The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is an international research project in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) for over 35 years. HBSC is the largest study on child and adolescent health and one of the most important sources of data for the WHO’s international comparative health monitoring. Every four years, data on the health and health behaviour of students aged 11, 13 and 15, as well as the social contexts and conditions for growing up healthy, are collected. A total of 50 countries belong to the HBSC network, with 45 countries taking part in the 2017/18 survey. Germany has contributed to the HBSC surveys since 1993/94. For the most recent 2017/18 cycle, students at 146 schools in Germany were interviewed (response rate of schools: 15.6%). A net sample of n = 4,347 girls and boys was achieved for Germany (response rate: 52.7%). Participation was voluntary and the survey was conducted in German school years five, seven and nine (corresponding to ages 11, 13 and 15). A weighting procedure was applied to allow for representative findings on the health of children and adolescents in Germany. HBSC offers a valuable contribution to health monitoring and provides numerous starting points to identify needs, risk groups and fields of action to initiate targeted and actual needs-based measures of prevention and health promotion in the school setting.
IntroductionChildhood and adolescence are crucial life stages for health trajectories and the development of health inequalities in later life. The relevance of schools for health and well-being of children and adolescents has long been recognised, and there is some research regarding the association of contextual and compositional characteristics of schools and classes with health, health behaviour and well-being in this population. Little is known about the role of meso-level characteristics in relation to health inequalities. The aim of this scoping review is to retrieve and synthesise evidence about the mediating or moderating role of compositional or contextual characteristics of schools for the association between students’ socioeconomic position and health in primary and secondary education.Methods and analysisWe will conduct a systematic search of electronic databases in PubMed/Medline, Web of Science and Education Resources Information Center. Studies must meet the following inclusion criteria: (1) The population must be students attending primary or secondary schools in developed economies. (2) The outcomes must include at least one indicator for individual health, health behaviour or well-being. (3) The study must include at least one contextual or compositional characteristic of the school context and one individual determinant of socioeconomic position. (4) The study must also examine the mediating or moderating role of the contextual or compositional characteristic of the school context for the associations between socioeconomic position and health, health behaviour or well-being. (5) The study must be published since 1 January 2000 in English or German language. We will provide a narrative synthesis of findings.Ethics and disseminationWe will not collect primary data and only include secondary data derived from previously published studies. Therefore, ethical approval is not required. We intend to publish our findings in an international peer-reviewed journal and to present them at national and international conferences.
ObjectivesTo synthesise the evidence on the role of compositional or contextual characteristics of schools in the association between students' socioeconomic position and their health in primary and secondary education in developed economies.DesignScoping review. We included studies examining the role of at least one school or class characteristic on students’ health inequalities and was published since 1 January 2000, in English or German. We searched PubMed/Medline, Web of Science and Education Resources Information Center. We provided a narrative synthesis and an overview of findings. School characteristics were grouped into five broad categories: school composition, school climate, school policies and organisation, food environment and facilities.ResultsOf 8520 records identified, 26 studies were included. Twelve studies found a moderating and 3 a mediating effect. The strongest evidence came from studies examining the moderating effect of school composition, that is, the negative impact of a low individual socioeconomic position on mental health and well-being was aggravated by a low average socioeconomic position of schools. Evidence concerning the role of school climate, school stratification (eg, performance base tracking) and sponsorship, food environment and sport facilities and equipment was generally weak or very weak and mostly based on singular findings. Overall, favourable meso-level characteristics mitigated the negative impact of low individual socioeconomic position on health outcomes.ConclusionsSchool characteristics affect health inequalities in children and adolescents to some degree, but future research is necessary to strengthen the existing evidence and address under-represented aspects in school characteristics and health outcomes.
Bullying is a specific form of violence that can potentially lead to numerous and long-term negative health implications. Despite consistent coverage in the media, particularly on cyberbullying, as of yet there are only few representative findings on the frequency of (cyber)bullying in Germany. This article analyses how widespread bullying and cyberbullying were at schools in Germany in 2018, what differences exist between girls and boys, age groups and various types of schools, and changes in bullying trends between 2002 and 2018. Our findings are based on an analysis of the data provided by the 2017/18 cycle (N=4,347 students, 53.0% female) and previous cycles of the German Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. In the 2018 cycle, boys reported having bullied other children more frequently than girls, but were bullied just as often. 15-year-olds reported having bullied other children more frequently than 11- to- 13-year-olds but reported being bullied less frequently. Students at grammar schools (Gymnasium) least frequently reported any involvement in bullying. Only few children and adolescents reported cases of cyberbullying. Compared to all previous survey years, 2018 saw the lowest number of children that reported having bullied others. However, reports of having been bullied have remained almost stable. The findings highlight the need for evidence-based prevention and intervention anti-bullying programmes and measures across all types of general education schools and age groups.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.