The Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Health-Themed Residential Learning Community for Undergraduate Students.

College students face significant health concerns. In recent years, there has been an emergence of health-related residential learning communities (RLCs) at institutions of higher education, which endeavor to improve students' academic and health outcomes by offering a communal living environment and programming. However, there is negligible literature describing health-related RLCs as a health promotion intervention, the kind of experience residents have, or the impact that health-related RLCs have on student outcomes. To begin to fill this gap, this article describes a health-themed RLC named HealthWave that was created at a private Southern university and the diverse stakeholders involved. It also summarizes results from a multimethod evaluation that included focus groups, an experience survey, and a quasi-experimental study with non-HealthWave students in the same residence hall as the comparison group. HealthWave was a feasible intervention to implement and residents provided very positive feedback about their experience, although the impact of HealthWave on students' health behavior is unclear. Lessons learned from implementing and evaluating HealthWave are shared in order to inform health promotion professionals' future programmatic and evaluation efforts.

High school drinking and its consequences.

The present study surveyed 930 high school students regarding self-reported alcohol use, their perceptions of parents and peers, and the negative consequences of drinking. Two-fifths of males and one-fifth of females reported frequent problem (binge) drinking. Problem drinkers reported more negative consequences associated with drinking. In addition, problem drinkers reported greater susceptibility to peer pressure, perceived their peers as drinking more, and reported less parental monitoring and more use of alcohol by parents. The results demonstrate the importance of both parent and peer variables in adolescent substance use and highlight the negative consequences of drinking reported by high school students.