Prospective study of the influence of social networks & school environments on emotional well-being of young adults

近年来，人们越来越清楚地认识到，在理解与疾病预防相关的风险和保护因素方面，社会环境的作用可能与个人或人际因素一样重要。青春期是许多可预防的过早发病和死亡原因出现的时期。在青春期早期遇到的社会环境可能会对成年早期的情感和身体健康的发展产生影响。这项研究将通过对参与“门楼计划”的2，782名学生的持续监测，前瞻性地研究青少年早期的学校环境和社交网络质量对年轻人的情绪健康和健康风险行为的影响。这一组学生接受了四次调查;两次在1997年8年级;一次在1998年9年级和1999年10年级。到2002年，这批学生的平均年龄将为18岁，将是中学后一年级学生。本研究的主要目的是探讨青少年早期的学校环境与青少年成年后的心理和行为结果之间的关系。对这一队列的持续监测将使我们能够评估学校环境和青春期早期社交网络的充足性对大龄青少年的情感健康和社会联系的长期影响。这将有助于我们了解影响年轻人健康和福祉的学校社会环境中的风险和保护因素。它还将为需要在学校和社区开展的进一步预防干预工作提供信息，以改善年轻人的健康状况。

It has become clearer in recent years that the role of the social environment may be as important as individual or interpersonal factors in understanding the risk and protective factors associated with disease prevention. Adolescence is the time when many preventable causes of premature morbidity and mortality arise. It is likely that the social environments encountered during early adolescence will have an impact on the development of emotional and physical well being in early adulthood. This study will prospectively research the impact of school environment and quality of social networks in early adolescence on the emotional well being and health risk behaviours of young adults through the continued surveillance of a cohort of 2,782 students participating in the Gatehouse Project. This cohort has been surveyed four times; twice in Year 8 1997; once in Year 9 1998 and Year 10 1999. In 2002 the cohort will be on average 18 years old and will be first year post-secondary school. The major aim of the study is to investigate the prospective relationships between school environment in early adolescence and the mental and behavioural outcomes for young people in young adulthood. The continued surveillance of this cohort will allow us to assess the long term effects of school environments and adequacy of social networks at early adolescence on the emotional well being and social connectedness of older adolescents. This will contribute to our understanding of risk and protective factors in school-social environments that impact the health and well being of young adults. It will also inform further preventive intervention work that needs to take place in schools and communities to improve health outcomes for young adults.