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The Dartmouth Health Promotion Study: A Failed Quest for Synergy in School Health Promotion
Author(s) -
McIntyre Lynn,
Belzer Edwin G.,
Manchester Lise,
Blanchard Wade,
Officer Suzanne,
Simpson A. Catherine
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1996.tb06262.x
Subject(s) - health promotion , mental health , feeling , health education , school health , qualitative research , psychology , medical education , medicine , promotion (chess) , nursing , public health , social psychology , psychiatry , sociology , political science , politics , law , social science
The Dartmouth Health Promotion Study was a longitudinal, quasi‐experimental field study with a qualitative research arm, designed to learn whether coordinating school health instruction, health services, and a healthful environment enhanced the program's effect on the heart health and mental health of children. The research strategy — the Coordinated Approach — was applied to approximately 300 children in each of two cohorts in grades four to six attending nine trial schools; a further 600 children attended 10 comparison schools in Dartmouth and nine distal comparison schools. Although the qualitative analysis demonstrated that positive feelings were engendered in most areas of the study, when either the classroom or the individual was used as the unit of analysis, the Coordinated Approach did not have a more favorable effect on the heart or mental health of children than did the standard school health program. Thus, the effect of an existing school health program was not directly enhanced through coordinating its components.