![]() Some longitudinal studies demonstrated that low SC during childhood is associated with negative outcomes in adulthood, with impairments in health, wealth and social adjustment, such as greater involvement in criminal activities. ![]() Similar associations have been found regarding dietary habits and sedentary behavior. In particular, among adolescents around the globe, low SC has been found to be positively associated with criminal offending, aggressive or delinquent behavior, use of legal and illegal psychoactive substances, bullying perpetration and negatively associated with health promoting behaviors. Low self-control has been found to be associated with many negative outcomes. One important socioemotional factor is self-control, “the ability to self-regulate behavior and inhibit impulses” or “the ability to pursue overarching goals despite short-term temptations, distractions or aversive states”. Despite some considerable accumulation of research, to our knowledge, studies on the association between socioemotional factors and clusters of HRBs are scarce and mainly concentrated in high income countries. Among Brazilian adolescents, evidence suggests that the accumulation of two or more HRBs increases with age and is more frequent among children attending public schools. Studies available in the literature indicate that different HRBs tend to co-occur and form clusters. Risk behaviors “can be defined as those that are potentially capable of threatening physical or mental health, in both present and future”. Many of these behaviors tend to begin during the adolescence and persist throughout life. ![]() Common risk behaviors for several Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) include tobacco and alcohol use, physical inactivity, as well as unhealthy diet. It has long been recognized that much of the burden of health problems can be attributed to behavioral risk factors. In contexts of limited or scarce resources and public funds, interventions focusing the most vulnerable groups, instead of universal interventions, should be considered. This should be considered when designing public policy and prevention programs. ![]() There seems to be a group of adolescents in a position of pronounced vulnerability for MHRBs. Low self-control is associated with most HRBs investigated and the magnitude of the association increases when more than two or three HRBs are accumulated. The effect size of the association of SC and MHRBs increased in a steep pattern with accumulation of more HRBs. SC was associated with five of six HRBs investigated and with MHRBs. In order to analyze the association of SC with MHRBs, multinomial logistic regression was employed. Binary logistic regression was used to test the association between exposure (SC) and single outcomes. We tested the association of SC measured as an ordinal variable with four levels (higher, high, medium and low) with six HRBs (binge drinking, marijuana use, smoking, high consumption of ultra-processed food, sedentary behavior and bullying perpetration), in both separated and aggregated forms (MHRBs), controlling for potential confounders. MethodsĪ sample of 2106 9th grade students from the city of São Paulo responded a self-administered questionnaire in 2017. The objective of this study is to analyze these associations and provide evidence to help filling these gaps. Furthermore, there is evidence that some HRBs tend to aggregate, however studies with the specific purpose of addressing the relation between SC and multiple health risk behaviors (MHRBs) are rare. Self-control (SC) has been consistently found associated with diverse health risk behaviors (HRBs), but little research refers to low- and middle-income countries.
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