School-related mediators in social inequalities in smoking: a comparative cross-sectional study of 20,399 adolescents

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between social inequalities and daily smoking among 13 and 15 year olds, and to determine the role of students' academic achievement and school satisfaction in these associations.

Methods

HBSC is an international study including adolescents from 32 countries in Europe, Israel, and North America. The present study was based on information from 20,399 adolescents from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the United Kingdom. Data were analysed by regression models.

Results

The initial analyses showed significant inequality in daily smoking in all countries except for Sweden. When adjusted for the mediating role of academic achievement, estimates were attenuated, but remained significant in three countries.

Conclusion

The study found social inequality in daily smoking in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and United Kingdom, as well as inequalities in students' academic achievement and school satisfaction. The analyses also showed that above average academic achievement was associated with lower OR of smoking. Teachers and politicians may find this information useful, and allocate resources to give higher priority to a supportive environment in schools especially for children and adolescents in lower social groups. Subsequently this prioritisation might contribute to reducing smoking in this group.

Related collections

Most cited references 27

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Indicators of socioeconomic status for adolescents: the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey.

C. E. Currie, R A Elton, J. Todd … (1997)

Many indicators of socioeconomic status used for adults are inappropriate for use in research on adolescents. In a school-based survey of 4079 Scottish schoolchildren using a self-completion questionnaire, over 20% of 11-15 year olds were unable to provide a substantive response on father's occupation. In contrast, indicators derived to construct a family affluence scale, which included car ownership, telephone ownership and the child having their own unshared bedroom, resulted in a 98% response rate; and 92% of children responded to a question on their weekly spending money. The intercorrelations between the conventional indicator of father's occupation and each family affluence and spending money were examined, and their associations with a range of health indicators and health behaviour measures compared. Father's occupational status and family affluence were moderately correlated and showed broadly similar patterns of association with the selected health measures although there were also some distinct differences. Child's spending money was only weakly correlated with father's occupation and showed rather different patterns of association with health measures. A case is made for the use of multiple indicators of socioeconomic status in adolescent health surveys, and it is argued that that the family affluence scale provides a useful and easily applied additional indicator to father's occupation or an alternative measure of socioeconomic background where occupational data are unavailable.

0 comments Cited 218 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Health inequalities in the early years: is there equalisation in youth?

Keith P. West (1997)

In the light of a still prevalent view that health inequalities are an invariant feature of the life-course, this paper re-examines the thesis that youth, in contrast to childhood, is characterised by relative equality in health, and proposes a process of equalisation to account for changes in the social class patterning of certain dimensions of health between these life stages. The evidence relating to the relationship between class of background and health over the early years is first reviewed, focusing on seven dimensions of health: mortality, chronic illness, specific conditions, self-rated health, symptoms of acute illness, accidents and injuries, and mental health. The overall picture is consistent with a conclusion of relative equality of health in youth with one major exception, severe chronic illness, which particularly on the evidence of the 1991 British Census is class differentiated from infancy. In respect of other dimensions of health, notably symptoms, non-fatal accidents and (probably) mental health, there is evidence of a change in class patterning between childhood and youth consistent with a hypothesis of equalisation. Within a theoretical perspective that juxtaposes class and age (youth) based influences, it is suggested that this could occur when effects associated with the secondary (high) school, the peer group and youth culture cut across those of the family, home background and neighbourhood in such a way as to reduce or remove class differences in health. In later youth, in the post-school period, the relative balance of class and age based shifts once more to produce a "re-emergence" of class gradients in adulthood. Youth may be a barometer of the relative power of post-modern consumer culture and traditional class based structures to shape the pattern of health inequalities over the early years into adulthood.

0 comments Cited 91 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Health behavior and academic achievement among adolescents: the relative contribution of dietary habits, physical activity, body mass index, and self-esteem.

Inga Dora Sigfusdottir, Alfgeir Kristjansson, John Allegrante (2010)

This study tested a structural equation model to estimate the relationship between health behaviors, body mass index (BMI), and self-esteem and the academic achievement of adolescents. The authors analyzed survey data from the 2000 study of Youth in Iceland , a population-based, cross-sectional sample of 6,346 adolescents in Iceland. The model demonstrated good fit with chi-square of 2685 (n = 5,810, df = 180), p < .001, Comparative Fit Index value of .94, and a root mean square error of approximation of .049. Lower BMI, physical activity, and good dietary habits were all associated with higher academic achievement; however, health behavior was positively and robustly associated with greater self-esteem. Self-esteem was positively influenced both through physical activity (beta = .16) and the consumption of fruits and vegetables (beta = .14). In contrast, poor dietary habits negatively influenced self-esteem and academic achievement, and self-esteem was negatively influenced by increasing levels of BMI (beta = -.05).

0 comments Cited 72 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Equity Health

Title: International Journal for Equity in Health

Publisher: BioMed Central

ISSN (Electronic): 1475-9276

Publication date Collection: 2009

Publication date (Electronic): 14 May 2009

Volume: 8

Page: 17

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Social Medicine, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

[2 ]Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

[3 ]National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Article

Publisher ID: 1475-9276-8-17

DOI: 10.1186/1475-9276-8-17

PMC ID: 2690589

PubMed ID: 19442262

SO-VID: b81f5f97-dbab-4e8f-87e4-1d5856f7fdb5

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 20 February 2009

Date accepted : 14 May 2009

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Smart Citations

Citing PublicationsSupportingMentioningContrasting

View Citations

See how this article has been cited at scite.ai

scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.

Cited by 9

See all cited by

Most referenced authors 512

See all reference authors

School-related mediators in social inequalities in smoking: a comparative cross-sectional study of 20,399 adolescents

Read this article at

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Related collections

UCL: UN SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Most cited references 27

Indicators of socioeconomic status for adolescents: the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey.

Health inequalities in the early years: is there equalisation in youth?

Health behavior and academic achievement among adolescents: the relative contribution of dietary habits, physical activity, body mass index, and self-esteem.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 320

Cited by 9

Most referenced authors 512