Does social support mediate or moderate socioeconomic differences in self-rated health among adolescents?

OBJECTIVE: Social support is assumed to be a protective social determinant of health. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore whether social support from the father, mother and friends mediates or moderates the association between socioeconomic position and self-rated health among adolescents. METHODS: The sample consisted of 1,863 secondary school students from the Kosice region in Slovakia (mean age 16.85; 53.3% females, response rate 98.9%). We assessed the mediation and moderation effects of social support from the mother, father and friends on the relation between socioeconomic position and self-rated health, performing binary logistic regression models. Socioeconomic position was measured by parents’ education, the family affluence scale and financial strain. RESULTS: Social support from the father mediated the association between family affluence and self-rated health among both males and females and the association between financial strain and self-rated health among males only. No moderating effect of social support on socioeconomic differences in self-rated health was found. CONCLUSION: Father involvement seems to have the potential to mediate socioeconomic differences in health during adolescence

The impact of unemployment on school leavers' perception of health. Mediating effect of financial situation and social contacts?

Objectives: The main purpose of this paper is to explore whether unemployment influences adolescents' subjective perception of health and whether perceived financial stress and social contacts can mediate the effect of employment status on health. We are also interested in the differences in financial situation and social contacts between unemployed secondary school leavers and their employed and studying counterparts. Methods: Data were obtained from 844 adolescents (mean age 19.6) from Slovakia. The effect of unemployment on several health indicators was measured and subsequently controlled for perceived financial strain of respondents and their social contacts. Results: The results showed highest financial strain among unemployed, whereas only small differences in social contacts were found between three groups. Negative influence of unemployment on perceived health of respondents was confirmed. Nevertheless, strong influence was found only on long-term well-being and mental health. Financial situation and social contacts contributed to the prediction of almost all health outcomes, and to some extent mediated the effect of unemployment. Conclusions: Although unemployment was found to have a negative impact on health of adolescents, sufficiency of social contacts and good financial situation seem to decrease this effect and protect the health of unemployed people

Psychometric Evaluation of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire across Three European Countries

The aim of this study was to extend the psychometric evaluation of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ) by assessing the factor structure across three countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The sample included 1809 students from Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary. Based on an initial confirmative factor analysis, a 2-factor structure by Neal and Carey (2005) was confirmed in the Lithuanian sample. Next, exploratory factor analyses were used on the Slovak and Hungarian subsamples separately. For both national subsamples, a very similar four factor solution was found, which was confirmed by confirmatory factor analyses on the rest of the data. Despite the reduced number of items, the abridged scale did not suffer in terms of its internal reliability and thus provides an adequate approximation of self-regulation levels as the entire scale or as the scale with the proposed 4-factor solution

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONG THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE VISEGRAD (V4) COUNTRIES

Introduction. Sedentary way of life has become a global phenomenon in the past decades. Therefore, the number of people with excess weight has doubled in the past 30 years. Besides this fact, it has been justified that more than half of the population is overweight. Even young adults are affected by the problem. It is an important issue because 60% of the overweight young people keep their excess body weight in later adulthood increasing the risk of different diseases. Material and method. Our study aims at assessing the differences between the health status and the physical activity among young people (secondary school and university students) in the Visegrad (V4) countries. Our current research examines the differences in the physical activity among university students regarding their sexes (n=2237). SPSS 22.00 software was used for statistical analysis. Results. According to the results, we found significant differences (p0.05). In Slovakia, we found significant differences between sexes in total MET/week and walking activities (MET/week) (p<0.001), thus, female students were found to be more active than males caused by the higher rates of walking activities of women. Conclusion. The V4 countries are not in an advantageous situation concerning physical activity in the European framework because only 21-35% of the population does sports once a week. According to our results, university students show a more positive picture on physical activity than the adult population. However, there are some specific risk groups. 43.8% of female and 57.3% male students can be considered as persons with high physical activity. Our findings may play a major role in the development of intervention programs targeting young people and in the concern of the differences between sexes. Furthermore, these results may call young people’s attention to health maintenance to preserve their fitness for getting better activity figures

Perception of High Alcohol Use of Peers Is Associated With High Personal Alcohol Use in First-Year University Students in Three Central and Eastern European Countries

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess discrepancies between estimated peer and personal drinking behavior and to determine associations between perceptions of peer and personal drinking behavior among university students from Hungary (HU), Lithuania (LT), and the Slovak Republic (SK). Methods: 2,554 freshman university students completed an online questionnaire on the frequency of their personal alcohol use, the number of heavy drinking occasions and on their perception concerning the corresponding drinking behavior of a typical student. Associations between perceived peer and personal use were analyzed by means of logistic regression, adjusting for sex. Results: The majority of students across all countries thought their peers drink more frequently and are more often involved in heavy drinking occasions than themselves. Students who perceived the frequency of peer alcohol use to be higher were more likely to drink alcohol twice a week or more often (SR: OR = 3.81, 95% CI = 2.51–5.79; LT: OR = 3.16, 95% CI = 2.11–4.75; HU: OR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.53–2.87) compared with students who drink alcohol monthly or less. Those who perceived the number of peer heavy drinking occasions as high were more likely to report heavy drinking weekly or more often (SR: OR = 3.16, 95% CI = 1.92–5.20; LT:OR = 3.56, 95% CI = 2.14–5.94; HU:OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 0.79–2.51) compared with students who report heavy drinking less than monthly. Conclusions/Importance: University students perceived peer alcohol use to be higher than their personal use. Given the association between perceptions and personal alcohol use, future research should investigate if targeting perceptions in the surveyed countries may have an impact on alcohol use

Influence of parental employment status on Dutch and Slovak adolescents' health

BACKGROUND: Recent research shows the possibility that the link between parental employment status and children's health can be affected by different cultural or societal settings. The aim of this study was to explore whether the effect of father's and mother's employment status on several aspects of adolescents' health differs between Slovakia and the Netherlands. METHODS: Two data sets were used: 2616 Slovak adolescents (mean age 14.9) and 2054 Dutch adolescents (mean age 16.3). Self-rated health, GHQ-12, long-term well-being and Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used to assess the health of adolescents. Parental employment status was classified into the following categories: employed, unemployed, disabled, housewife (among mothers only). Logistic regression analyses were done separately for males and females. RESULTS: Results indicate that having an unemployed father negatively influences self-rated health and long-term well-being of Slovak male adolescents, but has no effect on the health of Dutch adolescents. Secondly, having a disabled father has a negative effect on the psychological well-being of Dutch males and the self-rated health of females, but does not influence the health of Slovak adolescents. Thirdly, having a mother who is disabled, unemployed or a housewife has a negative effect on the self-esteem of Slovak adolescents. Fourthly, Dutch males whose mother was a housewife had worse long-term well-being than those with an unemployed mother, whereas Dutch females whose mother was a housewife reported better psychological well-being than those with an employed mother. CONCLUSION: To conclude briefly our results, father's unemployment seems to be a better predictor of health for Slovak adolescents, father's disablement of health for Dutch ones. Mother's employment status seemed to be important for the self-esteem of Slovak adolescents and mother as a housewife for the health of Dutch ones. This suggests that the link between parental employment status and the health of their children may vary between countries, and therefore further studies involving various cultures are needed

Normative misperceptions of tobacco use among university students in seven European countries: Baseline findings of the 'Social Norms Intervention for the prevention of Polydrug usE' study.

Research conducted in North America suggests that students tend to overestimate tobacco use among their peers. This perceived norm may impact personal tobacco use. It remains unclear how these perceptions influence tobacco use among European students. The two aims were to investigate possible self-other discrepancies regarding personal use and attitudes towards use and to evaluate if perceptions of peer use and peer approval of use are associated with personal use and approval of tobacco use

Social inequalities in changes in health-related behaviour among Slovak adolescents aged between 15 and 19: A longitudinal study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lower socioeconomic position is generally associated with higher rates of smoking and alcohol consumption and lower levels of physical activity. Health-related behaviour is usually established during late childhood and adolescence. The aim of this study is to explore changes in health-related behaviour in a cohort of adolescents aged between 15 and 19, overall and by socioeconomic position.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The sample consisted of 844 first-year students (42.8% males, baseline in 1998 – mean age 14.9, follow-up in 2002 – mean age 18.8) from 31 secondary schools located in Kosice, Slovakia. This study focuses on changes in adolescents' smoking, alcohol use, experience with marijuana and lack of physical exercise with regard to their socioeconomic position. Four indicators of socioeconomic position were used – adolescents' current education level and employment status, and the highest education level and highest occupational status of their parents. We first made cross tabulations of HRB with these four indicators, using McNemar's test to assess differences. Next, we used logistic regression to assess adjusted associations, using likelihood ratio tests to assess statistical significance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Statistically significant increases were found in all health-related behaviours. Among males, the most obvious socioeconomic gradient was found in smoking, both at age 15 and at 19. Variations in socioeconomic differences in health-related behaviour were more apparent among females. Although at age 15, almost no socioeconomic differences in health-related behaviour were found, at age 19 differences were found for almost all socioeconomic indicators. Among males, only traditional socioeconomic gradients were found (the lower the socioeconomic position, the higher the prevalence of potentially harmful health-related behaviour), while among females reverse socioeconomic gradients were also found.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We confirmed an increase in unhealthy health-related behaviour during adolescence. This increase was related to socioeconomic position, and was more apparent in females.</p