title: Educational expectations and adolescent health behaviour: an evolutionary approach.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous research finds adolescents expecting to attend university are more likely to demonstrate health-promoting behaviour than those not expecting university attendance. This suggests public health improvements may be achievable by encouraging adolescents to adopt academic goals. We investigate confounders of this putative relationship, focusing on those identified by evolutionary theory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multi-level logistic regression was used to analyse the 2010 Scottish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey (n = 1834).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adolescents anticipating university attendance exhibited higher levels of engagement in health-protective behaviours (fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise and tooth brushing) and were more likely to avoid health-damaging behaviours (crisps, soft drink and alcohol consumption, tobacco and cannabis use, fighting and intercourse). These relationships persisted when controlling indicators of life history trajectory (pubertal timing, socioeconomic status and father absence). Pupil level: gender, age, perceived academic achievement and peer/family communication and school level: university expectations, affluence, leavers' destinations, exam performance and school climate were also adjusted.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Encouraging adolescents to consider an academic future may achieve public health benefits, despite social factors that might otherwise precipitate poor health via an accelerated life history trajectory.
authors.affiliation: Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit, School of Medicine, Medical and Biological Sciences Building, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9TF, Scotland, UK, rw394@st-andrews.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.forename: Dorothy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Currie
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Inchley
authors.forename: Candace
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Currie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet; D004522:Educational Status; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012606:Scotland; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology