Parental involvement, health behaviour and mental health among school-going adolescents in seven Pacific Island countries

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to estimate the relationship between parental involvement, health behaviour and mental health among school-going adolescents in seven Pacific Island countries. Data utilized were from the cross-sectional “Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS)”. The total sample included 10968 adolescents (mean age 14.1 years, SD = 1.4) from Cook Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu in 2011 to 2013. In two-level, mixed-effects logistic regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, a proxy for socioeconomic status, and support by peers, greater parental involvement was inversely associated with smoking, drunkenness and cannabis use, bullying victimization, in physical fight, injury and school truancy, and anxiety and having no close friends, and positively correlated with fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity. Interventions for improving well-being among this adolescent population should consider the positive impact of parental involvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental involvement
• health behaviour
• mental health
• adolescents
• Pacific Island countries

Acknowledgments

We thank the World Health Organization for providing the data for analysis. We are also grateful the Ministries of Education and Health and the study participants for making the GSHS possible in the study countries.