This study applied theory-based health behavior change constructs to childhood obesity prevention. Constructs such as goal setting, self-efficacy, and readiness for change were used within a rural community-based program designed to be developmentally appropriate for 6th graders. The project included 2 studies across 12 months. The 1st assessed the scope of the obesity problem within a 3-county area with key stakeholders in health and education. The 2nd implemented a pilot community intervention program within a rural middle school. Participants in the intervention included 65 middle-school students and the families of 25 of these students. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. Changes from pre- to postintervention on relevant measures were statistically significant for families but not for students. Issues related to family versus individual behavior change are discussed, along with implications for managing behaviorally based activity and nutrition interventions within a rural community.
This study measured the impact of a purposeful aerobic laughter intervention on employees' sense of self-efficacy in the workplace. Participants were 33 employees of a behavioral health center. They met for 15-minute sessions on 15 consecutive workdays and engaged in a guided program of non-humor dependent laughter. The primary outcome measure was the Capabilities Awareness Profile, a self-report self-efficacy questionnaire. Employees demonstrated a significant increase in several different aspects of self-efficacy, including self-regulation, optimism, positive emotions, and social identification, and they maintained these gains at follow-up. Purposeful laughter is a realistic, sustainable, and generalizable intervention that enhances employees' morale, resilience, and personal efficacy beliefs.
Because the validity of data obtained from self-report clinical outcome measures depends upon the ability of the client to comprehend the inventories, readability was assessed for five frequently employed measures: Beck Depression Inventory, Integra Outpatient Tracking Assessment, MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, Social Adjustment Scale-Self Report, and Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised. The Flesch Reading Ease (RE) formula and a Flesch abstraction formula were applied. The measures are generally shown to be useful for patients with an eighth or ninth grade education, suggesting that outcome researchers must choose only those measures appropriate to the educational background of their clients.
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