Youth violence has become a worrying public health issue worldwide. In Europe and the USA, research has shown a prevalence of this phenomenon ranging from 30 to 70% in boys.

This descriptive study aimed to evaluate psychological profiles of male adolescents involved in fights with their peers.

Identity consolidation was evaluated with the Self-Concept and Identity Measure; defence strategies were assessed by the Response Evaluation Measure for Youth; emotion regulation was assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and mentalisation capacity was evaluated by the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire.

Through a series of multivariate analyses of variance, our results showed that adolescents reporting four or more fights in the past year, when compared with peers reporting none or fewer than four fights, displayed lower identity consolidation, greater use of immature defence strategies, poorer emotion regulation processes and poorer mentalisation capacity.

The results of this study could be useful for the promotion of prevention and intervention programmes to stem fights among adolescents.

The genetic load for major depressive disorder (MDD) may be higher in people who develop MDD earlier in life. This study aimed to investigate whether the parents of adolescents with MDD were more likely to have MDD, bipolar disorder (BD), schizophrenic disorder (SZ), alcohol use disorder, or substance use disorder than the parents of adolescents without MDD. We also examined whether the response to antidepressant treatment predicted the likelihood of parental psychiatric disorders.

In all, 1,758 adolescents aged 12–19 years with antidepressant-resistant depression, 7,032 (1:4) age-/sex-matched adolescents with antidepressant-responsive depression and 7,032 (1:4) age-/sex-matched controls were included. Parental psychiatric disorders of individuals enrolled were assessed.

The parents of the adolescents with MDD were more likely to be diagnosed with MDD, BD, SZ, alcohol use disorder, or substance use disorder than the parents of the control group. The parents of adolescents who were antidepressant resistant and the mothers of adolescents who were either treatment resistant or treatment responsive were more likely to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder.

Our study demonstrated that parents of adolescents with MDD may be more likely to be diagnosed with MDD, BD, SZ, alcohol use disorder, or substance use disorder than parents of adolescents without MDD, suggesting the within-disorder transmission and cross-disorder transmission of these psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, the parent’s sex and the response to antidepressant treatment may affect the within-disorder transmission of MDD.

There is a broad spectrum of dietary supplements (DS) and their accessibility worldwide. However, little is known about the prevalence of DS use among Bangladeshi adolescents. This study estimates the prevalence, correlates and common conditions related to DS use.

A cross-sectional, convenient sampling strategy was adopted using an interviewer-administered, structured questionnaire.

Kurigram and Patuakhali districts of Bangladesh.

702 adolescents aged 10–19 years.

The overall prevalence of DS use was 83 %. The majority of participants (93·4 %) agreed that DS were good for health, and 28·3 % reported general health and well-being as the reason for using DS. The most frequently used supplements were multivitamins (38·6 %) and Ca (37 %). DS use was more common among adolescents who had ≤5 siblings, good health status, no chronic diseases, a positive impression that DS are good for health and who had the tendency to encourage DS to others. DS use was also higher among those who received DS information from healthcare providers, professional literature, friends, family and relatives.

The prevalence of DS use is relatively higher among Bangladeshi adolescents compared to Bangladeshi adults and adolescents from other countries, highlighting the inclination towards DS use. Guidelines for safe DS use for adolescents are warranted to control DS use and prevent adverse effects.

To examine energy drink consumption among adolescents in the UK and associations with deprivation and dietary inequalities.

Quantitative dietary and demographic data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) repeated cross-sectional survey were analysed using logistic regression models. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

UK.

Quantitative data: nationally representative sample of 2587 adolescents aged 11–18 years. Qualitative data: 20 parents, 9 teachers and 28 adolescents from Hampshire, UK.

NDNS data showed adolescents’ consumption of energy drinks was associated with poorer dietary quality (OR 0·46 per sd; 95 % CI (0·37, 0·58); P < 0·001). Adolescents from more deprived areas and lower income households were more likely to consume energy drinks than those in more affluent areas and households (OR 1·40; 95 % CI (1·16, 1·69); P < 0·001; OR 0·98 per £1000; 95 % CI (0·96, 0·99); P < 0·001, respectively). Between 2008 and 2016, energy drink consumption among adolescents living in the most deprived areas increased, but decreased among those living in the most affluent neighbourhoods (P = 0·04). Qualitative data identified three themes. First, many adolescents drink energy drinks because of their friends and because the unbranded drinks are cheap. Second, energy drink consumption clusters with other unhealthy eating behaviours and adolescents do not know why energy drinks are unhealthy. Third, adolescents believe voluntary bans in retail outlets and schools do not work.

This study supports the introduction of age-dependent legal restrictions on the sale of energy drinks which may help curb existing socio-economic disparities in adolescents’ energy drink intake.

Cardiac arrest prevention in schools has recently gained momentum. The survival benefit in schools who have access to defibrillators is clear, with far better survival outcomes in children or adults who sustain a cardiac arrest on school grounds. The main objectives of this study were to assess sudden cardiac arrest prevention in Maltese schools, specifically the availability of defibrillators and staff competence in delivering resuscitation.

An online-based questionnaire was distributed to all secondary schools across the Maltese archipelago. Data were collected, tabulated, and analysed using SPSS V.23. Most schools (n = 40, 74.1%) completed the questionnaire. Two schools documented a cardiac arrest in the past 10 years. 87.5% agreed that cardiac arrest prevention is an important health topic. Most have a defibrillator on the premises (n = 37, 92.5%). Only one defibrillator is usually available (n = 27, 75.0%). Despite the majority claiming its ease of accessibility (n = 35, 97.2%), most were not available on every floor (n = 37, 97.2%). Only one-third were close to a sporting facility (n = 11, 30.6%). Schools do not organise regular resuscitation courses (n = 21, 58.3%), with eight schools having five or more certified staff members (23.5%). The number of defibrillators did not influence the frequency of resuscitation courses at school (p = 0.607), and there was no association with the number of certified individuals (p = 0.860).

Defibrillators are not readily available at secondary schools and are often installed in low-risk areas. Most schools have only one staff member certified in resuscitation. These factors should be addressed with urgency.

The assessment of resilience as an outcome in adolescents remains a challenge, with few instruments available. Some studies have focused on risk factors, but few have focused on protective factors as a formula for measuring resilient outcomes.

To adapt a new Suicide Attempt Resilience Scale (SRSA-18) for use with adolescents, analysing its structural validity, the gender and age invariance of the measure, and divergent and convergent validity, together with its reliability.

The psychometric properties of the scale were assessed in 628 participants aged between 13 and 18 years, of whom 342 (54.5%) were girls.

After a process of adaptation for adolescents, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis yielded a three-dimensional structure with adequate goodness-of-fit indices, invariance of the measure according to gender and age, adequate levels of reliability (ω = 0.91), high convergent validity with the 14-Item Resilience Scale and high divergent validity with the suicidal act/planning subdimension of the Adolescent Suicidal Behavior Assessment Scale.

There is a need to create and adapt instruments to measure resilience in some populations with high psychosocial vulnerability as a key aspect for measuring the impact of prevention and mental health promotion programmes in adolescents.

To examine changes in the proportions of daily, weekly and occasional consumers of sugar-sweetened soda in six European countries that introduced/updated a tax between 2001–2002 and 2017–2018 and in neighbouring comparison countries (without a tax).

Repeated cross-sectional surveys.

Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, spanning five survey years (school years 2001–2002 to 2017–2018).

Nationally representative samples of 13-year- and 15-year-old adolescents (n 236 623, 51·0 % girls).

Tax sizes (€0·02/l to €0·22/l) and pre-tax soda consumption were heterogeneous across countries. Prevalence of daily soda consumption reduced in the survey year following tax implementation in Latvia (from 17·9 to 11·9 %, P = 0·01), Finland (4·2 to 2·5 %, P = 0·001), Belgium (35·1 to 27·8 %, P < 0·001) and Portugal (17·4 to 14·9 %, P = 0·02), but not in Hungary (29·8 to 31·3 %, P = 0·47) or France (29·4 to 28·2 %, P = 0·27). However, reductions were similar (Finland) or smaller (Belgium, Portugal) than those in the comparison countries, except in Latvia where the reduction was larger (Pinteraction < 0·001). Prevalence of weekly soda consumption remained stable (Finland, Hungary and France) or increased (Latvia, Belgium); only Portugal experienced a decline (P < 0·001), which was larger than in the comparison country (Pinteraction < 0·001). Prevalence of occasional soda consumption (<1x/week) did not rise after implementation of the tax in Latvia, Finland, Hungary, France or Belgium, or the rise was similar to the comparison country in Portugal (Pinteraction = 0·15).

Countries with a soda tax did not experience larger beneficial changes in post-tax adolescent consumption frequency of soda than comparison countries. Further studies, with different taxation types, are needed in the adolescent population.

This study aimed to investigate gender differences in social environmental factors of psychological distress among Indonesian adolescents.

This was a cross-sectional study using the data from the 2015 Indonesia Global School-based Student Health Survey. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the influences of main independent variables – social environmental factors (i.e., peer support, having close friends, bullying victimisation, physical fight, physical attack, parental supervision, connectedness, bonding), demographic characteristics, and health-related behaviours on the measures of psychological distress (loneliness, anxiety-induced sleep disturbance, and a combination of both measures as psychological distress).

The prevalence of psychological distress measured as loneliness, anxiety-induced sleep disturbance, and combined psychological distress was 6.12%, 4.52%, and 8.04%, respectively. Findings from multivariate analyses indicated that bullying victimisation, physical attack, experience of hunger (a proxy of socioeconomic status), and sedentary behaviour were associated with all measures of psychological distress. Meanwhile, age, gender, drug use, parental connectedness and bonding, and having no close friends were correlates of one or two measures of psychological distress. Based on gender-stratified analyses, experience of hunger, sedentary behaviour, bullying victimisation, and having no close friends were consistently associated with measures of psychological distress among both girls and boys. In addition, the influence of some social environmental factors, such as parental connectedness, peer support, and physical attack, were more salient among girls.

The findings suggest that social environmental factors, demographic characteristics, and health-related behaviours were associated with psychological distress, and the associations appeared to differ by gender. Interventions that include improving positive social environmental factors (e.g., reducing interpersonal violence, encouraging positive relationships with parents and peers) and promoting healthy behaviours (e.g., less sedentary behaviour, preventing substance use) might help reduce the risk of psychological distress among Indonesian adolescents.

The objective of this research was to determine if, based on gender, adolescents were exposed to different marketing techniques that promoted food and beverages over social media.

A secondary analysis of adolescent boy (n 26) and girl (n 36) exposures (n 139) to food and beverage marketing was conducted. Mann–Whitney U and Fisher’s exact tests were conducted to compare the number, healthfulness and the marketing techniques of exposures viewed by boys and girls.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Sixty-two adolescents aged 12–16 years.

Boys and girls were exposed to similar volumes of food marketing instances (median = 2 for both boys and girls, Mann–Whitney U = 237, P = 0·51) per 10-min period of social media use. More girls viewed products that were excessive in total fat compared to boys (67 % v. 35 %, P = 0·02). Boys were more likely to view instances of food marketing featuring a male as the dominant user (50 % v. 22 %, P = 0·03), appeals to achievement (42 % v. 17 %, P = 0·04), an influencer (42 % v. 14 %, P = 0·02) and appeals to athleticism (35 % v. 11 %, P = 0·03), whereas girls were more likely to view instances of food marketing featuring quizzes, surveys or polls (25 % v. 0 %, P = 0·01).

Food and beverage companies utilise marketing techniques that differ based on gender. More research examining the relationship between digital food and beverage marketing and gender is required to inform the development of gender-sensitive policies aimed at protecting adolescents from unhealthy food marketing.

Adolescence is a period of life when dietary patterns and nutrient intakes may greatly influence adult fatness. This study assesses the tracking of energy and nutrient intakes of Ho Chi Minh City adolescents over 5 years. It explores the possible relationships between energy and the percentage of energy from macronutrients with BMI.

Height, weight, time spent on physical activity, screen time and dietary intakes were collected annually between 2004 and 2009 among 752 junior high school students with a mean age of 11·87 years at baseline. The tracking was investigated using correlation coefficients and weighted kappa statistics (k) for repeated measurements. Mixed effect models were used to investigate the association between energy intakes and percentage energy from macronutrients with BMI.

There were increases in the mean BMI annually, but greater in boys than in girls. Correlation coefficients (0·2 < r < 0·4) between participants’ intakes at baseline and 5-year follow-up suggest moderate tracking. Extended kappa values were lowest for energy from carbohydrate (CHO) in both girls and boys (k = 0·18 & 0·24, respectively), and highest for protein in girls (k = 0·47) and fat in boys (k = 0·48). The multilevel models showed the following variables significantly correlated with BMI: CHO, fat, percentage of energy from CHO, fat, time spent for moderate to vigorous physical activity, screen time, age and sex.

The poor to fair tracking observed in this cohort suggests that individual dietary patterns exhibited in the first year are unlikely to predict energy and nutrient intakes in the fifth year.

The Keyhole is an internationally recognised front-of-pack nutrition label, guiding consumers to healthier food options. It indicates products in accordance with specific criteria for dietary fats, sugars, fibres, salt and wholegrains. The objective of this study was to simulate the potential impact of the Keyhole on adolescents’ energy and nutrient intakes by modelling a shift from reported food intakes to foods meeting the Keyhole criteria.

Self-reported dietary intake data were derived from a cross-sectional survey. Multiple replacement scenarios were calculated, where foods meeting the Keyhole criteria replaced reported non-compliant foods with varying proportions of replacement.

Dietary survey ‘Riksmaten Adolescents 2016–2017’ in schools across Sweden.

A nationally representative sample of 3099 adolescents in school years 5, 8 and 11 (55 % girls).

Overall, replacement with foods meeting the Keyhole criteria led to more adolescents meeting nutrition recommendations. Largest median intake improvements were seen for wholegrains (+196 %), SFA (-13 %), PUFA (+17 %) and fibres (+15 %). Smallest improvements were seen for free sugars (-3 %) and salt (-2 %), partly explained by the ineligibility of main food sources of free sugars for the Keyhole, and non-inclusion of ready meals that are often high in salt. Most micronutrient intakes were stable or improved. Unintentional effects included decreases in vitamin A, MUFA and energy intakes. Largest potential improvements in fat and fibre sources were observed in the youngest age group.

A shift to Keyhole alternatives for everyday foods would improve adolescents’ nutrient intakes, even with smaller exchanges.

Indian adolescents experience body dissatisfaction. However, empirically supported interventions are lacking, particularly in lower socio-economic regions of India. This paper describes the acceptability testing of a six-session teacher-led comics-based intervention, aiming to improve body image and related outcomes among adolescents in Indian Hindi medium schools.

Thirty-five students (50% girls; Mage, girls = 12.3 years; Mage, boys = 13 years) and nine teachers (11% women) from Hindi medium schools in Rajasthan, India, completed a quantitative acceptability questionnaire regarding comics that target body dissatisfaction and associated risk factors. They also participated in online or telephone semi-structured interviews to share in-depth feedback, with teachers providing additional feedback on an accompanying teacher guide. The quantitative data were analysed descriptively, with the interviews analysed using qualitative codebook thematic analysis.

Quantitative analyses revealed that 73% of students felt the comics made them feel good about themselves. Qualitative analyses revealed four themes: (1) body dissatisfaction is a concern; (2) the comics are powerful; (3) increasing ease of understanding; (4) a teacher guide to aid delivery.

This study demonstrates acceptability of a novel teacher-led comics-based body image intervention for adolescents in Indian Hindi medium schools from lower socio-economic settings. These findings are currently informing intervention optimizations, which will be evaluated in a randomized controlled effectiveness trial. If found to be effective, this intervention will be disseminated across eight Indian states by UNICEF. Trial registration. This trial has been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov; a database of privately and publicly funded studies conducted around the world. Registration date: 2nd May 2020; Registration ID: (NCT04317755). https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04317755?term=NCT04317755&draw=2&rank=1.