Purpose: The objectives of this study were to review trends in research on school responses to child abuse, and to identify the current status and issues regarding responses to child abuse by yogo teachers, the only health professionals placed in schools.

Methods: We searched the Japanese literature from 2000―when the Child Abuse Prevention Law was enacted―to 2010 in Japana Centra revuo Medicina Web, Ver.4 and Citation Information by The National Institute of Informatics (CiNii) using the keywords "child abuse," "school children (elementary and junior/high school students)," "school," and "yogo teacher." The research design, methods, and contents of these studies on school responses to child abuse were sorted for analysis.

Results: Eleven articles were retrieved, of which four were studies of yogo teachers. Analysis of the eleven articles generated four general types of responses: "support for child abuse issue," "calls for improvement of school organizational systems," "workshops about child abuse," and "calls for improvement of laws and regulations." The results demonstrated that yogo teachers were often in positions where child abuse could be detected at an early stage, and in many cases they were practically involved.

Discussion: Yogo teachers were highly aware of their roles and potential roles in child abuse cases. Additional empirical studies should be conducted to examine specific support that would help promote school responses to child abuse issues. Yogo teachers should be permitted to fully exercise their professional knowledge in the school’s response to child abuse issues from preventive perspectives. Future special investigations on the expert-team support involving families should be conducted with Yogo teachers.

Introduction: School children are required to receive preventive education on alcohol use, smoking, and substance abuse. However, since few studies are available on the effect of this part of the curriculum after graduation from high school, it remains unclear whether such education is adequate for adolescents.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey of all freshmen enrolled at Shinshu University in 2010 (n = 2114). Students were questioned about their experience with preventive education in elementary, junior high, and high school.

Results: 2024 students returned completed questionnaires (response rate = 95.7%). The percentage of students reporting preventive education in the three topics increased gradually from elementary school (approximately 50%) to high school (approximately 90%). The percentage differed significantly by gender regarding alcohol use (P = 0.0322) and substance abuse (P = 0.0276) in elementary school programs, and regarding substance abuse (P = 0.0224) in junior high school programs. In addition, when students were stratified into the university’s eight faculties, the proportion of students reporting preventive education experience in the three topics differed by approximately 10% between the highest and the lowest figure.

Conclusion: We found that approximately 10% of the students had either not received preventive education concerning these three topics in high school or did not remember receiving such education. We suggest that all freshmen should receive preventive education after entering university.