Associations between developmental assets and health risk behaviors among adolescents in Chongqing / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To provide a reference for improving adolescents’ health in Chongqing by understanding the association between developmental assets and health risk behaviors.@*Methods@#A stratified random sampling method was used to select 12 middle schools in Chongqing, and then a questionnaire survey was conducted among the students of each class from grade 1 to grade 3 in each school. A total of 72 classes were surveyed and 3 513 questionnaires were distributed. The data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 statistical analysis software.@*Results@#The total score of developmental assets(37.34±9.81), internal assets (18.99±6.33) and external assets(18.44±7.21), and the distribution of eight assets were at a medium level; Middle school students’ developmental assets were most affected by their family structure, followed by their mothers and fathers’ educational level, but not by their gender, grade and family economic status. The developmental assets, external assets, internal assets and eight assets of middle school students in Chongqing were negatively correlated with various health risk behaviors, respectively(r=-0.64--0.14, P<0.05); External assets and intrinsic assets had significant influence on their overall health-threatening behaviors and various dimensions(OR=-0.39～-0.19, P<0.05), and the influence of intrinsic assets was significantly higher than that of external assets; among the background factors of middle school students, family structure had the greatest influence on their health-risk behaviors(OR=-0.16), followed by mother’s education level and father’s education water. Secondly, it had nothing to do with the gender, grade and family economic status of middle school students.@*Conclusion@#In order to prevent adolescents’ health risk behaviors, adolescents’ external and internal assets as well as study investment assets should be strengthened, which would ultimately promote health growth and development.