Social Differences in Health Behaviours among Jordanian Adolescents

• Published in: European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE) Vol. 12; no. 8; pp. 1191 - 1204
• Main Authors: Alshammari, Abdullah S, Piko, Bettina F, Berki, Tamás, Fitzpatrick, Kevin M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Adolescents; Analysis; Children & youth; Computers; Culture; Developing countries; Families & family life; Family Income; Fast food; Fathers; Females; Food; Fruit; Fruits; Gender; Girls; Grade 8; Health; Health aspects; Health behavior; health behaviours; Health care; Health education; Health services; High schools; Hungary; Hygiene; LDCs; Males; Middle Class; Mortality; Mothers; Nutrition research; Online Surveys; Oral hygiene; Parenting; Parents; Parents & parenting; Physical Activity Level; Predictive Validity; Public health; Questionnaires; Risk factors; Sampling; School Health Services; Schools; Secondary Schools; Self evaluation; Self Evaluation (Individuals); Semitic Languages; Smoking; Smoking and youth; Social aspects; Social Differences; Social Influences; Socioeconomic factors; Students; Teenagers; Vegetables; Youth; Hungary; Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; Oman; Egypt
• ISSN: 2254-9625; 2174-8144; 2254-9625
• DOI: 10.3390/ejihpe12080083

Social differences are evident in both developed and developing countries. During adolescence, there are limited differences in morbidity and mortality, but differences do appear in terms of health behaviours. This study aims to examine the relationship(s) between social differences and students’ health behaviours. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020 with a sample of high school students (N = 2741, aged 13–18 years) in Jordan. Besides descriptive statistics, bivariate logistic regression analysis was used to detect the odds risk for each social difference indicator. Females were engaged in more healthy dietary and hygienic behaviours and less engaged in smoking. Males were more physically active. Adolescents with a higher parental education level were more engaged in healthy behaviours; however, they drank carbonated soft drinks and ate fast food more often. Higher SES (socioeconomic status) self-evaluation was positively associated with eating breakfast and fruit and vegetables, being physically active, drinking carbonated soft drinks, eating fast food, and smoking. Our findings suggest that socioeconomic differences are important to understanding Jordanian adolescents’ health behaviours. While females tend to engage in more healthy behaviours, the role of parental education and perceived family affluence is not always beneficial in terms of adolescents’ dietary habits, hygienic behaviour, or smoking.