Background: Childhood obesity has become a public health priority in the U.S. and is linked to a number of significant comorbidities including asthma, sleep apnea and depression. In addition, there is an increase in social isolation and peer victimization. Purpose: the purpose of this study was to explore Professional School Counselors (PSC) perceptions of the role they play in childhood obesity. Specifically, some of the barriers and facilitators that influence PSCs' participation in the fight against childhood obesity were examined. Methods: An electronic survey was completed by 1088 (eight percent response rate) practicing K-12 school counselors nationwide. Results: About two-thirds of the professional school counselors in this study reported that working with students who present with obesity-related issues was part of their role and function. Another 81.3% stated that among three major barriers, lack of time was the most significant factor that prevented PSCs from working with students with obesity related issues. On the other hand, 90% of the PSCs in this study stated that they would be more involved in prevention/treatment of obesity related issues if they received more requests from parents, teachers and students with obesity related issues. Discussion: Childhood obesity continues to plague our nation's children with consequences that extend well beyond the physical health of the student. Its impact is seen and felt in the thousands of classrooms across the U.S. The fight to eradicate childhood obesity can be broadened to include a well-trained and underutilized resource in the schools-professional school counselors. School counselors in this study suggested that given the opportunity and the resources they would become more engaged in the fight against childhood obesity. Translation to Health Education Practice: The findings of this study have implications for medical and health education practitioners in that they have additional allies in a setting where children and adolescents spend most of their day. PSCs are well-trained, uniquely positioned stakeholders who are willing and capable of collaborating with parents, students, medical personnel, and public health officials and workers.
Can you help our school district/corporation increase student achievement and student attendance and decrease suspensions? Too many of our K-12 grade students are coming to school having lived through, and still living through, traumatic challenges at home and in their communities. For many, trauma is visited upon them early and is a frequent daily occurrence. These traumatic student experiences show up in the classroom in a variety of ways, such as aggression toward peers and adults, self-harm, inattentiveness, drug and alcohol use, failing grades, etc. As a result, these non-productive behaviors impede learning for the students and can cause our educators to feel ill-equipped and ineffective as they teach students who exhibit them.
More and more, behaviors of children, youth, and communities are being classified as at-risk in societies locally and globally. Behaviors associated with the at-risk classification are aggression at home, school and in the community, underperformance and underachievement at school, and truancy. Acquiring social emotional competencies (SECs) is an effective way of diminishing and eventually eliminating these behaviors. Acquiring these SECs from as early as kindergarten acts as a protective factor against maladaptive and risky behaviors later on in life. Social emotional education, or learning, is the acquisition of five core skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. As children and youth acquire these skills, they are better able to relate to self, others, and situations. These highly developed SECs can be seen in children’s enhanced academic achievement and performance, decreased incidents of violence, improved school attendance, and empathy.
We live in an increasingly borderless world, in which changes in one part of the globe rapidly influence all other areas. Increased international migration, along with the accompanying movement of information, affects the political, economic and cultural spheres in distant countries. Along with benefits that include increased knowledge and greater educational and cultural opportunities come drawbacks at the systemic level, including adverse impacts to cultural practices and beliefs, family relationships and the social cohesiveness of communities. In particular, changes that occur in high-income countries are experienced in a variety of ways in low and medium income countries. One way is how people view themselves and their places in the world; individuals need to re-equip themselves with skills, particularly intra- and interpersonal skills, to be productive global citizens. Two of the many barriers to doing this in the under-resourced parts of the world are access to resources and shortage of trained individuals to deliver these scant interventions. We introduce the RUMERTIME Process™, a five-step psychosocial problem-solving strategy as a possible multisystemic cognitive behavioral therapy intervention. The results of our pilot case studies, conducted in various formats, settings, and with diverse socio-demographics, demonstrate the success of the task-sharing approach of the RUMERTIME Process™ in training laypeople to deliver these psychosocial skills using our framework.
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