PURPOSE: This study examined factors related to positive health practices (PHP) among Asian adolescents. More specifically, it tested theoretical relationships postulated between PHP and social support, optimism, self-esteem, loneliness, and acculturation in this population. METHODS: A correlational research design was used and a convenience sample of 151 Asian adolescents was obtained. Participants completed a demographic sheet and six study instruments. RESULTS: Significant positive relationships were found between reported performance of PHP and social support, optimism, self-esteem, and acculturation. A significant inverse relationship was found between loneliness and PHP. CONCLUSIONS: Study findings extend existing knowledge and contribute to a more comprehensive knowledge base regarding health practices among Asian adolescents. Having this knowledge base provides practitioners with a better understanding of the factors related to health practices in Asian adolescents and assists them in developing culturally sensitive interventions aimed at promoting PHP in this population.
Acculturation ; Adolescent ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Knowledge Bases ; Loneliness ; Minority Health ; Research Design ; United States

OBJECTIVETo present a model for autism showing that impairment of sensory and self-regulation is the core deficit that underlies delays in social/language skills and abnormal behavior in autism; and to demonstrate the efficacy of a treatment for autism based on Chinese medicine.

METHODSChildren with autism under 6 years of age were assigned to treatment or wait-list conditions. A total of 130 children were treated and the results compared with 45 wait-list controls. Treatment is a tuina methodology directed at sensory impairment--Kai Qiao Tuina. The treatment was a five-month protocol that was implemented daily by trained parents via trained support staff. The effects of treatment on the main symptoms, autistic behavior, social/language delay, sensory and self-regulatory impairment, as well as on parenting stress, were observed and compared.

RESULTSThe treatment had a large effect size (P<0.0001) on measures of sensory and self-regulation. The evaluations done by pre-school teachers demonstrated improvement in the measures of autism (P<0.003), and were confirmed by evaluations done by parents (P<0.0001). There was a large decrease (P<0.0001) in parenting stress.

CONCLUSIONSSensory and self-regulatory impairment is a main factor in the development and severity of autism. Treatment of young children with autism with Kai Qiao Tuina resulted in a decrease in sensory and self-regulatory impairment and a reduction in severity of measures of autism.

Autistic Disorder ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Case-Control Studies ; Child ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Models, Biological ; Parents ; psychology ; Sensation ; physiology ; Stress, Psychological ; Treatment Outcome ; Vagus Nerve ; physiopathology