Abstract
Background School health services are important tools for health promotion among schoolchildren, but little is known about their effects. This article addresses the effects of dialogues with school health nurses among schoolchildren who were victims of bullying.
Study population and methods Cross-sectional and school-based survey, the Danish contribution to the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. The study included all students in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grade (11, 13, and 15 year olds) in a random sample of schools. The participation rate was 98 per cent of the students present on the day of data collection and 88 per cent of the enrolled students, n = 5205.
Measurements Bullying was measured as recommended by Olweus. Outcome of the dialogue with the school health nurse was measured as self-reports of five responses: (1) reflected on the dialogue, (2) discussed the content with parents, (3) followed the advice from the school health nurse, (4) did what he (she) himself (herself) thought was best, and (5) visited the school health nurse again.
Results All outcome measures were more prevalent among students who were victims of bullying. The most pronounced association was that the odds ratio for visiting the school health nurse again was 1.8 (95 per cent CI 1.3–2.5) for students who were bullied at least weekly.
Conclusion Schoolchildren who are victims of bullying benefit from health dialogues with the school health nurse.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.