Re-engagement of Early Adolescents with Severe School Issues in School/Professional Project Reduces School-Behavior-Health Problems.

Abstract

In France, 3.2 million middle-school students have serious/persistent school difficulties and are re-engaged in adapted-general/vocational-education class (AGVEC), created to early re-engage them in school/professional projects. We assessed the AGVEC's benefits for school-behavior-health-related difficulties (SBHDs). This population-based study compared 83 AGVEC students (mean age=14.4 ± 1.1) with 1559 regular-class students (mean age=13.5 ± 1.3) from north-eastern France. They completed a questionnaire collecting socioeconomic features and SBHDs. The data were analyzed using logistic regression models and Kaplan-Meier estimates. The AGVEC students had similar academic performance but fewer school absences due to health problems, less sleep difficulty, fewer depressive symptoms, and more social support as compared with regular-class students: sex-age-class-level-adjusted odds ratio (saclOR) 0.31-0.56 (p < 0.05/0.001). The AGVEC students had fewer skipping school, better health status, less sleep difficulty, fewer depressive symptoms, fewer suicide ideation/attempt, and more social support as compared with regular-class students with low academic performance: saclOR 0.22-0.52 (most with p < 0.01). Socioeconomic features played modest roles. The benefits for depressive symptoms and suicide attempt increased with age since age 10. Re-engagement in the AGVEC is particularly effective in reducing SBHDs.