The goal of this book is to explore the ways in which health behavior develops in childhood in the context of childhood socialization processes. The book reviews the historical and contemporary perspectives utilized in portraying the dynamics of children's physical health a developmental analysis of children's and parents' attitudes and behavior concerning children's health the role of parents schools and the media in influencing children's health attitudes and behavior and how health attitudes behaviors and outcomes are affected by the social ecology of children's rearing environments.

1. Mechanisms and consequences of socializing children to be healthy; 2. Children's health understanding and behavior; 3. Parents' health beliefs: 4. Parents' promotion of children's health; 5. Parents' promotion of children's sexual health; 6. Peers schools and children's health; 7. How television viewing and other media use affects children's health; 8. The social ecology of children's health socialization; 9. Summary and conclusions.