Background: Children’s attitudes toward growth are likely to be negative during puberty. Education on growth is necessary to promote more positive attitudes, as shown in the government guidelines for education.

Objectives:The purpose of this study is to develop an evaluation scale measuring attitudes toward growth among elementary school upper grade children and to examine the scale’s reliability and validity. A secondary purpose is to determine the situation of the attitudes by grade or sex, and to obtain information on teaching content.

Methods:We conducted a questionnaire survey in January 2017 with 492 children(250 males, 241 females, 1 unidentified gender)from the 4th to 6th grades of two public elementary schools in Kyoto Prefecture. The contents of the survey were questions regarding growth, general self-esteem, and body image, to examine criterion-related validity. Factor analysis was conducted to extract factors of attitudes toward growth.

Results:
(1) Four factors of attitudes toward growth were extracted, namely, “negative feelings about body type"; “positive feelings about body type"; “comparison of physique with others"; and“acceptance of changes in growth".
(2) Attitudes toward growth and their factors showed a significantly positive relationship with self-esteem and good body image; therefore, criterion-related validity and reliability were confirmed.
(3) Attitudes towards growth were more positive in boys than in girls and more negative in females in higher grades.

Conclusion:Validity and reliability of a scale of attitudes toward growth were confirmed. The attitudes toward growth were more positive in boys than in girls, and more negative in females in higher grades. It is suggested that enhancing self-esteem may be effective in improving attitudes toward growth, which were related to self-esteem.

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.