ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: About one third of youth in the United States are overweight or obese and African American youth are at an increased risk for pediatric overweight and obesity as well as their complications. Physical activity has been identified as one determinant of overweight and obesity, and school bullying has been found to be associated with decreased physical activity. Guided by the Transactional Stress and Coping Model, this study examines how school bullying might impact the physical activity of white and African American healthy weight and overweight youth. METHODS: Existing, nationally representative, and complex survey data (N = 4509) from the 2005-2006 United States Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) were analyzed using multiple group structural equation modeling to evaluate study questions. RESULTS: Support for the hypothesized model was found such that bullying negatively impacted physical activity by way of increasing internalizing symptoms. Possible evidence for parental support, but not peer support, as a protective factor was also found. Results were generally similar for all groups, though some differences are discussed. CONCLUSION: School bullying is a risk factor for reduced physical activity, regardless of race-ethnicity and weight. Implications for school health professionals are discussed.
Subject(s)
Black or African American/psychology , Bullying/psychology , Exercise , Overweight/psychology , Parents/psychology , White People/psychology , Bullying/prevention & control , Ethnicity , Health Surveys , Humans , Peer Group , Racial Groups , Students , United StatesABSTRACT
The recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse students to graduate programs is critical to the overall growth and development of school psychology as a field. Program websites serve as an effective recruitment tool for attracting prospective students, yet there is limited research on how school psychology programs use their websites to recruit diverse students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether school psychology program websites include sufficient levels of diversity-related content critical for attracting diverse applicants. The website content of 250 professional psychology programs (165 school psychology training programs and 85 clinical and counseling psychology programs) were examined for the presence of themes of diversity and multiculturalism that prospective racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse students deem important for selecting a graduate program. Results indicated that school psychology programs had less diversity-related content on their program's website relative to clinical and counseling psychology programs.' Implications for improving recruitment of racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse students through websites are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
