Jordanian adolescents’ health behaviour and school climate

Abstract

Aim This study was conducted to assess the occurrence of physical activity, nutritional habits, tooth brushing and seat belt use behaviour among adolescent school students in Jordan, and to examine the effect of psychosocial aspects of school on these behaviours. Method A cross-sectional descriptive correlational design was used to draw a sample of in-school adolescents aged between 11 and 15 years. The final sample included 1166 adolescents from five public and two private schools. Study participants filled in a translated version of the health behaviour in school aged children questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlational (point biserial), and bivariate analyses (chi-square tests) were used to analyse the data. Results Among the study sample 34.5% of the adolescents practised exercise outside school hours once a week or less frequently, and only 53.1% of them brushed their teeth more than once a day. Regarding seat belt use, 44.7% of the adolescents used them rarely or never. Concerning carbonated sugary drinks and sweets consumption, about 64% and 83.3% of the adolescents, respectively, consumed them once a day or more often. The percentages of adolescents who never drank low fat or whole fat milk were 43.1% and 38.2%, respectively. Conclusions The study concluded that school adolescents do engage in unhealthy behaviour. Psychosocial aspect of schools were associated with students’ physical activity, nutritional habits, tooth brushing and seat belt use behaviours.