Little is known about the portrayal of asthma in US newspapers. The purpose of the present study was to analyze 7 representative US newspapers to determine the frequency of substantive asthma articles and the occurrence of stigma, challenge, fear, and management frames within the articles. The authors conducted a content analysis of 203 in-depth asthma articles from 2 years in 7 US newspapers and developed a coding instrument to identify framing cues of stigma versus challenge and fear versus management. Research results supported the need for an increase in substantive print news articles about asthma. Fear cues were present in 43% of the articles reviewed, although the majority of them (88%) contained a management solution message. Only 41% of articles contained a positive challenge cue. More than onefourth (28%) contained a stigma cue. Overall, the majority of the articles had a neutral or positive tone, but almost 2 of 10 articles had a negative tone. Recommendations and implications for asthma educators are discussed.

Background:The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the perceptions and attitudes about teen pregnancy among high school students in a rural area with high teen pregnancy rates. Methods: Five focus groups were conducted with: (1) females in 9th-10th grades; (2) females in 11th-12th grades; (3) males in 9th-10th grades; (4) males in 11th-12th grades; and (5) pregnant/parenting females in 9th-12th grades. Results: Common themes among the students were that: (1) the number of teen pregnancies was increasing and was a growing concern; (2) financial difficulties and harm to education were associated with teen pregnancies; (3) teen females had many reasons for wanting a baby, but teen males just wanted to have sex; and (4) pregnancy happened by chance, or was simply an inadvertent consequence of having sex. Conclusions: To reduce teen pregnancy, the developmental asset model offers community members, teachers and parents guidelines to work together to develop key assets in youth that may protect against risky sexual behaviours.

The authors make recommendations for improving the health care climate for overweight and obese students.

❖ This study examined the perceived influence of alcohol advertising in a daily campus newspaper on the drinking behaviors of students at a large midwestern university. Data came from two sources: a descriptive analysis of alcohol ads that appeared during a four-week period in the student newspaper and a survey questionnaire. Findings indicated that college students do perceive that their drinking patterns are influenced by alcohol promotions in the campus newspaper and, furthermore, that self-identified binge drinkers were influenced significantly more than were nonbinge drinkers.How best to address binge drinking on college campuses has been a subject of debate in recent years. While singular approaches have met with some success on some campuses, Keeling (1998) has wisely reminded us that multifaceted problems require multifaceted solutions. Ready access to unlimited amounts of cheap alcohol, fueled by numerous ads and modeling behaviors suggesting the virtues and normality of its use, have contributed to the socialization of binge drinking in adolescents and young adults (Erenberg & Hacker, 1997). Further review of the contributing factors to binge drinking behaviors will assist college administrators and all those working in college health to best design effective prevention and intervention strategies.

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