Healthy schools: an arena for promoting good and equal health by advancing vulnerable students’ employment and income opportunities

Research problem and specific questions School-level social determinants of health (SDOH) explain up to 40% of the variation in students’ health behaviors.

Educational attainment itself is a primary social determinant of health, which may work through one of several pathways including a pathway via employment and income.

In attempts to achieve good and equal health for all, the development of healthy schools must include attempts to understand and impact school climate as an important mechanism for school achievement and student health, which together benefit students’ later employment, income opportunities, and health outcomes.

This project investigates the development of school-level SDOH and their association to later employment, income, and health in a representative sample of Swedish young people.

This project investigates the perceived ability of the school to work with school-level SDOH from school staff and student perspectives and develops and pilots an intervention that aims to impact school-level SDOH.

Data and method This multi-method and multi-informant project leverages a large longitudinal data set that follows a representative sample of children from ages 12 to 23.

In addition, we will collect primary data from school representatives and students and test an intervention designed to boost children’s achievement, an important driver for later employment, income, and health.

Societal relevance and utilization Developing people’s skills and knowledge through learning and education is central to advancing employment and income opportunities and achieving equitable health. There is a strong correlation between education level, employment and income, and health.

This project is relevant to society in many ways from its direct impact on children and families and school staff to its more distal impact on communities and broader societal and policy/political interests.

Plan for project realization This project is based on a complex and ambitious data collection and collaboration effort that leverages multiple methods and approaches.

This project has the potential to impact our scientific understanding of the paths through which education impacts employment, income opportunities, and health as well as impacting school-level and broader policy as relates to the school as an important driver of academic achievement.

This project is a collaboration between school staff, and researchers from multiple disciplines and multiple Swedish universities.