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Overview

Study Design
The HBSC Research Network

Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) is a cross-national research study conducted in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
The study aims to gain new insight into, and increase our understanding of young people's health and well-being, health behaviours and their social context.
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HBSC was initiated in 1982 by researchers from three countries and shortly afterwards the project was adopted by the World Health Organization as a WHO collaborative study. There are now 43 participating countries and regions.
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The first cross-national survey was conducted in 1983/84, the second in 1985/86 and since then data collection has been carried out every four years using a common research protocol. The most recent survey, the sixth in the series, was conducted in 2001/02.
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Since its inception, the study has been developed by a multi-disciplinary network of researchers from a growing number of countries in Europe and North America.
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Aims

As well as aiming to increase understanding of young people's health, the findings from the HBSC surveys are used to inform and influence health promotion and health education policy and practice at national and international levels.

Research into children's health and health behaviour and the factors that influence them is essential for the development of effective health education and health promotion policy, programmes and practice targeted at young people.

It is important that young people's health is considered in its broadest sense, encompassing physical, social and emotional wellbeing. Health should be viewed as a resource for everyday living, and not just the absence of disease.

Therefore, research into children's health needs to consider the positive aspects of health, as well as risk factors for future ill health and disease. Family, school and peer settings and relationships need to be explored, as does the socioeconomic environment in which young people grow up, if we are to understand fully the patterns of health and health behaviour found in the adolescent population.

Objectives

to initiate and sustain national and international research on health behaviour, health and well being and their social contexts in school-aged children
to contribute to theoretical, conceptual, and methodological development in the said area of research
to contribute to the knowledge base in the said research area
to monitor and to compare health and health behaviour and social contexts of school-aged children in member countries through the collection of relevant data
to disseminate findings to the relevant audiences including researchers, health and education policy makers, health promotion practitioners, teachers, parents and young people
to develop partnerships with relevant external agencies in relation to adolescent health to support the development of health promotion with school-aged children
to promote and support the establishment of national expertise on health behaviour and on the social context of health in school-aged children
to establish and strengthen a multi-disciplinary international network of experts in this field
to provide an international source of expertise and intelligence on adolescent health for public health and health education