Studying adolescents’ health risk behaviours is oddly
significant in Central and Eastern European countries, where the prevalence of
smoking and drinking among 14–18 year old students is significantly high. The
goal of our study is to examine the role of social psychological and social
behavioural variables in health risk behaviours among Hungarian adolescents.
Our sample was comprised of three high schools of Debrecen
(the second largest city of Hungary). In all, 501 students filled in the
questionnaire from 22 classes (14–22 years old). Students aged above
18 years were excluded for the purpose of the study, giving a total sample
size of 471 high school students. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic
regression analyses were conducted.
According to our results (1) social behavioural factors
(namely, smoking and alcohol use of the best friend and peer group) proved to
be better predictors of adolescents’ health risk behaviours as compared to the
included social psychological attributes (2); among the latter ones, loneliness
and shyness were negatively related with both smoking and drinking, while
competitiveness was a predictor of drinking prevalence among boys.
The findings suggest that social behavioural factors,
including smoking and drinking of friends, are oddly important predictors of
Hungarian adolescents’ health risk behaviours. According to our results, health
policy should pay more attention to peer norms related to smoking and drinking
during school health promotion. Developing health protective social norms may
be an indispensable component of effective health promotion in high schools.
Full article at: http://goo.gl/t3uMXR
1Institute of Behavioural Sciences,
Semmelweis University, Nagyvarad sqr. 4, Budapest, 1089, Hungary
2School of Ph. D. studies, Semmelweis
University, Ulloi str. 26, Budapest, 1085, Hungary
3Department of Behavioural Sciences,
University of Szeged, Szentharomsag str. 5, Szeged, 6722, Hungary
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