Policy responses to multiple risk behaviours in adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence has long been considered a period of increased risk behaviour. This supposition has been supported by a wealth of empirical evidence and recently, health risk behaviours have been identified as a key mechanism for the general deterioration of adolescent health relative to other age groups. Research regarding adolescent risk behaviour suggests that there are often strong links between individual risk behaviours. The mechanisms for these associations have been attributed to common risk and protective factors, as well as gateway effects stemming from increased accessibility to additional risk behaviours. This has important implications for policy interventions designed to reduce risk behaviours in adolescence. Not only does a multiple risk behaviour approach increase the effectiveness of individual risk behaviour policy, but it is also conducive to a more cohesive, coherent and efficient approach to adolescent risk in general. Several examples of cohesive policy responses to multiple risk behaviours have emerged, but generally, policy remains segregated into individual risk domains. With increasing evidence for the effectiveness of integrated approaches, multiple risk behaviours require consideration to design and implement effective and efficient policy responses.

Behavioural correlates of energy drink consumption among adolescents: A review of the literature

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Epidemiological trends and risk factors for tobacco, alcohol and drug use among adolescents in Scotland, 2002–13

“…Caution is therefore required when drawing conclusions about the sociodemographic risk profiles of adolescent substance misuers in Scotland. Second, the type and degree of substance use was self-reported by adolescents, a method that has previously been shown to only have fair validity when corroborated against biochemical test results (33). Moreover, the definitions of self-reported heavy substance use that we applied have not been widely used in international surveys (10,12,34,35).…”

Income-related inequality in health and health-related behaviour: exploring the equalisation hypothesis

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