Adolescent lifestyle profiles and personal and community competences
Date
2017Abstract
Revealing how health-related lifestyle behaviors are associated with competences
during adolescence can contribute to understanding the complexity of factors
that intervene in adolescents’ health. The objectives of this study were to explore
the clustering of different lifestyle behaviors and their connection to personal
and community competence. Participants were 795 adolescents who were
taking part in the initial assessment of a Spanish community-based intervention
program. They were asked to complete four self-report measures: the Lifestyle
Questionnaire, the Self-Concept and Social Realization Questionnaire, the Coping
Scale for Children and Youth Questionnaire, and the Perceived Community Support
Questionnaire. Cluster analysis was then used to discover different patterns of
lifestyle behaviors and associate them with sociodemographic and competence
factors. The cluster analysis revealed three groups of adolescents: a first group that
presented all-round healthy habits, a second group with abusive screen use and
a third group with unhealthy habits related to going out at night. These clusters
were modulated by age, student status, psychosocial risk status and mothers’ level
of education. Further analysis showed higher levels of Self-worth, Task-oriented
strategy, Empathy and Community participation in the Healthy group compared
to those in the Unhealthy group, whereas the Screen-user group had more
Behavioral avoidance than the Healthy group and less Community integration
than both of the other groups. The identification of personal and community
competences as health-promoting factors associated with adolescents’ lifestyles
may help professionals to prioritize certain strengths for best results in intervention
programs.