Age Group: Adolescents (grades 9 to 12)

Program Practices: An Investigation of Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Standards and Practices on Out-of-School-Time Programs

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In the US, 6.5 million children attend out-of-school time (OST) programs annually, participating in roughly three hours per day of activities typically including homework, snack and gross motor play. The specific aims of this study are to: (1) build capacity for obesity prevention in OST by infusing rigorous science-based guidelines into the National Afterschool Association More

Providing Analysis and Recommendations for Safeguards on the Next Generation of TV Food Marketing Focused on Children and Youth

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Powerful new forms of interactive television (ITV) advertising are being deployed in the US, reaching over 50 million homes by early 2010. Fast-food companies are among those marketers in the forefront of harnessing TV’s potential to deliver personalized and more engaging commercial messages. The introduction of ITV advertising in the US coincides with three upcoming More

The Negative Impact of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages on Children’s Health. A Research Synthesis

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Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) by adolescents and children in the United States has been linked to less healthy diets, excessive caloric intake and weight gain, increased obesity rates, and associated adverse health effects, including increased rates of type 2 diabetes in adults. This research synthesis reviews evidence regarding the health effects of SSB consumption, More

Examining the Effect of Providing Lower Income Black Adolescents with Caloric Information on their Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Purchases

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No prior interventions have focused exclusively on reducing purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in real-world settings among black adolescents. Providing easily understandable caloric information may be a low-cost, sustainable strategy for lowering overall caloric intake. In this study, investigators will examine the effects of a store-based, environmental intervention targeting black adolescents in Baltimore City which More

Studying Food and Marketing Industry Research Behind Digital Media Marketing to Children and Adolescents

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As digital media become ever more present in children’s lives, public health researchers and policy-makers need to understand how the new marketing ecosystem infiltrates and influences consumers. Yet specialized, commercially-sponsored digital marketing research remains obscured from public view because much of it occurs outside the academy. This study will make highly accessible and visible an More

Studying the Effect of Beverage Taxes on Children’s Energy Intake and Tax Revenue

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Health advocates have increasingly argued for taxes on calorically sweetened beverages. However, there is little empirical research that evaluates the public health and fiscal impacts of such taxes while simultaneously accounting for consumers’ and suppliers’ likely changes in economic behavior in response to a targeted tax. The aim of this study is to use econometric More

Examining How Increases in Earned Income Tax Credits, Food Prices and Neighborhood Context Affect Children’s BMI

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The goal of this project is to examine how increases in family income generated by geographic- and time-varying changes in earned income tax credits (EITC) impact children’s body mass index, and how this effect may depend on their neighborhood food environment and regional food prices. Focusing on EITC-generated income changes amounts to a quasi-experimental research More