title: Influence of perceptions on school nurse practices to prevent childhood obesity.
abstract: Comprehensive childhood obesity prevention (COP) strategies should include increasing school nurse involvement. This study was conducted to determine the influence of key school nurse perceptions (self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers) on participation in COP practices at the individual child and school level. Florida registered nurse (RN) school nurses (n = 171) anonymously completed online or paper questionnaires. Linear regression analyses identified a model of self-efficacy with perceived benefits and barriers that explained 12% and 9.1% (p < .001) of variance in child-level and school-level COP practices, respectively. Self-efficacy explained the most variance in both models (p < .001). Mediation testing identified perceived barriers as a partial mediator of the influence of self-efficacy on child-level practices. These findings support interventions and policy changes to increase self-efficacy and reduce perceived barriers to promote school nurse involvement in preventing childhood obesity.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA susan.quelly@ucf.edu.
authors.forename: Susan B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Quelly
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012572:School Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012573:School Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: health/wellness; obesity; role promotion/development; school nurse knowledge/perceptions/self-efficacy