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Peer-Led, School-Based Nutrition Education For Young Adolescents: Feasibility And Process Evaluation Of The Teens Study, Mary Story, Leslie A. Lytle, Amanda Birnbaum, Cheryl L. Perry

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Peer education has become a popular strategy for health promotion interventions with adolescents, but it has not been used widely in school‐based nutrition education. This paper describes and reports on the feasibility of the peer leader component of school‐based nutrition intervention for young adolescents designed to increase fruit and vegetable intakes and lower-fat foods. About 1,000 seventh‐grade students in eight schools received the nutrition intervention. Of these, 272 were trained as peer leaders to assist the teacher in implementing the activities. Results from a multicomponent process evaluation based on peer leader and classroom student feedback, direct classroom observation, and teacher …

Predicting Adolescents’ Intake Of Fruits And Vegetables, Leslie A. Lytle, Sherri Varnell, David M. Murray, Mary Story, Cherly Perry, Amanda Birnbaum, Martha Y. Kubik

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Objective

To explore potential predictors of adolescent fruit and vegetable intake by expanding on current theory and drawing from other adolescent research.

Design

This research reports on the baseline and interim data from a school-based intervention study. Data were collected through surveys administered to students at the beginning and end of their 7th-grade year.

Setting

The students attended 16 public schools in Minnesota.

Participants

Data were collected on 3878 students; approximately half were female and 67% were white. All students in the 7th-grade cohort were invited to participate in the surveys and over 94% completed both surveys.

Variables Measured

Our …