School effects on health
This project will be undertaken during 2005 and 2006.
For more information on this project, please contact Annik Sorhaindo.
There is major public concern about the increasingly unhealthy lifestyles of children in Britain. This project examines the contribution that school make to unhealthy lifestyles during childhood.
Wanless (2004) states that individuals are responsible for their own health and the health of their children. He simultaneously emphasises the importance of government policies, economic and social systems, communities and families in supporting people to make better decisions for their long-term health and welfare. Health-related perceptions, attitudes and behaviours are initially formed during childhood in response to the child's individual, family and social contexts, including school. The importance of schools in promoting positive health is recognised by the National Healthy Schools Standard.
This research will provide evidence about the relative importance of schools, families and communities in promoting healthy lifestyles during childhood. In addition, we are assessing the relative importance of different aspects of schooling, for example teachers, school dinners, and sports facilities on childhood health.
This study considers:
- The effects of school on health-related practices and outcomes such as diet, exercise, obesity and well-being.
- The importance of school effects compared to the effects of neighbourhood and family circumstances.
- How school effects vary between individuals depending upon their context, for example, their family and social background and their neighbourhood.
- What aspects of school are important.
We are using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) dataset, which contains rich data about neighbourhoods, families, schools and health during childhood. Every child born in Avon over a 21-month period was surveyed, which means that the data are clustered in schools and neighbourhoods allowing the analysis of effects of neighbourhoods, schools and families. We are using multi-level modelling to address the clustering of pupils that may be particularly important given the strong likelihood of finding effects of peer groups on children’s health and health behaviours.
The ALSPAC dataset contains detailed measures of child health and well-being prior to school entry so it is possible to develop value-added measures of school effects on health and well-being, controlling for a great range of features of family background and other aspects of child development. We are also focusing on the interactive effects of friendships that children form in school and will use the residual, once peer group effects are controlled for, as an indicator of the school effect.
