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Abstract
In this paper, we examine the impact of adopting a comprehensive school health (CSH) approach on reducing anxiety and depression of school-age children. We use the data from 245 schools that received government funding support to adopt a CSH approach in order to build health promoting school environments in Alberta. Using a linear multi-level (hierarchical) model, we compare the average percentage of students with anxiety and depression across the schools that are in three different funding stages: pre-funded, actively-funded, and post-funded. Results show that, all else held constant, the schools that are in the actively-funded stage, relative to pre-funded schools have a lower percentage of students who suffer from anxiety and depression.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Alberta Ministry of Health, Alberta Ministry of Education, Alberta Healthy School Community Wellness Fund, Wellness Fund projects, and Alberta Health Services. The authors would like to thank the Alberta Ministry of Education (education.alberta.ca), the Learning Bar (thelearningbar.com), and the Fraser Institute (www.compareschoolrankings.org) for providing data used in this study. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Alberta Ministry of Health or Alberta Ministry of Education.
Notes
1. The other four elements are: (1) school health promotion coordinators (HPCs) or school health facilitators (SHFs) employed by Alberta Health Services (AHS); (2) nutrition guidelines for children and youth; (3) healthy school community award; and (4) healthy weights social marketing campaign.
2. Due to data limitations, we use the average parental income for the year 2013 across all the years for a given school.