Sex, violence, and drugs among Latin American and Caribbean adolescents: Do engaged parents make a difference?

This paper uses data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey toinvestigate the prevalence of health risk behaviors, in particular substance use, risky sexual behavior, and violence among adolescents in 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Using logit regressions and meta-analysis, we find that having parents engaged in raising their children is associated with significantly reduced problem behaviors in adolescents. That said, in the Caribbean the prevalence of health risk behaviors in adolescents is higher and engaged parents is lower than in Latin America, and the correlation between engaged parenting and reduced risk behaviors is generally weaker. Nonetheless, for both subgroups of countries, engaged parents do appear to make a difference.

This paper uses data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey to investigate the prevalence of health risk behaviors, in particular substance use, risky sexual behavior, and violence among adolescents in 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Using logit regressions and meta-analysis, we find that having parents engaged in raising their children is associated with significantly reduced problem behaviors in adolescents. That said, in the Caribbean the prevalence of health risk behaviors in adolescents is higher and engaged parents is lower than in Latin America, and the correlation between engaged parenting and reduced risk behaviors is generally weaker. Nonetheless, for both subgroups of countries, engaged parents do appear to make a difference.

Addressing Common Risk and Protective Factors Can Prevent a Wide Range of Adolescent Risk Behaviors

Recent attachment research suggests that children with avoidant attachment often underreport their psychological distress compared to their physiologic indicators of distress (neuroendocrine reactivity, startle response, event-related potentials). This pattern of behavior (referred to as psychobiological divergence) may confer risk for suboptimal coping behaviors, including substance use, sexual risk-taking, and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), because individuals who are not aware of or cannot express their emotional needs may engage in maladaptive strategies to regulate their emotions. In the current pilot study (N = 45 youth), we investigate whether psychobiological divergence of neuroendocrine and self-reported reactivity in middle childhood prospectively predicts health risk behaviors (HRBs) in adolescence. The results revealed that divergence was significantly associated with adolescents’ substance use and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), but not with their sexual behavior. Among adolescents currently reporting low levels of attachment security, divergence was associated with greater self-reported NSSI. Our results provide initial evidence that psychobiological divergence confers risk for substance use and NSSI in combination with current relational distress. We discuss the implications of our findings for adolescent development and clinical risk.

Adolescence is an important stage of life when health behaviors and attitudes are established. The purpose of this research was to assess health risk behaviors among Guatemalan students in both an urban and rural school. Items were adapted from the Global School-based Student Health Survey and were used to measure and compare the prevalence of risk behaviors between these two demographically and culturally distant school-based samples. In general, the prevalence of adolescent health risk behaviors in both schools was lower than other Latin American countries. Many health risk behaviors were associated with location (urban vs. rural settings) and/or gender. Tobacco use, alcohol use, and sexual activity were higher among urban students. Boys were more likely than girls to use alcohol, use tobacco, and be sexually active. In addition, the prevalence of mental health problems was higher among girls and rural students. These findings imply that measures should be taken to design effective and appropriate health strategies for adolescents attending these schools. Health promotion programs in schools and communities should assist the youth in developing positive health behaviors and cultivating healthy lifestyles in an effort to reduce risk behaviors among adolescent populations. Further research is needed to extend our understanding of risk factors of health behavior in these adolescent populations and to identify effective preventative approaches and strategies that specifically cater to the location and culture of the students.

Downwards trends in adolescent risk-taking behaviours in New Zealand: Exploring driving forces for change.

Adolescence is a critical period where major physical and psychologic changes occur. It is also a period where several lifelong health related behaviors are adopted and established. Behaviors such as unhealthy eating, tobacco use, alcohol use, and physical inactivity are related to major causes of morbidity and mortality among young and adults. Physical activity (PA) is an important behavior during adolescence not only because it is associated with general health, but also because it may be associated with other health-related risk behaviors. PURPOSE: To examine the association of physical activity with health risk behaviors in adolescents from Curitiba- Brazil. METHODS: A cross-section study was carried out with a representative sample of 928 (mean age 14.06 ± 1.91 years old, 467 girls) adolescents enrolled in 14 randomly selected public schools from Curitiba, Brazil. The Brazilian version of the Youth Activity Profile survey evaluated PA levels and the YRBS survey evaluated fruit, vegetable, alcohol, and tobacco consumption in the past 30 days. The Adolescent Sedentary Questionnaire evaluated total screen time. Binary Logistic regression measured the association between PA levels and risk behaviors after controlling for gender, age, BMI status, income status, and parent educational level. RESULTS: PA was inversely associated with low fruit consumption (OR = .50, 95% IC = .38 - .66, p <.001), low vegetable consumption (OR =.55, 95% IC = .42 - .73, p < .001), and high screen Time (≥3 hours/day) (OR = .79, 95% IC = .65 - .96, p < .001). Additionally, PA was positively associated with the consumption of at least one dose of alcohol in the past 30 days (OR = 1.47, 95% IC = 1.15 – 1.88, p < .001), and with the excessive consumption of alcohol (OR = 1.73, 95% IC = 1.29 – 2.33, p <.001). PA was not associated with Tobacco consumption (OR = 1.01, 95% IC = .67 – 1.52, p = .96). CONCLUSION: The results indicated that adolescents with higher PA levels consumed more fruits and vegetables and spent less time in front of electronic screens. However, adolescents with higher levels of PA were also more likely to report alcohol consumption in the past 30 days. The social characteristics of alcohol consumption may explain its positive relationship to PA. Supported by CNPq, Brazil.

An assessment of the effect of data collection setting on the prevalence of health risk behaviors among adolescents.

Introduction: Risky behavior among adolescents is a major public health problem in India and it affects health both at that time and in later years. Poor mental health is strongly related to other health and development concerns in young people notably lower educational achievements, substance abuse, and violence. The aim of this study is to assess the health risk behaviors of male school-going tribal adolescents from Jharkhand, India. Methodology: The present study is a cross-sectional descriptive study design. Schools were selected from rural areas of Ranchi district, Jharkhand. Sociodemographic data sheet and the Global School-based Student Health Survey were administered. Results: A total of 780 male students participated in the study. In the present study, 3.46% of the respondents have felt lonely always during the past 12 months, and 1.15% of the students have seriously considered attempting suicide. In this survey, the prevalence of current alcohol use among students (i.e., drinking at least one drink containing alcohol on one or more of the past 30 days) was 14.35%. In the school survey, it was found that during the past 30 days, 1.41% of the students have used marijuana (cannabis) 20 or more times. During the past 30 days, 18.46% of the students reported that they smoked cigarettes all 30 days. Conclusion: The finding of the study shows that mental health scenarios and high-risk behaviors are prevalent among adolescents from the tribal community; considering their social, religious, cultural, and economic backgrounds, adequate psychosocial intervention plans can be made for early identification and adequate intervention. This information might help policymakers, health professionals, and researchers to incorporate prevention and treatment strategies to reduce risk behaviors and prevent psychiatric disorders among these adolescents.

Objective To explore the status of adolescents' health risk behaviors, relationship between cognitive ability and health risk behaviors, and provide an empirical reference for reducing the occurrence and early prevention of health risk behaviors among adolescents. Methods Samples were extracted by hierarchical, multi-stage, probability and scale proportional (PPS) methods. There were 112 schools randomly selected from 28 county-level regions (county, district, city), and 19 487 students were investigated by baseline survey, a follow-up study was conducted among 8 636 students during 2014-2015. Descriptive statistical methods of using 2 test and t test, and logistic multivariate regression analysis were used to analyze the relationship between cognitive abilities and healthy risk behaviors. Results The reported rate of a healthy risk behavior was 20.77%, and the incidence of more than one type of health risk behavior was 16.03%. The student’s cognitive ability standardized score was (0.33±0. 82). The average score of cognitive ability of adolescents with healthy risk behavior was 0.14, which was lower than the average score of cognitive ability of adolescents without healthy risk behaviors (0.43). Boys, having rural household registeration, non-residential schools, and parents with low education levels adolescents were more likely to be involved in health behavior risks. There was a significant correlation between adolescent cognitive ability and healthy risk behavior ( OR = 0.67, P <0.01). Conclusion The current status of adolescent health risk behaviors is worrying. The cognitive ability has a significant impact on health risk behaviors. It is recommended to use the cognitive ability of adolescents as a starting point to prevent and reduce the occurrence of adolescent health risk behaviors. 【摘要】目的 探究青少年健康危险行为现状及其与认知能力的关系，为减少青少年健康危险行为的发生及早期预 防提供实证参考。 方法 采用分层次、多阶段、概率与规模成比例（PPS)的方法，从全国28个县级单位（县、区、市）随机抽 取112所学校，2013—2014学年基线调査19 487名学生，2014—2015学年追踪调査8 636名初中学生。运用妒检验、《检 验的描述性统计方法，以及Logistic多因素回归分析认知能力与健康危险行为的关系。 结果 学生存在1种健康危险行为 的报告率为20.77%，1种以上的健康危险行为报告率为16.03%。学生认知能力标准化得分为（0.33±0.82)分。有健康危 险行为的青少年认知能力标准化得分均分为0.14分，没有健康危险行为青少年的得分为0.43分。男性、农村户口、非住 校、父母受教育程度低的青少年更容易发生健康危险行为。Logistic回归分析显示，青少年认知能力与其健康危险行为的 相关有统计学意义（ OR = 0.67， P <0.01)。 结论 青少年健康危险行为现状堪忧，认知能力对健康危险行为的影响显著。建 议以青少年的认知能力为出发点，预防和减少青少年健康危险行为的发生。

Adolescents and risks: Why not change our paradigm?

ObjectivesThe authors aimed to examine whether changes in health risk behaviour rates alter the relationships between behaviours during adolescence, by comparing clustering of risk behaviours at different time points.DesignComparison of...

Continuing behavioral research has documented the mounting prevalence of child and adolescent health risk behaviors. Fifty pre-service educators were assessed regarding their perception of critical factors that would influence their confidence, comfort, and efficacy levels in dealing with child and adolescent risk behaviors. Study results revealed that administrative support and legal concerns, personal experiences, educational training, the student’s family, professional advice, and student support services influence preservice educators’ reactions to student risk behaviors. Factors essential to enhancing pre-service educators’ confidence, comfort, and efficacy levels include providing opportunities to gain skills in tackling risk behaviors; addressing legal issues, such as confidentiality, student rights, and district policies, within a teacher training program; offering professional advice regarding effective strategies for handling risk behaviors in the classroom and school settings; enlightening campus administrators of the importance of perceived teacher support; as well as informing counselors and other support personnel of their identified role as informational resources.

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of sleep duration and socioecological protective factors with patterns of adolescent risk behaviors in Fairfax County, VA-one of the largest public school districts in the United States. A total of 21,360 and 20,330 students in 10th and 12th grades who completed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Sleep duration was measured by self-report of the average number of hours of sleep on a school night. Ten socioecological protective factors included peer-individual, family, school, and community domains. Latent class analysis was used to classify 7 risk behaviors (alcohol use, cigarette use, illicit drug use, inappropriate prescription drug use, risky sexual behavior, deviant behavior, and academic failure) into 4 class memberships (low, some, moderate, and high). Multinomial regression models were adjusted for age, sex, and race. Adolescents who reported sleeping the recommended 8 to 9 hours were significantly less likely to belong to the class memberships of greater risk behaviors compared with those who reported short and long sleep duration after controlling for age, sex, race, and survey year. There was a significant inverse relationship between the number of socioecological protective factors and risk behaviors for both 10th and 12th graders. Potential risks of age, sex, and race on risk behaviors were observed. No significant interaction between sleep duration and protective factors was found in either grade. This study highlights the significant associations between sleep duration and risk behaviors in adolescents with diverse socioecological protective factors. Prioritization of prevention-focused resources should consider sleep duration in addition to the socioecological protective factors commonly cited in the literature when addressing adolescent risk behaviors.

This study investigated associations among adolescents' self-esteem in 6 domains (peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image and global self-worth) and risk behaviours related to substance use, bullying, suicidality and sexuality. A multistage stratified sampling strategy was used to select a representative sample of 939 English-, Afrikaans- and Xhosa-speaking students in Grades 8 and 11 at public high schools in Cape Town, South Africa. Participants completed the multidimensional Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ; DuBois, Felner, Brand, Phillips, & Lease, 1996) and a self-report questionnaire containing items about demographic characteristics and participation in a range of risk behaviours. It included questions about their use of tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, solvents and other substances, bullying, suicidal ideation and attempts, and risky sexual behaviour. Data was analysed using a series of logistic regression models, with the estimation of model parameters being done through generalised estimation equations. Scores on each self-esteem scale were significantly associated with at least one risk behaviour in male and female adolescents after controlling for the sampling strategy, grade and race. However, specific self-esteem domains were differentially related to particular risk behaviours. After taking the correlations between the self-esteem scales into account, low self-esteem in the family and school contexts and high self-esteem in the peer domain were significantly independently associated with multiple risk behaviours in adolescents of both sexes. Low body-image self-esteem and global self-worth were also uniquely associated with risk behaviours in girls, but not in boys. Overall, the findings suggest that interventions that aim to protect adolescents from engaging in risk behaviours by increasing their self-esteem are likely to be most effective and cost-efficient if they are aimed at the family and school domains.