Age Group: Young adolescents (grades 6 to 8)

Assessing an Obesity Audit Tool and Determining Whether School Policies and Environments Predict Relative Weight Outcomes

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The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of a brief, low-cost school environment audit tool, which is currently administered to all Pennsylvania Keystone Healthy Zone public schools. In addition, this research will also determine whether school policies and environments predict relative weight outcomes. The first phase of this work will More

Investigating Access to Affordable Healthy Foods Among Rural Low-Income Children in Maine

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The goal of this study is to examine how food environments influence rural childhood obesity rates and food choices, in order to ultimately help policymakers find effective rural policy interventions. Specifically, this research will investigate the community-based healthy food environment (defined as food access, cost and quality for healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, More

Identifying and Evaluating Food Environment Changes Improving Access to Affordable Healthy Foods in Low-Income Communities

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The goal of this research is to evaluate the Fresh to You (FTY) program, which aims to increase year-round access to affordable, high-quality, fresh fruits and vegetables for low-income families through implementation of year-round discount fruit and vegetable markets in community organizations. Specifically, this work will consist of (a) conducting process evaluations of FTY in More

Evaluating Nutrition Policies and Practices in U.S. Secondary Schools

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This aim of this work is to evaluate disparities in school-level nutrition policies and practices across the U.S. More specifically, the objective of this research is to (a) determine the prevalence of school-level nutrition policies and practices in a large sample of schools across multiple states stratified by school-level socioeconomic status, geographic location, and racial/ethnic More

Analyzing Food and Entertainment Companies’ Policies on Food Marketing to Children

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The goal of this work is to provide an in-depth examination and comparison of industry efforts to self-regulate food and beverage marketing to children. More specifically, this macro-level analysis will: (a) analyze, compare, and contrast food and entertainment companies’ policies on food marketing to children with respect to their nutrition standards, media approaches covered, and More

Examining Higher and Lower Income Household Food Purchasing Behavior and Whether It May Be Responsible for Childhood Obesity

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This project will examine the extent to which household food purchasing behavior differs between higher- and lower-income households and whether these differences may be partly responsible for socioeconomic differences in childhood obesity. In addition, investigators will use econometric models of household food purchases to simulate the extent to which pricing policies, such as taxes on More

Examining Policy and Practice in Digital Marketing of Food and Beverages to Children

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The aim of this research is to examine new digital and interactive food and beverage marketing practices, primarily targeting children and adolescents. Specifically, this study will: (a) provide a comprehensive analysis of the digital food and beverage youth marketing infrastructure, explaining new platforms, technologies, advertising techniques, and market research practices for targeting children and adolescents, More