However, few studies have concurrently assessed multiple behavioral, hormonal, nutritional and heart-rate responses of humans to acute, severe stress.
Social ultimate variables (Table 5, Model 4, LLR = 10.93; DF = 5; p =.05) contributed minimally to the overall rate of occurrence of multiple behavioral risk factors.
These results support the use of distal variables as potential targets in public health interventions aiming to curb the increased rate of occurrence of multiple behavioral risk factors among youth.
This study assessed the longitudinal influence of selected conceptually-related individual and social variables on the rate of occurrence of multiple behavioral risk factors in a representative cohort of Canadian youth.
We are aware of no other study assessing the influence of blocks of distal or ultimate variables on the rate of occurrence of multiple behavioral risk factors in either youth or adults.
However, we are aware of no other longitudinal study investigating the potential association between peer unhealthy lifestyles and the rate of occurrence of multiple behavioral risk factors for chronic diseases among youth.
The present study is therefore guided by the Theory of Triadic Influence and uses longitudinal data to examine the influence of selected individual/social distal and ultimate variables on the rate of occurrence of multiple behavioral risk factors in a representative sample of Canadian youth.
Multivariate longitudinal Poisson models showed that social distal variables including parental/peer smoking and peer drinking (Log-likelihood ratio (LLR) = 187.86, degrees of freedom (DF) = 8, p <.001), as well as individual distal variables including low self-esteem (LLR = 76.94, DF = 4, p <.001) increased the rate of occurrence of multiple behavioral risk factors.
There are multiple behavioral problems including impulsivity, aggressiveness, and severe recurrent self-injurious behavior (SIB).
The resulting head injury caused multiple behavioral changes.
