Overheard in the halls: what adolescents are saying, and what teachers are hearing, about health issues.
BACKGROUND
Schools have long been recognized as an excellent place to offer health education and supportive services. Teachers are among the most important influences in the lives of school-aged children and can provide valuable insight into the health issues important to adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential role general academic teachers may play in facilitating adolescent health promotion efforts.


METHODS
To determine what teachers think about the role of health promotion in schools and what tools and topics they would find most helpful as critical advisers to students, we administered a 28-question survey at staff development meetings in 4 New York City schools.


RESULTS
Teachers agreed that schools were an important venue for discussing and providing health messages. More than half of those surveyed reported having overheard student discussions about health once a week or more, and 70% stated that they had been actively approached by students 1-3 or more times per semester with reports of personal problems or health issues. Teachers expressed concern about their ability to handle student mental, behavioral, and reproductive health problems and desired additional staff development workshops to address these needs.


CONCLUSIONS
Teachers felt that schools were important places to promote dialogue about health and accept the importance of playing a broader role in the lives of youth beyond education. To enhance the prospect of health-promoting interactions between teachers and students, attention must be paid to developing the overall skill and comfort level of teachers with respect to adolescent health concerns.
Harlem Health Promotion Center/Project STAY, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. atc1@columbia.edu
Alwyn T
AT
Cohall
Renee
R
Cohall
Bonnie
B
Dye
Sheila
S
Dini
Roger D
RD
Vaughan
Susan
S
Coots
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005006:Ethnicity; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City; D044469:Racial Groups; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data