Early adulthood is a period associated with poor diet and rapid weight gain. This is also an age of transition, including environmental, social and lifestyle changes which may be associated with changes in diet. We assess longitudinal associations between four early adulthood life transitions (leaving home, leaving education, entering employment, and cohabitation) and changes in consumption of fruit, vegetables, confectionery and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Participants (n = 1100) from the Norwegian Longitudinal Health Behaviour Study, reported data on diet and life transitions on up to eight occasions from age 14 to age 30. Diet data were self-reported in response to questions on intake of fruit, vegetables, confectionery and sugar-sweetened beverages. Growth models were developed to describe changing intake of each of the four diet indicators with age. Fixed-effects regression models assessed associations between the four life transitions and within-individual changes in diet indicators, with adjustment for the remaining transitions and parenthood. Diet indicators showed quadratic trajectories with age: fruit and vegetable intakes declined from age 14 to ages 23 and 21 respectively, before increasing to age 30. SSB and confectionery intakes increased to age 18, before subsequently decreasing. Leaving the parental home was associated with a decrease in fruit intake of − 0.54 times/week (95% confidence interval (95%CI): -0.87;-0.22) and vegetable intake of − 0.43 times/week (95%CI: -0.70;-0.15). Leaving education was associated with increases in confectionery (0.33 times/week (95%CI: 0.04;0.62)) and SSB intakes (0.49 times/week (95%CI: 0.10;0.87). Leaving home and leaving education are associated with negative changes in diet and may present opportunities for effective diet and obesity intervention. Further study of these transitions is needed to understand the mechanisms mediating associations between life transitions and changes in diet.

Aims: This debate paper traces the development of innovative methods for undertaking health promotion research with a socialecological orientation, with a few examples drawn from 30 years of research on adolescent health promotion research at the University of Bergen. Conclusion: We aim to show how the social-ecological model is becoming more evident as a guide to research, using three cases that illustrate progress and potential. The first case is the Norwegian part of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools. The second case is a project just underway, The COMPLETE study, which is a community-led effort to promote students’ mental health and create a good psychosocial learning environment. The third case is a developing idea for the next generation of social-ecological research on adolescent well-being, using an asset approach to foster social inclusion and sense of community in multiple settings.

Having a distant relationship with parents seems to increase the risk of developing a more negative global self-esteem. This article describes a longitudinal study of 1,090 Norwegian adolescents from the age of 13–23 (54 % males) that explored whether peer acceptance can act as a moderator and protect global self-esteem against the negative effects of experiencing low closeness in relationships with parents. A quadratic latent growth curve for global self-esteem with closeness to parents and peer acceptance as time-varying covariates was modeled, taking partial measurement invariance in global self-esteem into account. Peer acceptance was found to have a general protective effect on global self-esteem for all adolescents. In addition, at most ages, peer acceptance was found to have a protective-stabilizing effect on the relationship between closeness to parents and global self-esteem. This indicates that peer acceptance can be an especially valuable source of global self-esteem when closeness to parents is low.

Identifying factors that can influence young peoples’ physical activity and sedentary behaviors is important for the development of effective interventions. The family structure in which children grow up may be one such factor. As the prevalence of single parent and reconstituted families have increased substantially over the last decades, the objective of this study was to examine whether these family structures are differentially associated with young people’s MVPA, participation in organized sports and screen-time activities (screen-based passive entertainment, gaming, other screen-based activities) as compared to traditional nuclear families. The data stem from the 2013/2014 “Health Behaviour in School- aged Children (HBSC) study”. A large Norwegian sample of 11–16 years old students (n = 4509) participated. Cluster-adjusted regression models were estimated using full information maximum likelihood with robust standard errors (MLR). After adjusting for covariates, living with a single parent was negatively associated with days/week with 60 min MVPA (b = −.39, 95%CI: −.58, −.20), and positively associated with hours/weekday of total screen time (b = .50, 95%CI: .08, .93). Young people living with a single parent were also more likely to report no participation in organized sports (OR = 1.40, 95%CI: 1.09, 1.79). Living in a reconstituted family was negatively associated with days/week with 60 min MVPA (b = −.31, 95%CI: −.53, −.08), and positively associated with hours/weekday of total screen time (b = .85, 95%CI: .37, 1.33). For all outcomes, the interaction effects of family structure with sex, and with having siblings were not statistically significant. For material affluence, a significant interaction effect was found for participation in organized sports (χ2 [4] =13.9, p = .008). Those living in a reconstituted family with low or high material affluence had an increased risk for not participating in organized sports whereas those with medium material affluence did not. This study suggests that living with a single parent or in reconstituted families was unfavorably associated with physical activity, sport participation and screen-based behaviors among Norwegian youth. The findings indicate that family structure could be an important factor to take into account in the development and testing of interventions. More in-depth research is needed to identify the mechanisms involved.

Based on nine waves of data collected during a period of 17 years (1990–2007), the present study explored different developmental trajectories of the following unhealthy behaviors: regular smoking, lack of regular exercise, lack of daily fruit intake, and drunkenness. A baseline sample of 1195 13-year-old pupils was from 22 randomly selected schools in the Hordaland County in western Norway. Latent class growth analysis revealed three developmental trajectories. The first trajectory was a conventional trajectory, comprising 36.3% of participants, who showed changes in smoking, physical exercise, fruit intake, and drunkenness consistent with the prevailing age specific norms of these behaviors in the Norwegian society at the time. The second trajectory was a passive trajectory, comprising 25.5% of participants, who reported low levels of both healthy and unhealthy behaviors during the 17-year period. The third trajectory was an unhealthy trajectory, comprising 38.2% of participants, who had high levels of unhealthy behaviors over time. Several covariates were examined, but only sex and mother’s and father’s educational levels were found to be significantly associated with the identified trajectories. While these findings need to be replicated in future studies, the identification of the different trajectories suggests the need to tailor intervention according to specific needs.

The aim of the study was to examine to what extent young people who play organised soccer rate their leisure-time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, life satisfaction, and health more positively and higher than a same-aged population-based reference group (including some adolescents who also played organised soccer). Data from two samples of five countries (England, France, Greece, Norway, and Spain) were included: a sample of soccer players aged 10-14 years who participated in the Promoting Adolescent Physical Activity project [Duda, J.L., Quested, E., Haug, E., Samdal, O., Wold, B., Balaguer, I., … Cruz, J. (2013). Promoting Adolescent health through an intervention aimed at improving the quality of their participation in Physical Activity (‘PAPA’): background to the project and main trial protocol. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology] and a nationally representative reference sample of 11- and 13-year olds from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Results from multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the participants in the soccer sample, in particular girls, reported a higher level of moderate-to-vigorous leisure-time physical activity than those in the reference sample. They also rated their life satisfaction and subjective health more favourably than the reference sample. The associations did not differ according to age or socio-economic status. The results suggest that playing soccer is a positive activity for youth and seems to be a very potent way of increasing regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity among girls. Thus, efforts aimed at increasing participation in organised youth soccer may potentially be beneficial to young people's psychosocial health and hold the potential to increase physical activity, particularly among girls.