workplace, places of worship, and schools. Housing, public transportation, law enforcement, and the presence or absence of violence in the community are among other components of the social environment. The social environment has a profound effect on individual health, as well as on the health of the larger community, and is unique because of cultural customs; language; and personal, religious, or spiritual beliefs. At the same time, individuals and their behaviors contribute to the quality of the social environment (definition from Healthy People 2010).
Social Marketing: Using the same marketing principles that are used to sell products to consumers to “sell” ideas, attitudes, and behaviors. Social marketing is often used to change health behaviors.
Stranger Danger: The perceived danger to children presented by strangers. The phrase is intended to sum up the various concerns associated with the threat presented by unknown adults.
Traffic Calming: Measures that attempt to slow traffic speeds and increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic through physical devices designed to be self-enforcing. These include speed humps and bumps, raised intersections, road narrowing, bends and deviations in a road, medians, central islands, and traffic circles.
VERB Campaign: A national, multicultural, social marketing campaign to increase and maintain physical activity among tweens. It was coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ran from 2002 to 2006.