French primary school teachers and health promotion: factors influencing health promoting practicies

Résumé En

Literature emphasizes the importance of health promotion to improve health resources as well as to aid children’s academic progress. As schools are not primarily concerned with the improvement of children’s health, health promotion must be incorporated taking into consideration the way in which teachers perceive their mission, as well as the constraints of the school setting. This communication aims at provide knowledge on the process which led teachers to take into account health promotion issues into their teaching practices. The objective of this study was to identify factors which could be linked with health promoting teaching practices (HPTP). HPTP were defined on the basis of the work done on the effectiveness of health promotion in school (Barnekow et al., 2006; St Leger, Kolbe, Lee, Call, & Young, 2007). 116 French primary school teachers were involved in the survey and data were collected via semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Multvariate analysis showed factors significantly linked to HPTP are: individual interest of the teacher for health promotion OR=1,97, p=0,001; having completed a training program in health promotion OR=3,74, p=0,026 and starting to work in the field of health promotion on the basis of a collective reflection at the school level OR=2,97, p=0,056. These results allow us to discuss factors linked to health promoting practice and to improve the training programs.