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The aim of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of a school-centered multicomponent PA intervention, called 'Active Living', on children's daily PA levels. A quasi-experimental design was used including 9 intervention schools and 9 matched control schools located in the Netherlands. The baseline measurement took place between March-June 2013, and follow-up measurements were conducted 12months afterwards. Accelerometer (ActiGraph, GT3X+) data of 520 children aged 8-11years were collected and supplemented with demographics and weather conditions data. Implementation magnitude of the interventions was measured by keeping logbooks on the number of implemented physical environmental interventions (PEIs) and social environmental interventions (SEIs). Multilevel multivariate linear regression analyses were used to study changes in sedentary behavior (SB), light physical activity (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) between baseline and follow-up. Finally, effect sizes (ESs) were calculated using Cohen's d. No pooled effects on PA and SB were found between children exposed and not exposed to Active Living after 12months. However, children attending Active Living schools that implemented larger numbers of both PEIs and SEIs engaged in 15 more minutes of LPA per weekday at follow-up than children in the control condition (ES=0.41; p<.05). Moreover, children attending these schools spent less time in SB at follow-up (ES=0.33), although this effect was non-significant. No significant effects were found on MVPA. A school-centered multicomponent PA intervention holds the potential to activate children, but a comprehensive set of intervention elements with a sufficient magnitude is necessary to achieve at least moderate effect sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] An extensive set of food parenting practices, and related concepts, was identified [•] Increased clarity about distinct food parenting practice concepts was realized [•] The process of consensus development in food parenting research is supported [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective. : Previous studies have generally shown the effectiveness of prompts to promote stair use in worksites that mainly consist of white-collar workers. The present study tested whether an intervention using prompts is effective in stimulating stair use in two types of worksites: one consisting mainly of white-collar workers and one mainly of blue-collar workers. Method. : In 2005, elevator and stair use (stair climbing and descent) was monitored in two types of worksites in the Netherlands, namely one office building (n =150 white-collar workers) and one paper factory (n =800 blue-collar workers). The study used a simple time-series design of collecting data in three waves: before, during and after implementation of posters containing prompts stimulating stair use. Results. : A total of 6771 choices between stairs and elevator were observed. There was a significant difference between stair use at baseline and during the poster intervention in both types of worksites. There was no worksite-by-intervention interaction, implying that the prompts were equally effective in both types of worksites. After removal of the posters stair use decreased significantly to a level that was not significantly different from baseline. Conclusion. : Stair use can be positively influenced in both blue- and white-collar workers by a short-term low-cost intervention using prompts on posters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background. Two lines of psychological research have attempted to spell out the stages of adolescent smoking initiation. The first has focused on behavioral stages of smoking initiation, while the second line emphasized motivational stages.Methods. A large international sample of European adolescents (N = 10,170, mean age = 13.3 years) was followed longitudinally. Self-reported motivational and behavioral stages of smoking initiation were integrated, leading to the development of the Model of Unplanned Smoking Initiation of Children and Adolescents (MUSICA). The MUSICA postulates that youngsters experiment with smoking while they are in an unmotivated state as regards their plans for smoking regularly in the future.Results. More than 95% of the total population resided in one of the seven stages distinguished by MUSICA. The probability of starting to smoke regularly during the 12 months follow-up period increased with advanced stage assignment at baseline. Unique social cognitive predictors of stage progression from the various stages were identified, but effect sizes of predictors of transitions were small.Conclusions. The integration of motivational and behavioral dimensions improves our understanding of the process of smoking initiation. In contrast to current theories of smoking initiation, adolescent uptake of smoking behavior was found to be an unplanned action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]