Since I have taught since 1984 and appear not to have totally lost my mind, young teachers occasionally ask for advice about classroom management. I gladly give it, but always include this caveat.

Just because something has worked for me for years doesn’t mean it will work for you — or me! — tomorrow or the day after that.

Classroom management is akin financial investing in that sense. Past performance does not insure future success.

Explaining the subtleties of the English language is tough; creating an environment where teenagers care about the subtleties and want to master them is tougher. In other words, reaching teenagers (and preteens, too) is the true art to teaching them about anything — something you certainly know if you are or were a parent.

Past and present parents also know that teens and preteens need to be healthy and happy at the start of a school year to get the most out of it. Since it’s that time of year, here’s the plan I propose: I’ll do the research and the writing; you do the reading and the reaching.

May our combined efforts lead to teens and preteens being more aware of the inevitable link between happiness, health, and good school results and more resolute to achieve all three.

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The research is two years old and included only European preteens, but the findings have to be true for teenagers as well and other continents — even though the study failed in one sense. The researchers behind the Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants Study set out to understand the factors that lead to childhood obesity.

That didn’t really happen.

But later when researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden reviewed the data to look for links between psychological well-being and body weight in children, they uncovered an interesting one. The kids who ate a healthier diet had much better mental health.

For the purpose of the study, better mental health meant fewer emotional problems, better relationships with other children, and higher self-esteem.

Yet what I find even more noteworthy from the study published in BMC Research Notes and generated from the questioning of parents of nearly 8,000 preteens is that the link between a healthier diet and better mental health had nothing — absolutely nothing — to do with body weight or wealth. In other words, obese kids and poor kids were just as likely to have better mental health as long as they were eating right.

A study like this should help those parents and grandparents who have trouble setting limits on the amount and type of food a child is allowed to eat.

Sometimes that trouble stems from the awareness of a prejudice that I fear I also have. I call it being a “body snob.” As a way to keep this prejudice in check, I don’t offer unsolicited weight-loss advice, even to family and friends.

In other instances, that trouble comes from the guilt of not being financially able to give your child what others have. You can’t say “yes” to the request for the latest video game console, for instance, so you don’t want to say “no” to the request for a double bacon cheeseburger and a large serving of fries.

But now you can tell that teen or preteen — as well as yourself — that research clearly shows that to achieve good things you must eat good things, and that’s why certain food restrictions are needed.

One note about this study: The original data was not observed by researchers but reported by parents; still, you should have no reservations about establishing clear dietary guidelines for teens or preteens. But a study performed by researchers from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor and recently published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior suggests that how you verbalize those guidelines is important.

The study began by videotaping 237 mothers or primary caregivers with their children, aged 4–8, alone in a room where they were presented with food choices. Some of the children were obese, some were not, but all came from low-income homes. (Low-income homes have the highest rate of childhood obesity.)

Lead researcher Dr. Megan Pesch told Medical News Today that the videotaping showed the adults to be “attentive and actively trying to get their children to eat less junk food,” but that the words they used were different depending on the children’s body shape.

The caregivers of obese children were 90 percent more likely to use direct language in an attempt to sway behavior. They said things like, “Only eat one” or “Don’t eat both of those!”

The caregivers of the children of a healthy weight, however, tended to speak indirectly, making observations more often than passing judgment. They said things like, “That’s too much” or “You haven’t had dinner.”

The difference surprised the researchers since behaviorists generally believe that direct language works best with children.