The Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), a multisite investigation addressing knowledge gaps in autism phenotype and etiology, aims to: (1) characterize the autism behavioral phenotype and associated developmental, medical, and behavioral conditions and (2) investigate genetic and environmental risks with emphasis on immunologic, hormonal, gastrointestinal, and sociodemographic characteristics. SEED uses a case–control design with population-based ascertainment of children aged 2–5 years with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children in two control groups—one from the general population and one with non-ASD developmental problems. Data from parent-completed questionnaires, interviews, clinical evaluations, biospecimen sampling, and medical record abstraction focus on the prenatal and early postnatal periods. SEED is a valuable resource for testing hypotheses regarding ASD characteristics and causes.

MCMURRAY, ROBERT G., JOANNE S. HARRELL, SHIBING DENG, CHYRISE B. BRADLEY, LORI M. COX, AND SHRIKANT I. BANGDIWALA. The influence of physical activity, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity on the weight status of adolescents. Obes Res. 2000;8: 130 -139. Objective: This study examined the effects of physical activity, television viewing, video game play, socioeconomic status (SES), and ethnicity on body mass index (BMI). Research Methods and Procedures:The sample was 2389 adolescents, 10 to 16 years of age (12.7 Ϯ 1.0 years); 1240 (52%) females and 1149 (48%) males; 77% white and 23% African American; from rural (77%) and urban (23%) settings. BMI and skinfolds were directly assessed. All other data were obtained from questionnaires. Results: Watching television on non-school days was related to being overweight (p Ͻ 0.005). However, when BMI analyses were adjusted for ethnicity and SES, there were no significant effects of television viewing on BMI (p Ͼ 0.061). Increased hours of video game play enhanced the risk of being overweight for both genders when analyses were adjusted for ethnicity and SES (p Ͻ 0.019). In males, participation in as little as one high-intensity physical activity 3 to 5 days a week decreased the ethnic-and SESadjusted relative risk of being overweight (RR ϭ 0.646; CI: 0.427 to 0.977). For females, the ethnic-and SES-adjusted relative risk for being overweight was not significantly altered by physical activity. The logistic analyses further indicated the influence of low SES and African American ethnicity overshadowed any direct effect of television or videos.

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Variation in activities by race within gender suggests that establishing activity patterns in youth may be race-specific as well as gender-specific and must be accounted for in designing physical activity interventions. Also, pubertal maturation is a factor in activity choices in middle school girls.