Background: Recently it has been pointed out that mental and physical health problems of students are diverse and complicated. Promotion of interprofessional collaboration within and outside the school is said to be important in solving these health problems.
Objective: The purpose of this research is to clarify how interprofessional collaboration is manifested in schools by creating a model of the efforts of teachers and staff to work together to solve health problems.
Methods: An interview survey was conducted to professionals involved in school health, and a 59-item questionnaire was created based on the interview contents. This questionnaire was then distributed to 214 Yogo teachers, yielding 166 valid responses. Survey data was subjected to factor analysis to explore the factorial structure of the survey, resulting in a hypothetical model, which was evaluated by covariance structure analysis.
Results: Factor analysis of survey items related to the primary causes of collaboration resulted in five factors:“ coordinator competence", “managerial staff competence", “friendly and cooperative teacher-staff relations", “ links with external organizations", and “teaching staff's ability to understand young students". Factor analysis of items related to how cooperation is manifested resulted in three factors: Tasks, goals, and information sharing, implementation of suggestions, and collaboration with external experts. Factor analysis of items related to the outcomes of cooperation resulted in one factor: trust from students and guardians. A hypothetical model was created based on the results of these factor analyses, and its validity was established (χ2 = 23.38, df = 18, GFI = 0.96, AGFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.059, AIC = 58.63). According to the covariance structure analysis, collaboration is governed by coordinator competence and friendly, cooperative teacherstaff relations, and manifests in the forms of tasks, goals, and information sharing, implementation of suggestions, and collaboration with external experts. Successful collaboration results in increased trust from students and guardians.
Conclusion:The constructed model suggests that improving the competence of school coordinators and fostering friendly and cooperative teacher-staff relationships would be an effective way to promote interprofessional collaboration.
