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Health Education Research Advance Access published online on October 23, 2006
Health Education Research, doi:10.1093/her/cyl123
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received March 28, 2006
Accepted August 31, 2006

Original article

V.I.K. (Very Important Kids): a school-based program designed to reduce teasing and unhealthy weight-control behaviors

Jess Haines 1 *, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer 1, Cheryl L. Perry 1, Peter J. Hannan 1, and Michael P. Levine 2

1 Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA
2 Department of Psychology, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022-9623

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Jess Haines, E-mail: haines{at}epi.umn.edu


  Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of V.I.K. (Very Important Kids), a school-based, multi-component intervention designed to prevent teasing and unhealthy weight-control behaviors among fourth through sixth grade students. The effectiveness of the V.I.K. intervention was evaluated using a pre-post quasi-experimental design with one school assigned to each condition: intervention and assessment-only control. Data were collected at baseline and at 8-month post-test among 63 students at the intervention school and 57 students at the control school. The V.I.K. intervention included an after-school program, a theater program, school environment components and a family component. Process data suggest that the V.I.K. program can feasibly be implemented within a school setting and can effectively engage students, school staff and parents. Analysis of impact data revealed that the percentage of students reporting being teased decreased significantly in the intervention school relative to the control school, after controlling for baseline levels of teasing, body mass index z score and demographic factors (odds ratio = 0.22; 95% confidence interval = 0.06, 0.88; P = 0.03). These findings provide promising evidence that multi-component, school-based interventions may effectively reduce teasing in elementary schools. Future research of interventions aimed at preventing teasing using a larger sample of schools is warranted.


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