Education as a social determinant of adolescent health: Better understanding school climate

Background: Despite recognizing education as a social determinant of youth health, few public health investigators have examined variations in school environment across different types of schools (where adolescents spend majority of their time), and its implications on student learning and health.

Methods: Data on 80,736 staff in 4,438 schools in California from the student-reported Healthy Kids Survey, staff-reported School Climate Survey, California Basic Educational Data Systems, and the Academic Performance Index research files for 2005-07 were analyzed to examine differences in staff perceptions of school climate (i.e., safety, academic norms, staff-student relationships, and student learning-facilitative behaviors) by (a) school type (e.g. elementary, middle and high schools), (b) schools with different demographics (urban/rural, racial/ethnic composition, socioeconomic status), (c) low- and high-performing schools, and (d) schools with different levels of school connectedness and school support.

Results: Overall, staff at secondary schools in large urban cities, or at schools with largest percent of low-income students, Hispanic- and Black-majority, low-performing and ones with lowest levels of school connectedness and support reported less positive school climate than their counterparts. But there was no difference in staff/student relationships by school's socioeconomic status, or in norms and safety across high schools in the two lowest performing quintiles. Asian-majority schools had the highest levels of student learning facilitative behaviors, whereas Black-majority schools had lowest levels of academic norms.

Conclusion: Strategies to involve educators within the context of public health to collectively promote healthy schools and communities will be shared.