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Abstract
The goal of this dissertation was to better understand factors contributing to the school functioning of students with asthma. Study 1 examined teacher-reported aspects of asthma management at school in reference to federal policy guidelines available for schools in assisting students with asthma. Results indicated that adherence to one recommendation, the presence of school-wide medication policy statements, was high. In contrast, teacher-reported adherence to other recommendations including the provision of school-based services in the form of IEPs or 504 plans, providing asthma-related professional development to teachers, limiting exposure to asthma triggers at school, and coordinating management efforts between home and school were low. Provision of professional development to teachers regarding asthma, teachers own history of chronic illness, and information-seeking behaviors served as significant predictors of whether students with asthma were receiving formalized services. Study 2 examined the ways in which a diagnosis of asthma can affect the academic achievement of students in a sample of former Head Start children. Results of this study first indicated students with asthma perform worse than students without this diagnosis on standardized measures of both reading and math achievement. In reference to reading abilities among students with asthma, indicators of socioeconomic status, gender, and level of school absences were found to be predictive of reading scores. Both socioeconomic status and school absences were significant in predicting the math scores of students with asthma. Finally, family environmental variables (e.g., access to community resources and regular family routines) were not significant contributors to explaining the asthma-academic achievement relationship.