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This paper examines differences in life satisfaction among children in different family structures in 36 western, industrialised countries (n = 184 496). Children living with both biological parents reported higher levels of life satisfaction than children living with a single parent or parent-step-parent. Children in joint physical custody reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than their counterparts in other types of non-intact families. Controlling perceived family affluence, the difference between joint physical custody families and single mother or mother-stepfather families became non-significant. Difficulties in communicating with parents were strongly associated with less life satisfaction but did not mediate the relation between family structure and life satisfaction. Children in the Nordic countries characterised by strong welfare systems reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction in all living arrangements except in single father households. Differences in economic inequality between countries moderated the association between certain family structures, perceived family affluence and life satisfaction.

Objective: To examine if students who re-visit the school nurse use medicines differently than other students when exposed to aches and psychological problems. Methods: The study includes all 11-, 13- and 15-year-old students from a random sample of schools in Denmark, response rate 87 per cent, n = 5,205. The data collection followed the internationally standardized HBSC questionnaire. This study includes an item about students' re-visits to the school nurse, items about frequency of four complaints (headache, stomach-ache, difficulties in getting to sleep, and nervousness) and medicine use in the past month for these four complaints. Results: In total, 8.6 per cent of the students had re-visited the school nurse. There was a strong and graded association between frequency of complaints and medicine use for the relevant complaint. Students who re-visited the school nurse had higher odds for medicine use than other students. The association between frequency of complaints and medicine use was stronger among students who had not re-visited the school nurse as compared to the students who had re-visited the school nurse. One example is the OR (95 per cent CI) for medicine use for headache among students who experienced headache monthly vs. seldom/never and at least weekly vs. seldom/never. Among students who did not re-visit the school nurse, the OR estimates were 5.32 (4.61-6.14) and 13.6 (10.5-17.6) and among students who did, OR estimates were 3.65 (2.32-5.75) and 7.07 (3.58-14.0). Conclusion: The school nurse may reduce the students' proneness to use medicine when they experience complaints. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Background: School health services are important tools for health promotion among schoolchildren, but little is known about their effects. This article addresses the effects of dialogues with school health nurses among schoolchildren who were victims of bullying. Study population and methods: Cross-sectional and school-based survey, the Danish contribution to the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. The study included all students in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grade (11, 13, and 15 year olds) in a random sample of schools. The participation rate was 98 per cent of the students present on the day of data collection and 88 per cent of the enrolled students, n = 5205. Measurements: Bullying was measured as recommended by Olweus. Outcome of the dialogue with the school health nurse was measured as self-reports of five responses: (1) reflected on the dialogue, (2) discussed the content with parents, (3) followed the advice from the school health nurse, (4) did what he (she) himself (herself) thought was best, and (5) visited the school health nurse again. Results: All outcome measures were more prevalent among students who were victims of bullying. The most pronounced association was that the odds ratio for visiting the school health nurse again was 1.8 (95 per cent CI 1.3-2.5) for students who were bullied at least weekly. Conclusion: Schoolchildren who are victims of bullying benefit from health dialogues with the school health nurse. (Contains 2 tables.)

Abstract Background Parents and children joint activities are considered to be an important factor on healthy lifestyle development throughout adolescence. This study is a part of the Cross-National Survey on Health Behaviour in School-aged Children – World Health Organization Collaborative Study (HBSC). It aims to describe family time in joint activities and to clarify the role of social and structural family profile in a cross-national perspective. Methods The research was carried out according to the methodology of the HBSC study using the anonymous standardized questionnaire. In total, 17,761 students (8,649 boys and 9,112 girls) aged 13 and 15 years from 6 European countries (Czech Republic, Finland, Greenland, Lithuania, Spain, and Ukraine) were surveyed in the 2001–2002 school-year. The evaluation of joint family activity is based on 8 items: (1) watching TV or a video, (2) playing indoor games, (3) eating meals, (4) going for a walk, (5) going places, (6) visiting friends or relatives, (7) playing sports, (8) sitting and talking about things (chatting). Results Students from Spain and Ukraine reported spending the most time together with their families in almost all kinds of joint activities, whereas students from Greenland and Finland reported spending the least of this time. Boys were more likely than girls to be spending time together with family. Joint family activity goes into decline in age from 13 to 15 years. Variability of family time in a cross-national perspective was relatively small and related to children age category. Considering national, gender and age differences of studied population groups, we found that the distribution of joint family activities tends to be dispersed significantly by family structure (intact/restructured family) and family wealth. Conclusion Our study compares children and parent joint activities in European countries and reveals differences and similarities in these patterns between countries. The findings underline the role of family structure (intact/restructured family) and family wealth in the distribution of time spent in joint family activities, which should be considered by health promoters.