Dataset Information

Behavioral profile, lifestyle and social skills in Portuguese adolescents.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Seventy percent of premature deaths in adults are due to behaviors initiated during adolescence. Therefore, it is essential to promote individual and social behaviors that educate adolescents in the ability to make healthy choices. Accordingly, the main goals of this study were to characterize Lifestyles and Social Skills, as well as identify homogeneous subgroups, in a sample of Portuguese adolescents.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted, including 1008 adolescents attending the 7th to the 9th grades of five middle schools from the Tâmega and Sousa regions of Portugal, and using the My Lifestyle Questionnaire and the Social Skills Inventory. To establish a profile of the participants, a Cluster Analysis (K-means) was performed, and the Jaccard coefficient was used to assess the stability of the solution found.

Results

From the total sample, 556 adolescents with a mean age of 13.43?years (SD?=?1.1) were included in the analysis. The majority of the sample presented a healthy lifestyle (72.26%) and 50.7% of the adolescents had a highly elaborated repertoire of Social Skills. Moreover, three clusters were found. Cluster 1 (n?=?92) showed a less elaborate repertoire of Social Skills and was designated as the "Adjusted". Cluster 2 (n?=?115) comprised adolescents with a good repertoire of Social Skills and was named the "Sociable". Cluster 3 (n?=?258) was composed of adolescents with a highly elaborate repertoire of Social Skills and the best Lifestyle indicators and was named the "Healthy".

Conclusions

The group of adolescents in the cluster called the "Sociable" needs to be included in health education and Social Skills programs. Nutrition and Monitored Safety behaviors reveal low values and, therefore, present a greater need for awareness, sensitization, and intervention in the school context. For this reason, the promotion of a healthy lifestyle should be part of the academic curriculum and transversal to all academic disciplines.

SUBMITTER: Magalhaes C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7893771 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Behavioral profile, lifestyle and social skills in Portuguese adolescents.

Magalhães Clarisse C Ribeiro Maria Fátima MF Esteves Maria Raquel MR Aires Luísa L Lima Sara S Silva Gustavo G Nogueira Assunção A Herdeiro Teresa T Pedras Susana S

BMC public health 20210218 1

<h4>Background</h4>Seventy percent of premature deaths in adults are due to behaviors initiated during adolescence. Therefore, it is essential to promote individual and social behaviors that educate adolescents in the ability to make healthy choices. Accordingly, the main goals of this study were to characterize Lifestyles and Social Skills, as well as identify homogeneous subgroups, in a sample of Portuguese adolescents.<h4>Methods</h4>A cross-sectional study was conducted, including 1008 adole ...[more]

PMID: 33602184

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Project description:BackgroundAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder typically diagnosed after the second year of life; however, differences in brain structure and function associated with ASD have been ascertained in early infancy. Identifying behavioural markers of ASD risk in early infancy has the potential to facilitate early detection and intervention.ObjectivesWe examined associations between infant behaviour and adolescent behaviours associated with ASD.MethodsAnalyses leveraged data available on 370 participants from the New Bedford Cohort, a sociodemographically diverse prospective birth cohort of children born from 1993 to 1998 to mothers residing near the New Bedford Harbor Superfund site in Massachusetts. Longitudinal assessments were used to examine the associations between behaviours when children were approximately 2 weeks old (measured by the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale [NBAS]), and subsequent maladaptive behaviours associated with ASD at approximately 15 years old [measured by the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition-Teacher Rating Scale (BASC-2 TRS) scores which are standardised to a mean (SD) of 50 (10)].ResultsPoorer performance on select individual items and cluster scales of the NBAS was associated with an increase in behaviours associated with ASD in adolescents. Associations were strongest for neonatal measures of self-regulation, response to auditory input, and autonomic nervous system regulation. For example, in covariate-adjusted models, infants with Regulation of State NBAS cluster scores in the lowest tertile (poorest performance) compared to infants with scores in the higher two tertiles had adolescent BASC-2 TRS Developmental Social Disorders T-scores that were 2.9 points higher (95% CI: 0.8, 4.9), indicating more behaviours associated with ASD.ConclusionThe NBAS is an established and accessible instrument that assesses a broad range of behaviours in very young infants, and may be a useful tool for newborn assessments of developmental risk, including risk of ASD-associated behaviours.

Dataset Information

Behavioral profile, lifestyle and social skills in Portuguese adolescents.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Behavioral profile, lifestyle and social skills in Portuguese adolescents.

Similar Datasets

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