Visual Research on Student Perceptions of the School Health Environment

Abstract

School environments are connected to student learning and health outcomes. Our studytook advantage of a natural experiment, an elementary school renovation, to useparticipatory drawing assessments to explore children’s perceptions of school space, food and physical activity environments. Our cross-sectional study revealed that children interpreted space socially and had positive perceptions of and preferences for physical activity spaces, likely due to social interactions. The longitudinal study found that children develop new social interpretations of space over time and that they less readily connect to healthy eating than physical activity spaces.Future school designs should explore strategies that use connections of physical and social environments to foster positive learning and health outcomes.