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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.

In this paper we take the standpoint that health promotion (WHO 1986) requires health literacy which means teaching and learning, and we claim that every time we talk of health promotion we could as well talk of education and pedagogy. At the core of both fields is learning processes; a major element of learning is motivation. Learning and motivational processes are always involved in health promotion and in teaching. As in teaching in the classroom, so in health promotion activities there is often a mismatch between the spoken and the practiced views on learning. There is often a difference between what the practitioner claims about his/her view of learning and what unfolds in praxis. We think that this phenomenon has great importance to the outcome of teaching as well as the outcome of projects in health promotion; hence our research interest in finding out what are explicit or implicit learning viewpoints in research articles about health promotion and whether there is a mismatch between theory and praxis. More specifically how do we recognize the viewpoints on learning in papers written by Nordic researchers about health promotion? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to focus on how family and community in Greenland perceive support- giving during the perinatal period. It explores Greenlanders use of storytelling as a health-promoting tool in the perinatal period. It is research set in Greenland, but analysed in a larger context. Using an ethnographic approach to subject matter, the paper is based on a series of qualitative interviews and focus groups conducted between 2003 and 2011 with mothers and fathers. Ethnographic content analysis, interviews and dialogues with Culture Bearers were used to analyse and set the stories into a cultural perspective. The child was described as the centre of the family and the family as the bedrock of life. The mothers, fathers and Culture Bearers presented three main concepts in their stories: 1) my family @@@ a safe harbour, 2) the child as the centre of the family, and 3) the equal sharing of burden and joy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medicine use among children and young people is under-researched. Studies that investigated cross-national patterns in adolescents' medicine use practice are rare. This study aims to investigate adolescents' medicine use for corresponding health complaints in Europe and USA., Methods: Nationally representative samples of adolescents from 19 countries and regions in Europe and USA completed an anonymous, standardised questionnaire as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2005/2006 survey. The prevalence of health complaints and medicine use were determined. The influence of the frequency of medicine use, age, gender and country of residence, on the likelihood of medicine use was assessed using multilevel multivariate logistic regression, with separate analyses for boys and girls., Results: Both health complaints and medicine use were common among adolescents. Medicine use was strongly associated with the frequency of health complaints. The prevalence of both medicine use and health complaints was higher among girls than boys. Boys and girls with weekly health complaints were both similarly likely to report elevated rates of medicine use., Conclusions: The findings indicated that adolescents who report more frequent recurrent health complaints are also more likely to report more frequent medicine use for their health complaints. Adolescent boys with weekly health complaints have the same risk of medicine use as girls with weekly health complaints. The importance of educating school-aged children to interpret their bodily feelings and complaints and to use medicines appropriately is of high priority., (Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)