Trust in school-based participatory science for health promotion: Potentials and reservations in socioeconomically disadvantaged school contexts
Socioeconomically disadvantaged youth face elevated risks of poor physical, mental, and social health, contributing to persistent socioeconomic health inequalities across the life course (Hoebel & Müters, 2024; Lampert et al., 2013; WHO, 2025). Addressing such inequalities early is critical to breaking cycles of disadvantage, and schools are a key setting for doing so. Evidence-based school health promotion can be a powerful lever, particularly when implemented as whole-school approaches that engage adolescents within their wider school and community environments (Barry et al., 2017; Goldberg et al., 2019; Lekamge et al., 2025).
However, whole-school health promotion is not simply a matter of delivering ready-made interventions. Rather, it requires evidence-informed and context-sensitive school development in which health promotion becomes embedded in everyday routines, relationships, and organizational culture. This is challenging, as schools often face competing demands, limited resources, and diverse student needs. To initiate, support, and reflect on such structural change, external expertise is frequently valuable. Scientists working at the interface of science and practice can take on this role within participatory research projects by contributing scientific expertise, co-designing interventions, supporting implementation processes, monitoring and feedback of effects, and deriving recommendations for wider dissemination in the fields of science, policy and practice (e.g., Sjölund et al., 2022). In participatory research and development projects between science and practice, trust between stakeholders and within schools may not only be an outcome of a successful joint venture but also represents a relevant prerequisite for successful collaboration (Holzer et al., 2024).
This contribution is part of a larger project that aims to develop, implement, and evaluate a one-year whole-school health intervention in disadvantaged secondary schools in Vienna. Within an ongoing preparatory study, we are currently examining implementation conditions, with a particular focus on trust relations within schools and between schools and researchers.
We ask:
(1) Which trust relationships are perceived as relevant for school-based health promotion?
(2) What fosters or undermines trust in health-related communication within schools?
(3) What conditions do school actors identify for trustful collaboration with researchers?
Data are currently collected in three secondary schools in Vienna, all of them characterized by an above-average proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. We conduct qualitative group interviews with students and teachers, and individual interviews with school leaders. Interviews are conducted on site, transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
Preliminary results indicate that trust between students and teachers, as well as trust between practitioners and researchers, are particularly salient themes in the context of school-wide evidence-based health promotion. This for example relates to students reporting reluctance to discuss sensitive health issues with teachers when they fear that personal information may be passed on, or when they perceive certain issues as private and outside the school’s remit. This points to tensions between adolescents’ need for confidentiality and schools’ safeguarding responsibilities.
When it comes to trust between researchers and practitioners, teachers and school leaders particularly emphasized that trust depends strongly on perceived credibility and practical relevance of scientific content. Researchers are expected to understand the realities of everyday school life, including time pressure, resource constraints, and cumulative burdens in disadvantaged contexts. Participants stress that schools are willing to engage in research when expected efforts are proportionate to tangible benefits for students, staff, or school development. Scientific activities perceived as self-serving or detached from practice may undermine trust.
While first insights already offer relevant practical implications for collaborative intervention projects between researchers and schools in the field of health promotion, data collection will be ongoing until mid of May 2026. Analyses will expectedly be completed by September 2026, for full results addressing all research questions to be presented at TiCS.