parenting and disease onset. Identity (self-concept), social settings, resources, food availability, and conflicting considerations were themes in participants’ explanations for not eating according to their ideals for healthy eating. The researchers noted that the implications of these findings are that people interpret healthy eating in complex and diverse ways that reflect their personal, social, and cultural experiences, as well as their environments. Their meanings include but are broader than the food composition and health outcomes considered by scientists. The rich descriptions and concepts generated by qualitative research can help practitioners and researchers think beyond their own experiences and be open to audience members’ perspectives as they seek to promote healthy ways of eating. Read more.. 

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #3, 2012 of Educational Administration Quarterly provides advice that many of us should take to heart before we re-invent yet another model or framework on school health promotion. Using meta-analytic review techniques, this study synthesized the results of 79 unpublished studies about the nature of transformational school leadership (TSL) and its impact on the school organization, teachers, and students. This corpus of research associates TSL with 11 specific leadership practices. These practices, as a whole, have moderate positive effects on a wide range of consequential school conditions. They also have moderately strong and positive effects on individual teachers’ internal states, followed by their influence on teacher behaviors and collective teachers’ internal states. TSL has small but significant positive effects on student achievement. Now here is the kicker...The authors also state that: "Among the conclusions arising from the study is that several of the most widely advocated models of effective educational leadership actually include many of the same practices. Conclusions: More attention by researchers, practitioners, and researchers needs to be devoted to the impact of specific leadership practices and less to leadership models"  Read More..

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) Another example of the use of an evidenced-based implementation plan appears in Issue #4, 2012 of Preventing School Failute, where it is used to assess implementation quality in the application of the Positive Behavior Support approach and multi-intervention program. This article describes the procedures and utility of the Benchmarks of Quality as part of a comprehensive evaluation plan to assess the universal level of implementation fidelity of behavior support for a school. However, results can also be examined to determine the level of implementation fidelity across a district or state for ongoing behavioral training and technical assistance planning. A recent factor analysis and validation of various administration techniques has changed the content of the instrument and are discussed. The purpose of this article is to describe how practitioners can use the Benchmarks of Quality from administration to analysis and eventually to corrective action planning in addressing behavior successfully across individual schools and districts.  Read more..

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) An article in the July 2012 issue of the Canadian medical Association Journal provides an update on the reforms being considered by the World Health Organization in regard to its programs, funding and structures. The need for WHO to become more transparent, focused on results, accountable and effective was agreed upon by delegates to the 65th annual meeting of the World Health Assembly from May 21–26 in Geneva, Switzerland. The governing body also laid out five priorities for future WHO activity: communicable diseases; noncommunicable diseases; health through the life-course; health systems; and preparedness, surveillance and response. “All delegates emphasized that WHO should increase its focus on the social, economic and environmental determinants of health,” states a summary of discussions forwarded to CMAJ by WHO. Read More..

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service)  An article from Issue #3, 2012 of the Journal of School Violence describes the lessons learned from recent school shootings in the US. This article describes a crisis response framework based on the authors' first-hand experience following three Colorado school shootings. During each crisis response, one or more of the authors joined school and/or district crisis teams, providing direct assistance and leadership. The authors' experiences helped guide subsequent responses and assisted teams in better meeting the impacted school's needs. Lessons learned are shared with the intent of organizing and improving school-based crisis response to extreme acts of school violence. Read more..

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service)  Despite the fact that health education, along with "personal and social development" education is most often combined with career or economic education in most secondary school curricula, the health journals and web sites are often devoid of any discussion about career and life planning education. Several articles in Summer 2012 Issue of New Directions for Youth Development could help to fill that void. the articles present a framework for understanding the development of career aspiration in students, the implications of part time work while still ion school, the current state of the art of career education, various program models, partnerships with local businesses, research issues and more. Read more.. 

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service)  A study reported in Issue #4, 2012 of the Journal of Alcohol & Drug Studies examined municipal policies as well as community norms and perceived norms on adolescent alcohol use. Eight policies (conditional use permit, social host ordinance, window/billboard advertising) were rated for each city. Local enforcement was based on grants received from the California Control agency for enforcement of underage drinking laws. Outlet density was based on the number of on- and off-premise outlets per roadway mile. Level of adult alcohol use was ascertained from a survey of 8,553 adults and underage drinking (frequency of past-year alcohol use and heavy drinking) from surveys of 1,312 adolescents in 2009 and 2010. Mediating effects of adolescents' perceived ease of obtaining alcohol, perceived enforcement, and perceived acceptability of use also were examined. None of the eight local alcohol-policy ratings were associated with adolescent drinking. Funding for underage drinking enforcement activities was inversely related to frequency of past-year alcohol use. Outlet density and adult drinking were positively related to both past-year alcohol use and heavy drinking. These relationships were attenuated when controlling for perceived ease of obtaining alcohol, enforcement, and acceptability of alcohol use, providing evidence for mediation. Conclusions: Adolescent alcohol use and heavy drinking appear to be influenced by enforcement of underage drinking laws, alcohol outlet density, and adult alcohol use. These community-level influences may be at least partially mediated through adolescents' perceptions of alcohol availability, acceptability of alcohol use, and perceived likelihood of getting in trouble with local police. The results indicate that school programs should include a focus on normative beliefs about alcohol. Read more..

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service)  An article in the August 2012 Issue of Harm Reduction is part of a new gtrend in the research to examine indigenous culture and family life as a protective factor in youth risk behaviours. The authors of this study found that the key cultural factors that contributed to whether Pacific youth participants were abstinent or responsible drinkers were: significant experiences within Pacific family environments (e.g. young person directly links their decision about alcohol consumption to a positive or negative role model); awareness of the belief that their actions as children of Pacific parents affects the reputation and standing of their Pacific family and community (e.g. church); awareness of traditional Pacific values of respect, reciprocity and cultural taboos (e.g. male-female socialising); commitment to no-alcohol teachings of church or religious faith; having peer support and experiences that force them to consider negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption; and personal awareness that being part of an (excessive) drinking culture may seriously affect health or impede career aspirations. Read more..

(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service)  An article in Issue #5, 2012 of the Journal of Community Psychology reports on a framework to guide and monitor the development of sustainable school-based prevention programs and approaches. School-based prevention and promotion interventions (SBPPI) improve desirable outcomes (e.g., commitment to school and attendance) and reduce undesirable outcomes (e.g., suspensions and violence). Unfortunately, our understanding of how to effectively implement and sustain SBPPI outside of well-controlled conditions is lacking. To bridge this science/“real world” practice gap, a system of sustainable implementation, which merges implementation strategies and sustainability strategies, is proposed in this article. Ecological levels and phases are part of this new concept. This conceptualization is supported by analyses from a diverse sample of 157 schools implementing Social-Emotional Character Development. The authors used the system of sustainable implementation that was measured using the Schools Implementing Towards Sustainability (SITS) scale, which was designed to be “user-friendly” in field settings by being viable and scalable. The SITS demonstrated strong reliability as well as promising concurrent and construct validity. Read more..