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The purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview and brief summary of the present contributions to this third volume of recent Health Education Special Issue submissions on Healthy Schools and Colleges, commissioned early in 2010.

Authors working in the health education arena in either the school or college venues were invited to submit papers concerning current research‐related findings that addressed the topic of “what works, what is needed, and why?” as regards school‐based health education and health promotion efforts. After undergoing traditional peer review, five submissions fulfilling the basic criteria relevant to this volume were selected.

As in earlier volumes, the five papers reported here are reasonably diverse, and cover both the nature of common health problems and/or their solutions in schools, as well as college venues. In line with the first and second volumes of the 2010 series, all authors concur that multiple, rather than single, strategies are needed to support school‐based health programmes and health‐promoting behaviors. They also highlight the fact that health in schools is determined by both individual and collective health behaviors, and multiple rather than single stakeholders are needed to promote the implementation of efficacious programs and their sustainability.

While more research is needed, the ideas embedded in this special issue can assist stakeholders to develop or improve the efficacy and sustainability of school‐ and college‐based health promotion programs. The data specifically provide some direction about what is needed collectively to foster the health of the young people in the context of the health promoting school or college.

The purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview and brief commentary concerning the present contributions to this third special issue on “Healthy schools and colleges”.

Authors working in the field of school or college health education were invited to submit their work to Health Education for purposes of review by their peers. After undergoing the traditional peer review process, five submissions that fulfilled the basic criteria relevant to this issue were selected for publication.

While reasonably diverse, these five contributions all confirm that, while the evidence base as well as the support for using the school as a venue to promote health are increasing, multiple considerations as well as approaches are required in order to successfully implement health‐oriented programs in the school and/or college setting. In addition to careful planning, and allocation of resources, in line with the first part of this 2010 series, all authors concur that multiple rather than single strategies are needed at all phases of program planning and implementation if sustainable efficacious programs are sought. Key strategies include having a socio‐ecological perspective, adequate teacher training, effective partnerships, policy support, and parental “buy‐in”.

While more research is needed, the ideas embedded in this special issue can assist stakeholders who wish to develop or improve the sustainability of school‐ and college‐based health promotion programs. The data specifically provide some direction about what is needed to do collectively to foster the health of the young people in the context of the health‐promoting school or college.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts. The selected bibliography is useful to efficiently keep up with trends in library instruction for busy practitioners, library science students and those wishing to learn about information literacy in other contexts.

This article annotates 424 English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, theses and reports on library instruction and information literacy published in 2021. The sources were selected from the EBSCO platform for Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and WorldCat, published in 2021 that included the terms “information literacy,” “library instruction,” or “information fluency” in the title, abstract or keywords. The sources were organized in Zotero. Annotations summarize the source, focusing on the findings or implications. Each source was categorized into one of seven pre-determined categories: K-12 Education, Children and Adolescents; Academic and Professional Programs; Everyday Life, Community, and the Workplace; Libraries and Health Information Literacy; Multiple Library Types; and Other Information Literacy Research and Theory.

The paper provides a brief description of 424 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy within 2021.

Explains current developments in the promotion of healthy eating in Ireland. In particular, shows how the various initiatives involving Government, hospitals and voluntary organizations are reaching out into the community.

School health promotion is said to be most effective when implemented through a comprehensive, settings‐based, whole‐school approach. The purpose of this paper is to address the current lack of knowledge about the current state of teacher education for health promotion and its potential to further the development of settings‐based approaches.

This paper focuses on an analysis of initial teacher education for school health promotion in Austria by studying the curricula of the Universities of Teacher Education, as well as interviewing representatives from these institutions. A content analysis of the identified modules and a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts were conducted.

While there is more behaviour orientation than setting orientation identified in the curricula, the interviewees showed a broad understanding of health promotion that encompasses a settings view. The situation at the Universities of Teacher Education mirrors the situation in schools: there are similar supporting and hindering factors for the implementation of healthy settings.

A greater degree of focus in teacher education on the settings approach and the promotion of the skills required to implement it is needed, as well as the creation of health‐promoting Universities of Teacher Education.

The study makes recommendations about how to prepare future teachers to support the development of more effective approaches of school health promotion.

Recovery colleges have expanded over the last decade, providing educational courses and workshops on topics of mental health and well-being, co-delivered by peer workers and clinicians. This review aims to synthesise findings from the qualitative literature to explore the impact of recovery colleges on student well-being.

A systematic search of the qualitative literature was conducted in December 2021. Four databases were searched: Emerald, PubMed, ProQuest and Scopus. In total, 11 studies met the criteria for review and were subject to thematic synthesis.

Five themes were generated including “A shift in power”, “Being connected”, “Personal growth”, “Adopting the role of a student” and “Meeting expectations”.

These findings were consistent with previous literature, which suggest that much of the recovery college’s impact lies in its ethos, which promotes empowerment and inclusivity. However, the review also drew attention to lesser explored areas of the recovery college such as how students understand the support on offer from the recovery college and manage their expectations around this.

Several studies lacked methodological and analytical rigour and may well suffer from self-selecting samples leading to an overwhelmingly positive experience. Evaluation by independent researchers is paramount.

It is nearly eight years since this area was previously reviewed during which time considerable growth in the literature has resulted.

Research shows peer health education programs on university campuses can support students in pursuing sustainable health-related behavior changes. However, few programs deliver peer health education through a nondiet, weight-inclusive framework. Research shows that health educators who challenge the status quo of diet culture and weight-focused health interventions may face unique challenges when sharing this perspective with others. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of peer educators who provided critical health education by introducing a nondiet, weight-inclusive approach to health.

Five health coaches from a university health coaching program at a mid-sized southwestern university participated in a semi-structured interview. The data were analyzed through interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Peer educators faced numerous challenges when introducing nondiet, weight-inclusive approaches such as lacking credibility as a peer to challenge weight-centric messages, feeling conflicted about honoring clients’ autonomy when clients are resistant to a weight-inclusive approach and feeling uncomfortable when discussing client vulnerabilities. Peer educators also identified several strategies that helped them navigate these challenges such as being intentional with social media, using motivational interviewing to unpack clients’ concerns about weight, and seeking group supervision.

Given the reality that health coaches will face challenges sharing weight-inclusive health approaches, educators and supervisors should explicitly incorporate strategies and training methods to help peer health coaches prepare for and cope with such challenges. More research is also needed to examine effective ways to introduce weight-inclusive approaches to college students.

This study used a revised protection motivation theory to investigate how professional sport fans in Taiwan adapted to health-related risk such as COVID-19. It examined the effects of perceived changes in event quality (CEQ), threat and coping appraisal and the moderating roles of team identification and past spectating experience.

An online survey collected data from 1,080 professional baseball and basketball league fans. A qualitative and quantitative CEQ scale was developed.

Structural equation modeling showed a path from perceptions of health-related risk (HR), CEQ, threat appraisal and coping appraisal to intention to adapt. Fans with stronger team identification are more likely to adapt to HR prevention measures and CEQ on the basis of their coping appraisals than fans with weaker team identification are. Furthermore, fans with weaker team identification and nonrepeat attendees generally develop an intention to adapt after performing a threat appraisal. These findings inform in-person and online event promotion strategies.

Integrating information sources and a mediating variable, CEQ, into the PMT framework while considering spectators’ traits provides new insights into spectators’ decision-making in health-related risk contexts.

The purpose of this paper was to assess a health communication campaign designed to reduce distracted driving among college students within the USA.

Utilizing central interviewing techniques, participants were asked qualitative and quantitative items soliciting feedback concerning the efficacy of the messages.

The findings indicated students understood, believed, found the messages appealing, and thought the campaign discouraged distracted driving. Several themes emerged from the qualitative analysis, including the prominence of the logo, recommendation to use bright colors, and the suggestion to use more intense graphics.

First, the data were collected by conducting interviews, potentially leading to some shortcomings associated with self-reported data. Second, while the results indicated that participants perceived that the messages discouraged distracted driving, none of the central intercept interview items assessed participants’ intentions to change their behavior. Third, a convenience sample was used, and thus the generalizability of the results are limited and warrant further research. Finally, because multiple researchers conducted the interviews, it is possible that data were interpreted differently, which could pose a threat to inter-rater reliability.

Message testing provides practitioners with invaluable feedback in designing effective messages. However, suggestions from the target audience need to be carefully considered before revising messages, as the lay public are not experts in prevention.

Message testing provides health educators with a specific method to receive feedback from the target audience to ensure they understand and are motivated by the message, resulting in a more effective health communication campaign.

Cervical cancer (CxCa) incidence and mortality remain unacceptably high in South Carolina, USA, presenting an ideal opportunity for intervention. To address this need, Cervical Cancer-Free South Carolina developed an academic-community partnership with researchers and students at a public university to design, implement, and evaluate a theory-based CxCa communication campaign, It’s My Time. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The goal of this campaign was to decrease CxCa by increasing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and appropriate screening. This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a successful theory-based CxCa prevention communication campaign for college women based on formative audience research and targeted messages delivered to audience segments through new and traditional communication channels. The health belief model (HBM) served as a theoretical framework for the campaign throughout development, implementation, and evaluation.

This campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of the HBM to address CxCa prevention, including HPV vaccine acceptability. The campaign aimed to increase perceptions of susceptibility, which were low, by emphasizing that HPV is a sexually transmitted infection. A community-based grassroots approach to addressing disparities in CxCa prevention increased benefits and decreased barriers. Social media emerged as a particularly appropriate platform to disseminate cues to action. In total, 60 percent of participants who responded to an anonymous web-based survey evaluation indicated that they received the HPV vaccine as a result of campaign messages.

This paper offers practical suggestions to campaign planners about building academic-community partnerships to develop theory-based communication campaigns that include conducting formative research, segmenting target audiences, engaging with young people, and incorporating social media.