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The Diagnosis of Sustainable Collaboration (DISC) model (Leurs et al., 2008) specifies five factors (i.e. project management, change management, context, external factors, and stakeholders’ support) which predict whether collaboration becomes strong and stable. The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamics of these factors in a study of multiple partnerships in comprehensive school health promotion (CSHP).

A Dutch two-year DISC-based intervention to support coordinators of five CSHP partnerships in the systematic development of intersectoral collaboration was studied in a pretest-posttest design. To uncover the determinants of sustainable collaboration and implementation of CSHP and to find possible mediators, the authors carried out multi-level path analyses of data on the DISC factors obtained from 90 respondents (response of approached respondents: 57 percent) at pretest and 69 respondents (52 percent) at posttest. Mediation mechanisms were assessed using joint significance tests.

The five DISC factors were important predictors of implementation of CSHP (explained variance: 26 percent) and sustainable collaboration (explained variance: 21 percent). For both outcomes, stakeholders’ support proved to be the most important factor. Regarding sustainable collaboration, mediation analysis showed that stakeholders’ support fully mediated the effects of change management, project management, external factors and context. This indicates that the extent of stakeholders’ support (e.g. appreciation of goals and high levels of commitment) determines whether collaboration becomes sustainable. The authors also found that the extent of stakeholders’ support in turn depends upon a well-functioning project management structure, the employment of change management principles (e.g. creation of a common vision and employment of appropriate change strategies), a favorable organizational context (e.g. positive experience with previous collaboration) and external context (e.g. positive attitudes of financing bodies and supporting health and educational policies). For the actual implementation of CSHP, partial mediation by the support factor was found. There was a direct positive effect of change management indicating that organizational knowledge is also necessary to implement CSHP, and a direct negative effect of project management, probably pointing to the negative effects of too much negotiation in the collaboration.

A design lacking a control group, a small sample and a relatively early assessment after implementation support stopped limit the generalizability of the results.

Strategies targeting the DISC factors can enhance stakeholders’ support and thereby promote sustainable intersectoral collaboration and the implementation of CSHP.

The DISC model provides a fruitful conceptual framework for the study of predictors and processes in public health partnerships. The importance of stakeholders’ support and other factors in the model are demonstrated.

The purpose of this paper is to gain first insight into factors which might be associated with exposure to internet‐delivered interventions.

Semi‐structured focus group interviews were conducted with five groups of Dutch adolescents (n=54), aged 12‐17 years. Several aspects of exposure: a first visit; staying long enough actually to use and process the information; and revisiting the intervention, were explored.

Several factors that are likely to improve exposure to internet‐delivered interventions were identified, such as the use of “word of mouth” marketing, comparison of own behaviour with friends and the use of reminders.

Focus group interviews are only a first step in the generation of ideas and opinions. A next step would be to conduct observational, experimental and longitudinal studies to test if and how these factors improve exposure to internet‐delivered interventions.

This paper is a useful source for those developing internet‐delivered interventions who want to improve exposure rates to their interventions.

The results of this exploration serve as an important first step to gain more insight into factors that improve exposure to internet‐delivered interventions.

New food technologies are of increasing importance but not a lot of research into how people react to these technologies has been conducted. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how implicit measurements in addition to explicit measurements give insight into how well an attitude towards a food concept, in relation to its familiarity, is predictive for behaviour.

An implicit measurement (EAST) and an explicit questionnaire were used to investigate people's attitudes and attitude strength towards two food technologies (genetic modification and organic production). Correlations between the two measurements were calculated to determine whether familiar food technologies are more predictive for behaviour than relatively unfamiliar food technologies.

Implicit measurements showed negative associations with genetic modification. Explicit measurements showed neutral associations with genetic modification. In contrast, implicit and explicit measurements showed positive associations with organic production. When a food technology is well known (e.g. organic production), significant correlations between the two measurements were present suggesting that attitudes were predictive for behaviour. In contrast, when a food technology is not well known (e.g. genetic modification), significant correlations were not present suggesting that attitudes were not predictive for behaviour.

This is the first study to examine the relation between intuitive and explicit reactions in relation with the novelty of food technologies.

The purpose of this research is to explore individual and social factors that are associated with children's F&V (fruit and vegetable) intake in order to develop a school‐based intervention to increase their F&V consumption.

Group interviews were conducted with ten groups of Dutch children (n=104), aged 4‐12 years, and two groups of parents (n=28). Additionally, a total of ten parents participated in an interview by telephone. Opinions about the actual F&V consumption, awareness of consumption patterns, attitudes towards F&V, promotion of F&V consumption by parents and F&V intake at school were explored. Transcripts were analysed using Nvivo 2.0.

Several factors that are likely to increase F&V consumption of the participants were identified, such as preferences, modeling of F&V consumption by teachers and parents and availability of F&V in ready‐to‐eat form at home and school. Although both children and parents favoured activities to promote F&V at school, most parents were not willing to participate in these activities.

The present study obtains information from a broad perspective, and not from a representative sample.

This article is a useful source for health promotion planners that are developing food‐related interventions for children.

Information on factors that influence children's F&V consumption is usually acquired through parents. It is questionable whether parents are aware of the factors that influence their children's food choice. Therefore this study combined information gathered among parents with information gathered directly among children.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of a school health promotion (SHP) advisor in the implementation of the six steps of the Dutch “Schoolbeat” approach, aimed at establishing health promotion policies and activities in secondary schools.

In total, 80 school board members, and 18 prevention coordinators of 18 schools in the Southern Limburg region in The Netherlands completed a written questionnaire on the implementation of the six steps of the Schoolbeat approach, and on their satisfaction with the practical assistance offered by the SHP advisor in implementing the steps, as well as the advisor's organizational competencies.

Only one school implemented the Schoolbeat approach completely, and as intended. Schools were generally satisfied with the practical assistance in the process of implementing the Schoolbeat steps and with the organizational competencies of the SHP advisor. Schools which had partly implemented the Schoolbeat steps were more satisfied with the SHP advisor's practical assistance than schools who had not done so at all.

This study showed that the SHP advisor could make a positive contribution to health promotion in schools. Since this role demands new skills, the competencies of health promotion professionals must be further developed.

Structural school health promotion programs and policies are becoming increasingly important in many countries, and not enough is known about the role of health promotion agencies in structuring school health promotion. This paper describes the positive impact of the SHP advisor.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into whether GM‐labelling leads to different processing behaviour of food stimuli compared to when products are not labelled.

A task was designed to investigate people's categorization behaviour as a function of information provided. In two studies each participant was randomly allocated to either the experimental “GM‐labelled condition”, or the control “non‐labelled condition”.

Different processing strategies and different characteristics are used to judge products that are labelled as genetically modified or not. GM labelling of foods is interpreted to induce analytical processing of information and therefore the products are classified relatively more often on the basis of verifiable categorization criteria compared to when they were not labelled as GM. When products are not labelled as GM, information is more likely to be automatically processed and non‐verifiable categorization criteria are used.

This is the first study to examine the processes that labelling as GM brings about.