РИСКОВИ ЗДРАВНИ ПОВЕДЕНИЯ СРЕД ДЕЦАТА В УЧИЛИЩНА ВЪЗРАСТ В БЪЛГАРИЯ
RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG THE SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN IN BULGARIA

Summary/Abstract: The paper is focused on the influence of the social differences in the BuigariaW society on the risk behaviors observed among the school aged children. On the basis of Health and Behaviors in School Aged Children study in which Bulgaria participated in 2006, we uncover the main factors that influence health and create differentials in terms of the children’s risk behaviors - alcohol consumption, smoking and drug use. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. The alcohol consumption and smoking are tested as outcome variables that measure the risk behaviors. The predictors in the models are gender, age, the social economic status of the children’s families, the parental styles, the relationships in the family, the children’s health academic achievements, their physical activity, the school environment, and the peer-group’s influence. The results uncover that the Bulgarian children gain experience with the cigarettes, spirits and cannabis very early in their lives. There are significant gender differences in terms of risk behavior. The girls smoke more than the boys. The boys drink more than the girls. The schoolchildren whose families are well-off tend to smoke less and drink more than the children from poor families. The children whose behaviors could be assessed as risky have lower academic achievements, more deviant behavior in terms of bulling others and being bullied by the others as well as more distanced contacts with their parents. The peer group’s culture and the number of evenings spent with friends also play significant role for the presences or absence of risk behaviors related with alcohol consumption and smoking among the school-aged children in Bulgaria.

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