Psychological well-being (PWB) of school adolescents aged 12-18 yr,its correlation with general levels of physical activity (PA) and socio-demographic factors in Gilgit,Pakistan

Background: adolescence is a critical developmental stage marked by complex transitions. the purpose of study was to assess school adolescents’ pwb,examine the relationship of pa and socio-demographic factors with pwb. methods: a cross sectional study conducted in five randomly selected schools with 345 adolescents (aged 12-18) from grade 6th-10th. a self-administered well-being index was adapted to measure pwb and questionnaire for adolescents pa (paq-a). socio-demographic variables determined: age,gender,household income and parental education. bivariate and multivariate regression analyses performed to examine the association between pwb,pa and covariates. results: findings indicated the mean age 14.64 (sd=1.275),55.4% were female. without gender difference the majority (43.4%) of adolescents showed moderate,while (23.2%) revealed low level of pwb. participants with low level likely to have depression but scores were significantly not different between low,moderate and high pwb with pa. socio-demographic trends of adolescents’ were observed significant (p <0.005) for pwb. in multivariable analysis the mean wellbeing in females adjusted for other covariates was significant (p =0.004) than males. pwb importantly (p <0.001) decreased by 3.36 units as its covariates increased and pa score in boys found 0.05 unit more than girls. conclusion: the study results are invaluable in addressing low,moderate and high levels of pwb. inadequate pa and pwb decreasing with some socio-demographic covariates is crucial health issue among female adolescents in pakistan. further studies need to find barrier,social indicators of pwb and implication of health among adolescents. © 2015,iranian journal of public health. all rights reserved.