Abstract
PurposeRisk behaviors are significantly impacting physical and psychological health among adolescents, resulting in a tremendous public health issue. The aim of this study is to examine the association of clustered risk behaviors with mental health and physical activity, and identify to what extent the clustering of various risk behaviors is associated with psychological health and physical activity in Chinese adolescents.MethodsStudents aged 16–18 years, male 16.2 ± 1.03, female 16.3 ± 1.56, were recruited from 30 high schools to complete an online questionnaire in fall semester 2017. A structured questionnaire, 2017 state and local youth risk behavior survey was revised, modified, and translated into Chinese. Five questions were designed to assess physical activity times of the last 7 days. Symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) was used to investigate the mental health status of the participants. Statistical analyses were done employing chi-square tests, two step cluster analysis, logistic regression.ResultResults illustrate that girls report a significantly higher mean of being bullied in school, electronically bullied, feeling sad or hopeless, and trying cigarette smoking. Two-step cluster analysis and regression analysis find that alcohol use, smoking and sedentary behavior have significant effect on adolescent health. Logic regression demonstrated that risk behaviors have significantly associated with mental health and physical activity in specific cluster.ConclusionThis study finds that a specific behavior cluster has significant impact on mental health and physical activity among adolescents. Integrating risk behaviors cluster with factors can be employed to target high-risk adolescents who have poor physical and psychosocial health. The research suggest that more effective and feasible school intervention programs can be designed to promote adolescent health-related behavior in terms of those pathways.
Highlights
This study finds that a specific behavior cluster has significant impact on mental health and physical activity among adolescents
Integrating risk behaviors cluster with factors can be employed to target high-risk adolescents who have poor physical and psychosocial health
Youth Risk behaviors are composed of extensive behaviors during the period of school, such as bullying [3], smoking [4] unhealthy diet [5], insufficient exercise [6] and harmful alcohol use [7], unintentional injuries and violence [8] etc., can cause physical diseases, psychosocial disorders [9,10,11], and premature illness [12]
Summary
The aim of this study is to examine the association of clustered risk behaviors with mental health and physical activity, and identify to what extent the clustering of various risk behaviors is associated with psychological health and physical activity in Chinese adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of clustered risk behaviors with adolescent mental health and physical activity, and identify to what extent the clustering of various risk behaviors is associated with psychological health and physical activity in Chinese adolescents
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