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Complex relationships exist between eating behaviour and personal and environmental factors. Rural and urban geographic contexts seem to play a role in eating behaviour, and therefore deserve a deeper study. A healthy eating behaviour and the conditions that promote it are a major issue in the promotion of adolescent health. The study aims to investigate the associations between the area of residence (urban vs. rural), self-regulation strategies (TESQ-E) and eating behaviours among children and adolescents. A total of 11,820 adolescents (50.6% girls) participated in the study, with a mean age of 13.30 years (SD= 2.13). Nine countries (The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, Romania, Germany, Finland and Belgium) completed a questionnaire in the school context, asking about the use of self-regulation strategies, eating behaviour awareness/care and sociodemographic questions such as age, gender and residential area. Both areas of residence (urban vs. rural) are associated with eating awareness/care in Romania and Portugal, controlling for age, gender and self-regulation strategies. In some European countries at least, and most probably around the world, health promotion should focus on an ecological approach that includes the understanding of the effect of both environmental factors and personal skills on eating behaviour/awareness., (© 2014 International Union of Psychological Science.)

Living with a chronic condition (CC) in adolescence has been historically considered protective for risk behaviours. However, research from the last decade suggest that when compared with healthy peers, adolescents living with a chronic condition can engage in risky behaviours in a similar if not higher rate than their counterparts living with out a CC. This study aims to characterize and evaluate the impact of 1) living with a chronic condition (CC), and 2) how the perception of living with a CC affects school participation, and its association with risk/protective behaviours (drunkenness, physical fight, sadness and self-harm). For this purpose 4 groups were identified: adolescents with mostly healthy behaviours, adolescents with mostly risk behaviours, adolescents with mostly risk-internalizing behaviours and adolescents with mostly risk-externalizing behaviours. A large sample was included in this study, composed by 3494 Portuguese adolescents with an average age of 15 years, who participated in the Portuguese Survey of Health Behaviour in School-aged Children/WHO (HBSC). Main results show that adolescents living with a CC have more risk-internalizing behaviours when compared to adolescents without CC, who present more healthy behaviors. Furthermore, adolescents that report that having a CC affects school participation show more risky behaviours than those not affected by a CC who present more healthy behaviours. Boys with a CC show more healthy behaviours, and those who feel that the CC affects school participation present more risky behaviours. On the other hand, girls with a CC have more risk-internalizing behaviours and less healthy behaviours It is important to point out that adolescents living with a CC represent a vulnerable group, and may engage in experimental/risky behaviours as likely as their non CC peers. Thus, potential benefits can arise from reinforcing interventions within protective contexts (family/peers/school setting). Health/education professionals, more than considering risk behaviours as dangerous in themselves, should offer adolescents with a CC an opportunity to reflect on their own decisions. Educational programs would benefit from looking at risk behaviors more from an experimentation perspective, focusing on constructive ways to help adolescents with CC to proceed into adulthood in a more appropriate developmental way.

"Escolhas" ("Choices") is a Portuguese programme that aims to promote children and youth social inclusion in deprived socioeconomic contexts. The present study aims to identify internal and external resources perceived by children and adolescents that participated in the programme, to understand the impact in life contexts, and to identify the resources nominated by their family, project professionals and partners. A qualitative method was used in order to analyze 365 discourses from four different groups: children and adolescents (149), family (40), project professionals (126) and project partners (50). The model used was Benard's Conceptual Model for Resilience and Youth Development. The conclusions highlight the success and relevance of Programa Escolhas ("CHOICES") regarding the children and the adolescents and their families, by promoting social inclusion in deprived socioeconomic contexts.

Objectives: To assess whether or not communication with parents and with peers is related to experiencing psychological complaints in an attempt to explore the hypotheses of continuity and compensation or moderation between contexts., Methods: Questions on communication with their parents and peers, as well as on the frequency with which they experience psychological complaints were answered by 200,857 adolescents from 36 countries., Results: A cluster analysis detected four groups of adolescents. Those with better communication in both social contexts were the ones showing less psychological complaints. Moreover, we have found (using a regression analysis) that good communication with peers does not improve their experience of psychological complaints if the communication with parents is not good., Conclusions: We conclude that our findings are consistent with the continuity hypothesis and against the compensating or moderating one.

The advantages of physical activity are widely recognised from both a physiological and a psychological perspective. Evidence seems to demonstrate that physical activity is associated with decreases in depression and anxiety in clinical and non-clinical populations. There are a number of physiological, biochemical and psychological explanations which should be considered to understand the psychological effects of exercise. Physical activity may be considered as an adjunct to psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments of depression and anxiety. Physical activity appears to be a non-specific form of treatment with psychotherapeutic potential that should not be ignored.

The aims of this study are to determine the influence of migrant status on sexual behavior and communication about "safer sex" and to identify ethnic-specific prevention issues. Data were obtained from a special administration of the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children Survey in a special sample of Portuguese schools located in low-income Lisbon neighborhoods with large proportions of African migrants.Survey participants included 919 6th, 8th and 10th graders (52.3% female), of whom 19.2% were migrant foreigners from African Portuguese-speaking countries, including Cape Verde (60.8%), Mozambique (1.6%), Angola (16.8%), S. Tomé (8%), and Guinea-Bissau (14.8%). Subsequently, four focus groups were held with adolescent who had participated in the survey (n = 45), three focus group with health and education professionals (n = 25), and one focus group with parents (n = 6).Compared with Portuguese adolescents, African migrant teens reported initial sexual intercourse at earlier ages, less frequent condom use, and less frequent and less comfortable communications with parents about sexual issues.Implications for selective prevention of STD are discussed and recommendations are made.