Building school-based social capital through ‘We Act - Together for Health’ – a quasi-experimental study

Abstract

BackgroundSocial capital has been found to be positively associated with various health and well-being outcomes amongst children. Less is known about how social capital may be generated and specifically in relation to children in the school setting. Drawing on the social cohesion approach and the democratic health educational methodology IVAC (Investigation – Vision – Action – Change) the aim of this study was to examine the effect of the Health Promoting School intervention ‘We Act – Together for Health’ on children’s cognitive social capital.MethodA quasi-experimental controlled pre- and post-intervention study design was conducted with 548 participants (mean age 11.7 years). Cognitive social capital was measured as: horizontal social capital (trust and support in pupils); vertical social capital (trust and support in teachers); and a sense of belonging in the school using questions derived from the Health Behaviour in School Children study. A series of multilevel ordinal logistic regression analyses was performed for each outcome to estimate the effect of the intervention.ResultThe analyses showed no overall significant effect from the intervention on horizontal social capital or vertical social capital at the six-month follow-up. A negative effect was found on the sense of belonging in the school. Gender and grade appeared to be important for horizontal social capital, while grade was important for sense of belonging in the school. The results are discussed in relation to We Act’s implementation process, our conceptual framework and methodological issues and can be used to direct future research in the field.ConclusionThe study finds that child participation in health education can affect the children’s sense of belonging in the school, though without sufficient management support, this may have a negative effect. With low implementation fidelity regarding the Action and Change dimension of the intervention at both the school and class level, and with measurement issues regarding the concept of social capital, more research is needed to establish a firm conclusion on the importance of the children’s active participation as a source for cognitive social capital creation in the school setting.Trial registration https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN85203017 Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-6026-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Implementing health-promoting schools to prevent obesity

“…The nine ( n = 9) interventions included in the analysis were implemented in seven different countries, with three in the UK (Kipping et al , 2014; Adab et al , 2018; Orme et al , 2013). Five interventions took place in primary schools and focused on only one or two school grades (Eather et al , 2013; Stjernqvist et al , 2018; Kipping et al , 2014; Adab et al , 2018, De Villiers et al , 2015). One intervention was implemented with Grade 10 students at a secondary school (Higgins, 2013).…”

“…In reviewing obesity risk factors addressed, one intervention focused on nutrition (Orme et al , 2013), one focused on PA (Eather et al , 2013), with the remainder focusing on both PA and nutrition (Stjernqvist et al , 2018; De Villiers et al , 2015; Kipping et al , 2014; Adab et al , 2018; Bogart et al , 2018; Phaitrakoon et al , 2014; Higgins, 2013). Of the seven interventions that addressed PA and nutrition, one also addressed screen time (Higgins, 2013) and one well-being and social capital (Stjernqvist et al , 2018).…”

“…The Students for Nutrition and eXercise (SNaX) intervention included a website for students, parents and teachers and mobile apps with games and videos to engage students outside of school (Bogart et al , 2018). The “We Act” and HealthKick interventions utilised Web-based applications or mobile phone messages to communicate with parents (Stjernqvist et al , 2018, De Villiers et al , 2015).…”

The Direct and Indirect Relationships of Environmental, Interpersonal and Personal Factors with High School Students Physical Activity: An Ecological Approach

“…The assessment of social capital in adolescents in this study was based on theoretical premises [22,23] and previous empirical research [24][25][26]. Cognitive social capital in the contexts of family, neighborhood and school was evaluated by 14 items with the answers on a Likert scale, with 1 meaning "totally disagree" and 5 meaning "totally agree".…”

A systematic review of the use and reporting of evaluation frameworks within evaluations of physical activity interventions

“…However, where this was done, we found that there was often inconsistency in reporting the use of frameworks across the different reported elements e.g. [ 61 , 69 – 71 , 75 , 76 , 79 , 115 ]. More detailed and consistent reporting of the framework components and how these have been applied would help those trying to understand the intervention effectiveness fully.…”