An Exploratory Analysis of How School Community Members’ Understandings of Child Health Aligns With the Whole School,Whole Community,Whole Child Model

Abstract

There are increasing efforts among researchers, advocates, and school leaders to bring together physical health, mental and behavioral health, social emotional, and environmental supports together in K–12 school settings to more holistically address students’ needs through “whole child thinking.” The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Model provides a theoretical framework for guiding this integration. There is an opportunity to better understand how “whole child thinking” and the WSCC model’s components resonate in a practical way with key members of the school community, including parents, students, and school staff. Leveraging existing transcripts and data from discussion groups with key members of the Chicago Public Schools community, we explore how the WSCC components align with the school community’s understanding of child health. Data were analyzed to assess how WSCC components aligned with parents’, students’, and school staff members’ perceptions of child health. Members of all three participant types expressed views of health that align with the WSCC components. Most groups discussed components relevant to their experiences. For example, students and staff discussed health education programming more frequently, whereas parents and staff more frequently discussed family and community involvement. The salience of WSCC components across groups demonstrates promise for more intentional, practical use of the model among practitioners with all school community members.