Prevention of the Sexual Abuse of Children in the School Environment

The aim of the article is to present the assumptions of the prevention of sexual violence against children in the school environment. Child sexual abuse has become a global problem that affects not only the family environment, but educational institutions as well. One example of such an institution is a school where, under the guise of upbringing, there may be numerous abuses committed by people who are an authority in the child’s life. School staff members are often unaware of institutional grooming and its perpetrators, which means that the entire institution may unknowingly contribute to promoting child sexual abuse. The author first presents the methods of grooming used by perpetrators, pointing to activities aimed at children and the mechanisms of institutional grooming that may create a specific culture that makes it difficult to protect children. The author then presents the standards and strategies for prevention in schools, paying attention to the need to involve the entire community: conducting proper recruitment and training of employees and constructing preventive programs adapted to the age and development of children and their proper implementation.

Foreign experience in bullying prevention in schools

The aim of the article is to conduct a comprehensive study of bullying prevention at schools using foreign experience. The subject of research is the concept of bulling and features of its manifestation in educational institutions. The research methodology includes general scientific and special methods of legal science: method of theoretical analysis and systematization of scientific literature, method of modeling, statistical method, dogmatic method, logical method, method of summarization. Research results. The main causes, consequences of bullying in schools are analyzed and the characteristics of its participants are given. It is determined that bullying can be considered as a social, legal, psychological and pedagogical problem. Practical meaning. It is proved that schools without bullying differ in cohesion and various extracurricular forms of interaction between students. Value / originality. It is stated that the main means of counteracting this negative phenomenon in educational institutions are active public life, an atmosphere of openness, the possibility of collective conflict resolution under the guidance of a caring teacher.

Strategies to Prevent Suicide in Schools and Communities

The Social Worlds and Youth Well-Being Study examines the impact of social environments on youth’s welfare, help-seeking, and resilience to identify strategies for improving youth mental health and suicide prevention in schools and communities. This study grew out of a shared desire between the Front Range School District (FRSD, a pseudonym) and the research team to identify new, sustainable, effective, and equitable strategies to improve suicide prevention in schools, families, and communities. This report presents our main findings from the study on the Colorado front range. The report discusses the strategies schools use to effectively prevent suicide, including building cultures of belonging, emphasizing whole child educational philosophies, and incorporating mental health into multi-tiered system of supports. The report also examines the important roles of families, mental healthcare, pediatricians and family medicine doctors, Safe2Tell, and faith communities in both suicide prevention and in supporting school-based suicide prevention. Finally, the report offers concrete policy recommendations and practical suggestions to improve suicide prevention in families, schools, and communities.

Access to Dental-Care Services in Jazan, Saudi Arabia: A Scoping Review

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> The construct of dental access adopted in this study uses the following 4 main dimensions: opportunity for access, realized access or utilization, equity, and outcome. <b><i>Aims:</i></b> The principal aims of this study were to identify various indicators used in the literature to measure each dimension of access in Saudi Arabia, to summarize and map the range of existing research with policy implications, to identify gaps in research, and to consider implications for future research. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This scoping review was conducted using the PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases, as well as manually. Additional relevant publications were identified by manually searching the reference list of the included studies. Data were extracted based on the 4 dimensions of the access framework. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The search strategy yielded 230 studies, of which 16 were included after full-text revision. Of the 4 domains, the most explored and in all included studies were realized access, but no differentiation was made by the authors between initial utilization and continued engagement. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> An overview of different policy suggestions has been provided. In particular, we recommend making better use of teledentistry, improving referral services between dentists and physicians, and offering more education on dental prevention in schools’ health-service sites.

Universal suicide prevention in schools

Schools are one of the most important settings for health promotion and preventive interventions for young people and therefore became one of the main targets of youth suicide prevention programmes. School-based suicide prevention interventions are presented here according to the Universal/Selective/Indicated model. Evidence of the effectiveness of the different programmes is discussed. Universal interventions proved to be the most effective. Particularly, Signs of Suicide (SOS) and Youth Aware of Mental health (YAM) programme showed to significantly reduce suicidal ideation and behaviours. Gatekeeper training, especially QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer), are also widely implemented but their efficacy was mostly evaluated as changes in knowledge and attitudes towards suicide. Screening programmes do not have iatrogenic effects and are effective in identifying at-risk students who otherwise would not be recognized, however their level of sensitivity and specificity require further improvements. Some systematic reviews suggested that a combination of programmes may be most effective.

Is There a Hole in the Whole-School Approach? A Critical Review of Curriculum Understanding in Bullying Research

This article investigates curriculum understanding in bullying research and discusses how such an understanding can contribute to bullying prevention in schools. So far, no studies have systematically investigated an understanding of curriculum in research on bullying prevention. Building on a critical review of 29 studies, the article identifies curriculum as a broadly understood concept constricted in different categories of bullying research. Such compartmentalization, the article argues, may contribute to the underutilization of curriculum knowledge in bullying research and obstruct the development of new and innovative approaches to prevent bullying in schools. The study concludes that curriculum knowledge should be more explicitly addressed in bullying research, and that more collaboration is needed. Emphasizing a whole-school approach, without a broader understanding of curriculum, risks constraining the application of pedagogical knowledge in bullying prevention.