Perceptions Of School Environment Research Articles

Modeling how professional development interacts with teacher leaders’ outcome expectancies and school environment perceptions

ABSTRACT There is increasing awareness that teacher leadership can serve a vital role in addressing many of the issues facing schools, but the conditions under which leadership capacity develops is still an open question. Most of the literature addressing this question is theoretical and based on small, qualitative studies. This quantitative investigation involving over 400 teacher leaders explores the relationships among teacher leaders’ outcome expectations and their perceptions of the school environment in which these teachers work. Further, a comparison of how these factors vary according to the teachers’ professional development experiences is examined. This manuscript provides validity arguments for a newly developed survey instrument. The findings of this investigation indicate that professional development focused specifically on developing teacher leadership is significantly associated with elevated outcome expectancies, and that a possible explanation for this increase might be related to how the professional development influences teacher leaders’ views of the resources in their school environment.

The role of hope in college transition: Its cross-lagged relationships with psychosocial resources and emotional well-being in first-year college students.

College transition is often regarded as the most stressful phase of life by college students. Hence, it is necessary to find ways to help them adjust more smoothly to this transition. Hope, as conceptualized by C. R. Snyder, has been widely studied as a predictor of optimal functioning and has been shown to be associated with better adjustment among college students. This study aimed to shed light on the role of hope in college transition by examining its unique reciprocal relationships with an array of important psychosocial resources and emotional well-being among first-year college students. Data were collected from a sample of Hong Kong college freshmen (N = 433, Medianage = 18 years old, 63.7% female) at two time points. At each time point, participants completed self-reported measures tapping into their levels of hope, psychosocial resources, and emotional well-being. Psychological resources included general and academic self-efficacy, meaning in life, and optimism. Social resources included secure attachment, perceived school environment, and social support. Emotional well-being was operationalized as positive and negative emotions. Cross-lagged panel models were constructed and tested by path analyses. When autoregression and the effects of other variables were controlled, a greater sense of hope uniquely predicted higher levels of general and academic self-efficacy, greater presence of life meanings, more secure attachment, and more positive and fewer negative emotions. On the other hand, higher levels of meaning in life (both presence and search) and social support uniquely predicted greater hope. Academic hope and presence of life meanings reciprocally predicted one another, whereas other significant cross-lagged relationships were unidirectional. The findings suggest interventions that promote hope can be useful in helping college freshmen adjust to the new college environment by enhancing their psychosocial resources and emotional well-being. Such interventions would be more effective if they included elements that boost meaning in life and social support, which are expected to further enhance the perceptions of hope.

Cultural adaptation, content, and protocol of a feasibility study of school-based "Let's learn about emotions" intervention for Finnish primary school children.

Emotional awareness and emotion regulation are crucial for cognitive and socio-emotional development in children. School-based interventions on socio-emotional skills have the potential to prevent these problems and promote well-being of children. The Japanese school-based program, Universal Unified Prevention Program for Diverse Disorders (Up2-D2), has shown preventive effects on mental health of children in Japan. The aims of this protocol paper are to describe the unique process of adapting the Up2-D2 from Eastern to Western context, and to present a feasibility study of the intervention, conducted in Finland. The cultural adaptation process started with the linguistic translation of materials, followed by the modification of language to fit the Finnish context. While the Japanese ideology was saved, some content was adapted to fit Finnish school children. Further modifications were made based on feedback from pupils and teachers. The Finnish version of the program was named "Let's learn about emotions" and consisted of 12 sessions and targeted 8- to 12-year-old pupils. A teacher education plan was established to assist Finnish teachers with the intervention, including a workshop, teachers' manual, brief introductory videos, and online support sessions. A feasibility study involving 512 4th graders in the City of Hyvinkää, South of Finland, was conducted. It assessed emotional and behavioral problems, classroom climate, bullying, loneliness, perception of school environment, knowledge of emotional awareness, and program acceptability. The originality of this study underlies in the East-West adaptation of a cognitive behavioral therapy-based program. If promising feasibility findings are replicated in Finland, it could pave the way for further research on implementing such programs in diverse contexts and cultures, promoting coping skills, awareness, social skills and early prevention of child mental health problems. The ethical board of the University of Turku gave ethics approval for this research. The educational board of the City of Hyvinkää accepted this study.

A comparison study of environmental health related issues and policies between private and public U.S. schools using multi-level data

ObjectiveLittle is known about school environmental health (EH) problems in private schools. This study identified and compared the school EH related issues and policies between private and public schools in the U.S. MethodsSchool EH information was collected from school administrators on two levels – in New York State (NYS) and nationwide. In NYS, questionnaires were developed and distributed to administrators from both public and private schools via conferences (2015–2016). Nationwide survey data were obtained from the 2014 School Health Policies and Practices Study. We compared the perceived school environment as well as policies related to identification and training on EH issues between private and public schools both in NYS and nationwide. ResultsIn NYS, both private and public schools reported limited use of proactive approaches in identifying EH issues. Compared to public schools, more private school respondents reported poorer perceived indoor air quality (IAQ) (30% vs. 0%), along with less routine training and lower use of policies that help improve air quality in school. Nationwide, fewer private schools implemented indoor air quality management programs (18% vs. 58%) and were able to always meet ventilation standards (44% vs. 64%) than public schools. Staff members in private schools received less required training on a wide range of EH issues than staff members in public schools. ConclusionU.S. private schools reported worse perceived indoor air quality than public schools and a lack of awareness and protective policies. Future environmental research and implementation of policies are needed in private schools.

Associations Between Gender Nonconformity, School Environments, Family Conflict, and Emotional and Behavioral Health Among Children Ages 10–11

PurposeIn youth, gender nonconformity (GNC; gender expression that differs from stereotypes based on assigned sex at birth) is associated with a higher likelihood of peer and caregiver victimization and rejection. However, few studies have examined the relationship between GNC, overall family conflict, perceptions of school environment, and emotional and behavioral health problems among children ages 10–11. MethodsThe Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study data release 3.0 was used (n = 11,068; 47.9% female). A path analysis was used to examine whether school environment and family conflict, mediated the relationship between GNC and behavioral and emotional health outcomes. ResultsWe found significant mediation of the relationship between GNC and behavioral and emotional health by school environment a2b2 = .20, 95% CI [0.13, 0.27] and family conflict a1b1 = 0.34, 95% CI [0.25, 0.42]. DiscussionOur results suggest that youth who present as gender nonconforming experience elevated family conflict, poorer perceptions of their school environment and elevated behavioral and emotional health problems. Further, the relationship between GNC and elevated emotional and behavioral health problems was mediated by perceptions of school environment and family conflict. Clinical and policy suggestions to improve environments and outcomes for youth who present as gender nonconforming are discussed.

Social media use and adolescents' well-being: A note on flourishing.

Several large-scale studies and reviews have reported both negative and positive associations of social media use with well-being, suggesting that the findings are more complex and need more nuanced study. Moreover, there is little or no exploration of how social media use in adolescence influences flourishing, a more all-encompassing construct beyond well-being, including six sub-domains (i.e., happiness, meaning and purpose, physical and mental health, character, close social relationships, and financial stability). This paper aims to fill this gap by understanding how adolescents might flourish through social media activities by fulfilling the basic needs pointed out by the Self-Determination Theory, i.e., relatedness, autonomy, and competence. The study is drawn on cross-sectional data collected from 1,429 Swiss adolescents (58.8% females, Mage = 15.84, SDage = 0.83) as part of the HappyB project in Spring 2022. Self-reported measures included the Harvard Adolescent Flourishing scale, positive and negative online social experiences, self-disclosure on social media, and social media inspiration. Control variables included, among others, self-esteem, ill-being, and personality. After applying Bonferroni's correction, results of the hierarchical regression analyses showed that positive social media experiences (β = 0.112, p < 0.001) and social media inspirations from others (β = 0.072, p < 0.001) and for others (β = 0.060, p = 0.003) were positively associated with flourishing. Flourishing was inversely associated with negative social media experiences (β = -0.076, p < 0.001). Among covariates, self-esteem (β = 0.350, p < 0.001), ill-being (β = -0.252, p < 0.001), perceived school environment (β = 0.138, p < 0.001), self-reported level of physical activity (β =0.109, p < 0.001), and perceived socio-economic status (β = -0.059, p = 0.001) were all related to flourishing. In contrast, gender, high school year, age, perceived stress, and personality (extraversion and neuroticism) were not. Using a well-being framework to investigate social media use in adolescents is needed to go beyond the ill-being perspective. Our results align with the needs pointed out by the Self-Determination Theory. Carrying out social media activities in a way that promotes-rather than diminishes-flourishing should be included as an additional good habit influencing adolescents' development. We suggest that interventions aiming to foster adolescents' flourishing should include curricula aiming to promote a good use of social media through positive online social relationships and inspirational contents.

Gender diversity associated with patterns of brain activation seen in populations that experience childhood stress.

Stressful childhood experiences are associated with unique brain activity patterns during emotional processing. Specifically, pediatric stress is linked to activation in the insulae, superior temporal and parahippocampal gyri, and the amygdalae, as well as differential activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex when viewing emotional faces. Gender diversity is broadly associated with higher victimization and mental health disparities in children aged 9/10, but whether it is associated with stress-like alterations in brain function (BOLD signal during task-based fMRI) remains unknown. We investigate the functional brain correlates of this relationship to determine if gender-diverse youth show patterns of functional activity during an emotional task consistent with those of other populations that experience heightened stress. We used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD)® study. First, we identified a subset of 4,385 participants aged 10/11 years with gender diversity data and quality-controlled fMRI data from the EN-Back (emotional n-back) task. The EN-Back is a working memory task that presents emotion faces as well as pictures of places as control stimuli. We regressed BOLD signal associated with emotion faces (faces minus places contrast) on gender diversity. Next, we tested if parental acceptance or youth perceptions of their school environment moderated the relationship between gender diversity and activation in the insulae or fusiform gyrus. Finally, we used structural equation modeling to investigate gender diversity's association with parental acceptance, perceptions of school environments, internalizing and externalizing problems. Gender diversity was associated with widespread increases in BOLD signal during the faces condition of the EN-Back task. Youth's report of parental acceptance and school environment did not moderate the relationship between gender diversity and BOLD signal in the insula or fusiform gyrus. Gender diversity was related to greater parent and school-related stress, which was associated with elevated mental health problems. Patterns of functional activity were consistent with those reported in prior literature on childhood stress. Gender diversity was associated with increased emotional and behavioral problems, as well as parent and school-related stress. These findings indicate the importance of the home and school environments for supporting the wellbeing of gender diverse youth.

Development and validation of Health Belief Model based instrument to assess secondary school student's adherence to COVID-19 self-protective practices in Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia.

The study aimed in developing and validating a Health Belief Model (HBM) based instrument used for cross-sectional studies among secondary school students in Jimma town, Oromia, Ethiopia. A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 25 to June 10, 2021. The sample size was 634, and students were randomly selected from public and private secondary schools. The 81 items were developed reviewing different literatures based on the constructs of HBM. The constructs were perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, perceived benefit, perceived barrier, self-efficacy, cues to action, perceived school support and self-protective practice. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The data were cleaned, entered into and analyzed using SPSS 23.0. A principal axis factoring with varimax rotation was carried out to extract items. Items with no loading factor or cross-loaded items were deleted. Items having factor loading coefficient of ≥0.4 were retained. An internal reliability was ensured at Cronbach's alpha >0.70. All items with corrected item-total correlation coefficient below 0.30 were deleted from reliability analysis. In this study, 576 respondents were participated making a response rate of 90.8%. A total of thirty items were extracted and loaded in to eleven factors with cumulative variance of 56.719%. Percieved social support, percieved benefit, percieved school responsibility, self-efficacy, and practice items were internally consistent. Percieved vurnerability was neither valid nor reliable construct. Similarly, from the extracted factors, attitude towards face mask use and percieved peer influence were not internally consistent. Lastly, percieved benefit, self-efficacy and percieved school responsibility significantly predicted student's adherence to COVID-19 self-protective practices. The study found that perceived benefit, perceived school support, social support, self-efficacy, perceived school environment cleanness, perceived school responsibility, perceived school health education, attitude to use face mask, perceived severity, cues to action and perceived peer influence were valid. Finally, perceived benefit, self-efficacy and perceived school responsibility significantly predicted student's adherence to COVID-19 self-protective practices.

아동이 지각하는 학교 환경 및 자아존중감과 행복 간의 관계

The purpose of this study aimed to investigate the relationships between perceived school environment, self-esteem, and happiness of children and identify mediating role of self-esteem in the effect of school environment on happiness. This study used the 10th data of The Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC). The participants were 326 males and 307 females. The results are as follow. First, the perceived physical school environment was partially associated with children’s self-esteem and happiness. Perceived psychological school climate was associated with children’s self-esteem and happiness. Also, children’s self-esteem was associated with their happiness. Second, children’s self-esteem partially mediated the effects between psychological school climate and happiness. However, self-esteem fully mediated the effect between physical school environment and happiness. These results suggest the importance of promoting self-esteem and creating a warm and supportive school to enhance children’s happiness.

IMPACT OF SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT ON CREATIVITY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Innovations have changed the world scenario to such an extent that one life is seldom imagined without technological involvement. Technological advancement in all spheres is evident in the creativity of man, a co-creator of the universe. The environment plays a vital role in an individual's educational success which includes the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. An attempt has been made in the present investigation to analyze the role of the school environment on the creativity of students.Aim: Impact of school environment on the creativity of secondary school students. Objective: To assess the impact of the school environment on the creativity of secondary school students. Sample: The sample of the present study consists of 600 high school students in the erstwhile Warangal district of Telangana state. Tools: Creativity battery test developed and standardized by Baqer Mehdi (2019) and School environment inventory developed and standardized by Manjuvani (1989) were administered. Conclusion: Results revealed that students with poor and good perceived school environment dimensions were differ signicantly with respect to their creativity.

School Environment Perceptions of the Young Women with Anorexia: Biographical Reconstruction

Anorexia nervosa is the restrictive eating disorder and women are at the highest risk of its development in their teens. Although existing Western scientific literature provides some information on this condition among schoolers, there is the lack of qualitative descriptions that may shed light on the actual experiences and assumptions about the school environment which get girls with anorexia, who continue their education in school or finished it in non-Western countries. In this paper, to show how girls with anorexia perceive school environment I examine 50 in-depth biographical interviews with women who have been diagnosed with anorexia from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan (aged between 14–25 years old). These interviews were combined with the collection of ego networks, using concentric circles methodology, and analysis of unsolicited online diaries belonging to these girls. The data was harvested in the Summer-Autumn of 2020. First, the data analysis revealed four meanings that anorexia has for women in connection with schooling: anorexia as a distraction from education, anti-stress remedy, hobby, and part of a general perfectionist orientation. Second, the data demonstrated the roles of teachers and classmates in the entire system of social connections that the girls with anorexia have, and their importance for the development of the girls’ views on food and body image. Findings suggest that although schools emphasize perfectionism, academic achievements, and disciplinary culture, the school’s role in the life of girls with anorexia is greatly determined by parental attitudes towards education.

Differences between Chinese Adolescent Immigrants and Adolescent Non-Immigrants in Hong Kong: Perceived Psychosocial Attributes, School Environment and Characteristics of Hong Kong Adolescents.

Although the impact of immigration on adolescent developmental outcomes has received extensive scholarly attention, the impact of internal migration, particularly in the Chinese context, on adolescents’ psychosocial development has not been scientifically investigated. This study examined whether mainland Chinese adolescent immigrants (N = 590) and adolescent non-immigrants (n = 1798) differed on: (a) psychosocial attributes indexed by character traits, well-being, social behavior, and views on child development, (b) perceived school environment, and (c) perceptions of characteristics of Hong Kong adolescents. Consistent with the healthy migration hypothesis, Hong Kong adolescents and mainland Chinese adolescent immigrants did not differ on most of the outcomes; Chinese adolescent immigrants showed higher perceived moral character, empathy, and social trust than did Hong Kong adolescent non-immigrants. Chinese adolescent immigrants also showed more favorable perceptions of the school environment and moral character, social trust and social responsibility of adolescents in Hong Kong. This pioneer Chinese study provides support for the healthy immigration hypothesis (immigration paradox hypothesis) but not the immigration morbidity hypothesis within the specific sociocultural context of Hong Kong in China.

Green Spaces in Chinese Schools Enhance Children's Environmental Attitudes and Pro-Environmental Behavior

Previous research has asserted that promoting connection to nature can enhance children's environmental attitudes and cultivate their pro-environmental behavior. School green spaces and educational programs have been recognized as important interventions toward this goal, although empirical study examining their effectiveness, especially in China, is rare. This study collected data from 1,597 students (9-12 years old) in southwest China. The study used the Two Major Environmental Values scale to measure two dimensions of children's environmental attitude—preservation and utilization—and used a project-specific pro-environmental behavior scale to measure children's self-reported pro-environmental behavior. The results found that students' perceived school environment is consistent with objective measures of “green space quality.” Meanwhile, students' perception of their school environment and their interactions with natural elements have a positive correlation with students' preservation attitude and pro-environmental behavior. School green activities have a negative correlation with a utilization environmental attitude. This study thus highlights the value of green campuses, and when supplemented by environmental pedagogical activities, they could significantly contribute to equipping children with environmental literacy.

PENGARUH PERSEPSI ATAS LINGKUNGAN SEKOLAH DAN KEDISIPLINAN TERHADAP PRESTASI BELAJAR BAHASA INGGRIS

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of perceptions of school environment and discipline jointly towards English learning achievement, the effect of perceptions of school environment towards English learning achievement, the effect of discipline towards English learning achievement at Private Vocational High Schools in Kabupaten Tangerang. The research method used in this study is the survey method. Sample of 47 students was selected randomly from all private vocational students in Kabupaten Tangerang. Based on data analysis, it can be concluded that: 1) The results of the first hypothesis testing concluded that there was a significant effect of perception of school environment and discipline jointly towards English learning achievement at private vocational high schools in Kabupaten Tangerang. This is proved by the value of sig. 0,000 &amp;lt;0.05 and Fh = 35,702. 2) The results of the second hypothesis testing concluded that there was a significant effect of perceptions of school environment towards English learning achievement at private vocational high school in Kabupaten Tangerang. This is proved by the value of Sig. 0,000 &amp;lt;0.05 and th = 5,750. 3) The results of the third hypothesis testing concluded there was a significant effect of discipline towards English learning achievement at private vocational high schools in Kabupaten Tangerang. This is proved by the value of Sig. 0,000 &amp;lt;0.05 and th = 4,901.

Health-related quality of life of Portuguese children and adolescents according to diet quality and food intake

The implication of adolescence diet quality and of certain specific foods' intake on HRQoL remain underexplored, and little importance has been given to biological changes (e.g. growth, maturation, dimorphism, body composition), that remarkably increase the variability of diet and physical activity behaviours. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between diet quality and food intake with HRQoL in adolescents, considering maturity, body composition, and physical activity level. In total 669 Portuguese adolescents aged 10-17years, attending three secondary schools, were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Diet quality was assessed by Diet Quality International-Index (DQI-I), physical activity level was self-reported, and the HRQoL was assessed by the KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire. The KIDSCREEN-52 includes ten dimensions (physical well-being, psychological well-being, moods and emotions, self-perception, autonomy, parent relations and home life, social support and peers, school environment, social acceptance and bullying and financial resources) and it allowed to compute a general index of the HRQoL (KIDSCREEN-10 index) through a selection of 10 items out of the KIDSCREEN-52 list. Fat mass was obtained by skinfold thickness. Maturity was objectively measured. The level of significance was set at α = 0.05. Boys scored higher in HRQoL and in physical well-being, self-perception, autonomy, parent relations and home life than girls. Intakes of unhealthy foods were negatively correlated with physical well-being, self-perception, and social acceptance and bullying, while healthy foods were positively correlated with psychological well-being, moods and emotions, self-perception, and school environment. The DQI-I showed to be positively correlated with physical well-being. Participants who reported to have a higher DQI-I (≥ 60) perceived better their school environment and social acceptance and bullying. However, those results were not determined by diet quality but rather by bone age and physical activity level. Our results showed that boys reported higher HRQoL and higher scores in the majority of HRQoL dimensions, compared to girls. The intake of unhealthy foods was negatively correlated with some HRQoL dimensions, whilst healthy foods showed positive correlations with some HRQoL dimensions. Biological maturity and physical activity level revealed to be important confounders in the study of diet quality and perception of school environment and social acceptance and bullying in adolescents.

Adolescent Health Literacy in Beijing and Melbourne: A Cross-Cultural Comparison.

While adolescent health literacy has gained momentum, it is under-researched from a cross-cultural perspective. This study aims to compare health literacy among two cultural groups of secondary students in Beijing and Melbourne. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 770 students from five secondary schools in Beijing and Melbourne. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect information on health literacy (the eight-item health literacy assessment tool (HLAT-8), the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) and the 47-item Health Literacy Survey (HLS-47)), its antecedents and health outcomes. Overall, students’ health literacy in Melbourne (n = 120) was higher than that in Beijing (n = 650): 28.25 ± 6.00 versus 26.37 ± 5.89 (HLAT-8); and 4.13 ± 1.73 versus 3.65 ± 1.64 (NVS). The proportion of students with low health literacy varied by instruments, representing 23.7–32.2% in Melbourne and 29.0%–45.5% in Beijing. In both cultural groups, students’ self-efficacy, social support, and perceptions of school environment were associated with their health literacy, which in turn predicted their health behaviours, patient-provider communication and health status. Given the nature of our study design and small samples, a cautious conclusion would be that adolescent health literacy is sensitive to the broad cultural context and might be an interactive outcome influenced by an individual’s health skills and the social environment. Particularly, creating a supportive school environment is critical to develop adolescent health literacy that would eventually contribute to better health outcomes.

THE IMPACT OF AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION ON DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTHY LIFESTYLE SKILLS FOR PREVENTION OF OBESITY IN ADOLESCENTS

The aim: To determine that nature of perception of an educational institution has on degree of risk as to development of bad habits in eating and daily routine. Materials and methods: We have conducted surveys among 1015 students of educational institutions, residing in a large industrial center through special questionnaire was developed by SI «ICAHC NAMS». According to answer to the question about their attitude towards school, schoolchildren have been divided into 6 groups. Results: Studying the health-shaping behavior of children has shown the greatest regularity of engagement in sports activities among students of the 1st group. Schoolchildren of the 4th group were characterized by the risk of development of obesity, due to the highest (among the other groups) level of consumption of chips, crackers, street food, sparkling water, against insufficient acquirement of key sources of protein and vitamins. The same groups also differed in self-esteem of their own health and perception of school environment. Conclusions: The most safe group as to development of obesity and other diseases has been the 1st group, students of which attended an educational institution with pleasure and had a high level of physical activity and had certain eating habits. Children of the 4th group with indifferent attitude towards any occupation should be included into the risk group. Outstanding remains the issue in-depth study of prevalence of healthy lifestyle skills and bad habits among various gender groups of adolescents.

Agreement between parental and student reports on respiratory symptoms and school environment in young Romanian children - evidence from the SINPHONIE project.

Background Environmental research involving children often relies on the self-report or parental report of symptoms and environmental issues. While previous studies explored the agreements between child and parental reports, few of them were conducted in younger children and in developing countries. In this study, we addressed the research gaps by assessing the agreement between child and parental report on respiratory symptoms and school environment in Romanian primary schools. Methods Two hundred and eighty students from five schools and their parents participated in this study. Information on child's respiratory symptoms and perceptions of school environment was collected via both student and parent questionnaires. Agreement between the two questionnaires was assessed by absolute agreement rates and kappa statistics. Prevalence index (PI), bias index (BI) and maximum attainable kappas were calculated to identify potential sources of disagreements. Results The agreement between student and parent questionnaires was low. Compared to the student's report, parents often reported more symptoms than their children, particularly flu-like symptoms, and school environment problems. Parent and child tend to agree when there was no symptom reported, but disagreements often occurred when symptoms were reported. After adjusting for the PI, the agreements for asthma and allergic symptoms improved substantially. Disagreement on reporting of flu-like symptoms was strongly affected by pre-existing causes, such as different understandings of the questions between students and parents. Conclusion Parental report may have a higher sensitivity in capturing a child's respiratory symptoms and school environment problems compared to self-report among young children in developing countries.

The Relationship among Students’ Perceived School Environment, Self-Esteem, Happiness: Moderating Effects of Executive Function Difficulty and Gender

The Relationship among Students’ Perceived School Environment, Self-Esteem, Happiness: Moderating Effects of Executive Function Difficulty and Gender

Promoting wellness: Caregiver perceptions of student mental health in an alternative school in the United States

Background: Family perceptions of school environments are fundamental information for effective collaboration, but little is known about how families perceive academic alternatives for high-risk youth. Aims: The purpose of this study was to identify primary caregiver (i.e. parent and grandparent), perceptions of student mental health influences in an alternative school for middle and high school youth. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted with a grounded theory approach. Interviews were analysed using process coding. Findings: Major themes include escaping harm, connecting with others, promoting self-regulation, and protecting hope. Conclusions: School nurses may transfer these results to support health and wellness promoting interventions in youth at risk for dropping out of school. Key strategies for student mental health promotion are presented.