Loneliness in the lives of Danish adolescents: Associations with health and sleep

Aim. We examined the relationship between loneliness and health among young adolescents. We also investigated the validity of a single item measure of loneliness by comparing this to a composite score. Methods. The current data comes from a nationally representative sample of 11-15 year old adolescents (N = 3305; F = 52%) from Denmark collected in 2014 as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) collaborative cross-national survey. Results. A series of binary logistic regressions showed that higher loneliness among adolescents, whether measured using the single- or multi-item measurement, was associated with poorer self-rated health, higher frequency of headache, stomach-ache, back-ache, difficulties sleeping, greater sleep disturbance, and more instances of feeling tired in the morning. Those associations were relatively consistent across gender and age groups. Conclusions. Loneliness is associated with poorer self-reported health and sleep problems among young adolescents. Those findings are similar across two measures of loneliness, suggesting robust findings. The development of interventions and health education efforts to fight loneliness in adolescence is important

FYSISK AKTIVITET OG SOCIAL DELTAGELSE: KVALITATIVT FELTSTUDIE BLANDT UNGE I EN DANSK SYVENDEKLASSE

We investigated school children’s intentions to participate or not to participate in physicalactivities. The empirical material is a six month field study with participant observationand qualitative interviews in a Danish seven grade class. The article’s theoretical standpointis social practice theory and critical psychology.Almost all school children are physically active, especially in their leisure time. Duringschool hours we do not see the exact same picture. For the participants it is of key importanceto socialize with friends, to participate and to avoid social exclusion, but not tobe physically active. The article illustrates how the school context is a contributor to thepatterning of physical activity and physical inactivity

Lonely, but Not Alone: Qualitative Study among Immigrant and Native-Born Adolescents

From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2021-10-19, pub-electronic 2021-10-30Publication status: PublishedFunder: Nordea-fonden; Grant(s): 02-2011-0122This paper explores loneliness as it is understood and experienced by adolescents, with a special focus on the importance of their migration status. We recruited students from five schools following a maximum variation sampling scheme, and we conducted 15 semi-structured, individual interviews with eighth-grade adolescents (aged 14–15 years) that were immigrants, descendants, and with a Danish majority background. A thematic analysis was applied with a special focus on differences and similarities in understanding and experiencing loneliness between adolescents with diverse migration status. The results showed more similarities than differences in loneliness. Generally, loneliness was described as an adverse feeling, varying in intensity and duration, and participants referenced distressing emotions. Feeling lonely was distinguished from being alone and characterized as an invisible social stigma. A variety of perceived social deficiencies were emphasized as causing loneliness, emerging in the interrelation between characteristics of the individual and their social context. The results add to the current literature by highlighting that it is not the presence of specific individual characteristics that causes loneliness; instead, loneliness is dependent on the social contexts the individual is embedded in. Differences across migration status were few and related to variations in the adolescents’ individual characteristics. The findings highlight the importance of (1) studying the characteristics of both the individual and the social context in research on the antecedents to adolescents’ loneliness, and (2) applying this perspective in other studies on the importance of migration status

Reporting accuracy of packed lunch consumption among Danish 11-year-olds differ by gender.

Background: Packed lunch is the dominant lunch format in many countries including Denmark. School lunch is consumed unsupervised, and self-reported recalls are appropriate in the school setting. However, little is known about the accuracy of recalls in relation to packed lunch. Objective: To assess the qualitative recall accuracy of self-reported consumption of packed lunch among Danish 11-year-old children in relation to gender and dietary assessment method. Design: A cross-sectional dietary recall study of packed lunch consumption. Digital images (DIs) served as an objective reference method to determine food items consumed. Recalls were collected with a lunch recall questionnaire (LRQ) comprising an open-ended recall (OE-Q) and a pre-coded food group prompted recall (PC-Q). Individual interviews (INTs) were conducted successively. The number of food items was identified and accuracy was calculated as match rates (% identified by DIs and reported correctly) and intrusion rates (% not identified by DIs but reported) were determined. Setting and subjects: Three Danish public schools from Copenhagen. A total of 114 Danish 11-year-old children, mean (SE) age=11.1 (0.03), and body mass index=18.2 (0.26). Results: The reference (DIs) showed that girls consumed a higher number of food items than boys [mean (SE) 5.4 (0.25) vs. 4.6 (0.29) items (p=0.05)]. The number of food items recalled differed between genders with OE-Q recalls (p=0.005) only. Girls’ interview recalls were more accurate than boys’ with higher match rates (p=0.04) and lower intrusion rates (p=0.05). Match rates ranged from 67–90% and intrusion rates ranged from 13–39% with little differences between girls and boys using the OE-Q and PC-Q methods. Conclusion: Dietary recall validation studies should not only consider match rates as an account of accuracy. Intrusions contribute to over-reporting in non-validation studies, and future studies should address recall accuracy and inaccuracies in relation to gender and recall method