PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY
Health People and Community The impact of the school has immediate and long-term health impacts on students, teachers, and the community at large. The vibrancy and availability of opportunities and resources in the community surrounding the school can impact on the support the school community receives. Use of space that helps to provide monitored activities for students beyond school hours while parents are still working and away. Policies that help to protect youth from starting risky habits of the use of drugs and alcohol while encouraging healthy activities help to encourage students to achieve more academically.
Extracurricular activities, physical activity and health Physical Activity is important to cognitive function which includes memory and attention in youth by improving brain function through physiological mechanisms454 and higher-level executive functions such as decision making and creativity.455 Studies that look at programs in schools that integrate physical activity and social emotional engagement engage additional skills of self-regulation.379–381 Sports have also been shown to be protective of adolescent risk behaviors and a study of 1,816 adolescent youth showed positive association between intense participation and externalizing behaviors moderated by prosocial and risk-taking peers.382 The way that neighborhoods and schools are designed and built can allow for healthier lifestyles and contribute to the reduction of chronic disease.383, 384 Open safe spaces for play can encourage physical activity levels.371 The whole child model of the integration of school and wrap around services that address the physical and emotional needs of youth create an easy to access and unified approach to have students healthy and ready to learn.372 This includes family and school interventions that support social emotional development outside of school. A meta-analysis found that there were significant effects of family-school interventions on children’s mental health and socioemotional development.456 Research on the built environment on child physical activity,457 obesity,458 and physical activity on psychosocial and cognitive development459, 460 shows benefits to the health of the child. Children able to move safely through the neighborhoods in walkable communities with safe crossing, paths to walk and local places to play and interact are likely to be more physically active than those in communities that are not as walkable.305, 373 The intensity of involvement which includes range of participation as well as time devoted to activities may contribute to the ability for students to balance academic and nonacademic pursuits and be conscientious in their behaviors.385, 386 In a longitudinal study about participation in extracurricular activity of 11,720 students beginning in 10th grade that if the breadth and intensity of involvement increased in 12th grade then eight years later there
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