Factors Affecting the Body Mass Index in Adolescents in Portuguese Schools

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children is increasing; hence, it was aimed to assess the Body Mass Index (BMI) in school children aged from 10 to 18 years for girls and to 17 for boys, as well as to identify the factors influencing BMI. This study included 742 students who answered a questionnaire previously approved for application in schools. The results showed some sociodemographic factors associated with BMI classes: age, school year, practicing high competition sport, being federate in a sport or having a vegetarian diet. The educational factors associated with BMI classes included only seminars given at school by a nutritionist. Behavioural factors significantly associated with BMI included: learning in classes, playing in the open air, reading books or use of internet. As conclusion, the results demonstrated that several factors affect BMI, and hence some actions could be taken in order to change them so as to reduce the prevalence of overweight, namely reinforcing the role of school and a more active participation of nutritionists in the education of the adolescents.

Resilience, perception of parental support and socio-educational intervention strategies

Introduction: Resilience is a core variable in the context of studies on the psychosocial adjustment and school children and teenagers, and should be considered in the context of strategies to promote their well- being and quality of life. Objectives: To know the relationship between resilience, parental support and some sociodemographic variables; outline socio-educational intervention strategies in contexts of children’s lives. Methods: This is a non-experimental, correlational and cross-sectional study, having used a non- probabilistic convenience sample consisting of 150 children, aged between 10 and 16 years old, attending the 2nd and 3rd cycles of Basic Education. The gathering instruments were the Sociodemographic Questionnaire, Inventory Measuring State and Child Resilience (Martins, 2005) and Perception Parental Support Scale (Veiga, 2011). Results: Results show that there are signiicant differences in the values of the current, past and overall resilience, between the age groups children, revealing that children aged between 10 and 11 years have higher results in resilience than young people aged between 14 and 16 years. We also observed signiicant differences in the current resilience, depending on the parents’ marital status (higher when parents are married). We also observed positive and signiicant correlations between resilience and perception of parental support. Conclusions: Results are in line with the scientiic literature in the ield that highlights the key role of resilience in school and psychosocial adjustment of children, and should be considered within the design of socio-educational intervention strategies. Keywords: Resilience. Parental support. Attachment