BACKGROUND Engagement in risk behaviours may pose a significant threat to health if involvement spans multiple behaviours. The asset model suggests that contextual aspects of young people's lives, such as factors related to family, school and community, serve as a protective function against health risk behaviours. METHODS A risk-taking index was created from the English health behaviour in s...

BACKGROUND Variability in health behaviours is an important cause of socioeconomic health disparities. Socioeconomic differences in health behaviours are poorly understood. Previous studies have examined whether (single) stressors or psychosocial resources mediate the relationship between socioeconomic position and health or mortality. This study examined: 1) whether the presence of stressors a...

BACKGROUND Health risk behaviours often co-occur in adolescence. This may be partially explained by a set of common risk and protective factors. The current study examines the association between risk behaviours throughout adolescence and identifies common risk factors for multiple risk behaviour in late adolescence. METHODS We use data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. ...

This thesis explores the health behaviours of young people. The main focus is on risk behaviours, i.e. those which may have adverse consequences for health. Two fields of interest are looked at. On the one hand, the thesis explores social determinants of such behaviours, with particular focus on the influence of schools’ structural and social environments on health risk behaviours among youth. ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To assess the influences related to social mobility, particularly health related behaviours, as one potential explanation for the social class variation in health among adults. DESIGN The study is based on questionnaire data from the Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Surveys of 1985, 1987, and 1989. SETTING The whole of Finland. PARTICIPANTS A representative sample of 8355 a...

BACKGROUND Individuals may make a rational decision not to engage in healthy behaviours based on their assessment of the benefits of such behaviours to them, compared to other uncontrollable threats to their health. Anticipated survival is one marker of perceived uncontrollable threats to health. We hypothesised that greater anticipated survival: a) is cross-sectionally associated with healthie...

Research has revealed a positive relationship between problem behaviours of the care recipient and psychological distress in the care provider. Rarely, however, have researchers assessed the relationship between problem behaviours of the care recipient and key physiological mechanisms, relevant for the physical health status of their caregivers. This study extends previous work by examining the...

In this paper, we developed a comprehensive health performance measure that formally links individual health attitudes with the likelihood of engaging in a wide variety of health-related behaviours from various domains such as sustenance, hygiene, and physical exercise. Within what Kaiser, Byrka, and Hartig (2010) call the Campbell paradigm, we equated general health attitude with what a person...