In early childhood, healthy eating habits lay the foundation for lifelong wellness, helping prevent many chronic health issues.
Promoting these habits is particularly important for children in rural communities, where resources are sometimes limited. Research shows that rural children are 26% more likely to experience obesity than their urban peers.
Making sure rural youth have enough to eat is important for both their health and education. Attending school with an empty stomach affects a student’s ability to focus and learn, making proper nutrition essential for academic success.
Nebraska Extension educators Beth Nacke and Natalie Sehi are leading research focused on adolescent nutrition insecurity. They recently worked with the MAP Academy to create a database to analyze the nutritional and economic impact of Nebraska Extension’s statewide Monthly Meal Kit program.
As the makeup of American communities changes in coming years to grapple with impending transfers of wealth and leadership, sustainability of rural communities is a priority.
Lindsay Hastings, Clifton Professor in Mentoring Research at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has recently worked with her team — Justine Bircher, Mary Emery and Jordan Rasmussen — on a project to build leadership development systems to sustain rural communities for the future.
Students who struggle with social and behavior issues are at high risk of developing long-term problems, both at school and in life.
When those students live in rural parts of the country, with limited access to behavioral health services, those challenges can significantly increase.
For small towns scattered throughout Nebraska, mental health professionals are hard to come by. Recruiting and retaining such professionals is crucial to ensuring these rural populations have access to quality mental health care.
Because mental health trainees are more likely to remain and work in the rural communities where they live, Beth Doll, professor of educational psychology, and Matthew Gormley, assistant professor of educational psychology are leading a virtual training program that can be accessible to anyone interested in a career in school psychology, no matter where they reside.
Research shows rural students are experiencing social-behavioral and mental health challenges at unprecedented rates, placing them at risk for long-term negative outcomes.
With the effectiveness of family-school interventions in addressing social-behavioral and mental health needs at both school and home — especially in rural settings — professional development of rural practitioners is a priority.
Although rural America affords children notable opportunities, those same sparsely populated areas can also pose unique challenges.
Relative to their urban counterparts, children in rural communities are more likely to face academic, behavioral and mental health obstacles, such as anxiety or depression.
Decades of research reveals that domestic violence in the United States is endemic and leads to harmful outcomes for survivors and their families.
But far less is known about what rural Native American survivors of domestic violence need to ensure recovery and healing from their experiences.
