Risk Behaviours: Tracking Youth Health and Well-Being in Bulgaria 2006

Risk Behaviours: Tracking Youth Health and Well-Being in Bulgaria 2006–2018

Published:2022 Issue: Volume: Page:665-687
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Container-title:Wohlbefinden und Gesundheit im Jugendalter
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Author:

Kotzeva Tatyana,Dimitrova E.

Abstract

AbstractThis paper aims to present the prevalence and trends of adolescents’ risky behaviours in Bulgaria over a 13-year period (2006–2018). Current tobacco smoking, drinking and alcohol abuse, current cannabis use, early sexual experience, and aggression towards schoolmates (bullying and fighting at school) are in the focus of research interest, using national representative data from the three waves (2006, 2014, 2018) of the Health Behaviour among School-Aged Children (HBSC) study. The descriptive and multivariate analysis reveals trends of decrease in smoking tobacco, excessive alcohol consumption (drunkenness), involvement in a physical fight, and the early start of sexual life as well as trends of an increase in regular alcohol consumption and cannabis use in a lifetime across the years. Additionally, the family context is a significant gradient in defining the prevalence of adolescents’ risk behaviours, in particular adolescents living in one-parent families and coming from high FAS families in Bulgaria are more likely to report risky behaviours compared to young people from low FAS families. The last part of the paper discusses the key areas for policy intervention in youth health and wellbeing in Bulgaria.

Publisher

Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

Link

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-658-35744-3_30

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