Health and School Performance Among Youth Ages 9-13

描述（由申请人提供）：当儿童健康且对生活满意时，他们作为学生的主要社会角色的成功是最有效的。我们的研究小组利用对健康的积极建构作为参与和积极参与重大生活活动的资源，表明一半以上的青年有重大健康需求。儿童中期健康状况不佳可能与规范的发展需求相互作用，造成负面的螺旋效应，干扰学校的参与，并对青春期早期的学习成绩产生不利影响。人们对这种模式知之甚少，因为很少有人关注儿童和青少年之间的健康演变。我们建议测试积极的健康是必要的，从童年中期过渡到青春期早期成功的学校表现的假设。我们假设健康包括一系列资源，这些资源可以缓冲个体的内源性和外源性压力源，并直接提高成功参与与发展相适应的活动的能力。本研究有三个具体目的：(1)研究9 - 13岁青少年健康状况的纵向特征；(2)检验健康与生物/个体因素（如青春期变化、人口统计学）和社会环境因素（如生活事件、社会经济地位和学校转学）之间的纵向关联；(3)评估儿童中期健康经历与青少年早期学业表现的关系。我们将在马里兰州和西弗吉尼亚州招收2000名4年级、5年级和6年级的学生。调查数据将在基线、12个月和24个月时从儿童、家长和老师那里收集。学校行政记录将提供有关学校表现的数据。统计分析将模拟从童年到青春期过渡期间的健康轨迹及其与学校成绩的关系。拟议的项目弥合了保健和教育之间的传统差距，这两个项目是分开供资和管理的。这个项目建立在我们团队为青少年制定健康评估问卷长达十年的经验基础上。这项工作的结果将为干预措施的设计提供信息，这些干预措施可以缩小青少年因早期健康问题而导致的学业成绩差距。我们这项研究的长期目标是跟踪青少年进入高中及以后，以更全面地描述从童年到成年的健康演变。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children's success in their primary social role as students is most effective when they are healthy and satisfied with their lives. Using a positive construction of health as a resource for participating and flourishing in major life activities, our research group has shown that over half of youth have a major health need. Poor health during middle childhood may interact with normative developmental demands to create a negative spiral of effects that interfere with engagement in school and adversely affect academic performance in early adolescence. This pattern is poorly understood, because little attention has been devoted to studying how health evolves between childhood and adolescence. We propose to test the hypothesis that positive health is necessary for successful school performance during the transition from middle childhood to early adolescence. We postulate that health comprises a set of resources that buffers individuals from endogenous and exogenous stressors and directly enhances the capacity to successfully participate in developmentally appropriate activities. This study has three specific aims: (1) to characterize longitudinal patterns of health among youth 9 to 13 years old; (2) to examine the longitudinal associations between health and biologic/individual factors (i.e. pubertal changes, demographics) and social environmental factors (i.e., life events, socio-economic status, and school transitions); and, (3) to assess how health experienced in middle childhood is related to school performance in early adolescence. We will enroll 2,000 students in grades 4, 5, and 6 attending schools in Maryland and West Virginia. Survey data will be collected from children, parents, and teachers at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months. School administrative records will provide data on school performance. Statistical analyses will model health trajectories and their relationship with school performance during the transition from childhood into adolescence. The proposed project bridges the conventional gaps between health and education, which are funded and administrated separately. This project builds on our team's decade-long experience developing health assessment questionnaires for youth. Findings from this work will inform the design of interventions that can close the school achievement gap among adolescents that results from their early health problems. Our long-term goal for this research is to follow youth into high school and beyond to more fully characterize the evolution of health from childhood to adulthood.