CRICOS No. 00213J

Teachers’ understanding of school connectedness: Implications for the development and implementation of school

based injury prevention strategies

Rebekah Chapman, Dr Lisa Buckley & Prof Mary Sheehan27th International Congress of Applied Psychology 11-16 July 2010

Injury in adolescence• Need for preventive intervention prior to dramatic

increase in injury at 14-15 years:

% deaths due to injury

AIHW, 2008

Risk taking and injury

• A high level of injuries among adolescents are due to risk taking – Including violence & transport risks; often occurring

in the context of alcohol use

• 11-15 year olds who report high levels of risk taking are 2.46 times more likely to report medically treated injuries (Pickett et al., 2002)

School connectedness

• The school environment has an impact on adolescent behaviour

• School connectedness has been identified as a critical protective factor– Defined as “the extent to which students feel

personally accepted, respected, included and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow, 1993, p. 80).

Components of school connectedness

School connectedness

Affective (e.g. feelings of

belonging)

Behavioural (e.g. involvement & engagement)

Cognitive (e.g. perceptions of

teacher support)

School connectedness research

• Positively associated with:– Academic motivation, achievement and school retention

(e.g. Goodenow, 1993; Archambault et al., 2009)

– Students’ emotional health (e.g. Anderman, 2002; Shochet et al., 2006; Shochet et al.,

2007)

• Negatively associated with risk taking & injury:– Violence (e.g. Dornbusch et al., 2001)

– Alcohol and drug use (e.g. McNeely & Falci, 2004)

– Transport risk behaviours (Chapman, Buckley & Sheehan, 2009)

Mechanism

• Social control theory (Hirschi, 1969)

– Dimensions of connectedness (bonding):• Attachment – liking for school, respect & liking for

school staff• Commitment – level of personal investment• Involvement – participation in school activities• Belief – commitment to values, norms & rules

School and connectedness• School connectedness is related to school factors:

– Classroom management (e.g. McNeely et al., 2002)

– Tolerant discipline policies (e.g. Whitlock, 2006; McNeely et al., 2002)

– Teacher support (e.g. McNeely et al., 2002)

– Positive student - teacher relationships (e.g. Voisin et al., 2005)

– Teachers’ expectations for success (e.g. Blum, 2005)

– Connection with at least one adult at school (e.g. Blum, 2005)

Project rationale• Existing interventions generally focus on individual

characteristics (e.g. knowledge, attitudes) rather than wider social and institutional influences

• Theoretical models (e.g. Jessor, 2003) suggest the need to support individual attitude and behaviour change with social/contextual protection

• An intervention targeting classroom and wider school level changes might provide an effective complement to individual-focused risk and injury interventions

Research aim• To examine teachers’ perceptions of school

connectedness and their approaches to increasing connectedness

• Issues covered:– Perceptions of the relationship between school connectedness and

risk taking/ injury

– Strategies used to increase students’ connectedness to school

– Perceptions and attitudes regarding professional development in school connectedness.

MethodParticipants & Measures

•n=13 Health & PE teachers (2 South-east Qld state high schools)

– Semi-structured interviews – questions formed part of broader discussion on risk taking, injury, interventions & mentoring

•n=35 Qld Education Department employees (including teachers – 15 schools)

– Focus groups – questions again formed part of broader discussions on risk and injury prevention

Procedure

•Written consent

•Interviews, focus groups of approximately 45 minutes

•Audio recorded and transcribed verbatim; analysed using NVIVO

ResultsTeachers’ perceptions of the relationship between school connectedness and risk taking/ injury• Teachers described dimensions of school connectedness and how they relate to risk taking

Theme Example quote

Belonging Everyone wants a sense of belonging, and I’ve found; kids in grade 8 and 9 that didn’t have much confidence, that weren’t really fitting in anywhere…they’ve tended to start hanging out with the bad people because they feel that sense of belonging

Feeling valued

There are some that just don’t…have value of their lives. The difference is that, if the kid feels like they have a worthwhile life and they’re told they’re worthwhile, they look after themselves

I guess the basic thing is that kids need to know that they’re valuable people…They need to know the dangers of what risk taking behaviour can be; they need to know that …someone is going to say, “I can help you”

ResultsTeachers’ perceptions of the relationship between school connectedness and risk taking/ injury

Theme Example quote

Teacher support

I’ve just tried to develop rapport. It works well because kids can talk to me about their problems and because we put in the hard work we don’t have any behaviour management problems

Engagement Give them a role. I know that works…give me a role and I’ll get more focused and stop misbehaving

I suppose what we need to do as teachers is to find something, a positive success, rather than a negative success so they’re feeling important

ResultsStrategies used to encourage school connectedness among students•Teachers identified a number of strategies that they either used, or thought would be effective, to increase connectedness among students

Theme Example quote

Warm relationships & taking an interest

It’s a lot easier to talk to kids when we’re doing prac because, as we’re walking down to the oval or whatever you might get them to help you get some stuff. Say, you know, “How are things going? How was your weekend?”

You might just go over to them, have a look at their work and have a bit of a chat, say hi

Inclusion We do self esteem stuff in (Health) class in grade 9. I always make them at the start of the term get up and talk about themselves for a minute and I do it as well, and I’ll tell them something that’s not school based

Try and find something that each kid likes to do

Results

Strategies used to encourage school connectedness among students

Theme Example quote

Strength focus

Everyone should have a little job, to teach that kid to do something, to get something positive out of them. Most kids disengaged from school are the kids who think they’re not worth anything. So try to engage them back into something

Equity & fairness

If a student has done something wrong, I would try to keep the relationship the same with them as it has always been and let them know that I still like them, it’s just their behaviour that I’m not keen on

You need to know your stuff, what you’re doing, you need to be confident. And you’ve got to be friendly to them, as well as be authoritative. They’ve got to know that yep, he’s a cool teacher, but if you do something wrong, there’s consequences

ResultsPerceptions and attitudes regarding professional development (PD) in school connectedness, and what should be included•Teachers indicated that training in connectedness and risk & injury prevention would be useful, and gave a number of suggestions for the PD

Theme Example quote

Problem of risk taking and injury

A lot of risk taking here is not just through sport. That’s simple stuff…the most risks they take here are drugs and alcohol and doing stupid stuff once they’re under the influence of one of those, so it would be a good idea to do some sort of in-service so teachers can understand the kids a bit better

You need to know which kids could be at risk, maybe some simple signs or symptoms. Some staff probably don’t understand that as much

Strategies -engaging students

If he’s not working in class, it’s up to you. Some teachers don’t realise it’s them its not the kid. They need to find ways to engage the kid

Just being able to give staff an idea how to speak to the kids about their problems

Summary of findings

• Teachers identified links between aspects of connectedness and students’ risk behaviour

• Teachers saw the importance students’ connectedness to school, especially among those at risk for problem behaviour

• Strategies used to promote connectedness include building warm relationships, taking an interest, being inclusive, focusing on strengths, and treating students fairly

• PD for teachers in connectedness seen as useful

Implications for intervention

• Teachers see professional development in school connectedness as valuable

• Teachers’ suggestions can inform program development– Also provide ecologically valid material (e.g.

strategies) to include in program content

Conclusions

• The established link between school connectedness and problem behaviour has implications for school based prevention

• Targeting school connectedness, in conjunction with individual level programs, may be an effective school-based intervention strategy– Particularly as teachers see this as valuable

Future research• This research forms part of a larger theory based

project to reduce risk taking and injury among early adolescents– Student surveys - Association between school

connectedness and risk taking/ injury

– Development and pilot of a school connectedness intervention (Teacher PD); in conjunction with a curriculum based risk and injury prevention program

– Outcome and process evaluation

Questions?

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