Condutas de risco à saúde e indicadores de estresse psicossocial em adolescentes estudantes do Ensino Médio Health risk behaviors and psychosocial distress indicators in high school students

Abstract The purpose of this article was to examine the as-sociation between health risk behaviors (tobac-co, alcohol, and drug use) and psychosocial dis-tress indicators among high school students. The sample consisted of 4,210 adolescent students from public schools in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The Global School-based Student Health Surveywas used to collect personal (demographic and socioeconomic) and behavioral data and to ob-tain measures of psychosocial distress indicators (outcome variables). Prevalence rates were ob-served for sadness, loneliness, suicidal ideation, sleeplessness due to worries, and suicidal plan-ning. Self-reported prevalence rates for tobacco, alcohol, and drug use were 7.7%, 30.3%, and 6.9%. Psychosocial distress was more prevalent among girls, while health risk behaviors were more common among boys. The study concludes that drug use is directly associated with suicidal ideation and planning, and that among girls, al-cohol consumption was associated with psycho-social distress.Psychological Stress; Suicide; Adolescent; Health Behavior