2025 · Conference paper · English
Measuring school capacity at health promoting schools: a validation study
Decker, L., Röding, D., von Holt, I., & Walter, U.
Decker, L., Röding, D., von Holt, I., & Walter, U. (2025). Measuring school capacity at health promoting schools: a validation study. European Journal of Public Health, 35(Supplement_4), Article ckaf161.1676. doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaf161.1676
Summary
Conference abstract from the European Public Health Conference 2025 presenting a German-language instrument for measuring school capacity for prevention and health promotion, adapted from an existing community-capacity tool. The instrument covers five constructs: adoption of a science-based prevention strategy (an index of 21 items), inter-sectoral collaboration (10 items), an integrated whole-school strategy (10 items), support for prevention (4 items) and social norms (8 items). Within the quasi-experimental Weitblick study, 108 key informants from 20 schools have been interviewed since March 2024. Preliminary results show acceptable to good internal consistency (α = .732–.831). At school level the integrated strategy correlates with support for prevention (r = .652) and with adoption of a science-based strategy (r = .668). The share of variance attributable to differences between schools ranges from 34.8% for the integrated strategy to 94.8% for adoption. Confirmatory factor analyses are still to come. The tool matters for school-based offshoots of CTC in Europe, which need capacity measures of their own.