Papers by Irene García-moya
Health Education Journal, 2014
ABSTRACT Objectives: Teacher connectedness is an important factor for young people’s well-being. ... more ABSTRACT Objectives: Teacher connectedness is an important factor for young people’s well-being. The aim of this paper was to examine teacher connectedness in detail and its potential association with emotional well-being. More specifically, we set out to analyse whether teacher connectedness acted as a universal asset for boys and girls of different ages and countries as well as across adolescents with differing perceptions of their performance at school. Methods: The study sample consisted of 9,444 young people aged 11, 13 and 15 years who had taken part in the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborative survey Health Behaviour in School-aged Children in Spain and England. After examining differences in teacher connectedness associated with demographic factors, we used general linear models to analyse the relationship between teacher connectedness and emotional well-being (including interaction teacher connectedness by country) across different age and performance-derived groups. Results: Results indicated some significant differences in teacher connectedness associated with age, country and perceived performance, but a consistent positive association between teacher connectedness and emotional well-being regardless of demographic factors, country and perceptions of school performance. Older adolescents and low achievers reported lower level of connectedness to their teachers, but the association between teacher connectedness and emotional well-being operated irrespective of adolescents’ age and perceived performance at school. Conclusion: Results support the perspective that teacher connectedness can act as a significant health asset that operates irrespective of key demographic factors, while they point to some inequalities in teacher connectedness associated with age and performance at school. These findings have significant implications for health promotion interventions.
The Journal of school health, 2014
The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of bullying victimization and its impact on p... more The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of bullying victimization and its impact on physical and psychological complaints in a representative sample of adolescents and to explore the role of sense of coherence (SOC) in victimization prevalence and consequences. A representative sample of Spanish adolescents (N = 7580, mean age = 15.41) was selected as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Bullying victimization, physical and psychological symptoms, and SOC were measured, and comparisons were made between strong- and weak-SOC adolescents regarding their likelihood of being a victim of bullying and the negative effects of bullying victimization on their health. Weak-SOC adolescents were significantly more likely to suffer from bullying victimization regardless of type (nonphysical vs physical and nonphysical) or means (traditional vs cyberbullying). In addition, bullying victimization showed significant increasing effects on weak-SOC adolescents' physical and psychological symptoms whereas in strong-SOC adolescents it was not significantly associated with increases in physical complaints and its effects on psychological complaints seemed to be weaker. Weak-SOC adolescents seem to be at higher risk of becoming bullying victims and victimization experiences appear to have increased negative effects on them when compared to strong-SOC students.
Infancia y Aprendizaje, 2013
ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of family dimensions on parental knowl... more ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of family dimensions on parental knowledge of their adolescent children, based on the country, gender and age of adolescents. This study adopts two different perspectives -national and international- with data taken from the results of the 2006 edition of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study undertaken in Spain and other member countries of the international network, namely, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The results indicate that both fathers and mothers obtain knowledge about their adolescent children through the children's disclosures, parental affection, parental solicitation and family activities. The discussion focuses on how these family dimensions promote parental knowledge.
Anales de Psicología, 2013
The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 2013
The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of the SOC on the main components of biopsychosoc... more The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of the SOC on the main components of biopsychosocial health separately, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the relationship between the SOC and health in adolescence. The sample consisted of 7,580 Spanish adolescents aged 13 to 18 who had participated in the 2009/10 edition of the WHO international survey Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. Using multivariate analysis of variance, the effects of the SOC and demographic variables (including interaction effects between them) on different health components were analysed. A higher SOC was associated with better self-rated health, lower frequency of somatic and psychological complaints and higher quality of life and life satisfaction. Thus, results support the association between SOC and positive health outcomes, especially for the psychological components of health. In addition, the effect of SOC on the various health components was homogeneous among all of the adolescents, regardless of gender and age.
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2012
Aims: The aim of this work was to study the influence of several family dimensions on sense of co... more Aims: The aim of this work was to study the influence of several family dimensions on sense of coherence (SOC) in adolescence, controlling the possible effects from the demographic variables, gender and age. Methods: The sample consisted of 7580 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18, who had taken part in the 2010 edition of the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study in Spain. Results: The results showed that there were no significant gender differences in SOC levels. However, age had a significant influence on SOC. Higher levels of SOC were found in adolescents aged 13 and 14 compared to older participants. Family variables explained 18% of SOC variability, with affection, easy communication with parents, and parental knowledge as the most outstanding variables. In addition, positive relationships between parents and family affluence had a significant role in explaining SOC levels. Conclusions: The results suggest that the family context plays an important role in providing meaningful experiences for the development of a strong SOC in adolescence.
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2013
The aim of this study was to examine the role of school variables and sense of coherence (SOC) in... more The aim of this study was to examine the role of school variables and sense of coherence (SOC) in the explanation of health. For this purpose, data were collected from a representative sample of adolescents, aged 13 to 18 years, selected for the Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey in Spain. Using Structural Equation Modelling, three nested models were tested that represented different hypothesized models of the relationships among school factors, SOC and health. According to goodness-of-fit indices, in the best model, school-related stress and SOC mediated the influence of support from classmates and teachers on health, and SOC had a direct effect on stress. The results supported the idea that a supportive school climate and SOC are relevant to adolescents' health. Furthermore, SOC was the most influential variable; apart from its direct positive effect on health, SOC seemed to condition the degree to which students perceived school demands to be stressful. Specifically, students with a high SOC were less likely to suffer from high levels of school-related stress.
The Journal of Primary Prevention, 2013
Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +B... more Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +Business Media New York. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com".
Journal of Health Psychology, 2013
The salutogenic model has led to revolutionary changes in the study of health. In recent years, a... more The salutogenic model has led to revolutionary changes in the study of health. In recent years, a large amount of research has been carried out on the relationship between sense of coherence and health, but relatively little is known about sense of coherence in adolescence. This study is a systematic review of the studies that looked at sense of coherence in adolescent samples. Valuable information is provided regarding the characteristics of the samples, the reliability of the sense of coherence scale versions, the influence of demographic variables and how family, school, peers and neighbourhood impact sense of coherence development. Furthermore, future directions for the study of sense of coherence in adolescence are provided.
Journal of Happiness Studies, 2013
Sense of coherence (SOC) is an important predictor of health and subjective well-being, but resea... more Sense of coherence (SOC) is an important predictor of health and subjective well-being, but research on the factors that shape SOC development is scarce. Using structural equation modeling, this study obtained a hierarchy of the contributions of several contextual factors to SOC in a representative sample of adolescents (N = 4,943, M age = 15.43) selected for the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey in Spain. Goodness-of-fit indices consistent with good fit, logical parameter estimates and a level of explained variability of 38.2 % were found in the final model. The examination of parameter estimates provided a hierarchy of contextual factors in shaping SOC. Quality of parent-child relationships was the most influential factor and appeared at the top of the hierarchy. Positive models of behavior in the peer group, neighborhood assets and classmate support occupied intermediate positions, and teacher support appeared at the bottom of the hierarchy. Multi-group analysis revealed more commonalities than differences between male and female adolescents, with the exception of teacher support, which seemed to have a higher significance for the SOC of females.
Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2013
ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to examine the role of family dimensions in tobacco, alcohol, ... more ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to examine the role of family dimensions in tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use among adolescents. Furthermore, we investigated how demographic variables (adolescents’ gender and age) influence substance use and moderate the relationship between family dimensions and substance use. The sample consisted of 14,825 adolescents aged 13–14, 15–16, and 17–18 who participated in the 2006 edition of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Spain. The HBSC-2006 questionnaire included demographic variables (gender and age), substance use variables (tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use), and family dimensions (parental affection, parental promotion of autonomy, family activities, adolescent disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental knowledge). The results indicated that adolescent disclosure, family activities, and parental knowledge had a significant effect on substance use. Specifically, maternal variables were shown to be slightly more relevant than paternal variables. Additionally, substance use was higher in older adolescents than in younger adolescents, and boys smoked less than girls. The discussion focused on how family dimensions promoted responsible substance use in adolescence.
Journal of Adolescence, 2013
Using a person-focused approach, the present study sought to identify meaningful constellations o... more Using a person-focused approach, the present study sought to identify meaningful constellations of contextual factors that led to predominantly high and low levels of sense of coherence (SOC). Specifically, the contributions of the quality of parent-child relationships, teacher and classmate support, models of behaviour in the peer group, and neighbourhood assets were examined in a representative sample of Spanish adolescents aged 13 to 18 that had taken part in the 2010 edition of the study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. The quality of parent-child relationships emerged as the main predictor of SOC for the whole sample, but the remaining factors also made significant contributions, which underlines the importance of the simultaneous analysis of the main contexts in adolescents' lives. Additionally, the identified constellations usually included compensatory effects, so no factor should be considered to be completely determining. Interestingly, the role of support at school was different depending on contextual profiles. Ó
ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine the influence of sport activities by peer groups and the fam... more ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine the influence of sport activities by peer groups and the family on the frequency of adolescents’ participation in organized sport activities. A sample of 9,821 Spanish adolescent schoolchildren between the ages of 11 and 18 from the 2010 edition of the international study on Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) was used. The results obtained by means of an Answer Tree multivariate analysis indicated that gender was the best predictor of organized sport activity, with participation being notably higher in boys. As for the role of other variables, the practice of sport in peer and family activities were the most influential variables for boys. On the contrary, in the girls’ case, age appeared as the first factor and the influence of sport in family activities and the peer group was different depending on age. In conclusion, family and peers seem to be significant influences on involvement in sport, despite having different roles according to the adolescents’ gender and age.
Social Science Journal, 2013
A high prevalence of youth is overweight or obese, and a frequent lack of monitoring of their wei... more A high prevalence of youth is overweight or obese, and a frequent lack of monitoring of their weight control strategies is observed. Consequently, this paper compares the eating habits and physical activities of male and female dieters and non-dieters. Data are obtained from the large cross-national WHO collaborative study "Health Behavior in School-aged Children 2010". The current sample consists of 9,444 students aged 11, 13 and 15 years from England and Spain. Participants are asked about dieting, vigorous and moderate-tovigorous physical activity, breakfast frequency and fruit, vegetable, sweet and soft drink consumption. A logistic regression is used to examine the differences between dieters and non-dieters with regard to the aforementioned eating and physical activity habits. Differences between genders, countries, and those associated with BMI (body mass index) are also considered. The results suggest that the reality of weight control differs from the major health promotion recommendations during adolescence.
European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2013
The quality of parent–child relationships has important implications for adolescent development a... more The quality of parent–child relationships has important implications for adolescent development and well-being. However, whereas numerous measures of specific dimensions contributing to quality of parent–child relationships are available, scales that provide a global assessment of this content are scarce. Consequently, the assessment of quality of parent–child relationships poses a challenge to the researcher, especially when the need exists to consider its main aspects but long instruments can not be used due to diverse circumstances. This paper presents a composite factorial score on quality of parent–child relationships developed from four short measures of affection, communication, parental knowledge and family satisfaction that can contribute to solving some of those difficulties. This composite score can be a useful tool to assess quality of parent–child relationships, especially for studies devoted to the study of the relationships between experiences within the family and the adolescent's well-being.
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Papers by Irene García-moya