Objectives
Increases in electronic media communication (EMC) and decreases in face-to-face peer contact in the evening (FTF) have been thought to explain the recent decline in adolescent substance ...use (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis). This study addresses this hypothesis, by examining associations between (time trends in) EMC, FTF, and substance use in more than 25 mainly European countries.
Methods
Using 2002–2014 data from the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, we ran multilevel logistic regression analyses to investigate the above associations.
Results
National declines in substance use were associated with declines in FTF, but not with increases in EMC. At the individual level, both EMC and FTF related positively to substance use. For alcohol and cannabis use, the positive association with EMC was stronger in more recent years. Associations between EMC and substance use varied across countries, but this variation could not be explained by the proportion of young people using EMC within countries.
Conclusions
Our research suggests that the decrease in FTF, but not the increase in EMC, plays a role in the recent decrease in adolescent substance use.
Recent research on Problematic Internet Use and Problematic Facebook Use (PIU and PFU) has focused on the idea that people who engage in PIU or PFU are more likely to present with mental health ...problems. The goal of the present study was to examine the contribution of positive mental health (PMH) to PIU and PFU among adolescents and young adults. A total of 1927 Italian adolescents and young adults participated in the study. Structural equation modeling showed that PMH is negatively linked to both PIU and PFU, indicating that PMH may be an important antecedent for both PIU and PFU among adolescents and young adults. In conclusion, dimensions of PMH may be taken into account by researchers and educational practitioners in preventing both PIU and PFU.
•A combined alcohol control policy showed to be effective in reducing teen drinking.•The combination can also tackle socioeconomic inequalities present in teen drinking.•Single measures were in ...general not associated with decreases in teen drinking.•Alcohol pricing policy showed to be the most successful single measure.
Background Previous research found inconsistent associations between alcohol control policies and socioeconomic inequality with adolescent drinking outcomes. This study expands the focus beyond individual associations to examine whether a combination of policies is related to socioeconomic inequality in adolescent drinking outcomes and whether this relationship varies across survey years.
Methods Multilevel modelling of 4 waves of repeat cross-sectional survey data (2001/02, 2005/06, 2009/10, and 2013/14) from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study was carried out. The sample was composed of 671,084 adolescents (51% girls) aged 11, 13, and 15 (mean age=13.58; SD=1.65) from 33 European and North American countries/regions. The dependent variables were lifetime alcohol consumption, weekly alcohol consumption, and lifetime drunkenness. Independent variables were of three types: individual-level variables (age, sex, Family Affluence Scale, and the Perceived Family Wealth), time-level variable (survey year), and context-level variables (minimum legal drinking age, physical availability, advertising restrictions, a total alcohol policy index, and affordability of alcohol).
Results The total alcohol policy index showed a negative relationship with both lifetime and weekly consumption. Higher affordability of alcohol was related to higher lifetime and weekly consumption and higher lifetime drunkenness. Family Affluence Scale was positively related to all three alcohol measures and Perceived Family Wealth was negatively related to lifetime drunkenness, with these associations increasing across survey years. The total alcohol policy index buffered the associations of Family Affluence Scale and Perceived Family Wealth with adolescent drinking outcomes.
Conclusion A combination of alcohol control policies is more effective in reducing adolescent drinking outcomes than single policy measures. Reducing the affordability of alcohol stood out as the most successful single measure. Socioeconomic inequalities (i.e. higher alcohol consumption and drunkenness in adolescents with higher family affluence and higher drunkenness in adolescents perceiving their families to be poor) have persisted and even increased across survey years. A combined alcohol control policy can help in tackling them.
Maternal depression represents an important social/environmental factor in early childhood; however, its effect on children's motor development may vary depending on the role of infants' ...dispositional variables. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of the interaction between maternal depressive symptoms in the first two years of a child's life and the child's temperamental negative emotionality on motor development during this time. Using a cross-sectional study, we assessed 272 infants aged 0 to 24 months old and their mothers. We measured the following variables: maternal depression, infant's negative emotionality, and motor development. A three-way interaction effect highlights that negative emotionality in infants and maternal depression together affect children's overall motor growth trajectory. Infants with low negative emotionality display no effect of maternal depression on motor development. Conversely, infants with high negative emotionality seem to be more susceptible to the effect of maternal depression. Specifically, high maternal depression tends to foster the negative effect of infant's negativity on motor development across time, albeit not significantly. Finally, the absence of maternal depression significantly buffers negative temperament in infants. Findings highlighted the importance of integrating different perspectives when describing early motor growth. In fact, only when considering the interdependence of potential predictors their effect on the motor growth significantly emerges. Screening for early temperamental vulnerability might help in tailoring interventions to prevent maternal depression from affecting infants' motor development.
•Poor motor development has been reported in infants of postpartum depressed mothers but the effect is not linear.•Infant temperament is responsible for the variability in the consequences of maternal depression on child development.•This cross sectional study provides evidence of the interdependence of maternal depression and child negative emotionality.•The study confirms the interaction of maternal depressive symptoms and child negative emotionality on motor development.•Interventions to buffer maternal depression effect on infants’ growth should also focus on early emotional vulnerability.
Presence and absence of both psychological distress and well-being are important in predicting life outcomes among youths. Recently, scholars have been paying increased attention to the role of ...positive mental health (PMH) in predicting psycho-social well-being among young people. The present study aims to test a model designed to assess the unique contribution of personality traits and metacognitions to four domains of PMH (belief-in-self, belief-in-others, emotional competence, and engaged living) among young adults. A total of 795 Italian college students participated in the study. Path analysis revealed that different personality traits were contributors to different PMH domains, and that four of the five metacognitions domains (negative beliefs about thoughts, cognitive confidence, need to control thoughts, and cognitive self-consciousness) differently predicted the four PMH domains. In conclusion it would appear that a combination of personality traits and metacognitions are differently involved in PMH domains. These should be taken into account when developing preventive programmes to promote PMH among young adults.
The prevalence of adolescent pain varies considerably across epidemiological studies, and little information is available on pain-related behaviours among adolescents, including medicine use. The ...aims of this study were: 1 to examine the prevalence of recurrent pain among 15-year-old adolescents in Italy; 2 to investigate the association between recurrent pain and medicine use among boys and girls; and 3 to evaluate the consistency of these associations across Regions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) collaborative International Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2013/2014 study collected self-reported data on pain and medicine use from 13611 15-year-old adolescents in 21 Italian Regions. We used multi-level multivariate logistic regression, stratified by gender, to analyse the association between recurrent pain and medicine use for headache, stomachache, nervousness and difficulties in getting to sleep.
On average, across all Regions, almost 45% of adolescents reported recurrent headache, more than 30% reported recurrent backache and approximately 30% reported recurrent stomachache. Although the prevalence of both pain and medicine use was much higher among girls, the association between pain and medicine use was similarly strong in adolescents of both genders. Adolescents with recurrent pain proved more likely to use medicines also for non-corresponding pain, nervousness and difficulties in getting to sleep. The association between recurrent pain and medicine use was consistent across Regions despite large inter-regional differences in the prevalence of both phenomena.
Recurrent pain in adolescence is common nationwide. Adolescents with recurrent pain are more likely to use medicines in general. Recurrent pain and medicine use should be addressed by adolescent health policies.
Abstract
Background
Globally, the prevalence of obesity has increased in the last years and tends to be higher in richer countries. Overweight (including obesity) interests all the ages, including ...childhood and adolescence. Our study aimed to investigate the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and age at menarche.
Methods
We used a unique standardized national dataset on adolescent girls (21 regions) participating in the Italian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study (HBSC). HBSC is a European surveillance supported by WHO, conducted every 4 years. Two independent nationally representative survey datasets: one on 15-year-olds (n = 6907 year 2017/2018) and one on 11-year-olds (n = 9506 year 2013/2014) were analysed. The survey instrument was the self-report questionnaire. Median age at menarche and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by means of Kaplan-Meier analysis. Hierarchical models were used to assess the relationship between BMI and age at menarche (months). “Region-level obesity” was measured as the prevalence of overweight/obesity (%) in each region. We evaluated the relationship with socioeconomic status (SES) through the Family Affluence Scale.
Results
Region-level median age at menarche ranged between 12 years/5 months and 13 years/4 months. Region-level prevalence of overweight among 15-year-old girls ranged between 6% and 24%. Age at menarche was inversely associated with individual BMI (unstandardized regression coefficient beta= -0.81; 95% CI, -0.92 to -0.70). Individual and class-level measures of BMI accounted for 215.2% of the region-level variance in age at menarche. The coefficient of Family Affluence differed significantly 0.25 (0.09 to 0.41).
Conclusions
Our results show that being overweighted in pre-adolescence is associated with the early puberty.
Strong social inequalities were observed, with adolescents from lower SES are likely to be overweight or obese In line with all the other European countries.
Key messages
• Weight status can influence menarche.
• Policies to reduce socioeconomic inequalities are needed to prevent health problems.
This study examined trends in adolescent weekly alcohol use between 2002 and 2010 in 28 European and North American countries.
Analyses were based on data from 11-, 13- and 15-year-old adolescents ...who participated in the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study in 2002, 2006 and 2010.
Weekly alcohol use declined in 20 of 28 countries and in all geographic regions, from 12.1 to 6.1% in Anglo-Saxon countries, 11.4 to 7.8% in Western Europe, 9.3 to 4.1% in Northern Europe and 16.3 to 9.9% in Southern Europe. Even in Eastern Europe, where a stable trend was observed between 2002 and 2006, weekly alcohol use declined between 2006 and 2010 from 12.3 to 10.1%. The decline was evident in all gender and age subgroups.
These consistent trends may be attributable to increased awareness of the harmful effects of alcohol for adolescent development and the implementation of associated prevention efforts, or changes in social norms and conditions. Although the declining trend was remarkably similar across countries, prevalence rates still differed considerably across countries.
Italy has participated in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study since 2000. These surveys collect data every four years on the well-being and health behaviour of boys and girls ...aged 11, 13 and 15. Until 2007, the coordination group of the University of Turin, Siena and Padua directly sent the questionnaires to each sampled school to collect the data. The sample of about 4500 students was nationally representative. In 2008 the HBSC became part of the project "Surveys on behavioral risks in children aged 6-17 years", coordinated by the National Institute of Health (ISS) and promoted by the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, University and Research. For the first time, in 2010, the survey was conducted by health workers in collaboration with teachers in all regions with a representative sample, not just at the national level, but also at regional level. In the 2,504 sampled schools, 77,113 students (25,079 eleven-year-old, 26,048 thirteen-year-old and 25,986 fifteen-year-old) completed an anonymous questionnaire. Knowledge of the health-related behaviour of school-aged adolescents may help monitoring and enable policies for young people to be formulated and implemented.
Existing literature clearly documents the association between cybervictimization and psychological symptoms; less clear is the association between cybervictimization and somatic symptoms. This study ...aims to verify the association between cybervictimization and both psychological and somatic symptoms on a representative sample of Italian early adolescents.
This study used data from 24 099 students aged 13 years participating in the 2009/2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey. Self-completed questionnaires, devised by the HBSC international group, were administered in classrooms. Multilevel models of logistic regression (controlling for traditional bullying victimization, computer use and demographics) were used to investigate the association between cybervictimization and psychological and somatic symptoms.
Overall, 3.1% of the students reported having been bullied frequently electronically and 8.7% occasionally (compared, respectively, to 4.0 and 9.2% victims of traditional forms of bullying). Overall, prevalence of students reporting psychological and somatic symptoms was 32.5 and 12.0%, respectively. Being victims of cyberbullying was positively associated to students' psychological and somatic symptoms, after controlling for traditional bullying victimization and computer use.
Cybervictimization has similar psychological and somatic consequences for boys and girls, thus suggesting that intervention and prevention efforts should focus on both gender groups.
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