THE EFFECTS OF SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT ON

CHILDREN'S HEALTH

By,Katie McCoy

PURPOSE

Monitor health-risk behavior and attitudes in youth over time to provide background data and to indicate targets for health initiatives

Provide researchers with relevant information in order to understand and explain the development of health

attitudes and behaviors through early adolescence.

ATTACHMENT THEORY

"Humans have a genetic predisposition to exhibit behaviors that keep them in close proximity to important others" (O'Brien, Collins, Credo; 2011).

It is stated that if a student feels attached to a teacher, they will feel safer and perform better in school

SAMPLE

Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 2001-2002 [United States] was accessed through ICPSR.

The study consisted of a three-stage cluster design where the school district was the first stage, the school was the second stage, and the classroom the third stage

548 schools were contacted, 340 chose to participate. Within the schools, 18,620 students were selected and 15,245 participated. (Thompson, et., al)

METHODS

Data collection started in October 2001 and ended in May 2002.

Mode of data collection was on-site questionnaire that required parental consent to be able to participate

Since 1985, surveys have been conducted in four year intervals with 2001-2002 marking the fifth administration

FACTORIAL ANOVA

Assumptions: The observations within each sample must be

randomly sampled and must be independent of each other

The distributions of scores on the dependent variable must be normal in the populations frmo which the data were sampled

The distributions of scores on the dependent variable much have equal variances

VARIABLES

Dependent Variable: R_Q4- Current grade in school. Recoded to

account no-grade as missing Independent variables:

Q61- Liking School Q62C- Feel Safe at school

HYPOTHESES

1. Feeling safe at school will have an effect on current grade in school

2. Liking school will have an effect on current grade in school

3. The interaction between liking school and feeling safe at school will have an effect on current grade in school

analysis

RESULTS

ANALYSIS

After running a factorial ANOVA, feeling safe at school has a significance of .000 which shows it has an effect on current grade placement. Therefore, I can reject my null hypothesis and find support for my first hypothesis

ANALYSIS

After running a factorial ANOVA, liking school has a significance of .000 which shows it has an effect on current grade placement. Therefore, I can reject my null hypothesis and find support for my second hypothesis

ANALYSIS

After running a factorial ANOVA, the interaction between feeling safe at school and liking school had a significance of .004 showing that when they interact, there is significant. Therefore, I can reject the null hypothesis and find support for my third hypothesis

DISCUSSION

Students who like school and feel safe at school are currently placed in the correct grade. This is important because students who do not experience these feelings do not feel connected to the school, therefore it could hold them back from progressing. Those who like school also feel safe while at school which improves chances of passing their current grade and moving on. These variables can then lead to predicting health outcomes of student.

FUTURE RESEARCH AND POLICY SUGGESTIONS

Future research should consider: school neighborhood background more quantitative data a questionnaire that translates the same to

all countries involved (Roberts, et., al) same financial resources to all countries

involved to maintain quality (Roberts, et., al)

QUESTIONS

1. What is the dependent variable?

2. What was the interaction effect between liking school and feeling safe at school?

3. How many schools chose to participate in the study?

REFERENCES

Thompson, Douglas R., Ronaldo Iachan, Mary Overpeck, James G. Ross, and Lori A. Gross. 2006. "Connectedness in the Health Behavior In School-aged Children Study: The Role of Student, School, and School Neighborhood Characteristics." The Journal of School Health 76(7): 379-386.

C Roberts, J Freeman, O Samdal, M E de Looze, S Nic Gabhainn, R Lannotti, and M Rasmussen. 2009. "The Health Behavior in School- aged Children (HBSC) Study: Methodological Developments and Current Tensions." International Journal of Public Health 54(2): 140-150.

Collins, John William. 2011. The Greenwood Dictionary of Education: Second Edition