Implications of personality and parental education on healthy lifestyles among adolescents

Abstract

Several studies have shown an association between personality and health status. the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between personality traits, parental education and health-related lifestyles in a cohort of Spanish adolescents. this is a longitudinal study with a source population of 1,123 third-year students (aged 14-15) in secondary schools in Spain. At the baseline evaluation sociodemographic variables, parental education and personality (Big Five Questionnaire for Children) were collected. At 18 months of follow-up health related lifestyles, including adherence to a healthy diet (KidMed index), tobacco and alcohol consumption, physical exercise, sleep problems and recreative screen and social network time were collected. A total of 824 adolescents (73.4%) completed the 18 months assessment and 695 (84.3%) presented valid data. Higher conscientiousness was associated to a lower risk for non-adherence to Mediterranean diet (OR = 0.7, 95% CIs=0.5-0.9), tobacco (OR = 0.5, 95% CIs=0.3-0.7) and alcohol consumption (OR = 0.6, 95% CIs=0.5-0.8), excessive use of screens (OR = 0.7, 95% CIs=0.5-0.9) and social network sites (OR = 0.7, 95% CIs=0.5-0.8). Higher levels of extraversion was significantly related to a lower risk of physical inactivity (OR = 0.7, 95% CIs=0.6-0.9), but they are at a higher risk of low adherence to Mediterranean diet (OR = 1.3, 95% CIs=1.0-1.7), tobacco (OR = 2.7, 95% CIs=1.7-4.3) and alcohol consumption (OR = 1.9, 95% CIs=1.5-2.4) and excessive use of social network sites (OR = 1.6, 95% CIs=1.3-1.9). High levels of emotional instability were associated with tobacco consumption (OR = 1.5, 95% CIs=1.0-2.2) and sleep problems (OR = 2.0, 95% CIs=1.5-2.7). Finally, we found an association with lower parental education and adolescents' low adherence to Mediterranean diet (OR = 1.6, 95% CIs=1.0-2.4) and sleep problems (OR = 1.8, 95% CIs=1.0-3.0). Cluster analysis of health-related behaviours indicated the presence of two different clusters (unhealthy and healthy adolescents) that were associated with personality traits. Conscientiousness, extraversion, emotional instability and parental education are independent factors associated with the acquisition of adolescent healthy lifestyles.

Screen Time and Parents’ Education Level Are Associated with Poor Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Spanish Children and Adolescents: The PASOS Study

“…Outcomes that are consistent with ours in this respect have been observed in studies conducted in various countries [66][67][68][69]. Yañez et al have shown that low family educational level is associated with low adherence to the Mediterranean diet in adolescents [70]. It has been described that a low parent education level is associated with little knowledge of nutrition and a low level of awareness about aspects related to nutrition.…”

Hazardous alcohol consumption among older adults: A comprehensive and multi-national analysis of predictive factors in 13,351 individuals

“…Notably, the present study also revealed conscientiousness to exhibit a significant negative association with alcohol intake for males, which is in line with previous literature [19,43,44].…”

“…The BFI-44 consists of 44 items and is the most commonly used. However, the shorter BFI-10 also achieved sufficient levels of validity and reliability: Discriminant and structural validity had been shown to be equivalent with those of the BFI- 44 and also reliability yielded satisfying results by capturing 70% of the variance and retaining 85% of the test-retest reliability of the BFI-44 [33].…”

Maternal Education Level and Excessive Recreational Screen Time in Children: A Mediation Analysis

“…This difference could be because mothers tend to have a more important physical and emotional presence at the home [30][31][32]. Other longitudinal studies, with older population also reported that parental socioeconomic status was consistently associated with healthy lifestyles (tobacco consumption, quality of diet) during adolescence in Spain [32,33].…”