This research describes the development and validation of a measure designed to assess feeling states that occur in conjunction with acute bouts of physical activity—the Exercise-Induced Feeling Inventory (EFI). The EFI consists of 12 items that capture four distinct feeling states: revitalization, tranquility, positive engagement, and physical exhaustion. The multidimensional structure of the EFI is supported by confirmatory factor analysis. The subscales have good internal consistency, share expected variance with related constructs, are sensitive to exercise interventions, and appear responsive to the different social contexts in which activity may occur. After describing the psychometric properties of the EFI, several directions for theory-based research are proposed.

In recent years, the role of neighbourhoods has been increasingly investigated with respect to obesity in children. [1][2][3] Neighbourhood built environments may promote childhood obesity by favouring antecedent behaviours, including physical inactivity and unhealthful diets. Compared with physical activity, fewer studies have addressed children's diets. 1 Most studies examining associations between local neighbourhood availability of food establishments and residents' diets have focused on adults. 4 Overall, findings from studies involving children are less consistent, notably for associations between access to supermarkets and vegetable and fruit (V&F) intake. [5][6][7] Greater access to convenience stores, which typically offer limited fresh produce, has been found to be associated with lower V&F intake 5,7 and higher intake of sweet/salty snacks 6 and sugar-sweetened beverages 8 in youth. Although some studies have reported associations between the availability of fast-food restaurants near children's residence and their diets, 7,8 others do not support such findings. 6,9,10 Given the conflicting results in the literature, there is a need to clarify the relation between neighbourhood food environments and children's diets.In addition to residential neighbourhoods, school neighbourhood environments are relevant activity spaces and should be investigated in relation to obesity-related behaviours in children. 11,12 During the academic year, travel to and from school exposes children to school neighbourhood food environments. Recently, policies have targeted in-school food environments, but initiatives aimed at regulating food opportunities in school neighbourhoods have yet to be widely implemented. Fast-food restaurants and convenience stores are known to cluster within short distances from schools. 13,14 However, it is not clear to what extent the availability of the latter is associated with children's diet. 2,9

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Background: Over the past 10 years, there has been a surge of interest in studying smallarea characteristics as determinants of population and individual health. Accumulating evidence indicates the existence of variations in the health status of populations living in areas that differ in affluence and shows that selected small-area characteristics are associated with the occurrence of selected health behaviours. These variations cannot be attributed solely to differential characteristics of populations living within small areas. One vexing problem that confronts researchers is that of conceptualizing and operationalizing neighbourhoods through delineation of small territorial units in health research. Goals and Methods: The aims of this paper are to selectively overview conceptual definitions of neighbourhoods and to illustrate the challenges of operationalizing neighbourhoods in urban areas by describing our attempts to map out small territorial units on the Island of Montreal and in the City of Calgary. Conclusion: We outline guiding principles for the construction of a methodology for establishing small-area contours in urban areas and formulate recommendations for future research. MeSH terms: Residence characteristics, social conditions, social environment, urban health, methods La traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.