Risk and protective factors for health behaviour in adolescence in Europe

Abstract

The purpose of the analysis was to identify the risk and protective factors for health behaviour in European adolescents from population health status and expenditure, mental health status, sexual life, social life and education indices and the existence of national strategies, programmes. National and international databases providing information on the presumed health behaviour predictors were used in the analysis. Furthermore, the age and sexual differences in the main information sources on health issues, sexual life, health-risk behaviour, digital awareness, environmental awareness accessed by Hungarian adolescents were analysed. The existence of national health strategies, the level of health expenditure, the socioeconomic conditions, the level of education and literacy had significant influence on the health-risk behaviour of adolescents in the European societies. Hungarian children in early adolescence sought information from family members and experts more frequently, while children preferred to get information from their friends and from the media in middle-adolescence. Sexual dimorphism also appeared in their preferred information sources, a bigger proportion of boys chose media as information source than girls. A significantly smaller proportion of adolescents sought information from the studied sources of sexual life topics than in the other health issues. Individual health decisions of adolescents are influenced by their interaction with family members and experts in early adolescence, and with a bigger influence of friends and media in middle-adolescence. National health strategies combined with governmental support for health prevention and action plans have the most effective impact on the health-risk behaviour of adolescents.