Bridging the Gap Series

collection: series

Studies

3

Variables

8,223

Publications

65

About this Collection

Bridging the Gap was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded nationally recognized research program dedicated to improving the understanding of how policies and environmental factors influence diet, physical activity and obesity among youth, as well as youth tobacco use.

Bridging the Gap (BTG) was created in 1997 to assess the impact of policies, programs and other environmental influences on adolescent alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use and related outcomes. We examine these factors at multiple levels of social organization, including schools, communities and states.

In recognition of the high rates of obesity among children, adolescents and adults, we expanded our efforts in 2003 to include research on the policies, programs and other factors that contribute to physical activity/inactivity, dietary behaviors and obesity. For more information, please visit the project website.

Studies

3 results

Bridging the Gap/National Wellness Policy Study District Wellness Policy-Related Dataset, School Years 2006-2007 through 2013-2014

Beginning with the school year 2006-07, the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required school districts participating in the National School Lunch Program or other child nutrition programs to adopt and implement a wellness policy. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 continued and strengthened this requirement. This study was intended to provide detailed insight into the contents of the congressionally-mandated district wellness policies for school years 2006-07 (first year of the mandate) through 2013-14 (last year of funding-supported data collection). The data file contains coded information about the required wellness policy components, along with other components that are known to contribute to student health and wellness: nutrition education; standards for USDA child nutrition programs and school meals; nutrition standards for competitive and other foods and beverages; physical education; physical activity; staff wellness and modelling; stakeholder involvement; messaging, marketing and promotion; evaluation; and reporting. There is a separate record in the data file for each district, grade level (elementary, middle and high school) and school year combination.
Partially restricted

Bridging the Gap, Elementary School Data (Food and Fitness Survey)

The Food and Fitness Survey is part of the larger Bridging the Gap (BTG) research program, which is a research initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The primary goals of the Food and Fitness survey project were to obtain nationally representative information on school practices, and to obtain information about the association between district-level wellness policies and practices in those schools. Food and Fitness involved annual surveys of school-level respondents at elementary schools from the 2006-07 to the 2012-13 school years. This study contains data from these surveys for public and private elementary schools from the 2006-07 to the 2012-13 school years. Topics of the surveys include school characteristics, school meal options and prices, food advertisements in schools, food practices in classrooms and school functions, meal times during the day, physical education facilities and curriculum, methods of transportation to and from school, school wellness policies, school beverage guidelines, the "Nutritional Guidelines for Competitive Foods", school vending machines, and a la carte as well as school store food and beverage offerings.

Bridging the Gap/National Wellness Policy Study State Wellness Policy-Related Dataset, School Years 2006-2007 through 2013-2014

This data set contains Bridging the Gap (BTG) (school years 2006-2007 through 2012-2013) and National Wellness Policy Study (2013-2014) coded data for all state laws (statutory and administrative) that relate to areas included in the congressionally-mandated school district wellness policies. Topics include nutrition education, school meals, competitive foods, physical activity, and implementation/evaluation, as well as other topics of relevance related to physical education, communications and marketing, staff wellness, and marketing and promotion. Although the states were not required to develop laws on this topic, many do have them and many districts embed these state laws by reference in their district policies. This study was intended to provide detailed insight into the contents of state laws that overlay the congressionally-mandated district wellness policies. There is a separate record in the data file for each state, grade level (elementary, middle and high school) and school year combination.