AGUILAR BARRIGA, MARÍA DEL PILAR, Caballero, Amparo , Sevillano, Veronica , Fernandez, Itziar , Munoz, Dolores , Carrera, Pilar
No
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health
Article
Científica
3.39
0.747
28/05/2020
000542629600098
2-s2.0-85085676856
Background: Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America,\n with an extremely low human development index (HDI). Fifty-two percent\n of the Nicaraguan population are children and adolescents under 18 years\n of age. Nicaraguan adolescents present several risk behaviors (such as\n teenage pregnancies, consumption of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis). Our\n study examines the links between risk behaviors, fatalism, real economic\n scarcity, and concrete construal level for adolescents with low and\n middle-low socioeconomic status in Nicaragua. Methods: Nicaraguan\n adolescents (N = 834) from schools located in especially vulnerable\n areas (low economic status) or in neighborhoods with middle-low social\n class completed several scales and questions to evaluate fatalism\n (SFC-social fatalism scale), construal level (BIF) and their past and\n future risk behaviors (smoking cigarettes, smoking cannabis, unsafe sex,\n and alcohol consumption). Results: We identified that the poorest\n individuals who maintained a concrete style of thinking had the highest\n rates of past and future risk behaviors. This vulnerable group also\n reported the highest levels of fatalism, i.e., negative attitudes and\n feelings of helplessness. Encouragingly, the adolescents who were able\n to maintain an abstract mindset reported healthier past and future\n habits and lower fatalism, even when they belonged to the lowest social\n status. In the middle-low economic group, the construal level was not as\n relevant to maintaining healthy habits, as adolescents reported similar\n rates of past and future risk behavior at both construal levels.\n Conclusions: All these results support the importance of considering\n construal level when studying vulnerable populations and designing risk\n prevention programs.
class; human development index; neighborhood; socioeconomic status; young population; adolescent; alcohol consumption; Article; cannabis smoking; cigarette smoking; concrete thinking; economic scarcity; female; helplessness; high risk behavior; human; lowest income group; male; middle income group; Nicaraguan; pessimism; socioeconomics; thinking; unsafe sex; vulnerable population; Nicaragua; Cannabis; Nicotiana tabacum