The determinants of health behaviours among adolescents

Martha Beatriz Melo
Escuela de Salud Pública U.N.C

Abstract
Teenage pregnancy is a social problem when it is not wanted for different reasons and has serious implications on maternal and child health.
This fact is associated with risk of poor birth outcomes, including low birth weight and prematurity as well as stillbirth
The objective of this paper is to find out the adverse conditions to mental and physical health of the young mothers and their children when the pregnancy is unwanted
Some researchers are focused in mother and the children health, as an only consequence to the socio-economic condition but the fact of being forced into sexual intercourse is other important factor. This last fact influences in a negative way on their mental health, conditioning a low self-steam and depressive symptoms.
In this way, we conducted a quantitative and qualitative study in 6 Health Centers in two Argentine provinces: Chaco and Formosa, to determine the mental health of these young mothers and their children
The methodology was quantitative and qualitative. We find that there are physical and mental problems in the mother and child when the pregnancy is unwanted

This paper analyzes the level and change in mortality from external causes teens to Argentina in the period 2000-2010. To meet the same will inquire about the level of mortality from external causes and its impact on life expectancy. The group of external causes impacts mainly on the age group of adolescents and young people.
The study provides a quantitative approach and descriptive. Applies Years Index lost life expectancy used to "determine how many years should have lived people who die early" (Arriaga, 1996, p. 11).
The source of data used are the official records of deaths by cause of death, sex and age of the deceased.

Understanding sexual and reproductive health of adolescents is of utmost importance and carries with it implications for improving individual health outcomes especially reduction in unintended pregnancies and STIs such as HIV/AIDS. Using data from poor urban youths in the slums Nairobi, we try in this paper to comprehensively look at the individual level factors that may influence contraceptive use and pregnancy outcomes among adolescents as they transition to adulthood, in a bid to understand the needs and challenges that they face. Preliminary results point to the fact that there is a diversity of experiences among adolescents with regards to knowledge, attitude and behavior. Age, education and marital status were often strongly associated with SRH experiences of adolescents, pointing to fact that targeted programs are needed to reach them with range of SRH info and services at different stages – before they initiate sex, as sexually active unmarried youth, or as married individuals and couples.

This research aimed to identify the relationship of perception, information and social environmental factors on the premarital sexual relation attitude and behavior. Perception factors included the perceptions on virginity, marriage, and pregnancy, while information factors consist of discussion concerning reproductive health with family, discussion on reproductive health with peers, knowledge on fertile period, knowledge on HIV/AIDS and mass media exposure on reproductive health. While the social environment factor involve peer social environment, access to reproductive health association, socialization on reproductive health in the community, and reproductive health topics in school. The multivariable analysis results showed that several variables showed consistent influences on sexual attitude and behavior among Indonesian adolescents. The six variables showed direct and indirect relations on the premarital sexual relation behavior with variable attitude on premarital sexual behavior. The variable reproductive health socialization in the community merely provided significant effects to attitude on premarital sexual relations, while knowledge

Although orphanhood and co-residence with chronically ill or HIV-positive adult are frequently used as proxy markers of vulnerability for children under age 18 affected by HIV/AIDS, evidence shows these are not robust measures of child vulnerability across national and epidemic contexts (Akwara et al, 2010). Data from 11 nationally representative household surveys were analyzed using multivariate methods to establish if these markers consistently identified adolescents age 15-17 with worse outcomes, net of other socio-demographic factors. Data were pooled for 11 countries, and separate logistic regression models were fitted to assess the strength of associations between each of the outcomes and the analytical variables. The current analysis focuses on the following outcomes: early marriage (age 15-17); and early sexual debut (age 15-17). The results indicate that orphanhood, child’s living arrangement, household wealth, and adult education are associated with the selected outcomes in adolescents. The presence of chronically ill adult in the household almost made no difference in odds of poor outcomes, after controlling for other analytical variables. The results of the analysis contributed to the redefinition of vulnerable children including adolescents in the context of HIV/AIDS and change in policy and programming guidance.

Abstract
The specific objectives of the present study are to analyze the differentials in prevalence; initiation and continuation of use of smokeless tobacco. The foundation behind this study is to know the narrow gender gap of use of smokeless tobacco of different dimension. This study utilized the data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey India (GATS India 2010). This paper is an attempt to find the progression of use of tobacco in all EAG states including Assam of India by using the Kaplan-Meier Survival Analysis and inequality in education and occupation by Gini concentration index. .The prevalence of smokeless tobacco use among males varies from highest in Bihar (62%) to the lowest (17%) in Uttarakhand. Whereas, among females users high in Chhattisgarh (42%) to the lowest in Uttarakhand (2%).The association between each selected characteristic like age, residence, level of schooling, occupation, Exposure of mass media, notice on health warning, perceived impact on health etc clearly revealed that more likely (>1.0) to use of smokeless tobacco among female as compare to male in selected states of India.

This study describes constructs and patterns of positive child development in several important respects of child developmental outcomes, compares children of non-migrant families with left-behind children with one or both parents working in the cities, and explores the role of social support in predicting positive child development and mediating or moderating the parental migration effects. Data used in this study were from a longitudinal study on rural children conducted in Yulin City, Guangxi Province in 2010 with social support variables measured in wave 1 and child developmental outcomes measured in wave 2; the two waves were six months apart. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression analyses were conducted to examine associations of parental migration and social support with the outcome variables controlling for demographic characteristics. Preliminary results show that among the four aspects of positive development, only mental well-being exhibits significant group differences with children without parental migration the most advantaged and children with two-parent migration most disadvantaged. Teacher support and family support are significant and beneficial for some outcomes in some subgroups of children but peer support is never significant in the presence of teacher and family support.

Passive Smoking is a menace in Africa, particularly in Ghana. According to Scientist, over 60 out of 400 chemicals in tobacco are carcinogenic (cancer causing). In Techiman alone, about 70% of the youth smoke. It is therefore imperative to examine the knowledge on awareness of passive smoking to emphasize the awareness of the dangers associated with non-smokers close to active smokers and possible suggestions to avoid them.
In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a cross-sectional survey was used to collect information necessary for reliability and accuracy. In this, both primary and secondary data was useful. Structured and unstructured questionnaires were framed to reflect the objectives of the study.
About 17% of smoked due to fashion, 7% to relieve problems, whiles 60% smoked due to peer pressure. Analysis of smoking places identified 34% at home, 28% smoked in spots and 27% were floating smokers whiles 11% smoked in restaurants when eating or relaxing.
Related information shows that passive smoking causes heart diseases (tuberculosis) and cancer. There is the need to ban smoking and embark on health education of its dangers. Cigarette companies should help to find the possibility of banning smoking and recommendations to reduce cigarette smoking diseases.

Severity of use tobacco consumption is more in India compared to other countries. The major form of tobacco consumption in India is smokeless tobacco. With the changes in the dynamics of societies, the prevalence of tobacco has increased its wings towards between women and young children have increased. In this context, this study based the correlates between who start early and late use of tobacco in India. The findings reveal that, the people living in rural areas are higher using the tobacco (smoking & smokeless form) as compared to urban areas in India for both ages at initiation. The education is the important factor to remove the higher use of tobacco as we know those students who have the secondary and above are less started in the both ages (early and late) at initiation of tobacco. Men are using tobacco higher for females in both early and late age at initiation of tobacco in the country. The risk of tobacco use is highest between those who start early and continue its use for a long time till the end of life. Age and region are two factors which significantly positively associated in both ages (early and late) at initiation of tobacco consumption.

School violence begins with less serious bullying and victimization. It is important to investigate whether adolescent bullying victimization has comparable associations and determinants among countries. Paper deals with the International Youth Development Study project, and explore cross-national difference in bullying victimization in Seattle USA, Melbourne Australia and Mumbai India. A representative sample of 4,700 students in school Grade 5, 7 and 9 were surveyed in India in 2010. Sampling methods, survey procedures and instruments were matched to enable cross-national comparison with same-aged student cohorts surveyed in Seattle (N = 2,866) and Melbourne (N = 2,864). Analyses compared the prevalence of bullying victimization in matched age and gender cohorts. Prevalence rates for violence victimization were lower in Mumbai compared to the Melbourne and Seattle. Females showed lower levels of violence victimization compared to males in all three nations. As the adolescents reach higher grades, violence victimization was decreasing in Mumbai in comparison to those in Melbourne and Seattle. School violence contributes to maladjustment in young people. Prevention and intervention programs should target bullying as an important risk factor.