#adolescentbehavior

Nutrition plays a vital role in maintaining overall health and well-being. A balanced diet provides essential nutrients that support bodily functions, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Proper nutrition is important for all age groups, from infants to older adults, ensuring growth, development, and longevity.

Key Components of Nutrition

1. Macronutrients

Macronutrients provide the energy required for bodily functions and physical activity.

Carbohydrates: The body's primary energy source, found in fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes.

Proteins: Essential for growth, repair, and maintenance of body tissues. Found in meat, fish, dairy, beans, and nuts.

Fats: Necessary for brain function and hormone production. Healthy fats are found in avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil.

2. Micronutrients

Micronutrients, including vitamins and minerals, support various bodily processes.

Vitamins: Such as Vitamin A (vision and immunity), Vitamin C (antioxidant and tissue repair), and Vitamin D (bone health).

Minerals: Including calcium (bone strength), iron (oxygen transport in blood), and potassium (nerve function and muscle contraction).

3. Hydration

Water is essential for digestion, circulation, and temperature regulation. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, poor concentration, and health complications.

The Impact of Nutrition on Health

1. Strengthening Immunity

A nutrient-rich diet boosts the immune system, helping to prevent infections and illnesses. Foods rich in antioxidants, such as berries, leafy greens, and nuts, support immune health.

2. Preventing Chronic Diseases

Poor nutrition is linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. A diet high in fiber, healthy fats, and lean proteins can lower the risk of these conditions.

3. Supporting Mental Health

Nutritional deficiencies can affect mood, cognition, and mental health. Omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish and flaxseeds), B vitamins, and magnesium play a role in brain function and reducing stress and anxiety.

4. Enhancing Digestive Health

A fiber-rich diet promotes gut health by supporting healthy digestion and preventing constipation. Fermented foods like yogurt and kimchi contain probiotics that improve gut bacteria balance.

Nutrition Across Different Life Stages

1. Infants and Children

Breastfeeding provides essential nutrients for infants.

A balanced diet supports brain development and growth in children.

2. Adolescents

Increased nutrient needs due to growth spurts.

Iron and calcium intake is crucial for muscle and bone development.

3. Adults

Balanced macronutrient intake maintains energy and overall health.

Monitoring sodium and sugar intake prevents chronic diseases.

4. Older Adults

Adequate protein helps prevent muscle loss.

Vitamin D and calcium are essential for bone health.

Healthy Eating Habits for Optimal Nutrition

Eat a variety of whole foods: Incorporate fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats.

Limit processed foods: Reduce intake of refined sugars, unhealthy fats, and excess salt.

Practice portion control: Avoid overeating by being mindful of serving sizes.

Stay hydrated: Drink enough water throughout the day.

Plan balanced meals: Ensure meals contain essential nutrients.

Conclusion

Coursera – Data Management and Visualization

Student: Shirley Louise-May

Week 1 Assignment: Getting your research project started (due 09/20/15)

Research Project Title:

Nourishing Adolescents Through Family Mealtimes – An analysis of frequency of family mealtime with positive and negative adolescent behaviors.

Selected Data Set:

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) is a representative school-based survey of adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States. The Wave 1 survey focuses on factors that may influence adolescents’ health and risk behaviors, including personal traits, families, friendships, romantic relationships, peer groups, schools, neighborhoods, and communities.

Research Question and Hypothesis:

As a parent of three adolescents (13, 16 and 18 years old) and a fulltime working single parent, I have searched my soul and consulted books, online experts and friends for the most effective ways to positively affect my teens growth into healthy, happy, forward thinking adults. The advice has been diverse and often contradictory. In the end, I have tried to ensure that consistency in several areas, small as they are, will have a much larger downstream positive effect – we have sit down meals together. Not all the time, but enough so that they ask for them when its been a few days. That to me is a good sign.

With the ADDHealth survey, I have a chance to explore and test my hypothesis in a comprehensive manner. In section 16 on ‘Relations with Parents’, question H1WP8 asks “On how many of the past 7 days was at least one of your parents in the room with you when you ate your evening meal?” There were 6504 respondents. Available choices for answers are numerical 0 days to 7 days, and 3 alternate categories. While less than 3% (154/6505) responded in the alternate categories, interestingly, there are 3 data peaks in the 0-7 day numerical range; 0 days(11%), 5 days(11%) and 7 days(39%). This should lead to some interesting analysis on not only whether being present for meal is an influencing factor in adolescents growth, but also, if there is an optimal amount.

The factors this interaction may influence are many, but I have identified several specific questions to analyze the dependence on;

Section 3 – General Health;

·         Q1 Health (H1GH1)

·         Q17 Poor appetite (H1GH17)

·         Q18 Trouble with sleep (H1GH18)

·         Q22 Fearfulness (H1GH22)

·         Q28 Perception of weight (H1GH28)  

Section 10 – Feelings Scale;

·         Q2 – Poor appetite (H1FS2)

·         Q4 – Felt worthwhile (H1FS4)

·         Q5 – Focus Issues (H1FS5)

·         Q6 – Depression (H1FS6)

·         Q9 – Failure Issues (H1FS9)

·         Q10 – Felt Fearful (H1FS10)

·         Q11 – Felt Happy (H1FS11)

·         Q19 – Life Not Worth Living (H1FS19)

Section 16 – Relations to Parents;

·         Q9 – How close to Mom (H1WP9)

·         Q13 – How close to Dad (H1WP13)

·         Q17A-K – Things done with Mom last 4 wks (H1WP17A-K) * esp F – had a talk about a personal problem

·         Q18A-K – Things done with Dad last 4 wks (H1WP18A-K) * esp F – had a talk about a personal problem

Section 28 – Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use

·         Q1, Q3 – Tried smoking, habitual smoker  (H1T01, H1T03)

·         Q12, Q14, Q15 – Tried alcohol, not with parents, frequent alcohol use (H1T012, H1T014, H1T015)

·         Q30, Q32 – Tried marijuana (H1T030, H1T032)

·         Q43, Q37, Q40, Q43 – Tried cocaine, inhalants, any other illicit, any needle drug (H1T034, H1T037, H1T040, H1T043)

Section 29 – Delinquency Issues (vandalism, theft, violence, weapons)

·         Q1-Q15 – Past 12 months, report delinquent behaviors; H1DS1-H1DS15

Section 33 – Suicidal Thoughts

·         Q1 – Past 12 months, thought about suicide (H1SU1)

·         Q2 – Past 12 months, attempted suicide (H1SU2)

·         Q8 – Self Administered Answer Honesty (H1SU8)***

Section 38 – Educational, Employment, Financial & Life Expectations

·         Q1 – Desire to go to college (H1EE1)

·         Q2 – Expectation will go to college (H1EE2)

·         Q12 – Expectation will live to age 35 (H1EE12)

·         Q13 – Expectation will marry by age 25 (H1EE13)

·         Q14 – Expectation will die by age 21 (H1EE14)

·         Q15 – Expectation will get HIV or AIDS (H1EE15)

Over these seven sections of adolescent feelings, behaviors and life expectations – what I want to explore through data analysis is if the simple act of regularly sharing meals with them is effective at tipping the scales away from dangerous, risky or self-damaging behavior or perceptions?   Is it a positive influence on their present state of well-being and their optimism for the future? And how much of our time, as busy parents, should be invested in this simple act?

Literature Review (Google Scholar search “Family Meals and Adolescent Behavior”):

Summary of findings from Literature Review

In both small and large samples, single surveys and longitudinal studies, there seems to be general agreement that frequent family meals are positively associated with positive behaviors and negatively associated with negative behaviors. It is noted that several studies made adjustments in the statistics for measures of family connectedness. I am curious to read in more detail how and why this was done. I can imagine that you can have closely connected families who do not share meals and disconnected families that stringently share meals, but these should be very small populations in any large data set. 

My primary question will be to assess how ‘cared about’ by their parents adolescents feel as a function of frequency of meals together as I hypothesize that all positive and negative effects downstream are modulated by that primary association. As a parent, it is the negative association with dangerous and risky behaviors that, if substantiated, would provide ample motivation for me to overcome the logistical challenges of single parenting, full time work and making time for family meals as often as I can.

References Reviewed (4 full text articles, 4 abstracts only available without purchase)

·         2011 Journal for Nurse Practitioners (abstract only) Fruh et al. The Surprising Benefits of the Family Meal Summary; Literature review – family meal has declined drastically since 1966. Frequent family meals often see the following benefits: demonstration of positive values and avoidance of high risk behaviors (substance abuse, sexual activity, depression/suicide, violence, etc.)

 ·         2010 Journal of Adolescence (abstract only) Sen, B. The relationship between the frequency of family dinner and adolescent problem behaviors after adjusting for other family characteristics Summary; Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Data was adjusted for family connectedness, parental awareness, and other potentially confounding factors. Problem behaviors analyzed included substance abuse, physical violence, property destruction, stealing, running away, gang membership. Frequency of family meals is negatively associated with substance abuse and running away in females, drinking, physical violence, property destruction, stealing and running away for males.

 ·         2009 Journal of Adolescent Health (abstract only) Fulkerson et al. Are there nutritional and other benefits associated with family meals among at-risk youth? Summary; N=145, 52% male, 61% non-white, alternative high-schools à family dinner frequency negatively associated (p<0.05) with depressive symptoms, adolescents who reported never eating family dinner were more likely to be overweight ([OR]=2.8) and food insecure than those reporting 5-7 meals per week.

 ·         2008 Archive of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine (full text article) Neumark-Sztainer, D. et al. Family Meals and Disordered Eating in Adolescents:Longitudinal Findings from Project EAT Summary; 5-year longitudinal associations from 1999 to 2004, N= 2516. For girls, >/= 5 family meals a week in 1999 led to lower incidences of extreme weight control behaviors in 2004. No association for boys was observed.

 ·         2006 Journal of Adolescent Health (full text article) Fulkerson et al. Family Dinner Meal Frequency and Adolescent Development: Relationships with Developmental Assets and High-Risk Behaviors Summary; N= 99,462, 49.4% male, 86% Caucasian. Positive associations found between frequency of family dinners and developmental assets both external (support, boundary, expectation [OR]=2.1-3.7) and internal (learning, values, social skill, positive identity [OR]=1.8-2.6).

 ·         2006American Journal of Preventative Medicine (full text article) Ackard D., et al. Parent-Child Connectedness and Behavioral and Emotional Health Among Adolescents Summary; N=4746 public school students Project EAT (Eating Among Teens Survey 2001) Examined parental caring and behavioral outcomes in detail.

 ·         2004 Archive of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine (full text article) Eisenberg, M. et al. Correlations Between Family Meals and Psychosocial Well-being Among Adolescents Summary; N=4746 1998-1999 school-based survey of adolescents from diverse communities in the Minneapolis/St Paul metropolitan area. Determined negative associations between frequency of family meals and tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use; low grades; self-esteem; depressive symptoms; and suicide involvement) after controlling for family connectedness ([OR]=0.76-0.93).