A prospective study, including all 1083 pupils in the final year of compulsory schooling in a municipality in northern Sweden, was performed. Ninety-seven point nine per cent of the pupils were followed up after five years. They completed a comprehensive self-administered questionnaire including questions on alcohol consumption. Among men a positive correlation between long-standing unemployment (greater than 20 weeks) and alcohol consumption at the beginning and at the end of the study, as well as the change in consumption during the follow-up period was seen. This correlation was still present when earlier alcohol consumption and socioeconomic variables were controlled for. In women there was a positive correlation between unemployment and the level of alcohol consumption, but a negative correlation between unemployment and change in consumption. When controlling for motherhood and alcohol intake at the start of the study the correlation turned positive. Unemployment among women did not seem to affect recruitment to the high consumption group. Our results support the suggestion that unemployment may be a risk indicator for increasing alcohol consumption among young people, particularly in young men.
Adolescents (N=1281; M age = 15.2 years, SD = 0.51 years) from a state-wide sample of schools provided information about their psychological well-being, family functioning, extraversion, and perceived physical attractiveness and weight, using a questionnaire completed at school. Consistent with previous research, girls were significantly more likely than boys to be dissatisfied with their weight and physical appearance, and these factors explained significantly more variation in self-esteem than in life satisfaction or other measures of psychological well-being. The strong relationship between body dissatisfaction and self-esteem for adolescent girls was not moderated by school type (single sex or educational). However, girls who were dissatisfied but psychologically well adjusted tended to be more extraverted, have more close friends and receive greater family support.
In a cohort study of 1080 pupils who were followed for 5 years from when they left compulsory school (from age 16 to age 21 years), smoking habits were found to correlate with unemployment among both boys and girls. Pupils who were smokers in school had a higher risk of becoming unemployed than non-smokers. Irrespective of early smoking, smoking habits developed more unfavourably among unemployed young people than among those with no unemployment during the period studied. The odds ratio of being a smoker at the age of 21 years when unemployed more than 20 weeks during the observation period, compared with those without or with short unemployment, was 2.44 for men and 3.45 for women. When adjusted for the influence of socio-economic background, education, economy and smoking habits at the start of the period, the odds ratio was 1.7 (95% CI 1.01-2.86) for men and 2.0 (1.13-3.53) for women. The adjusted odds ratio for increasing or starting smoking during the period was 1.5 (95% CI 0.89-2.56) for men and 2.0 (1.18-3.35) for women. No significant correlation was found between snuffing and unemployment. Thus, it seems that unemployment is a risk factor for development of tobacco smoking in young people, especially among women.
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