The Relationship between School Achievement, Self-Rated Health and Life-Satisfaction of School-Aged Children in Croatian Schools

Author(s):

Lidija Cilic Burusic(presenting / submitting)Marina Kuzman

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Poster

Session Information

08 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Exhibition

General Poster Session during Lunch

Time:

2012-09-19

12:30-14:00

Room:

FCEE - Poster Exhibition Area

Chair:

Contribution

The relationship between school achievement, health status and health behaviour of school-aged children is an intriguing and important research issue that has equally concerned researchers within an educational context as well as researchers in public health. Previous studies have shown the existence of substantial positive correlations between school achievement and different aspects of health (Koivusita et al., 2006.; DeSocio & Hootman, 2004), where students with poorer health status, pronounced chronic diseases, or evident health-risk behaviours have lower school achievement. On the other hand, some authors state that good school achievement is a very reliable indicator of youths’ health and that they represent a good sign of overall well-being and students’ happiness (Basch, 2010; Hanson, Austin, Lee-Bayha, 2003). In the present research, we wanted to investigate the relationship between self-rated health of school-aged children with their school achievement in Croatian schools.

Method

The main aim of this paper was to explore the relationship between self-rated health and the school achievement of students in Croatian schools. Additionally, the relationship between self-rated health, school achievement and life-satisfaction of school-aged children is considered since it is expected that better self-rated health and better school achievement should contribute to a higher life satisfaction in this group. The last research objective was to test whether the relationship between school achievement, self-rated health and life satisfaction is structured in the same way by girls and boys in all three age groups. This study used Croatian data from a cross-national study “Health Behaviour in School-aged Children” in which 43 countries are currently participating. The Croatian sample includes 4,965 participants aged 11, 13 and 15 years, where 2,439 are boys and 2,526 are girls. From the dataset, we used indicators of self-rated health (“would you say your health is…?), with the response options of “excellent”, “good”, “fair” and “poor”, rating of life-satisfaction and school achievement at school reflected by school marks.

Expected Outcomes

The results showed substantive existence of a positive relationship between school achievements, self-rated health and life satisfaction in all age groups in an expected way – students with better health status perform better in school contexts and are more satisfied with life. The relationship between health, school achievement and life-satisfaction are structured in a very similar way in the groups of girls and boys. The group of 15 year-old boys is a significant exception where a positive relationship between school achievement and self-rated health was not found. The study also tries to consider the potential explanations of obtained outcomes and discusses the potential implications of these outcomes on practical implications in work with children and young people.

References

Basch, C.E. (2010). Healthier students are better learners: A missing link in school reforms to close the achievement gap. Equity matters: Research review no. 6. New York, NY: Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College, Columbia University. DeSocio, J. & Hootman, J. (2004) Children's Mental Health and School Success. The Journal of School Nursing. 20 (4), 189-196. Hanson, T. L., Austin, G. A., & Lee-Bayha, J. (2003). Student health risks, resilience, and academic performance: Year 1 report. San Francisco: Jackson, S. L. Vann, W. F. Jr, Jonathan B. K. Bhavna, T. P. and Lee, J. (2011). Impact of Poor Oral Health on Children's School Attendance and Performance. American Journal of Public Health, 101 (10), 1900-1906. Koivusita, L.K.Rimpelä, Ah, Kautiainen, Sm (2006) Health inequality in adolescence. Does stratification occur by familial social background, family affluence or personal social position? BMC Public Health, 110 (6), 123-132. Schnohr, C.W., Kreiner, S., Rasmussen, M, Due, P., Diderichsen, F. (2009). School-related mediators in social inequalities in smoking: a comparative cross-sectional study of 20,399 adolescents. Int J Equity Health, 4;8:17. Simetin, I.P., Kuzman, M., Franelic, I..P., Pristas, I., Benjak, T., Dezeljin, J.D. (2011). Inequalities in Croatian pupils' unhealthy behaviours and health outcomes: role of school, peers and family affluence, Eur J Public Health. 21(1), 22-28. Taras, H. & Potts-Datema, W. (2005). Chronic Health Conditions and Student Performance at School. Journal of School Health, 75(7), 255-66.

Author Information

Lidija Cilic Burusic (presenting / submitting)

SUVAG Polyclinic for Rehabilitation of Listening and Speech, Zagreb, Croatia

Marina Kuzman

Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia

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