Grant: Project Grant

In developed countries, including Canada, rates of being overweight and obese in children have increased substantially. Lack of physical activity, too much sedentary time, and poor dietary habits all contribute to unhealthy weight trajectories. Adolescence is a period when many unhealthy behaviours emerge or escalate. Most notably, we and others find that these problems are exacerbated during the transition from elementary to secondary school. Our goal is to examine factors that influence adolescents' physical activity, sedentary time and dietary habits as they transition from elementary to secondary school. We will use qualitative and quantitative methods (interviews, surveys & direct measures) to determine changes that occur in the school, household and social settings during this transition to identify how they influence adolescent health behaviours. We will also determine if health behaviours relate to academic performance. First, we will collect health and related data in grades 7 and 8 (before/after the transition to a new school) from 736 students/parents from 49 schools in BC. We will assess health behaviours (physical activity, sedentary time & dietary intake) and school (access, availability, opportunity, environmental context), household (modeling, access & availability, parenting practices & styles, family environment), and social (modeling, co-participation, norms) influences. Then, to better understand and interpret data from questionnaires and direct measures, we will interview 40 student/parent pairs before and after the transition. Our findings will provide new insights into how school, household and social environments contribute to health behaviour during the transition to secondary school. In future, our data can be used to develop targeted programs to address these factors and encourage more positive behaviours at adolescence. Ultimately, we aim to alter the current trajectory towards increased health risk among Canada's youth.