Oral

The environment plays a critical role in shaping an individuals dietary behaviors. This is especially true for youth, since they do not directly control their environments and often must rely on their parents or caregivers and schools to provide healthy food choices. In this session speakers will discuss various programs and initiatives designed to engage youth in taking a more active role in forming a healthy school and community food environment. The first speaker will discuss how youth can become involved with creating and implementing a district wellness policy and present findings from a study evaluating how high school students in northern California were able to successfully implement, monitor and evaluate such policies in their own school districts. The next speaker will discuss how youth can engage in the food system at multiple levels, and present data from a pilot study and focus groups of students participating in the ‘Teaching the Food System’ curriculum. Results from a study evaluating the effects of the ‘Teen Iron Chef leadership program’, whereby high school students take on various leadership roles in their schools in an attempt to promote peer-to-peer communication about healthy eating will be presented in the next presentation. The final speaker will discuss how youth can utilize various forms of media to help identify barriers for engaging in healthy behaviors and advocate for change in their environment, and present findings from a study evaluating a media-based program ‘Teens Take It On.’

Session Objectives: 1. Describe elements of the environment that can shape dietary behaviors among youth. 2. Identify various programs and methodologies that have been employed to help youth improve and enhance their school and community food environment. 3. Identify evaluation strategies that have been used for evaluating policy and environmental research in the area of health promotion in schools and the community.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)