Focus points for school health promotion improvements in Dutch primary schools

Abstract

To enable improvements in school health promotion, this paper examines associations between the number of health-promotion issues addressed by primary school teachers in the Netherlands and factors thought to influence this behavior. The main factors studied are context characteristics and constructs of attitude, social influence, self-efficacy (SE) and perceived barriers. A total of 180 primary school teachers teaching 9- to 12-year olds (Grades 6, 7 and 8) participated in a cross-sectional survey. The results show that it is possible to differentiate between teachers addressing three or more health issues per year versus those who address fewer based on grade level (more health issues are addressed at higher grades), perceived disadvantages, SE and staff support. The latter seems to exert the greatest influence and may be one of the most promising focus points for improvements of school health promotion in the Netherlands.

Program and School Characteristics Related to Teacher Participation in School Health Promotion~!2009-07-07~!2009-12-13~!2010-03-09~!

“…Moreover, teachers' opinions about lack of time did not seem to be related to their self-reported participation in the program, nor was lack of funding. These findings are consistent with those of a Dutch study in which a majority of the teachers rated lack of time as an important barrier to engage in health promotion [16]. Lack of funding was apparently not perceived as an obstacle by the Dutch teachers, and neither lack of time nor funding was related to engagement in health promotion.…”

“…In a qualitative study among 12 teachers from two of the schools in the Norwegian HPS, such school structures were listed as prerequisites for teacher participation in the development and implementation processes of the program [11]. Likewise, a Dutch survey among 180 primary school teachers indicated that a majority of the teachers considered lack of time as an important barrier for their engagement in school health promotion, while lack of financial resources did not seem to be perceived as important [16].…”

“…Thus, they probably adapted the health promoting program into their own way of teaching in the classroom and collaboration with colleagues. A Dutch study also suggests that teachers who were more involved in health promotion reported a higher level of confidence in their own skills to address health issues in class than other teachers [16].…”

“…In Scotland, a focus on "healthy eating" was employed [15], while focus points for school health promotion in the Netherlands were sports and physical exercise, social skills development and personal care [16].…”

Éducation à la santé à l’école : étude des déterminants des pratiques des enseignants du premier degré

“…Pour leur part, d'autres auteurs ont tenté de modéliser les pratiques en éducation à la santé, postulant que certaines avaient plus d'impacts que d'autres. C'est le cas d'une équipe néerlan-daise (Leurs, Bessems, Schaalma et De Vries, 2007) qui a examiné comment les enseignants du premier degré avaient décidé de se saisir des questions de promotion de la santé. Cette enquête par questionnaire fait ressortir que 46,2 % d'entre eux enseignent au moins les trois thèmes de base en matière de promotion de la santé à l'école fixés dans les politiques éducatives du Pays-Bas (Görts et Jonker, 2001), à savoir : l'activité physique, le développement des compétences psychosociales (y compris la prévention du harcèlement) et le prendre soin de soi.…”