The association between pubertal timing and quality of life among children and adolescents: a cross-sectional study in Chongqing, China.

BACKGROUND: To determine the relationship between pubertal timing and quality of life (QOL) in children and adolescents and to provide a basis for QOL intervention in pubertal children in the future to promote good adaptation and healthy physical and mental development of children. METHODS: The survey was conducted in one county using a stratified cluster sampling method. The five physiological change items of the Puberty Development Scale (PDS) were used to assess the timing of puberty in students. Compared to students of the same age and the same sex, students who scored higher than the mean + standard deviation (SD) of individual developmental scores were defined as an early pubertal timing group. A 39-item QOL Scale for Children in Puberty was used to assess the QOL of the respondents. Multiple linear regression models were fitted separately for boys and girls. RESULTS: Of the 7223 students, 3754 (51.97%) were boys and 3469 (48.03%) were girls. The prevalence of early pubertal periods was 16.07%. The total QOL score in the early pubertal timing group (137.16 ± 18.67) was significantly lower than in the normal (on time) group (142.02 ± 17.98) and the late group (142.76 ± 18.35) (F = 37.311, P < 0.001). A multiple linear regression model showed that early pubertal timing was a risk factor for QOL (P < 0.0014), compared with normal and late pubertal timing. CONCLUSIONS: The early pubertal timing was associated with poorer QOL in children and adolescents. More attention should be paid to children with early pubertal timing in intervening children's QOL during pubertal development. Future longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the association between pubertal timing and QOL.

The relationship between negative life events and quality of life in adolescents: Mediated by resilience and social support.

Background: Quality of life has become an important indicator for assessing the health care of adolescents. This study aimed to explore the relationship between negative life events and quality of life in adolescents and the potential mediating roles of resilience and social support. Methods: A stratified cluster sampling technique was used to select 3,860 adolescents as study participants. The Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist, the Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents, the Social Support Rating Scale, and the Adolescent Quality of Life Scale were used by participants to rate their negative life events, resilience, social support, quality of life, respectively. The correlations between study variables were analyzed by the Pearson correlation analyses. The AMOS 26.0 software was used to explore the mediating roles of resilience and social support in negative life events and quality of life. Results: There was a negative correlation between negative life events and quality of life (ß=-0.745, P < 0.05); resilience and social support played an important mediating role in the relationship between negative life events and quality of life (ßResilience = -0.287, P < 0.05; ßSocial support = -0.124, P < 0.05). The emotional adjustment dimension of resilience (ß = -0.285, P < 0.05) and the subjective support dimension of social support (ß = -0.100, P < 0.05) played the largest mediating roles, respectively. Conclusion: Negative life events were negatively correlated with adolescents' quality of life. Strengthening resilience and social support is expected to weaken and reduce the adverse effects of negative life events on adolescents and further maintain and improve their quality of life.

[Relationship between unhealthy weight loss and depressive symptoms among adolescents in Chongqing City].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between unhealthy weight loss behaviors and depressive symptoms among adolescents in Chongqing. METHODS: From October to November in 2019, 4 urban combined junior and senior high school and 4 rural combined junior and senior high school in Chongqing were selected by stratified cluster sampling method, and the unhealthy weight loss behavior questionnaire and the center for epidemiological studies depression scale(CES-D scale) were used to investigate the weight loss behavior and depression symptoms of junior one to senior three students. A total of 3969 subjects were enrolled, including 1479(37.26%) males and 2490(62.73%) females. Chi-square test was used to analyze the relationship between general demographic characteristics and depressive symptoms, and binary Logistic regression model was used to analyze the relationship between unhealthy weight loss behavior and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Among the 3969 subjects, 2972(74.88%) reported unhealthy weight loss behaviors, and 1459(36.76%) had depressive symptoms. There were significant differences in depressive symptoms among adolescents with different gender(χ~2=34.83, P<0.01), school type(χ~(2 )=6.75, P<0.01), father's parenting style(χ~2=159.64, P<0.01), mother's parenting style(χ~2=160.10, P<0.01), family economic conditions(χ~2=63.88, P<0.01), learning pressure(χ~2=207.53, P<0.01), number of close friends(χ~2=177.52, P<0.01)and number of school health education classes(χ~2=31.60, P<0.01). Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that unhealthy weight loss behavior was a risk factor for depressive symptoms(OR=1.436, P<0.01), and unhealthy weight loss level was positively correlated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms(OR>0, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: There was a positive correlation between unhealthy weight loss behavior and depressive symptoms among adolescents in Chongqing.

The effect of peer education based on adolescent health education on the resilience of children and adolescents: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of children and adolescents have reported mental health problems, and resilience is a protective factor against these problems. Therefore, the aim of the study is to verify the effect of peer education based on adolescent health education on adolescent resilience. METHOD: A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted including 1,613 students who were divided into an intervention group (19 classes, 732 participants) and a control group (24 classes, 881 participants). One-year peer education was performed in the intervention group, and the control group had no interventions. The Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents by Yueqin Hu and a self-designed basic information questionnaire were used to collect data. Chi-square test and rank-sum test were used to compare the differences of demographic characteristics between the two groups. A linear mixed model was used to compare the changes of resilience between the two groups after intervention, and the intra-cluster correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) was used to verify the effect of peer education on adolescent resilience. The significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: After intervention, compared with the control group, the intervention group showed significant improvement in target focus, emotion adjustment, interpersonal assistance and total resilience (P < 0.05). The ICC range was 0.003 to 0.034. The GLMM results indicated that peer education based on adolescent health education had significant effects on adolescents' target focus (ß = 0.893, P = 0.002), emotional adjustment (ß = 1.766, P < 0.001), interpersonal assistance (ß = 1.722, P = 0.016) and total mental resilience (ß = 5.391, P < 0.001), and the effect was greater for boys than for girls. CONCLUSIONS: Peer education based on adolescent health education is effective for improving adolescents' target focus, emotional adjustment, interpersonal assistance, and total resilience, especially for males. Future research should devote more attention to positive cognition and family support as well as gender differences.