118.17
Long-Term Effect of Parental Conflict and Parenting on Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Trajectory Patterns
Methods: Data was obtained from the Child and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-term Evolution (CABLE) project. Participants included 1514 students followed from the 4th to 12nd grade (2001-2009) in Taiwan. Group-based trajectory model and multinomial logit model were mainly used in the statistical analysis.
Results: In 4th-12nd grade, four health-related behavior trajectory patterns were find among boys (n=776): persistently low(11.1%), low to medium(11.4%), medium and declining(39.4%), and persistently high(38.1%). There are also 4 but different patterns in girls (n=738): low and declining(12.3%), low to medium(24.7%), medium and declining(22.4%), and high and declining(40.7%). Parental conflict and parenting (parent-child interaction, parental support) in childhood had significant effect on the health-related behavior trajectory pattern in childhood to late adolescence.
Conclusions: Health lifestyle in childhood and adolescence usually persist to adulthood and difficult to change. In Taiwan, most students go to college after graduating from high school (10th-12rd grade). They have less time staying in family and living a more independent life, so making good health habits before going to college is important. We found four patterns of health-related behavior developmental trajectory in boys and girls. After controlling parents’ socioeconomic and marital status, the long-term effect of parental conflict and parenting in childhood and early adolescence on adolescent health-related behavior trajectory still existed. Conflict with a spouse may let parents feel exhausted and invest less time to their children, thus fail to form health-related lifestyle. Based on our findings, we recommend that parents should give more support and parent-child interaction to help their children to form health lifestyle before they go into adulthood.