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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Janis L Whitlock, MPH, Human Development, Cornell University, 624 Elm St Ext, Ithaca, NY 14850, 607-277-6452, jlw43@cornell.edu
Recent inquiry into the relationship between school "connectedness" and social health outcomes finds that an adolescent's perception of being cared for at school is protective against a variety of negative health outcomes. Indeed, in recent analysis of how school connections make a difference in the lives of youth using Add Health data, researchers found that of the eight school characteristics assessed, only connectedness was consistently protective across all negative outcomes studied. Studies exploring the idea of school "connectedness" frequently operationalize it through measures of the degree to which students feel cared for. Such measures frequently reveal moderate levels of connection among young people and consistently show grade-related declines in feeling cared for between 6th and 12th grade. This study uses cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative data drawn from youth and adults in an upstate New York community to determine what young people need to feel connected to school. Preliminary findings support the idea that there is an "ecology of care" through which young people's experiences in school and town interactively influence their sense of being cared for in each domain. Indeed, survey data permits extrapolation of an empirically derived SEM model of school connectedness that explains 70% of the variance in perceived school connectedness and 50% of the variance in community connectedness. Preliminary findings suggest that the ecology of care model may help explain why some young people succeed despite the odds stacked against them at home or in their neighborhoods. It also suggests a pathway through which school connectedness may affect a number of social health indictors such as school drop out and civic engagement.
Learning Objectives: Participants in this session will be able to
Keywords: Adolescent Health, School Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.