Earticle

Purpose: This study aims to explore whether health promoting schools (HPS) affect school climate. The study is the first research that investigates the effects of Korean HPS on school climate. Methods: The study examined 2,791 students who participated in a study on HPS effectiveness conducted by MOE (The Ministry of Education) in 2014. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and ttest using SPSS/WINdow 22.0. Results: There was a significant difference between the HPS and the comparison schools in terms of three school climate criteria ' School atmosphere', 'Teacherstudent relationship', and 'Peer relationship'. Conclusion: The study's result that Korean HPS has positive effects on school climate indicates a need to expand HPS in Korea's education sector.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors associated with coping responses in Korean public high school students. Methods: This study employed a descriptive survey research design. The sample included 263 high school students who responded to a self-report questionnaire. Variables included socio-demographic characteristics, health-related characteristics, academic stress, somatization symptoms, social support, and coping responses. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlations, and multiple regressions. Results: Participants, regarding their school life, reported moderate levels of academic stress (M±SD=2.3±0.52) and somatization symptoms (M±SD=2.3±0.71), and a relatively high level of social support (M±SD=4.2±0.67). All the variables were associated with the use of multiple coping responses. Active-cognitive coping (M±SD=2.9±0.68) was most frequently used, followed by active-behavioral coping (M±SD=2.8±0.56) and avoidant coping (M±SD=2.3±0.75). Significant relationships were found among the measured variables: positive relation between academic stress and somatization symptoms, but, negative between academic stress and both somatization symptoms and social support. Students who had higher stress and more somatization symptoms were more likely to use avoidant coping than the others. In multiple regression analysis, while factors associated with each coping response differed, gender appeared to be a significant factor in all methods. Variables included in the final model explained 27% of the variance in avoidant coping (F=11.40, p<.001). Conclusion: Based on the study results, schools should provide tailored educational programs to help high school students reduce multisource stress and somatization symptoms at school and cope with them in more active and effective ways.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to present a model of WHO Health Promoting School easily applicable to small-sized schools in rural areas. Methods: The study analyzed data of 11 small-sized schools in rural areas selected from 85 health promoting schools, an initiative led by the Ministry of Education from 2012 to 2014. Results: Through the analysis, the study found out the operation process of health promoting schools consists of five stages: system development, needs survey & survey on current status, school health policy development, program development & execution, and evaluation. In addition, the study was able to discover three key factors in operating health promoting schools: connection with curriculum, connection with community, and consensus among members. While it turned out the schools were following operation manuals faithfully, the biggest problem with operation was that the stages of needs survey, priority setting, and core task development were not closely coordinated. Conclusion: Although the model suggested in the study fails to reflect the characteristics of small-sized schools in rural areas, it is close to a universal model which could serve as a guideline when regular schools adopt the system of health promoting schools.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate mental health and mental health-related factors of adolescents with allergic diseases. Methods: The subjects were 72,060 middle and high school students, the data of whom were extracted from the 2014 Korean Youth' Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. Allergic diseases included asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema. Mental health was measured by indicators such as perceived stress, depression, and suicidal ideation. To compare the mental health of adolescents who have allergic diseases with that of those who don’t, the study used x2-test and calculated odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). In addition, the study used x2-test and multiple logistic regression, calculating OR and 95% CI, to analyze the association between mental health and allergic diseases and other variables. Results: Of 72,060 adolescents who participated in the study, 51.6% had allergic diseases(asthma 9.2%, allergic rhinitis 32.2%, eczema 23.9%). And 37.1% reported perceived stress, 26.6% depression, and 13.1% suicidal ideation. The adolescents with allergic diseases, compared to the adolescents without allergic diseases, were 1.26 times, 1.28 times, and 1.29 times more likely to experience perceived stress, depression, and suicidal ideation, respectively. The mental health-related factors of adolescents with allergic diseases were school type, sex, socioeconomic status, and academic performance. Conclusion: The adolescents with allergic diseases had poorer mental health than the adolescents without the diseases. Further studies should be done to verify this. And based on the study’s findings, school-based intervention programs for mental health of adolescents with allergic diseases need to be developed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts of adolescents who had been bullied. Methods: This study used data extracted from Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey of 2014. The data of 1,926 adolescents, in total, who had experienced violence were included in the analysis, The analysis was done using SPSS/WIN. Results: The adolescents with an experience of being bullied were more likely to engage in suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts than the average teenagers in Korea. In addition, suicidal thoughts were affected by gender, experience of habitual drug use, subjective happiness, as well as sadness and despair. Suicidal attempts were influenced by gender, grade, smoking experience, experience of habitual drug use, size of the city of residence, subjective happiness, sadness and hopelessness, existence of people to get counseling, and habit of walking for 10 minutes every day. Conclusion: More attention should be given to the suicidal risk of adolescents having experienced violence. Further studies are required to develop an intervention program for suicide prevention targeting adolescents who have experienced violence and assess the program’s effectiveness.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the association between suicidal thoughts and the co-occurrence of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use among adolescents. Methods: This study used the data of the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey from 2008 through 2014. The subjects of this study were 517,866 students, in total (Male 266,500, Female 251,366). Frequency analysis was conducted on the data about the subjects’ general characteristics and their experience of smoking, drinking, and drug use. The relationship between suicidal thoughts and the co-occurrence of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use was analyzed through x2-test and logistic regression. The analyses were done using SAS 9.4. Results: According to the study, adolescents who used alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs at the same time engaged in suicidal ideation 3.69 times more than their peers who didn’t use such substances (95% CI: 3.40~4.00, p<.001). Also, adolescents who used only tobacco, only alcohol, and only drugs engaged in suicidal ideation 1.49 times (95% CI: 1.43~1.56, p<.001), 1.28 times (95% CI: 1.26~1.31, p<.001) and 2.34 times (95% CI: 2.04~2.69, p<.001) more than the students who didn’t use any substances, respectively. Conclusion: Adolescents’ suicidal ideation and the co-occurrence of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use had a statistically significant relationship.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of laughter therapy programs on middle school students' happiness, self-esteem and school life adaptation. Methods: In total, 60 students (Experimental group= 30. Control group=30) were recruited to answer a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of questions about general characteristics, happiness, self-esteem and school life adaptation. The experimental group participated in a 45-minute laughter therapy program once a week for eight weeks, while the control group did not. Results: The scores of happiness(t=-4.68, p<.001), self-esteem(t=-3.38, p=.001), and school life adaptation(t=-3.76, p<.001) in the experimental group got significantly higher than the control group. Conclusion: Based on this study results, laughter therapy programs should be applied to improve happiness, self-esteem, and school life adaptation of middle school students.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand interpersonal dispositions and social support among high school students and identify factors associated with depression. Methods: A total of 604 students (320 males and 284 females) from four high schools conveniently sampled from high schools in the Incheon area participated in a self-administered survey. Results: According to hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the following factors significantly affected the participants’ depression levels with the explanatory power of 30.6%: grade, perceived health status, sympathetic-acceptable personality, sociable-friendly personality, rebellious-distrustful personality, parent support, peer support, and the support from community. Conclusion: In this study, interpersonal dispositions and social support were positively associated with depression. These results suggest that strengthening personal relations and social support can help high school students in terms of mental health and suicide prevention.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of bully/victim experiences and bioethics of 5th and 6th graders. Participants were 326 elementary school students. Methods: The data was collected from 1th to 30th October, 2014 in G City. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression and Scheffé post-hoc analysis by SPSS 18.0. Results: First, in regard to bioethics, significant factors were liking for growing plants (p<.001), emotions after killing insects (p<.001) and the number of friends (p=.003). In regard to bullying experiences, significant factors were gender (p=.021), religion (p=.026), participation in religious activity (p=.019), liking for growing plants (p=.009), insect killing experience (p=.009). The bioethics score of the victim group (2.70 point) were higher than the bully group (2.49 point). The relationship between bully/victim experiences and bioethics was negative. The factors affecting bioethics were liking for growing plants (β=-.159, p=.004), the number of friends (β=.124, p=.030), experiences of being bullied (β=.352, p<.001), emotions after killing insects (β=-.135, p=.011). Conclusion: Therefore, based on the results of this study, it is required to develop rich learning content and a variety of teaching and learning models for bioethics. Efficient bioethics program would help elementary school students have a higher bioethics awareness. The entire society and families should wake up to the evil effects of school bullying and make concerted efforts to root it out with a sense of responsibility.