This unit focuses on the health behaviors, growth and development, physical activity, and nutritional requirements of groups throughout their lives, from childhood to old age. It will focus on normal nutrition, physiology, physical activity, and the growth and development of lifelong groups and vulnerable groups. Human Development and Family Studies teachers strive to understand the dynamic interaction between interpersonal processes, diverse contextual environments, and health-related behaviors and outcomes of children, young people, adults, and families. Farran Tileston, a final year physical education student with a specialization in health and applied fitness and a specialization in gerontology, collaborated with the Silver Streaks project.
Intervention and prevention programs in this area help reduce health disparities and improve the quality of life of children and families. Rick Perry, a professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Sciences who specializes in health and wellness behaviors. The premise of these roundtables is to eliminate noise and the abundance of health and wellness advice to provide clear recommendations for healthy aging in young and older adults. In 2004, when the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Plymouth State University was renamed the Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP), it was more than a name change, it was a reflection of the increasing scope of work that professors and students were doing in the areas of sports training, health education, physical education and adventure education.
Areas of focus include transdisciplinary approaches to the study of pediatric obesity; economic, cultural, and global influences on adolescent health; child care programs, schools, and youth as promoters of well-being; intimate adult relationships and healthy functioning; parent-child relationships, biological and physiological processes; and the role of family routines in the development of eating and physical activity patterns of children. Allyson Brothers, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies who researches the promotion of healthy aging throughout life.
