Health behavior-based selection into educational tracks starts in early adolescence

Health behaviors and educational tracks of an individual are here presumed to have a strengthening influence on each other during the developmental pr ocess, through which individuals gradually reach their adult health and soc ial position. This longitudinal study of a Finnish nationally representativ e sample of 12 year olds born in 1970 (N = 1009) examined the associations of health behaviors at ages 12 and 14 with educational track at age 16. The dependent variable, educational track, classified the respondents into fiv e successive categories, thought to predict their adult social position. Se lection into different educational tracks according to health behaviors was obvious already at age 12, when frequency of tooth brushing, consumption o f sweets, coffee drinking and level of participation in physical exercise p redicted educational track independently of sociodemographic background. At age 14, the independent predictors were smoking, frequency of tooth brushi ng and coffee drinking. At both ages, sociodemographic factors had independ ent associations with educational track. It seems that certain health-relat ed behaviors in early adolescence are indicators of a person's possibilitie s to benefit from a country's educational supply. Both sociodemographic bac kground and health-related behaviors influence the process of selection int o educational tracks leading to social position and health in adulthood.