Influence of perceptions on school nurse practices to prevent childhood obesity.

Comprehensive childhood obesity prevention (COP) strategies should include increasing school nurse involvement. This study was conducted to determine the influence of key school nurse perceptions (self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers) on participation in COP practices at the individual child and school level. Florida registered nurse (RN) school nurses (n = 171) anonymously completed online or paper questionnaires. Linear regression analyses identified a model of self-efficacy with perceived benefits and barriers that explained 12% and 9.1% (p < .001) of variance in child-level and school-level COP practices, respectively. Self-efficacy explained the most variance in both models (p < .001). Mediation testing identified perceived barriers as a partial mediator of the influence of self-efficacy on child-level practices. These findings support interventions and policy changes to increase self-efficacy and reduce perceived barriers to promote school nurse involvement in preventing childhood obesity.