Parents’ perceptions on parental involvement in preparatory secondary vocational school health education

Abstract

Title Parents’ perceptions on parental involvement in school health education.

Background Secondary school has been recognized as an important setting for school health education. One large group where an unhealthy lifestyle could be prevented is that of adolescents attending preparatory secondary vocational education [PSVE]. Parental involvement is often advocated as important for health education, because of their function as role model. However, parents are often not eager to involve and there is minimal understanding of the perceptions and opinions of parents about their involvement in school health education.

Aim and research question The present study aimed to get insight in parents’ perceptions on parental involvement regarding health education. The study explored parents’ perceptions about their involvement in school health education, school-and home responsibilities and how they perceive desired versus actual involvement.

Method Qualitative research was conducted, comprising three focus groups with twenty Dutch parents of adolescents attending PSVE.

Results The results suggested that parents perceived their role to be most important in adolescents health. School should function as a supervisor. The majority of parents did not feel the need to be more involved in decision making regarding health related topics. Parents did like the possibility of attending school education programs for parents. Mixed opinions existed on schools’ role in forwarding information about unhealthy behavior of adolescents to parents, as most parents experienced this as an interference.

Conclusion and recommendations Parents do not always prefer an enhanced role in school health education. An interesting finding because of the growing interest of the Dutch government to increase parent- school interaction regarding health. Therefore, a discussion is warranted about the interpretation of an increased educational partnership, with specific attention paid to the boundaries of responsibilities.