Latent classes of health risk behaviors and their association with school connectedness among adolescents in the Wuling Mountain Area / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand the potential categories of health risk behaviors among adolescents in the Wuling Mountain Area and their association with school connectedness, so as to provide reference for formulating classified and effective intervention measures.@*Methods@#From March to June 2023, 3 386 middle and high school students from eight schools in the Wuling Mountain Area were selected using the multistage stratified cluster random sampling method. A basic information questionnaire, health risk behaviors questionnaire, and school connectedness scale were utilized for the survey. The latent classes of adolescent health risk behaviors in the Wuling Mountain Area were investigated by using latent class analysis, while an multinomial Logistic regression model was employed to analyze the association between latent classes and school connectedness.@*Results@#Adolescent health risk behaviors in the Wuling Mountains Area were classified into three latent classes: high risk class of episodic behaviors ( 5.64 %), high risk class of implicit behaviors (26.90%), and low risk class of implicit behaviors (67.45%). Gender, ethnicity, and family type revealed significant differences in the distribution of the three latent classes ( χ 2=117.91, 22.55, 21.51, P <0.05). The results of the regression model analysis showed that, with the low risk class as the reference category, high school connectedness scores were associated with the high risk class of episodic behaviors ( OR=0.89, 95%CI = 0.88- 0.91) and the high risk class of implicit behaviors ( OR=0.90, 95%CI =0.89-0.91)( P <0.05).@*Conclusions@#The characteristics of adolescent health risk behavior classes in the Wuling Mountain Area are obvious. The high risk class of episodic behaviors and the high risk class of implicit behaviors are negatively correlated with school connectedness. Corresponding measures should be taken to enhance adolescents sense of belonging in school and reduce the aggregation and co occurrence of health risk behaviors.