Patrick West

Medical Research Council (UK) - retired

Background Evidence is inconsistent as to whether or not there are health inequalities in adolescence according to socio-economic position (SEP) and whether or when they emerge in early adulthood. Despite the large health inequalities literature, few studies have simultaneously compared the relative importance of ‘health selection’ versus ‘social c...

Our interest was in how health behaviours in early and late adolescence are related to educational level in adulthood. The main focus was in the interplay between school career and health behaviours in adolescence. Our conceptual model included school career and health-compromising (HCB) and health-enhancing (HEB) behaviours as well as family backg...

Previous studies found lower substance use in schools achieving better examination and truancy results than expected, given their pupil populations (high value-added schools). This study examines whether these findings are replicated in West Scotland and whether school ethos indicators focussing on pupils' perceptions of schooling (environment, inv...

Few studies have sought to test whether changes in value orientation proposed by social theories can empirically be found. This study aims to rigorously test the extent to which there is similarity in values, in two large samples representative of 15-year-olds. We hypothesised that youth from Helsinki are more likely to hold more late-modern values...

School pupils strive to meet both school-defined and social goals, and the structure of adolescent self-concept is multidimensional, including both academic and non-academic self-perceptions. However, subjective social status within the school community has been represented as a single dimension. Scottish 15-year olds participating in a school-base...

As the promotion of alcohol and tobacco to young people through direct advertising has become increasingly restricted, there has been greater interest in whether images of certain behaviours in films are associated with uptake of those behaviours in young people. Associations have been reported between exposure to smoking images in films and smokin...

Dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPA-axis) is implicated in a variety of psychiatric and emotional disorders. In this study, we explore the association between HPA-axis functioning, as measured by morning cortisol, and common psychiatric disorders and symptoms among a community sample of adolescents. Data from a cross-...

This paper aims to explain previously described increases in self-reported psychological distress between 1987 and 2006 among samples identical in respect of age (15 years), school year and geographical location (West of Scotland). Such increases might be explained by changes in exposure (changes in levels of risk or protective factors) and/or by c...

This paper examines the relative importance of family socioeconomic status (SES) and school-based peer hierarchies for young people's psychoneuroendocrine response, represented by cortisol level. Data are drawn from a study of 2824, 15-year-olds in 22 Scottish secondary schools in 2006 who provided information on family SES (parental occupation, ma...

Supplementary supporting material. Contains 2 figures; figure 1a locates specific items within the Schwartz value model; figure 1b provides a simplified model of Schwartz's circumplex model. Box 1 contains a broad introduction to the Schwartz model and a summary of its 10 values and typical items used in their measurement. Table 1 shows the factor...

Questionnaire items. List of 32 items on opinions and beliefs used in the factor analysis.

The importance of school transitions for pupil adjustment, particularly their impact on later well‐being and attainment, remains contested. This paper draws on data from a longitudinal, school‐based study of over 2000 Scottish pupils, first surveyed in 135 primary schools (age 11) in 1994, and followed up in 43 secondary schools (age 13 and 15) and...

Past studies have linked certain values (traditional vs. individualistic) with adolescent substance-use. The aims of this study are to replicate cross-sectional research linking values and adolescent substance-use and to determine if such values predict future substance-use. A longitudinal school-based survey of 2196 young people (age 15) followed...

Negative effects of early sexual debut on academic outcomes can extend beyond secondary school, although concurrent changes in other psychosocial risk factors have not been investigated. Data from three waves of a longitudinal survey of Scottish teenagers were used to examine associations between early sexual debut (first heterosexual intercourse)...

Among a west of Scotland cohort surveyed at ages 15 (1987), 18, 23 and 30, lifetime prevalence (ever use) of any drugs rose from 9% at 15 to 58% at 23, thereafter increasing little; past year (‘current’) use peaked at age 23 (35%). Cannabis-only rates increased most between ages 15 and 18; ‘hard’ drug use increased steadily with age. There was cons...

This exploratory study investigates whether associations between social network measures and substance use differ according to type of substance and social context. The analyses use data obtained from 13 and 15 year olds (N = 3146) in a school-based survey and focus on three social network measures: sociometric position (e.g. group, dyad, isolate);...

Increases in the prevalence of child and adolescent obesity have accelerated since the mid 1980s. Socio-economic status (SES)-adiposity relationships appear less clear in adolescence than childhood, and evidence on whether increasing obesity is itself patterned according to SES is inconsistent. Increasing prevalence may have increased the tolerance...

Table 3: GHQ 'caseness', 'low' self-esteem and weight worries by obesity status – males and females at each date.

Increases in a number of psychosocial disorders have been identified among Western youth in the second half of the Twentieth century. However findings are not consistent, trends are complex, and comparisons over time are hampered by methodological problems. Data were drawn from three samples identical in respect of age (15 years), school year (fina...

Salivary cortisol is widely used in research but little is known about the typical, or expected, functioning of the HPA-axis in adolescents in naturalistic settings, nor whether the extensive array of confounders documented in the literature is applicable in this situation. In a school-based study, 2995 15-year-old pupils provided two saliva sample...

Abstract This paper suggests a possible link between two different bodies of research. The first is sociological and social epidemiological research which has demonstrated associations between social circumstance and various indicators of health and development; the second is experimental social-psychological research which has demonstrated that pe...

To examine the direction of causation between young people's antisocial behaviour and alcohol (mis)use in the longer and shorter term, together with their joint effects on alcohol-related trouble. A longitudinal study (2586 pupils) supplied data, allowing exploration of the causal effects of alcohol (mis)use and antisocial behaviour between ages 11...

Objetivos: Examinar la dirección de causalidad entre el comportamiento antisocial de los jóvenes y el consumo (inadecuado) de alcohol a corto y largo plazo conjuntamente con los efectos asociados al problema relacionado con el alcohol. Métodos: Los datos provienen de un estudio longitudinal (2586 alumnos), que permite explorar los efectos del consu...

To examine the relation of young people's personal income and parental social class with smoking from early to mid adolescence. Longitudinal, school based, study of a cohort of 2586 eleven year-olds followed up at ages 13 and 15. West of Scotland. 93% baseline participation, reducing to 79% at age 15. Ever smoked (age 11), current and daily smoking...

Background By mid adolescence there is an excess in female physical and/or psychosomatic, as well as psychological morbidity. This paper examines the contribution of a range of factors (self-esteem, body image, gender-role orientation, body mass index, smoking and physical activity) to explaining the female excess in three psychosomatic symptoms (h...

The study compares young people's mental health in the major Siberian city of Novosibirsk with small communities of the surrounding region, at the end of the statutory period of secondary education. Data are drawn from a school-based questionnaire survey of ninth graders and semi-structured interviews. In line with the findings of international com...

Self-harm among young people in the UK is possibly increasing but little is known about the reasons young people give for cessation and their link with gender or employment status. To investigate self-harm in young people, prevalence, methods used, motivations for starting and ceasing, service use, and how these are related to gender, parental soci...

There is increasing concern about the health, particularly mental health, of young people and the factors that affect it. Drawing on data from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: Health in the Community, this paper describes the pattern of health in a cohort of about 1000 young people between the ages of 15 and 21, within a context of their exper...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine evidence from an emerging body of “school effects” research on pupils' health and health behaviours like smoking, and how this in turn may contribute to the evidence‐base for the health promoting school concept. Design/methodology/approach – Following on from educational research which demonstrates...

Despite considerable evidence for psychological distress among children and young people who experience peer victimization, cross-sectional studies cannot determine the direction of the relationship. Several recent studies have examined associations between victimization and distress. The majority find evidence for both directions but do not arbitr...

It is commonly assumed that young people's disposable income reflects the socioeconomic status of their family, those in more advantaged situations having more money than those who are disadvantaged. Plausible though this assumption is, evidence on the issue is surprisingly thin. Using data from a longitudinal study of young people in the West of S...

Editor—Our paper generated varied comments.1 The definition of “Goth” is contentious but covers a wide range of musical tastes, social groupings, and aesthetics.2 Our paper, as is clear from the title, refers to younger Goths; the results may not apply to all Goths. Our contribution is a first step towards producing an evidence base to test the hy...

To investigate whether deliberate self harm is associated with contemporary Goth youth subculture. Longitudinal cohort study. School and community based study of young people living in the Central Clydeside Conurbation, Scotland. 1258 people aged 19, surveyed in 2002-4 and followed-up since age 11 (1994). Lifetime prevalence of self harm and attemp...

Schools differ in the proportion of their pupils who smoke. Such differences transcend pupil intake characteristics and relate to the internal life of the school. Although adolescents' smoking behaviour has been associated with that of their peers, little consideration has been given to whether peer structures and processes contribute to school dif...

The fetal origins of disease hypothesis contends that an unfavourable intrauterine environment, as evidenced by low birth weight, increases vulnerability to chronic illness in adulthood.1 There is now reasonably consistent evidence of a negative association between birth weight and adult blood pressure.2 However, the mechanisms underlying this rela...

We give a nontechnical introduction into recently developed methods for analyzing the coevolution of social networks and behavior(s) of the network actors. This coevolution is crucial for a variety of research topics that currently receive a lot of attention, such as the role of peer groups in adolescent development. A family of dynamic actor-drive...

We give a non-technical introduction into recently developed methods for analyzing the co-evolution of social networks and behavior(s) of the network actors. This co-evolution is crucial for a variety of research topics that currently receive a lot of attention, such as the role of peer groups in adolescent development. A family of dynamic actor-dr...

We give a non-technical introduction into recently developed methods for analyzing the co-evolution of social networks and behavior(s) of the network actors. This co-evolution is crucial for a variety of research topics that currently receive a lot of attention, such as the role of peer groups in adolescent development. A family of dynamic actor-dr...

This study addressed the issue of whether frequent exposure to life events is associated with aggravation or blunting of cardiovascular reactions to acute mental stress. In a substantial cohort of 585 healthy young adults, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were recorded at rest and in response to a mental arithmetic stress task....

To investigate associations between 'less healthy eating' and 'unhealthy snacking' at age 11, and family life (family structure, meals and maternal employment status) together with potential socio-economic confounders and gender. Children participated in a school-based survey, questionnaires also being completed by parents. Analyses were based on t...

Over the last couple of decades it has been suggested that youth transitions have become increasingly protracted and complex, resulting in a greater vulnerability among young people to marginalization and exclusion. Routes between school and work, which were once viewed as linear and predictable, are seen as having been replaced by a set of movemen...

No abstract available.

Compared with the volume of research on school effects on educational outcomes, and in spite of growing interest in the health promoting school, there are very few studies that have investigated the way schools influence pupils' health behaviours. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of over 2000 young people in the West of Scotla...

Compared with the volume of research on school effects on educational outcomes, and in spite of growing interest in the health promoting school, there are very few studies that have investigated the way schools influence pupils' health behaviours. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of over 2000 young people in the West of Scotla...

Many studies report few socioeconomic (SES) differences in health in youth, a pattern contrasting with that of health inequalities in childhood and adulthood. This paper focuses on the child-youth transition to examine the hypothesis of equalisation in health over this period. Specifically, we test two hypotheses: (a) that equalisation is more like...

Religiosity is often associated with mental health in adult populations, but not in a consistent direction. Conflicting results reflect the multidimensional nature of both concepts. Few studies have addressed the relationship between religiosity and mental health among children. In this paper, we examine the relation of weekly church attendance to...

Until the 1990s, the literature on youth leisure characterized that of females as home-based, passive and largely absent from male-dominated subcultures. Contrasting with this, over the course of the 1990s, evidence emerged of increasing public visibility, reduced restrictions on activities and relatively greater increases in health-risk behaviours...

To report prevalence estimates of psychiatric disorder among Scottish adolescents using a self-administered computerized (Voice) version of the DISC. A total of 1,860 15-year-olds (67%), participating in a school-based survey of health and lifestyles, completed selected modules of the Voice-DISC, producing DSM-IV diagnoses of (specific) anxiety dis...

Despite a widespread view that the mental health of young people has deteriorated, the evidence base is limited by the lack of comparable datasets over time, and their capacity to test specific hypotheses about the causes of such change, in this case those particularly affecting young females. Two cohorts of 15-year-olds in the West of Scotland, su...

This paper tests the hypothesis of an emerging or increasing female excess in general ill-health and physical symptoms, as well as psychological distress, during early to mid-adolescence. Self-reported data on general health (longstanding illness and health in the last 12 months), recent symptoms (classified as 'physical' and 'malaise') and depress...

No abstract available.

Among adults, women are more likely than men to perceive themselves as too heavy for their height, the gender discrepancy being greatest among those within a "normal" weight range. This finding has been explained in terms of the equation of female beauty with extreme thinness. As the physical changes of puberty are differentiated by gender, with ma...

Against the background of increasing concern about levels of physical activity among young people, this paper reports the results of a cross-national comparison between two longitudinal studies of young people in Glasgow, Scotland and Dunedin, New Zealand, which used similar methods of assessment at 15 and 18 years of age. The comparison revealed t...

Catholic adults in the West of Scotland, who are mainly of Irish origin, have been shown to suffer excess morbidity and mortality compared to the general population. A major contributing factor to this inequality is socio-economic disadvantage. This paper investigates the health and socio-economic position of Catholics in the youngest generation. S...

The extent to which young people's lifestyles are related to social class, their relationship with health behaviours, and variations in these relationships between countries are of central relevance to an assessment of the extent to which post-modern (global) influences have replaced those associated with traditional (local) social structures. A co...

To explore whether the association between social class and smoking among teenagers varies according to the definition of smoking adopted. Design, setting and participants. A survey of 2196 15-year-olds in 43 secondary schools in the West of Scotland. Current smoking status and number of cigarettes smoked, and social class based on the occupation o...

The public stereotype, largely supported by a rather diverse range of literature, is that bullied children differ from their peers in respect of attributes such as appearance, disability or school performance. In this paper we explore the characteristics of such victims in a way which is both more comprehensive than previous studies and in addition...

Aim. To explore whether the association between social class and smoking among teenagers varies according to the definition of smoking adopted. Design, setting and participants. A survey of 2196 15-year-olds in 43 secondary schools in the West of Scotland. Measures. Current smoking status and number of cigarettes smoked, and social class based on t...

It is widely assumed that children, especially younger children and those in poorer circumstances, are unreliable informants of parental occupation and related characteristics, thereby precluding the measurement of social class in much research involving children. In a comparison of reports of parental economic activity and occupation by 11 year ol...

The main aim of this paper is to compare the association of family structure with outcomes for young people in living in the West of Scotland (the Twenty-07 Study, N=1009) with their contemporaries living in Britain (the 1970 British Cohort Study N=11615) in the mid-1980s. A wide range of measures were considered using educational achievement to re...

This paper critically evaluates the evidence for two health-related stereotypes of the Irish, namely that behaviours such as smoking and heavy drinking explain their excess morbidity in Britain, and secondly that, in illness, this ethnic group behaves more stoically. Data are reported on over 850 respondents from each of three cohorts (aged 18, 39...

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between household income and measures of health at different points in the life course. Method: Analysis of second-wave data collected in 1990-1991 in a longitudinal study of three age cohorts (15, 35 and 55 years in 1987-1988) in the West of Scotland was performed. The subjects we...

To examine the effect of family and friends' smoking on uptake of regular smoking among young people from mid-adolescence to early adulthood; whether such effects are time limited, vary by social class and gender, and the extent to which uptake precedes or follows friends' smoking. The West of Scotland. A longitudinal survey of 1009 15-year-olds in...

PIP It is not easy to collect valid and reliable data on sexual behavior, and despite the development of more sophisticated survey instruments since the 1980s, largely in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, many problems persist. Since the advent of AIDS, there is a greater need to obtain accurate data on sexual behavior. Findings are presented from...

To present self reports by children and reports by parents on behalf of their children relating to general health, current conditions, and recent symptoms. Questionnaires completed by children and parents as part of the longitudinal "West of Scotland 11 to 16 study: teenage health." 135 primary schools in Central Clydeside. 2586 children aged 11 ye...

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Challenges the assumption, prevalent in education and in health education, that a sense of high self-esteem is a key ingredient for success in educational achievement and the adoption of a healthy lifestyle. Describes the measurement of self-esteem and “street-oriented” leisure among a cohort of about 1,000 young people aged 15 in 1987 who are the...

Ethnic and religious minorities often suffer disadvantages both in socio-economic status and in health. Data from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study suggest some differences in morbidity between those descended from Irish Catholic migrants of the great emigration from 1840 onwards and others. Catholic religion of at least one parent or at birth i...

In the light of a still prevalent view that health inequalities are an invariant feature of the life-course, this paper re-examines the thesis that youth, in contrast to childhood, is characterised by relative equality in health, and proposes a process of equalisation to account for changes in the social class patterning of certain dimensions of he...

Notes how the 1980 Black Report on the extent and causes of health inequalities in the UK made little mention of how these issues affect youth or young people. Questions the conclusion of the Black Report that health inequalities are a pervasive feature at all ages. Describes the “West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study: Health in the Community” being car...

This paper is concerned with the meaning and the processes of peer pressure in relation to smoking behaviour amongst pre-adolescent and adolescent pupils. Previous research suggests that children who smoke cause their non-smoking peers to take up the habit through strategies such as coercion, teasing, bullying and rejection from a desired group. In...

Concern has been expressed that teenagers selection of a high-fat, high-sugar diet may be part of a damaging trend with implications for adolescent and adult health. Examination of diet inventory data collected at the ages of 15, 18 and 21 in the longitudinal West of Scotland Twenty-07 study (Macintyre et al., 1989, Readings for a New Public Health...

Until recently, the role of the family in the 'health inequalities' debate has been largely ignored. Using data from the youngest cohort in the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study, three dimensions of family life (family structure, culture and conflict) are examined in respect of their association both with health when respondents were aged 15 and 18,...

To examine socio-demographic correlates of dietary habits at 15 and 18 years. First and second sweeps of a longitudinal survey, based on a two-stage stratified clustered random sample. Central Clydeside Conurbation, in the West of Scotland. A random sample of 1682 households containing 15-year-olds was approached by Strathclyde Regional Council, 70...