Richter Risk Behaviour in Adolescence

Patterns, Determinants and Consequences
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-3-531-92364-2
Verlag: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 120 Seiten, Web PDF

Reihe: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Adolescents are generally thought to be healthy. However, adolescent risk behaviours, such as substance use, a poor diet or early sexual activity, are topics that keep generating high academic and media interest. Despite considerable explanatory efforts, not much is known yet about the proximate and distal determinants as well as the psychosocial and health-related consequences of risk behaviour in adolescence. The study is among the first to systematically examine the antecedents and consequences of risk behaviour from a comparative perspective over time and across countries. Matthias Richter presents findings from several empirical studies and extends current theoretical and empirical knowledge on adolescent risk behaviour.
This book is valuable reading for academics, practitioners and policy makers in a range of disciplines: sociology, psychology, educational sciences, public health and nursing sciences, with a special focus on adolescent risk behaviour.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Richter, Matthias

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Conceptual framework.- Material and methods.- Results of the empirical studies.- Discussion and perspectives.

Leseproben

5 Discussion and perspectives (S. 91-92)

The single studies summarised here support and extend the current theoretical and empirical knowledge on risk behaviour in adolescence. The analysis is among the first to systematically examine adolescent risk behaviour from a comparative perspective over time and across countries using the same data. The study further follows a multidimensional model and looks at determinants as well as consequences of risk behaviour. Its methodological strengths lie in the use of a large representative dataset and the availability of various widely used and internationally tested measures. This final chapter will provide a short summary of the study’s main findings and elaborate on their implications for future research and practice.

5.1 Summary of the results

First, the results indicate that all risk behaviours showed remarkable patterns in terms of age and gender. Health-compromising behaviours such as tobacco and alcohol use increase with increasing age, while engagement in positive behaviours declines with age. Moreover, boys and girls showed different patterns of risk behaviour.

The whole range of risk behaviour constitutes different areas of risk. In general, boys showed more externalising and evasive forms of risk behaviour (such as bullying or drunkenness) while girls showed more internalising forms (e.g. skipping breakfast). These age- and gender-specific findings support existing regional studies with representative data from Germany using based on comparable age groups and measures (e.g. Appel & Hahn, 2001, Hüttner et al. 1997, 1998, Roth 2002, Raithel 2003a/b).

They also support recent findings from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Childern and Adolescents (KiGGS) (Lampert & Thamm 2007, Lampert et al. 2007). So far, comparable data on risk behaviour across countries, including Germany, has been rare. The results based on international HBSC data showed that there are large differences in the diffusion of risk behaviours between countries. Compared to other countries, Germany performs rather badly in respect to many risk behaviours.

One-third of 15-year old German students smoked weekly – as many as in no other European or North American country. Germany is also among the five countries that showed the highest regular alcohol use and the highest rates of bullying. Furthermore, the international comparison showed there was a relatively low level of physical activity. Despite the large differences in prevalence across countries, the findings showed that age and gender patterns are largely universal across countries. Age-related trends in risk behaviour were found in almost all HBSC countries and are similar for a variety of different types of behaviour.

It appears that these shifts are a universal phenomenon and demonstrate just how common it is for young people to engage in such behaviours. The general gender patterns in risk behaviour were also supported by international HBSC data. In almost all HBSC countries boys show higher prevalences of externalising and/or evasive forms of inappropriate coping behaviour. Interestingly, gender differences in tobacco smoking were generally lower than for other substance use behaviours. In some countries, mostly western European countries, girls also reported higher rates of smoking than boys. On the other hand, girls were more likely to report that they frequently consume healthy food and are less likely to consume unhealthy food (see also Currie et al. 2008a).

However, in all countries they were more likely to skip breakfast and were physically less active. These findings illustrate that there are different issues of concern for girls and boys. The trend data from Northrhine-Westphalia suggested that these age and gender patterns also show a strong persistence over time (see also Leppin & Richter 2008, Settertobulte & Richter 2007). The findings are similar to the results of other German studies. For example, the German Drug Affinity Study also found that the rates of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use among 11-to 15-year olds increased during the 1990s and decreased again after 2002 (BZgA 2004, 2005a/b, 2007a).

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Matthias Richter is a Professor for Medical Sociology and Social Epidemiology at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) at the University of Bern.