Abstract
Adolescence is not only typically considered a time of good health but also characterized by an emergence of risk factors that may have long-term consequences for well-being that represents strong predictors of adverse health outcomes. The aim of the study is to assess adolescence well-being through the development of an integrated Well-Being Index (WBI) including variables of lifestyle habits, social context, emotional status, and mental skills. One thousand two hundred forty-eight healthy adolescents (Female 48%; Male 52%; mean age 13 years) were recruited from five Italian junior high schools, by KIDSCREEN-52 and cognitive processing using the Stroop Test. School performance was estimated by questions concerning the scholastic achievement. Social context was the most important predictor of perceived well-being (β = 0.972, SE = 0.014, p < 0.0001), with parent relation (p < 0.0001) as the most observed variable. Subsequently, WBI was strongly represented by lifestyle habits (β = 0.954, SE = 0.017, p < 0.000) with autonomy (p < 0.0001), and emotional status (β = 0.949, SE = 0.017, p < 0.000) with psychological well-being perception (p < 0.0001). Finally, mental skills (β= −0.1417, SE = 0.031, p < 0.0.00) was the least important predictor for the WBI index (p < 0.0001). Personalised (P) WBI was obtained by the sum of each centered and scaled WBI variable, weighted by the corresponding ratio between factor loading and residual variance. Social context was the more important predictor of WBI, followed by lifestyle, emotional factors, and lastly mental skills. PWBI provides an integrated and personalized perspective of adolescents' well-being, on the basis of a cooperation between school, family, and community with the common intent to promote and protect adolescent health.
Highlights
In the last decades, we assisted to a substantial change from intervention to promotion and prevention, in line with the new concept of health, considered as a continuum from absence of disease to a well-being condition [1]
For Well-Being Index (WBI), the most important predictor was social context (β = 0.972, SE = 0.014, p < 0.000); subsequently, the WBI was strongly represented by lifestyle habits (β = 0.954, SE = 0.017, p < 0.000) and emotional status (β = 0.949, SE = 0.017, p < 0.000)
The present study showed the development of an innovative tool to assess well-being in healthy adolescents, in terms of
Summary
We assisted to a substantial change from intervention to promotion and prevention, in line with the new concept of health, considered as a continuum from absence of disease to a well-being condition [1] According to this new perspective, the improvement of health and well-being during adolescence is a topic of growing interest in several fields, including public policy, school programs, and preventive medicine. Growing evidences indicate that adolescence is a dynamic and flexible period of knowledge and adaptation to target health interventions, so that adolescents can make positive lifestyle choices to enhance their well-being [4, 5] In this view, strategies, including health-promoting skills, positive behaviors, and social connection with family, school, and community are recommended in order to limit the incidence of a health-jeopardizing conduct. To our knowledge, it is not yet available a tool for health and well-being monitoring that, according to a multiparametric approach, includes different health aspects, such as lifestyle habits, emotional status, social context, and mental skills
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