Nicole Zarrett

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of South Carolina

Background This study demonstrates how formative process evaluation was used to assess implementation and improve dose and fidelity in the Together Everyone Achieves More Physical Activity (TEAM-PA) randomized controlled trial. TEAM-PA uses a randomized group cohort design to evaluate the efficacy of a group-based intervention for increasing physic...

Objetivo: Los hombres Negros informan que perciben una baja calidad de vida relacionada con la salud (HRQoL, por sus siglas en inglés), un indicador multidimensional de la salud asociada con la mortalidad prematura. A pesar de esta percepción de baja HRQoL entre los hombres Negros, no se ha diseñado ningún esfuerzo conocido para promover la HRQoL e...

Background While successful health promotion efforts among Black men have been implemented at barbershops, the focus has largely been on outcomes as opposed to the processes by which outcomes are produced. An understanding of processes can be leveraged in the design and implementation of future efforts to improve the health of Black men. Purpose T...

Objectives Previous research has shown the capacity for mindfulness to be strongly associated with psychological well-being, that components of mindfulness show significant growth through young adulthood, and that this developing, malleable capacity is vital as individuals learn to deal appropriately with negative thoughts and unwelcome emotions. S...

This new report examines the relationship between girls’ sport participation and mental health. The data provides strong evidence that in high quality sport settings, playing sports can help lower depression and anxiety and enhance peer relationships and meaning and purpose. The study helps to identify the aspects of the sport setting that drive th...

Objective Guided by Self-Determination Theory, this study aimed to examine the potential mediating effects of autonomous and controlled motivations on physical activity (PA) experiences of afterschool program (ASP) staff with occupational stress. Method A total of 58 ASP staff provided full data. Staff occupational stress and self-determination mo...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of intrinsic motivation, social affiliation orientations and reciprocal social support for physical activity (PA) on underserved youths' afterschool period moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) changing trajectories across the 16-week Connect through PLAY intervention, a social-motivational climate...

Background: The Together Everyone Achieves More Physical Activity (TEAM-PA) trial is a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a group-based intervention for increasing physical activity (PA) among insufficiently active African American women. Design: The TEAM-PA trial uses a group cohort design, is implemented at community sites, an...

Despite the well-recognized benefits of physical activity (PA), 25% of U.S. adults do not accrue enough daily PA to protect their health and the prevalence of adult physical inactivity continues to grow (CDC, 2022). Driven by numerous barriers, adult daily moderate-to vigorous (MV)PA is particularly low in under-resourced communities (CDC, 2020). T...

Only 24% of children 6-17 years of age in the U.S. participate in the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity (PA) to meet the need for health and wellbeing development. Afterschool programs (ASPs) have been identified as a critical setting for the promotion of PA (Veldman et al., 2020) and it has been suggested that focusing on the socia...

Afterschool Programs (ASPs) within underresourced communities face great challenges such as insufficient resources, high rates of staff burnout, lack of professional development training, all of which are associated with greater staff occupational stress (Font, 2012; Weaver et al., 2015). As a key mental health issue, stress can impair staff physic...

Background/Purpose: Afterschool programs are considered highly feasible sites for physical activity (PA) promotion and commonly offer various PA programs and opportunities that can be used to supplement PA time for underserved adolescents (Zarett et al., 2021). Guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the purpose of this study was to determine ch...

While research in specific academic disciplines has individually advanced knowledge and practice for promoting multiple aspects of health and well-being in children and adolescents, still missing is an understanding of the interconnectedness of many critical aspects of development and how to intentionally weave these factors to advance a more holis...

The Healing Power of Sport: COVID-19 and Girls’ Participation, Health, and Achievement is one of the first studies to examine ways in which sports participation among girls was impacted during the pandemic and how sport served as a protective factor against some of COVID-19’s negative impacts on behavior, mental health, and academic achievement. Th...

Guided by the ecological model of civic development, this study examined the extent to which the growth in children’s self-control during middle childhood predicted their civic engagement at age 26 directly and indirectly via their prosociality at age 15. We used data from 1,042 children (50% female, 77% White) in the NICHD Study of Early Child Car...

Background: The integration of behavioral health and primary care is a best practice to improve patient outcomes and achieve health equity. However, the process of integrating is complex, requiring organizational change and sometimes a complete system overhaul. Implementation science offers useful ideas for helping healthcare organizations to imple...

Background Guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the purpose of this study was to determine changes in the 16-week moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) trajectory of underserved adolescents who participated in the Connect through PLAY intervention and the effects of changes in participating adolescents’ intrinsic and autonomous extrin...

Physical activity (PA) plays an integral role in reducing risk for the leading causes of death and has also been shown to buffer stress.Based on the stress-buffering hypothesis, the present study examined whether protective factors (self-efficacy and informal social control) buffered the effects of perceived stress on PA over time. Secondary data a...

We provide a transactional model of health for understanding the early risk of obesity in youth. This model argues that positive health is construed through the choices and actions that youth take within the range of resources and constraints of their biological and contextual situations across time. Social, cognitive, affective, and behavioral reg...

Objective: Motivation is a barrier to physical activity (PA) among African American (AA) women, but past studies have implemented a “one-size-fits-all” approach and have not addressed differences in autonomous motivation. This pilot randomized controlled trial assessed the preliminary efficacy of “Developing Real Incentives and Volition for Exercis...

In this study, we identified (1) subgroups of youth during middle childhood who displayed distinct profiles of social emotional learning (SEL) skills including cooperation, prosocial behaviors, work habits, emotion regulation, and self-control; and (2) how these profiles predict longitudinal academic and social functioning during early adolescence....

Background The Connect through Positive Leisure Activities for Youth (Connect through PLAY) trial is a prospective, randomized controlled trial implemented within pre-existing afterschool programs (ASPs) comparing a staff-based social development physical activity (PA) program to a health curriculum active control. The efficacy trial aims to improv...

Background African American (AA) women experience disproportionate levels of chronic disease, which is theorized to be driven by greater exposure to acute and chronic stress. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has further exacerbated existing health disparities among AA communities. Understanding how AA women have experienced and responded to stre...

This study evaluated the associations between parenting factors and adolescent weight related outcomes in African American adolescents with overweight and obesity. Baseline heights and weights were collected from 241 African American adolescents (11–16 years) with overweight and obesity. Self-reported adolescent perceptions of caregiver’s parenting...

Moral disengagement is a social cognition people use to engage in wrongdoings even when they know it is wrong. However, little is known about the antecedents that predict moral disengagement. The current study focuses on the development of self-control and cooperation during middle childhood as two antecedents of moral disengagement among 1,103 chi...

The purpose of this study was to conduct in-depth individual interviews with 30 African American adolescents with overweight and obesity and their families (caregiver/adolescent dyads) to gain a better understanding of how to integrate stress and coping essential elements into an existing family-based health promotion program for weight loss. Inter...

This study examined the effects of parental feeding practices and adolescent emotional eating (EE) on dietary outcomes among overweight African American adolescents. Based on Family Systems Theory, it was hypothesized that parental feeding practices, such as parental monitoring and responsibility, would buffer the effects of EE on poor dietary qual...

Organized activities have been championed as an important youth setting to nurture character development through childhood and adolescence, but scholars have yet to document the state of research on activities and youth character. Using guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Statement (PRISMA, Moher e...

Teen Sport in America, Part II: Her Participation Matters provides new data that identifies the specific health, academic, and psychological benefits that teen girls obtain on a sport-by-sport basis. This new report is an extension of the WSF’s original 2018 Teen Sport in America: Why Participation Matters that provides evidence of the important ro...

Teacher stress and burnout contribute to attrition and stress-related health concerns. Despite some positive effects, previous mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have failed to incorporate key elements of methodological rigor and have included large dosages despite research suggesting that such dosages are iatrogenic. The current study demonstra...

Objective This study set out to examine the role of parenting practices in protecting or exacerbating the negative effects of parent and adolescent stress on adolescent body mass index (BMI) over time. Separate longitudinal models were conducted to evaluate how parenting practices interacted with parental perceived stress and adolescent perceived s...

The current study is a randomized controlled trial to test a novel 10-week climate-based intervention within pre-existing afterschool programs, designed to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in underserved (low-income, minority status) middle school youth by addressing youth social developmental needs. Participants (n = 167; 56%...

Developmental theories and previous research have emphasized the significance of cooperation and self-control in middle childhood. The present study extends previous research by examining (a) the growth of cooperation and self-control as well as the relations between them in middle childhood (third to sixth grade) and (b) the extent to which mother...

Children's work habits at school include being a hard worker, turning in work on time, following classroom rules, and putting forward one's best effort. Models on youth character, noncognitive skills, and social-emotional learning suggest that self-management skills like work habits are critical for individuals' subsequent academic success. Using d...

Background. The purpose of the current article is to demonstrate how formative process evaluation was used in a pilot study to optimize the design and implementation of two motivationally targeted community-based physical activity (PA) interventions for inactive African American women. Method. Fifteen African American women (M age: 41.6 years) were...

To address gaps in the youth participation and adolescent physical activity (PA) promotion literature, we examined the feasibility of youth participatory action research (YPAR) in (a) general aftercare (YPAR only) and (b) with a physical activity intervention, (YPAR + PA) to reach marginalized youth and impact individual empowerment and second‐orde...

Most interventions do not reach full implementation in real-world settings. Due to this issue, formative process evaluation during pilot programs can be especially useful to understand implementation strengths and areas for improvement so that full implementation can be reached in future iterations. This study demonstrated how a formative process e...

Founded by Billie Jean King in 1974, the Women's Sports Foundation is committed to ensuring that all girls and women have equal access to sports and physical activity and the tremendous lifelong benefits they provide. While much progress has been made, there remain glaring disparities in sport participation across gender, race/ethnicity, geography,...

Introduction Early adolescence is a developmental period in which peer victimization, bullying, relational aggression, and social exclusion are particularly prominent. As these behaviors have long‐term implications for children, in this study, we investigated early variations of prosocial behaviors as one of the critical precedents that shape youth...

Inconsistencies exist regarding the relation between physical activity (PA) and internalizing symptomology in early adolescence, and there is need for investigation of potential moderators that may account for these discrepancies. The current study utilized a Self-Determination Theory Framework to investigate the main effects of five key motivation...

Youth with Developmental Disabilities (DD) are less active and more sedentary than their typically developing peers.The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in time spent sedentary and in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in youth with DD during Physical Education (PE) versus the Fitness Fun zone (FFZ) ®. Twenty-three ch...

Youth with Developmental Disabilities (DD) are less active and more sedentary than their typically developing peers.The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in time spent sedentary and in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in youth with DD during Physical Education (PE) versus the Fitness Fun zone (FFZ) ®. Twenty-three ch...

Youth with Developmental Disabilities (DD) are less active and more sedentary than their typically developing peers.The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in time spent sedentary and in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in youth with DD during Physical Education (PE) versus the Fitness Fun zone (FFZ) ®. Twenty-three ch...

In partnership with Nike’s Social & Community Impact division, Coaching through a Gender Lens examines girls’ own personal experiences in sport and the degree to which specific coaching practices/experiences impact their participation, motivation, and retention. The findings also highlight the major cultural, environmental, and policy-based barrier...

The Women’s Sports Foundation commissioned the Teen Sport in America: Why Participation Matters report to better understand the impact of sports participation on teen health, well-being and academic achievement. We sought to understand how each sport impacts teen well-being, and whether the number of sports in which a teen participates influences t...

The Society of Behavioral Medicine recommends adoption of policies at the district, state, and federal levels that minimize weight gain among youth over the summertime, particularly among low-income, minority school-age youth who appear to be at greater risk. Policies that facilitate (1) partnerships between school districts and community organizat...

Background: We examined the effectiveness of Peaceful Playgrounds™ (P2) to decrease antisocial behaviors (ASB) while increasing physical activity (PA) and prosocial behaviors (PSB) in elementary school children. Methods: A longitudinal, cluster-randomized design was employed in 4 elementary school playgrounds where students (third to fifth) from...

The Society of Behavioral Medicine recommends school officials, community leaders, and legislators adopt policies that enhance youth summer programming to minimize the amount of weight children gain over the summer. Policies should encourage school-community partnerships, family outreach, joint use of facilities, and adherence to healthy eating and...

Afterschool programs (ASPs) have become increasingly recognized as a key context to support youth daily physical activity (PA) accrual. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a framework, this study examined staff perspectives on the strengths and barriers within under-resourced ASPs for establishing a social-motivational climate for encouraging...

Although extracurricular participation has been linked to positive youth outcomes in the general population, no research to date has examined benefits for youth diagnosed with mental health challenges. Youth in systems of care (SOCs) receive a variety of services and supports that could help them capitalize on this potential for positive developmen...

The objective of this study is to examine how participation in different types of competitive sports (based on level of contact) during high school is associated with substance use 1 to 4 years after the 12th grade. The analysis uses nationally representative samples of 12th graders from the Monitoring the Future Study, who were followed 1 to 4 yea...

Levels of physical activity (PA) among youth with developmental disabilities (DD) fall below normative levels and national recommendations, and rates of obesity among youth with DD exceed normative levels. Along with the health benefits of PA (reduced risk of obesity, related disease), additional benefits include reduced symptoms (sx) and improved...

After-school programs (ASPs) have become increasingly recognized as a key context to support youth daily physical activity (PA) accrual. The purpose of the present study was to assess the physical and social-motivational climate characteristics of ASPs associated with youth PA, and variations in contextual correlates of PA by youth sex. Systematic...

Research demonstrates substantial health benefits of physical activity (PA), especially moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Several studies suggest that MVPA may be especially beneficial to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) including improved physiological, cognitive, psychological and behavioral functioning. However, few PA-...

This study examined the longitudinal effects of out-of-school time (OST) activities on youth weight-status through mid-to-late adolescence. First, using pattern-centered methods, we identified the prominent ways in which youth allocate their OST across 12 common active and sedentary activities available to them. Second, through multi-level modeling...

Background Youth risk of obesity is high during the summer months. Summer day camps can be ideal settings for preventing obesity through reducing youth summer sedentary behaviors. However, with limited research on camp settings, the mechanisms by which these programs promote children’s physical activity (PA) remains largely unknown. The current stu...

The current review conducted a systematic assessment of culturally sensitive risk prevention programs for African American adolescents. Prevention programs meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were evaluated across several domains: (1) theoretical orientation and foundation; (2) methodological rigor; (3) level of cultural integration; (4) p...

Background: Previous research has shown that social contextual factors are important in understanding physical activity (PA) behavior, although little is known about how these factors may relate to PA, especially in underserved adolescents (low income, minorities). This study examined how motivation may differentially mediate the relationship of t...

The field of health psychology may offer unique theoretical and practical approaches for promoting physically active lifestyle changes. This chapter addresses relevant theoretical mediating and moderating factors ranging from cognitive, emotional, and physical to social and environmental influences on improving physical activity (PA) across the lif...

The risk for youth obesity is higher during the summer than any other time of year. Summer day camps can be ideal settings for preventing obesity through reducing youth summer sedentary behaviors. However, little-to-no research has examined the role of camps for promoting youth physical activity (PA) and other healthy behaviors. This study begins t...

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescence has more than tripled in the last three decades (Hedley et al., 2004; Ogden, Flegal, Carroll, & Johnson, 2002; Troiano & Flegal, 1998). The sharp rise in overweight and obesity rates among youth has prompted major public health concerns in recent years (Olshansky et al., 2005)....

...overview of the person-oriented approach... L. A. Jason & D. S. Glenwick (Eds.)

Understanding what young people are doing and who they are doing it with is an important anchor for understanding how things have changed for them over time. There is a growing literature on time use, and many countries now have regular Time Use Surveys. The literature suggests some ways in which it might matter for positive youth development. This...

Introduction Asking how young people's use of time in the UK has changed over recent decades is an important, but deceptively simple, question. How we use our time is both a measurement of direct change, and is also an index of more subtle, underlying shifts in social values and preoccupations, so it is crucial to our task of looking at social chan...

Minimal effects found across youth physical activity (PA) interventions, and increased attention to circumstances that impede adequate delivery of program components, has highlighted the importance of learning from staff what is needed to foster staff comprehension and engagement for developing, adopting, and successfully implementing PA-based yout...

The activities in which youth engage during their out-of-school time (OST) can have major implications for the positive development of youth across adolescence. Research indicates that youth will derive the greatest benefits from their OST by participating in organized OST activities. This article addresses variations in youth engagement in OST act...

This study reports the results of the "Active by Choice Today" (ACT) trial for increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in low-income and minority adolescents. The ACT program was a randomized controlled school-based trial testing the efficacy of a motivational plus behavioral skills intervention on increasing MVPA in underserved ad...

The purpose of our chapter is to highlight central issues and emerging areas of research conducted over the past three decades that has been concerned with adolescents ’ (ages 12 – 18) out-of-school activities and development. Elucidating those areas where research is especially rich or exemplary, where limited empirical knowledge exists, and where...

The authors used data from Grades 5 through 7 of the longitudinal 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development to assess relations among sports participation, other out-of-school-time (OST) activities, and indicators of youth development. They used a mixture of variable- and pattern-centered analyses aimed at disentangling different features of particip...

This longitudinal study examines how extracurricular activity involvement contributes to "educational resilience"-the unexpected educational attainments of adolescents who are otherwise vulnerable to curtailed school success due to personal- and social-level risks. Educationally vulnerable youth characterized by significant risks and an absence of...

Among today’s youth, the most ubiquitous OST activity is sports. However, many of these youth are also participating in at least one other OST activity along with their participation in sports. Using longitudinal data from 1,622 youth (56.8% female) from the first three waves (Grades 5, 6, and 7) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD)...

The longitudinal development of the intraindividual coupling between academic achievement, interest, and self-concept of ability (SCA) was analyzed in a sample of approximately 1,000 children between grades 1 and 12 (ages 6-17). Across all calculated indexes, the average level of coupling was positive. Individuals generally felt competent and inter...

Ego integrity, Erik Erikson’s (1963) concept of psychological maturity in later life and the pinnacle of eight stages, has been one of the least studied of all his stage constructs. This paper explores the meaning of ego integrity (as assessed by Ryff and Heincke, 1983) in the lives of a sample of older women by examining its predictors and concomi...

This chapter examines the factors influencing adolescents' IT career aspirations. It highlights three major points concerning the differences found for IT occupational choices by gender and race: early psychological, social, and academic experiences help shape/guide youths' later career decisions; there appear to be some real-world limitations that...

Computing remains a heavily male-dominated field even after twenty-five years of extensive efforts to promote female participation. The contributors to Women and Information Technology look at reasons for the persistent gender imbalance in computing and explore some strategies intended to reverse the downward trend. The studies included are rigorou...

Late adolescence and the period following, often referred to as emerging adulthood, have been noted as particularly important for setting the stage for continued development through the life span as individuals begin to make choices and engage in a variety of activities that are influential for the rest of their lives. Demographic, sociocultural, a...

In this chapter we embed considerations of mental health--particularly in terms of overall well-being, substance use, antisocial behavior, and depressive affect--within the experience of emerging adulthood. As a starting point, we offer the following general observations about the course of selected indices of mental health and maladaptation during...

Ego integrity, Erik Erikson's (E. H. Erikson, 1963) concept of psychological maturity in later life and the pinnacle of 8 stages, has been one of the least studied of all his stage constructs. This paper explores the meaning of ego integrity (as assessed by C. D. Ryff & S. G. Heincke, 1983) in the lives of a sample of older women, by examining the...

This chapter explores the important social-psychological factors along individuals' developmental pathways that influence youths' computer-related occupational decisions. Findings suggest that these factors differentially influence information technology pursuits dependent on youths' race and gender.

In keeping with organismic principles and systems theory, this dissertation approaches the issue of youth activity participation from a developmental holistic interactionistic perspective that presupposes that individual lives are supported by a network of influences. By using a carefully balanced set of pattern- and variable-centered approaches to...

BACKGROUND The Positive Youth Development approach is supported by a growing body of research on families, schools, and neighborhoods as a cutting-edge approach for enhancing adolescent development, and for helping youth reach their full potential. This approach recognizes that all adolescents have strengths and that children and youth will develop...