Swedish study will test how school environments shape future health

A Swedish research program will investigate whether healthier school environments can improve students’ academic achievement and later employment, income and health. The longitudinal project follows a representative cohort from ages 12 to 20 and will combine existing population data with new evidence from students and school staff, according to the study protocol. Its central focus is on school-level social determinants of health: conditions within schools that may influence educational attainment and subsequent economic and health outcomes.

Educational attainment is itself described as a social determinant of health because it can affect later employment opportunities, income and wellbeing. The project will examine how school-level social determinants develop over time and how they relate to health behaviors and long-term outcomes. School climate is one potential pathway under investigation. Rather than treating academic success only as an individual achievement, the program asks how the surrounding school environment may help shape students’ prospects after they leave school.

The study uses a multiple-method, multi-informant design. Its first component relies on a large longitudinal dataset representing Swedish young people followed from ages 12 to 20. Researchers will analyze the development of school-level social determinants and their relationships with academic achievement, employment, income and health. The protocol does not report outcomes from this analysis; it describes the planned methods for testing those relationships and the mechanisms connecting education to later wellbeing.

Additional primary data will be gathered from school staff and students to assess how participants perceive the school’s ability to address social determinants of health. These qualitative and quantitative materials will be integrated with the longitudinal data. This combination is intended to connect changes in school conditions with students’ lived experiences, while also examining how staff and students understand the role schools can play in supporting achievement and health equity.

The project will also design and pilot an intervention intended to strengthen school-level social determinants and improve students’ academic achievement. Because academic achievement is considered a central pathway influencing later employment, income and health, the pilot is designed to test whether changes in the school environment can affect that pathway. The protocol presents the intervention as a planned component, so its effectiveness cannot yet be determined. The researchers aim to develop knowledge that may later inform school-level and policy-level strategies, but the immediate work is the design, testing and evaluation of the program’s methods and intervention.

Subject of Research: A Swedish study of school-level social determinants of health and later employment, income and wellbeing

Article Title: Promoting good and equal health by advancing vulnerable students’ employment and income opportunities: Protocol for a multiple method research program leveraging student and school staff perspectives

Article References: Olsson, T. M., Hau, H. G., Kapetanovic, S., Kajic, D., & Skoog, T. (2026). Promoting good and equal health by advancing vulnerable students’ employment and income opportunities: Protocol for a multiple method research program leveraging student and school staff perspectives. PLOS One, 21(10), e0360645. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360645

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0360645

Keywords: school climate, social determinants of health, academic achievement, employment, income, health equity, longitudinal study, Swedish youth, school staff, student perspectives, Promoting, good