Adolescents` experiences of health education in comprehensive schools in the Republic of Karelia, Russia and North-Karelia, Finland
Author(s):
Annamari Aura (submitting) Kerttu Tossavainen (presenting) Kirsi Bykachev Tiina Laatikainen
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
08. Research on Health Education
Format:
Poster

Session Information

08 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:
2014-09-03
12:30-14:00
Room:
Poster Area E (in front of B001-B003)
Chair:

Contribution

Adolescents’ health challenges have become complicated and health tendencies change rapidly. Therefore, health education given at schools is a key factor for health promotion among adolescents. The influence of environmental factors within adolescents’ ecology is acknowledged early in health education and health-promotion (1, 2). In health education lessons, pupils learn essential health behavior knowledge and skills.  However, it has been previously shown that pupils have low interest in traditional health education at schools and suggested that pupils should be involved in planning these classes and health education should be integrated into other classes and subjects, student care, and school health services (3). This reciprocal interaction between school personnel and, particularly, with health nurses, creates an important but challenging educational collaboration and learning environment (4). Moreover, these communicative relationships and resources in an educational context in health promotion formulate adolescents’ personal behavioral development, attitudes and thoughts, and have, therefore, consequences to current and later health. 

 

This study belongs to a larger Finnish-Russian collaboration and research project, Addressing challenging health inequalities of children and youth between two Karelias (AHIC), which aims is to promote children and adolescents’ health and well-being. The aim of this study was to investigate changes between genders regarding self-evaluated health, health concerns, attitudes related to health education in schools, and relationship with school nurses among adolescents in two Karelias, namely North Karelia, Finland and the Pitkyaranta district in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, from 1995 to 2013.

Method

The whole data set consisted of 4 separate cross-sectional surveys from the years 1995 (5-8) and 2013. The target group was 15-year-old adolescents. Samples consisted of all pupils in every school in the Pitkyaranta region (1995: n=385, response rate 95 %; 2013: n=182, response rate 98 %) and in selected schools in North Karelia (1995: n=2098, response rate 93 %; 2013: 635, response rate 93 %). The data from the years 1995 and 2013 were gathered by using the same questionnaire which had already been produced for the Karelia Youth Study in Finland (Vartiainen et al, 1990). In 2013, the questionnaire was updated and pretested before using it for data collection. The schools represented both urban and rural schools in both areas. The data were analyzed with descriptive and multivariate statistics to detect the main effects.

Expected Outcomes

In both countries, self-evaluated health had not changed from 1995 to 2013 among girls or boys. However, Russian adolescents had more health concerns than their counterparts in Finland. Most (77%) of the Russian adolescents were at least somewhat worried of their health in 2013. In both countries, adolescents thought they were given just the right amount of health education at school, but, at the same time, over half of the adolescents considered health education boring. We found differences between genders, in that girls were more likely to report that they found health education interesting than boys. Finnish adolescents reported more frequently than their counterparts that, at least in most cases, they could freely tell about their worries to the school nurse. However, 14 % in Finland and 28 % in Russia reported that they could never tell about their problems to the school nurse. Adolescents’ health problems, symptoms, attitudes related to health education and relationship with the school nurse differ between countries and genders. Our results suggest that the differences between genders and countries should be noted more carefully when planning the health education in schools. All in all, it is important to evaluate whether correctly orientated and gender-specific educational tools have been used to promote adolescents’ health and well-being in schools.

References

(1) Edberg M. Essentials of Health Behavior: Social and Behavioral Theory in Public Health. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers; 2007. (2) Bronfenbrenner U and Evans GW (2000) ‘Developmental science in the 21st century: Emerging questions, theoretical models, research designs and empirical findings’. Social Development 9:115–125. (3) Lohrmann DK (2010) A Complementary Ecological Model of the Coordinated School Health Program. Journal of School Health. January 2010, Vol. 80, No. 1:1-9. USA. (4) Borup I (2002) The school health nurse’s assessment of a successful health dialogue Health and Social Care in the Community 10(1), 10–19 (5) Kemppainen U, Tossavainen K, Vartiainen E et al (2006) Environmental factors as predictors of smoking among ninth-grade adolescents in Pitkäranta (Russian Karelia) and in Eastern Finland. Res Nursing Health 29(6):543–555. (6) Kemppainen U, Tossavainen K, Vartiainen E et al (2002) Smoking patterns among ninth-grade adolescents in the Social determinants of adolescent smoking in Russia in Pitkäranta District (Russia) and in Eastern Finland. Public Health Nursing 19(1):30–39. (7) Kemppainen U, Tossavainen K, Vartiainen E et al (2004) An integrative model to predict adolescents` alcohol use: A cross-national study in the Pitkäranta district (Russian Karelia) and in eastern Finland. Diversity in Health and Social Care 1:81-92. (8) Kemppainen U, Tossavainen K, Vartiainen E et al (2007) Identifying Russian and Finnish adolescents´ problem behaviors. Health Education 107(1):81-98.

Author Information

Annamari Aura (submitting)
University of eastern Finland, Finland
Kerttu Tossavainen (presenting)
University of eastern Finland, Finland
Kirsi Bykachev
University of eastern Finland, Finland
Tiina Laatikainen
University of eastern Finland, Finland; National Institute for Health and Welfare

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