Abstract

CAMARA, Sheila Gonçalves; AERTS, Denise Rangel Ganzo de Castro  and  ALVES, Gehysa Guimarães. Lifestyles of scholastic adolescents in southern Brazil. Aletheia [online]. 2012, n.37, pp.133-148. ISSN 1413-0394.

This study focuses on the lifestyles of adolescent students in order to identify both protective and risky practices among adolescent groups. The cross-sectional study involved a sample of 1210 adolescents from ninth year of elementary studies of 66 public schools in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, RS. The instruments were a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Health Behaviors among Scholarship children. The cluster analysis grouped the subjects according to their attributes, and the discriminant analysis was used to identify the combination of variables that could explain the differences between the groups identified. The results revealed three groups, two of girls and one of boys. The first profile differed boys and girls, having the boys a more healthful profile, whereas girls presented more physical and psychological symptoms. The second profile differentiated adolescents with greater social activity, indicative of a healthier profile from that least proactive. The results show the need for health promoting or preventive interventions that could be able to consider gender differences, as well as groups of teenagers with their specificities.

Keywords : Adolescence; Lifestyles; Sex; Adolescent´s health.

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