HEALTH-RISK BEHAVIOUR IN REGARD OF FAMILY STRUCTURE AND ITS EFFECT ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Abstract

The frequency of health-risk behaviours like smoking, alcohol consumption and substance use is usually higher in adolescence. In addition, its appearance is higher among students coming from non-intact families. These factors also have a strong influence on academic achievement as students from fragile families and students having these health-damaging habits tend to be less effective. According to our results, four different student clusters can be detected regarding health behaviour (traditional risk-takers, hard risk-takers, ambivalent students and risk-avoiders). Ambivalent students reached the best achievement while hard risk-takers showed the poorest efficacy. Finally, students from intact families showed better results compared to their peers from single-parent or patchwork families.

Keywords

• adolescents
• health-risk behavior
• family structure