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Taking into account previous literature on the role that the parenting styles to which individuals are exposed to during childhood have in shaping prosocial behaviors and attitudes, this study aims to investigate the relationship between parenting styles of parents and peace attitudes.

The peace attitude and the parenting style questionnaires were completed by 358 adolescent and adult participants. Pearson correlation coefficients were extracted and a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed.

The results indicate that individuals with authoritative parents tend to show stronger peace attitudes and open the way to further study what parental characteristics may be responsible for the development of peace attitudes in individuals.

Participants retrospectively assessed their parents’ style. Future research may recruit both the actual parents of participants to collect more accurate data on parenting practices or use observational methods.

This work seems to suggest that to achieve a more peaceful society, the ability of parents to raise their children by adopting an authoritative style should be taken into account and – if needed – enhanced. Understanding the developmental pathways that can influence individuals to consistently choose peace is important to promote a stable culture of peace across several levels of observation.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between parenting styles of parents and peace attitudes in their children.

The purpose of this paper is to enable community members to discuss their perceptions of eating habits and physical activity in relation to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, and reveal facilitators and barriers to healthy eating behavior and physical activity engagement.

Nine focus groups, which included six groups from sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, two parents’ groups, and one teachers’ group, were conducted in a middle school in southwest Kansas. Individual influences, social influences, and larger contextual influences on early adolescent health were assessed by discussing behaviors, personal characteristics, and environmental factors, based on the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM).

Adolescent participants’ knowledge regarding healthful foods was limited. Taste and appearance were the two leading factors that contributed to food choices. Responses from adolescents, parents, and teachers all indicated difficulties when introducing new and healthful food items into adolescents’ diets. Besides physical education (PE) and school-related sports, the sources for physical activity were limited. Certain video games were specified as facilitators of physical activity by adolescents. Peer pressure was a predominant theme motivating most adolescents’ physical activities as well as food choices. These findings suggest numerous interrelated factors associated with healthy lifestyle in the population of this study.

By involving adolescents in the in-depth open-ended discussion through the focus groups helped reveal their unique attitudes, perceptions, and motivations toward practicing healthy lifestyles. Interventions targeting both behavior change and environmental change are needed.