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From an ecological perspective, this study aimed to understand and characterize the similarities and differences between girls and boys regarding the perception of happiness. This paper is based on the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2022 study. 5809 students from 6th (29.6%), 8th (33.5%), and 10th (37%) grades responded, of whom 50.9% were female, with a mean age of 14.09 years (SD = 1.82). The results allow us to study and identify similarities and differences between four groups from an ecological perspective: happy girls, happy boys, unhappy girls, and unhappy boys. For both boys and girls, quality of life, low psychological symptoms, and body image best explain their well-being. Among unhappy girls, the mother's job, life satisfaction, health literacy, communication with the father, and relationship with teachers explain their well-being. In the case of unhappy boys, in addition to these variables, the father's job and the relationship with the family also explain their well-being.. Mental health factors, such as life satisfaction, quality of life, and low psychological symptoms, explain well-being in both boys and girls. For happy girls, age, mother's job, stress management, health literacy, and liking school explain their well-being. Happy boys report that not being so sad that they cannot stand it, not having worries, having a good relationship with teachers, and feeling safe in their living area contribute to their well-being. We conclude that unhappy adolescents are the ones who report more socioeconomic and family relationship difficulties, especially in communication with their fathers. Girls have weaker psychological health indicators and a more negative body image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussing sociopolitical issues with family or friends during adolescence, as well as staying informed through media outlets, is key to developing active civic engagement for both youth and future adults. Likewise, these communicative exchanges promote a sense of belonging and social skills which foster adolescents' wellbeing. This research aims to analyze the influence of participation in communication about political and social issues on adolescents' social self-efficacy, both directly and as well as indirectly through sense of unity, in two Mediterranean countries (Portugal and Spain). The sample was selected through random multistage sampling by conglomerates. The 36,992 adolescents (50.6% girls and 49.4% boys) participated in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Portugal and Spain, and the age groups were distributed as following: 39.6% 13–14-years-old; 35.8% 15–16-years-old; and 25.6% 17–18-years-old. Analyses showed positive associations between the proposed indicator of civic engagement –news media use and political discussions– and social self-efficacy, both directly as well as through sense of unity, with similar results for adolescents in Portugal and Spain. Accordingly, educational programs promoting communication about sociopolitical issues could foster adolescents' sense of unity and social skills, contributing to their positive development, wellbeing, and civic engagement. Curricular materials on current politics and social affairs could increase classroom dialogue based on respect, healthy peer relationships, and sense of belonging, fostering effective political socialization amongst youth and the development of democratic behaviors beneficial to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of the school environment is associated with greater school involvement and academic success and improved levels of well-being/quality of life. In this sense, this study intends to explore the relationship between the quality of life of Portuguese adolescents and school. 8215 adolescents participated in this study, 52.7% of which were female, aged between 10 and 22 years and an average age of 14.36 years (SD = 2.28). The sample was collected as part of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. The results show that girls like school, teachers, school breaks (between classes) and classes more than boys and present less concerns/difficulties with school. Compared to boys, they report more pressure with the schoolwork and a better perception of safety at school. On the other hand, boys have a better relationship with their peers and teachers, miss more classes on purpose and report a higher perception of quality of life. An above-average QoL is statistically and significantly related with liking school, peers, teachers, school breaks (between classes) and classes. It is also related with feeling less pressure with the schoolwork, a better perception of school success and of safety in the school environment. Additionally, having an above-average QoL is statistically significantly associated with having a better relationship with peers and teachers and less concerns/difficulties with school. This is an important message for the reorganization of schools in terms of their practices and curricula. The need to develop strategies to promote greater identification of students with school is reinforced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The healthy development of children and young people is strongly associated with the relationship that they establish with parents and the functioning of their family as a whole, with a special focus on the affective relationship between parents and children. One aspect that has more influence on the well-being and quality of life of children is the affective relationship and family dynamics, so, to deepen knowledge in this area, our study aims to understand and characterize the role of parents' emotional support in their children's quality of life. It is also intended to understand this relationship by taking into account the family functioning style. The sample included 1757 parents of children aged 6 to 16 years, 77.3% female (n = 1359) and 22.7% male (n = 398), aged between 20 and 80 years (M = 41.61 and SD = 5.71). We used a sociodemographic questionnaire and other instruments in order to measure parental styles, family functioning style, and parents' perception of the children's quality of life. Results show that parenting styles, namely, emotional support, and family functioning are influenced by parents' gender and age. Parental emotional support is better explained by the positive association with control attempt, family cohesion and commitment, and parent's perception of quality of life, and negative associated to gender (male), rejection and coping strategies. Implications for research, prevention, and psychological intervention in relation to parental skills and family functioning are presented in order to promote children quality of life and health development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intends to analyze the influence that the health condition (with/without chronic condition (CC) and CC that affect/does not affect the school participation), the factors related to the school context (liking school, perception of school success, difficulties at school, relationship with peers and teachers) and the physical and psychological symptoms exert on the adolescents' quality of life (QoL). This work is part of the HBSC 2018 study and relies on the participation of 8215 students (52,6% female), aged between 10 and 22 years old (M=14.36 and SD=2.28). The results show that the adolescents with CC have more physical and psychological symptoms and a lower perception of QoL. Having a CC that does not affect school participation is associated with a better QoL. The students with CC that affect school participation like school less than the students with CC that does not affect school participation, perceive a lower academic success and a lower QoL, have more difficulties at school and present more physical and psychological symptoms. Liking school, having a better relationship with teachers and peers, a higher perception of school success, fewer difficulties at school and fewer physical and psychological symptoms is associated with a better QoL. These results underline the importance of school participation regarding the adolescents' well-being and QoL. More than having a CC, what causes a greater impact on the adolescents' QoL is the fact that this condition affects the school participation which reinforces the importance of promoting and ensuring the school participation of the students with CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between weight status (Body Mass Index - BMI), weight perception and subjective wellbeing remains unclear. Several studies conclude that discrepancies can be found between weight status and weight perception, among children and adolescents. The present study aims at investigating the associations between subjective wellbeing and individual characteristics, among children and adolescents. The sample included 1200 children and adolescents (51.7 % girls, aged 9 to 17). Their mean age was 12.55 years ( SD = 1.61). The questionnaire was completed in school context, asking about the subjective wellbeing, use of self-regulation, eating behavior awareness/care, weight perception and sociodemographic questions such as age, gender and BMI. The study found a strong association between BMI and weight perception, although subjective wellbeing was better explained by weight perception than by BMI. Eating awareness and self-regulation also played an important role in subjective controlling for age and gender. Age and gender interfere in the relation between subjective wellbeing and other variables. The multiple regression model is more robust and explicative for girls and older children. Psychological factors related to weight, such as weight perception, self-regulation and eating awareness have a stronger explicative impact in subjective wellbeing compared to physical aspects, such as Body Mass Index. The relation between subjective wellbeing and weight is influence by age and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity-related behaviors, such as intake of snacks and sweetened beverages (SSB), are assumed to result from the interplay between environmental factors and adolescents’ ability to self-regulate their eating behaviors. The empirical evidence supporting this assumption is missing. This study investigated the relationships between perceptions of at-home and out-of-home food environment (including SSB accessibility, parental, and peers’ social pressure to reduce intake of SSB), nutrition self-regulatory strategies (controlling temptations and suppression), and SSB intake. In particular, we hypothesized that these associations would differ across the stages of preadolescence, early and mid-adolescence. Self-reported data were collected from 2,764 adolescents (10–17 years old; 49 % girls) from 24 schools in the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Path analysis indicated that direct associations between peers’ social influence and SSB intake increased with age. Direct negative associations between at-home and out-of-home accessibility and SSB intake as well as direct positive associations between parental pressure and intake become significantly weaker with age. Accessibility was related negatively to self-regulation, whereas higher social pressure was associated with higher self-regulation. The effects of the environmental factors were mediated by self-regulation. Quantitative and qualitative differences in self-regulation were observed across the stages of adolescence. The associations between the use of self-regulatory strategies and lower SSB intake become significantly stronger with age. In preadolescence, SSB intake was regulated by means of strategies that aimed at direct actions toward tempting food. In contrast, early and mid-adolescents controlled their SSB intake by means of a combination of self-regulatory strategies focusing on direct actions toward tempting food and strategies focusing on changing the psychological meaning of tempting food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The KIDSCREEN is a European cross-cultural and standardized instrument that assesses ten quality of life dimensions in children, adolescents and their parents. This instrument is used to validate evidences to support general inferences on quality-of-life measures obtained by the Portuguese version of KIDSCREEN- 10 for children and adolescents, in the context of a survey research carried on in Portugal. The present study focuses only on the KIDSCREEN children and adolescents' versions. A sample of 8072 Portuguese children and adolescents attending the 5th grade (19.3%), 6th grade (19.2%), 7th grade (20.3%), 8th (21.6%) and 10th grade (19.7%) in Portuguese schools were inquired, with a mean age of 13.2; SD 2.06, randomly distributed regarding gender. The Portuguese version of KIDSCREEN-10 instrument showed a good Internal Consistency of .78. Chosen fit indexes indicate good fit to the data. Specifically in the final solution the RMSEA was lower than .03 and the upper limit of 90% confidence interval was lower than .05, and CFI was higher than .95. Results indicated that the current 10-item structure is invariant across age groups, nationality and socio-economic level. The KIDSCREEN-10 questionnaire is a reliable instrument to estimate the perception of quality of life in children and adolescents. Psychometric guidelines are presented for the Portuguese population aged 10 to 16 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the Life Orientation Test, reviewed for children and adolescents. This study included a sample of 3195 participants from the 5th and 7th grades. Through Principal Component Analyses we found two dimensions, one related to optimism and another linked to pessimism. Results in the confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit model. Additionally, items discriminating validity and concurrent validity were inspected with measures related to optimism, such as, social support satisfaction, self-worth and quality of life. This instrument seems to be adequate for the measurement of life orientation in children and in teenagers, and may be useful in other contexts, such as health psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]