Physical activity, nutrition, and sedentary behaviour combine to influence the risk of overweight among adolescents. This paper aims to identify psychosocial factors of different health behaviour patterns in adolescents and its association with overweight and weight control behaviours. The 3069 adolescents of both genders (average of 14.8 years old) from the 2010 Portuguese survey of Health Behaviour School-Aged Children (HBSC) answered the 2010 HBSC self-reported questionnaire. It used the cluster k-means (nonhierarchy method), qui-square, one-way ANOVA, and logistic regression. Three clusters with different behavioural patterns (physical activity, sedentary, and eating) composed the results obtained. The sedentary group (34%) had lower self-regulation, body satisfaction, health and wellness, family and classmates relationships, communication with the father than the other two groups. The active gamers (25%) had a smaller BMI but used more unhealthy weight control strategies than the other two groups. The healthy group (41%) was more motivated and more satisfied with school but was not different than the active gamers in most psychosocial variables. Differences were found between clusters for weight control behaviours and psychosocial variables. Different strategies for different patterns were necessary in order to promote obesity prevention and, simultaneously, target healthy lifestyle and wellbeing in adolescents.

Context: Cyberbullying is considered a public health problem with serious consequences on adolescents’ health and well-being. Objective: To analyze the relationships between emotional symptoms and risk behaviors with cyberbullying and understand the role of these factors as predictors of well-being. Design: This is a cross-sectional study based on the 2014 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children of the World Health Organization (HBSC/WHO) study. Results: More girls reported being involved in cyberbullying as cybervictims, whereas more boys reported being involved in cyberbullying as cyberbullies and cyberbully victims. Girls reported more emotional symptoms, especially fear and sadness; boys reported more risk behaviors, specifically drug use and involvement in fights, but a higher well-being when compared to girls. Cyberbullies and cyberbully victims reported higher alcohol consumption than cybervictims; cyberbullies also reported higher drugs consumption compared to cybervictims and cyberbully victims. Well-being was predicted by emotional symptoms and age, independently of gender; for girls, involvement in fights also predicted well-being. Conclusions: If boys and girls, as well as cybervictims, cyberbullies, and cyberbully victims, present different levels of well-being, emotional symptoms, and risk behaviors vary in function of cyberbullying, it is crucial to develop individual interventions focused on the specific needs of each group.

The relation between positive youth development and stress, anxiety and depression was studied considering the mediator role of psychological symptoms and life satisfaction. A total of 3109 students included in the “Psychological Health and Well-being” study of the School Observatory participated, including 1618 females and 1491 males aged between 11 and 18 years old (M = 14.45; SD = 1.88), belonging to different school groups in different regions of the country. Adolescents with higher stress, depression and anxiety levels reported lower levels of competence, confidence and connection, as well as more psychological symptoms and lower life satisfaction. The results also showed that adolescents with higher levels of competence, confidence and connection reported less psychological symptoms and more life satisfaction. Two separate mediation analyses were performed to analyse the role of mental distress and life satisfaction on the relationship between positive youth development indicators and stress, anxiety and depression. These analyses confirmed the predicted relationships and partial mediations between mental distress and life satisfaction. These results should be taken into account in public policies concerning young people’s health and education that should involve both targeted and indicated prevention strategies, including school and community-based interventions, in order to be effective.

The Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits (ICU) was developed to measure callous-unemotional (CU) psychopathic traits in children and adolescents. Studies that have examined the factor structure of ICU showed considerable controversy. The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure and psychometric proprieties of the Portuguese translation of the ICU. A total of 1,011 children and adolescents (495 boys and 516 girls), mean age of 13.36 years, participated in this study. Exploratory factor analysis produced two factors: uncaring and callousness; Cronbach’s α for each of the factor was .83 and .79 for the total score. Significant main gender and interaction between gender and age effects were found; girls reported lower CU traits than boys; children reported higher CU traits compared to preadolescents and adolescents, particularly in boys. CU also correlated with emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and psychosocial impairment. Furthermore, CU traits related to conduct problems both in boys and in girls, although this relationship was higher for boys. To conclude, findings of the present study showed that the Portuguese version of the ICU seems to be a reliable and valid instrument to assess CU traits among children and adolescents in Portugal. However, the original 3-factor model was not supported.