Consuming a healthy diet in childhood helps to protect against malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This cross-sectional study described the diets of 132,489 children aged six to nine years from 23 countries participating in round four (2015–2017) of the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). Children’s parents or caregivers were asked to complete a questionnaire that contained indicators of energy-balance-related behaviors (including diet). For each country, we calculated the percentage of children who consumed breakfast, fruit, vegetables, sweet snacks or soft drinks “every day”, “most days (four to six days per week)”, “some days (one to three days per week)”, or “never or less than once a week”. We reported these results stratified by country, sex, and region. On a daily basis, most children (78.5%) consumed breakfast, fewer than half (42.5%) consumed fruit, fewer than a quarter (22.6%) consumed fresh vegetables, and around one in ten consumed sweet snacks or soft drinks (10.3% and 9.4%, respectively); however, there were large between-country differences. This paper highlights an urgent need to create healthier food and drink environments, reinforce health systems to promote healthy diets, and continue to support child nutrition and obesity surveillance.

Background: This study aims to explore how sufficient social support can act as a possible preventive factor against fighting and bullying in school-aged children in 9 European countries. Methods: Data for this study were collected during the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The sample consisted of 9 European countries, involving 43,667 school children in total, aged 11, 13 and 15 years. The analysed data focus on social context (relations with family, peers, and school) as well as risk behaviours such as smoking, drunkenness, fighting and bullying in adolescents. The relationships between social support and violent behaviour variables were estimated using multiple regression models and multivariate analyses. Results: Bullying, across 9 countries, was more prevalent than fighting, except for Armenia, Israel, and Poland. The prevalence among countries differed considerably, with fighting being most expressed in Armenia and bullying—in Latvia and Lithuania. The strongest risk factors for bullying and fighting were male gender (less expressed for bullying), smoking and alcohol consumption. In addition, for bullying the social support was similarly strong factor like above-mentioned factors, while for fighting—less significant, but still independent. All forms of social support were significantly relate with lower violent behaviour of school children, and family support was associated most strongly. Regardless the socioeconomic, historical, and cultural differences among selected countries, the enhancement and reinforcement of the social support from possible many different resources should be taken into consideration in prevention programs against school violence behaviours.

Family support has a beneficial impact on protecting health-risk behaviour in adolescents. This study aimed to explore whether family support is associated with risk of smoking during transition from early (11 years) to late (15 years) adolescence across 42 countries. The data from the cross-national Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in 2017/2018 were employed (N = 195,966). Family support was measured using the four-item Family dimension of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (sum score 20 or more was categorised as high family support). Smoking was defined as a reported cigarette smoking at least 1–2 days in the last 30 days. The association between smoking and family support was assessed using a prevalence ratio (PR) obtained from the multivariate Poisson regression. Over two thirds of adolescents reported high levels of support from their family. Family support was found to significantly decrease with age in most of the countries, with the boys reported high level of family support more often than girls. The adolescents who reported having low family support also were more likely to smoke compared to their peers who reported having high family support (PR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.71–1.91 in boys, and PR = 2.19; 95% CI: 2.08–2.31 in girls). The countries with a stronger effect of family support in reducing smoking risk indicated lower rates of adolescent smoking as well as lower increases in the cigarette smoking prevalence during the age period from 11 to 15 years. This study reinforces the need for family support, which is an important asset helping adolescents to overcome the risk of smoking during their transition from early to late adolescence.

Trends of increased complexity in family structure have developed alongside increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity. This study examines cross-national variations in the likelihood of living with overweight and obesity among adolescents living with one parent versus two parents, as well as the influence of living with stepparents, grandparents and siblings. Furthermore, the study explores how these associations relate to age, gender and individual-level socioeconomic status (SES) and country-level SES. We hypothesised that adolescents living in one-parent versus two-parents families, were more likely to live with overweight and obesity. The study is based on nationally representative data from 41 countries participating in the 2013/14 Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children study (n = 211.798). Multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations between family structure and overweight and obesity by age, gender, SES, and geographic region, among adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 years. Living with one versus two parent(s) was associated with a higher likelihood of overweight and obesity (OR_adj.1.13, 95%CI 1.08,1.17). Age, gender, individual-level SES, and living with grandparents were also associated with a higher likelihood of overweight and obesity, whereas living with siblings was associated with a lower likelihood of overweight and obesity. The effect of family structure varied also by age and gender with no significant associations found between living with one parent and overweight and obesity in the 15-year-old age group. Some cross-national variation was observed, and this was partly explained by country-level SES. The effect of family structure increased by a factor 1.08 per one-unit change in country-level SES (OR 1.08, 95%CI1.03, 1.12). The study indicates that living in a one-parent family, as well as living together with grandparents, are associated with overweight and obesity among adolescents, particularly in the Nordic European region. Existing welfare policies may be insufficient to eliminate inequalities related to family structure differences.