Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health With Adolescent Health Behaviors in the UK Millennium Cohort

Abstract

IMPORTANCE There is potential for mental health status to act as a determinant of an individual's ability to engage in healthful lifestyle behaviors. OBJECTIVE To investigate the associations of parent-reported mental health problems during childhood and self-reported mental health problems in adolescence with health behaviors in adolescence. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This cohort study used data from wave 4 (collected in 2008) and wave 6 (collected in 2015) of the Millennium Cohort Study, a UK populationrepresentative longitudinal study of young people born during 2000 to 2001. Wave 4 included data on parent-reported mental health issues for children at age 7 years. Wave 6 included data on selfreported mental health problems as well as health behaviors for the same children at age 14 years. Data were analyzed July 5, 2020. EXPOSURES Mental health problems at age 7 years were parent-reported using Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Mental health problems at age 14 years were self-reported using the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Health behaviors at age 14 years were the main outcome of interest. Sleep duration; fruit, vegetable, and soft drink consumption; and social media use were selfreported using recall on a typical day. Regression models were calculated for each lifestyle variable, with mental health change from ages 7 to 14 years as the exposure variable. Data were weighted to account for the potential clustering of region of sampling and adjusted for nonresponse. RESULTS A total of 9369 participants were included in waves 4 and 6 of the Millennium Cohort Study, including 4665 (48.1%) girls and 6014 participants (81.9%) who were born in England. Adolescents who self-reported mental health problems at age 14 years only were less likely to have at least 9 hours of sleep (odds ratio [OR], 0.39; 95% CI, 0.34-0.45) and to consume fruit (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.46-0.65) and vegetables (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.52-0.83) reported greater use of social media (b = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.49-0.75) compared with individuals who did not have mental health problems at both time points. Similarly, those with mental health problems at both time points were less likely to achieve 9 hours sleep (OR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.51-0.90), consume fruit (OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.26-0.58) and vegetables (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.35-0.91), and reported greater social media use

The Use of Social Media in Children and Adolescents: Scoping Review on the Potential Risks

“…We identified 19 publications reporting a relationship between social media use and depression [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Table 2 summarized the main finding regarding each article.…”

“…In this sense, social media are representing a risk factor for depression in the young. Depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders are among the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Key findings which correlate to depression regarding social media exposure are repeated activities such as checking messages, investment, and addition [ 23 ].…”

The Importance of Healthy Habits to Compensate for Differences between Adolescent Males and Females in Anthropometric, Psychological and Physical Fitness Variables

“…Mental health problems are also a determining factor during adolescence due to their influence on the behavior of adolescents [ 35 ], which became more apparent after the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to significant changes in lifestyle habits and the way of relating [ 36 ]. It greatly affected the psychological state of adolescents [ 37 , 38 ], more noticeably and with greater risk for females [ 39 ].…”

The Relationship between Family Meals and Mental Health Problems in Japanese Elementary School Children: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…In considering the relationship between diet and mental health, one of the common approaches is to examine the effects of individual nutrients; an alternative approach is to examine the effects of the whole diet quality and eating patterns [11]. Despite some contradictory results, cross-sectional and prospective studies have documented an association between unhealthy dietary patterns or consumption of low-quality diet and higher levels of depression or worse mental health in children and adolescents [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. A prospective study in adolescents indicated that improvements in diet quality were mirrored by improvements in mental health over the follow-up period while deteriorating diet quality was associated with poorer psychological functioning [13].…”