TY - JOUR
T1 - After the bell
T2 - adolescents' organised leisure-time activities and well-being in the context of social and socioeconomic inequalities
AU - Badura, Petr
AU - Hamrik, Zdenek
AU - Dierckens, Maxim
AU - Gobiņa, Inese
AU - Malinowska-Cieślik, Marta
AU - Furstova, Jana
AU - Kopcakova, Jaroslava
AU - Pickett, William
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding The work was supported by the grant of the Czech Science Foundation ’Leisure time in the context of the healthy development of school-aged children’ (GA18-24977S), by the European Regional Development Fund Project ’Effective Use of Social Research Studies for Practice’ (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_025/0007294 ) and by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under Contract No. APVV-18–0070.
Publisher Copyright:
©
PY - 2021/6/10
Y1 - 2021/6/10
N2 - BACKGROUND: Previous research has linked adolescents' participation in organised leisure-time activities (OLTAs) to better health and well-being. It remains unclear whether these associations can be observed consistently across social and socioeconomic strata and countries.METHODS: The present study used nine nationally representative samples of adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 years (total n=55 429) from the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey from Europe and Canada. Regression models with mixed effects to account for nested nature of data were applied to estimate: (1) the associations of social and socioeconomic factors with OLTA participation; (2) strengths of the associations between breadth and pattern of OLTA participation with health and well-being indicators, after adjustment for the social and socioeconomic factors.RESULTS: Rates of OLTA participation varied by age, sex and country of adolescents. Participants from lower socioeconomic classes and non-nuclear families were less likely to participate in OLTAs across each of the nine countries. Moreover, breadth of OLTA participation was associated with higher well-being independent of socioeconomic status or family structure. All of the participation patterns were associated with higher life satisfaction, but sports (either alone or in combination with a non-sport OLTA) were also associated with fewer psychological complaints and excellent self-rated health.CONCLUSION: Adolescents' engagement in OLTAs was associated with adolescents' subjective well-being regardless of country, age, sex and variance in social and socioeconomic factors. Policies aimed at increasing adolescents' subjective well-being and OLTA participation should focus on adolescents from low socioeconomic classes and non-nuclear families.
AB - BACKGROUND: Previous research has linked adolescents' participation in organised leisure-time activities (OLTAs) to better health and well-being. It remains unclear whether these associations can be observed consistently across social and socioeconomic strata and countries.METHODS: The present study used nine nationally representative samples of adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 years (total n=55 429) from the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey from Europe and Canada. Regression models with mixed effects to account for nested nature of data were applied to estimate: (1) the associations of social and socioeconomic factors with OLTA participation; (2) strengths of the associations between breadth and pattern of OLTA participation with health and well-being indicators, after adjustment for the social and socioeconomic factors.RESULTS: Rates of OLTA participation varied by age, sex and country of adolescents. Participants from lower socioeconomic classes and non-nuclear families were less likely to participate in OLTAs across each of the nine countries. Moreover, breadth of OLTA participation was associated with higher well-being independent of socioeconomic status or family structure. All of the participation patterns were associated with higher life satisfaction, but sports (either alone or in combination with a non-sport OLTA) were also associated with fewer psychological complaints and excellent self-rated health.CONCLUSION: Adolescents' engagement in OLTAs was associated with adolescents' subjective well-being regardless of country, age, sex and variance in social and socioeconomic factors. Policies aimed at increasing adolescents' subjective well-being and OLTA participation should focus on adolescents from low socioeconomic classes and non-nuclear families.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099060634&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/jech-2020-215319
DO - 10.1136/jech-2020-215319
M3 - Article
C2 - 33402394
SN - 0143-005X
VL - 75
SP - 628
EP - 636
JO - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
IS - 7
ER -