Teenage health: Keep on smiling!

A positive outlook helps teens grow up healthier.

WASHINGTON:

Youngsters who retain a sunny outlook during their teen years seem to be healthier adults, who are not likely to engage in negative behaviour such as smoking, binge drinking, drugs and eating junk food, says a study conducted by the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“Our study shows that promoting and nurturing positive well-being during teenage years may be a promising way to improve long-term health,” said study co-author Lindsay Till Hoyt, a doctoral student in human development at the Northwestern University in America. The results come from the analysis of data collected from 10,147 young people, as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The team began collecting data on this set of teenagers in 1994, and asked them a series of questions, including questions about their physical and emotional health and well-being. The group was followed up with in 1996 and 2001. “Our results show that positive well-being during adolescence is associated significantly with reporting excellent health in young adulthood,” said Emma K Adam, study co-author and associate professor of education and social policy at the university.

Another researcher, Peter JRentfrow (lecturer at University of Cambridge in England) told Livescience.com, that there was a direct relationship between happiness levels and social variables, such as economic indicators, education levels, personality factors and levels of inclusiveness.

All of this was concluded after analysing data collected from more than 350,000 individuals who were interviewed between January 2 and December 30, 2008 as part of the Gallup Organisation’s Well-Being Index.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2011.