If you can reduce your material needs you might be surprised how little you actually need. Is sustainability sustainable? Who halts Climate Change? Are you a Solution Seeker? The benefits of self-sufficiency include resilience, thrift and sustainability. Self-sufficiency Self-sufficiency, also known as self-reliance, not only saves you money it protects you from the vicissitudes of life and also helps to protect the environment.
There are many ways we can be more self-sufficient, including: Grow you own vegetables and fruit at home Cooking your own meals Preserving food Walking or riding a bike to work and school Foraging, hunting and fishing for food Making and mending clothes DIY building, home improvements and home maintenance Solar panels, solar hot water heaters Insulation and passive solar heating Recycling and reusing Rainwater collection and greywater recycling Craft making like woodwork, basketmaking, weaving and metalwork.
Moreover, a transition occurs from dependence on parents to more autonomy and financial independence and from youth health care to adult health care. These transitions induce challenges for emerging adults in different life areas, e. These challenges might account for a decline in health status along with an increase in mental health problems and behaviors risky to health, such as binge drinking, smoking, and being physically inactive [ 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].
Furthermore, the aforementioned transitions may result in a gap between the health care needs of emerging adults and the provision of care [ 10 , 13 , 14 ]. Previous research illustrated that, for instance, financial self-sufficiency can be improved by financial education to students [ 15 ], and effective mental health services in the school context can help with a successful transition to adulthood [ 16 ].
Emerging adults attending intermediate vocational education upper secondary education with specialized job-oriented programs, ISCED 3 [ 17 ] are expected to struggle more with becoming self-sufficient than their peers from other school levels.
This study examined the association of contextual factors e. We hypothesized that less favorable contextual factors and less favorable indicators of health status will be associated with a lower likelihood of being self-sufficient.
For this study, baseline and follow-up data from the Medical Advice for Sick-reported Students MASS intervention evaluation study were used, which is described in more detail elsewhere [ 20 ].
They issued a declaration of no objection to conducting this study and permitted to submit the results for publication in a scientific journal in the future proposal number MEC All participants provided written informed consent. A total of 22 intermediate vocational education school locations were invited to participate in the study Fig. Twelve locations could not participate, mainly because of the anticipated time investment. Finally, ten schools participated in the study in the Dutch regions of Utrecht, West-Brabant, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam.
The baseline data was collected between December and October The follow-up data were collected between July and April To adhere to the preferences of the schools, two different procedures were followed to select participants. At the two remaining schools, all students in randomly selected classes were invited to participate. The involved researcher selected students who met the criteria for extensive sickness absence afterward. These documents explained the aim of the study and included contact information of the researchers.
An appointed coordinator from the participating schools sent the documents to the students and parents. Parents could object to having their child participate in the study by notifying their objection towards school or the researchers.
The students were asked to provide written informed consent before filling out the questionnaire. The appointed coordinator collected all completed questionnaires and sent them to the researchers.
Approximately 6 months later, the participants in the selected sickness absence sample i. The broader school sample was not invited to fill out the follow-up questionnaire. In total, students provided written informed consent at baseline. The questionnaire contained the following topics: self-sufficiency, contextual factors i. An adapted version of the Dutch self-sufficiency matrix SSM-D was included in the questionnaire [ 1 , 21 ].
This version was developed for and validated among students attending intermediate vocational education, corresponding to the language skills of the students, and addresses the ability of students to provide for themselves regarding 11 specific life-domains finances, daytime activities, housing, domestic relations, mental health, physical health, addiction, activities daily life, social network, community participation, and judicial [ 21 ]. Each life-domain was assessed by how many problems the student had in the past 6 months in a certain life-domain, e.
For analyses purposes, one overall self-sufficiency score was calculated, ranging from self-sufficient on all life-domains, ten life-domains, nine life-domains, and eight or fewer life-domains. In this framework, human functioning is considered at the level of the whole person in a social context. We applied an adapted version of this framework to our study Additional file 2: Figure B1.
Previous research showed this item can distinguish students who get good grades at school from students that do not [ 25 ]. Risk behaviors included cigarette smoking, binge drinking, cannabis use, delinquency, and truancy. Cannabis use was assessed by the number of times the student had used cannabis over the past 4 weeks.
Criminal behavior was assessed by ten items covering criminal behavior in the past 6 months e. The continuous score for number of sick days was used. The CES-D is a item scale used to determine the clinical relevance of depression. The items cover the main components of depressive symptoms such as depressed mood, guilt, feelings of helplessness, loss of appetite, and sleep. The frequency of experiencing these symptoms in the past week was assessed.
The continuous total CES-D score was used with higher scores indicating higher levels of depressive symptoms range of 0— Descriptive statistics were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the study population Table 1. We compared participants who completed both the baseline and follow-up questionnaire with participants lost to follow-up using chi-square tests for categorical variables and independent sample t -tests for continuous variables Additional file 3: Table C1.
Also, descriptive statistics were used to show the distribution of students who were self-sufficient and who were not self-sufficient in each life-domain at baseline and 6 months post-baseline Table 2. We examined associations of contextual factors and indicators of health status i. First, ordinal regression analyses were performed on baseline data to analyze the association between predictor variables and overall self-sufficiency at baseline as the ordinal outcome variable ranging from self-sufficient on: all life-domains, ten life-domains, nine life-domains, and eight or fewer life-domains Table 3.
Second, logistic regression analyses were performed on baseline data to assess the association between predictor variables and the separate self-sufficiency life-domains as outcome variables Tables 4. Third, ordinal regression analyses were performed to analyze the association between baseline predictor variables and overall self-sufficiency at follow-up as the ordinal outcome variable ranging from self-sufficient on: all life-domains, ten life-domains, nine life-domains, and eight or fewer life-domains Table 5.
We also explored interaction between gender and all other predictors in the association between baseline predictors and baseline overall self-sufficiency. No significant interaction was found. For the ordinal regression models, we present the univariable and multivariable models. The estimated ORs represent the odds for a student to be allocated within a higher self-sufficiency category if they would have scored one point higher on a predictor variable [ 30 ].
We considered a p -value of 0. Released Participants were on average The judicial life-domain had the highest number of self-sufficient participants at baseline Table 3 shows the associations of contextual factors and indicators of health status with overall self-sufficiency at baseline, as assessed with ordinal regression analyses.
Tables 4 presents the results of the associations of contextual factors and indicators of health status with the separate self-sufficiency life-domains at baseline, assessed with logistic regression analyses. An increase in sick days was associated with lower odds of being self-sufficient on three life-domains, ORs varied from 0. An increase on the scale of depressive symptoms was associated with lower odds of being self-sufficient on ten life-domains, ORs varied from 0. Table 5 shows the results of the associations of contextual factors and health status at baseline with overall self-sufficiency at follow-up, assessed with ordinal regression analyses.
Furthermore, young adults reporting more sick days from school or higher depressive symptom levels were less likely to be self-sufficient overall and on several life-domains. Bannink et al. Furthermore, their study showed overall fewer problems in being self-sufficient on all life-domains. These differences could be explained by an overrepresentation of young adults who display extensive sickness absence as a result of our sample selection, in which we purposely aimed to select more students with extensive sickness absence.
Overall, especially indicators of health status i. These findings concur with previous research where mental disorders were found to affect daily functioning by limiting personal, social, and work life [ 31 ].
And where depressive symptom levels among adolescents were inversely related to life satisfaction, and academic and emotional self-efficacy [ 32 , 33 ]. Finally, absence from school, either due to sickness or truancy, was found to be related to low levels of academic achievements and antisocial or risky behaviors, such as ineffective coping [ 34 , 35 ].
Cannabis use was related to diminished overall self-sufficiency in the ordinal regression analyses, but not in the logistic regression analyses for the separate life-domains. This difference may be due to the fact that cannabis users had the likelihood of falling especially into the group that was self-sufficient on eight or fewer life-domains on the ordinal variable data are not shown.
This suggests that cannabis users are more likely to have trouble with self-sufficiency on multiple life-domains simultaneously. Parents, school staff and youth health care professionals should be encouraged to address this, for example in the form of parental role-modeling or parental teaching and by communication between parents and their child about work [ 36 , 37 ]. Our findings underline the importance of early promotion of self-sufficiency, preferably before the transition from adolescence to young adulthood has begun.
In this regard, it is recommended to stimulate their social-emotional competencies through social and emotional learning programs [ 38 ] and to use resilience-focused school-based interventions [ 39 ]. These resilience-focused interventions focus on resilience protective factors e. Also, sickness absence and depressive symptoms appear to be risk factors associated with diminished self-sufficiency and should therefore be monitored and addressed when empowering young adults in their functioning in daily life.
This study has some limitations that warrant consideration when interpreting the results. First, some factors that are possibly related to self-sufficiency were not assessed. For instance, income as a possible factor affecting financial self-sufficiency or dietary and sedentary behaviors as possible factors affecting mental health [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Second, this study was exploratory in the sense that we used a large set of predictor variables to test for possible associations with self-sufficiency.
If we would apply the Bonferroni correction for multiple testing on both the ordinal regression analyses corrected significance level is 0. Third, the questionnaires were completed at two time points, therefore we could not infer causality.
Also, a relatively large number of participants were lost to follow-up, which could have led to power problems in detecting significant associations at follow-up. People who opt to be more self sufficient like to feel like they could take care of their family if a catastrophe happened. Environmental Reasons. When you learn how to be self sufficient you are providing your support to an entirely different chain.
Your footprint is reduced when you learn how to grow your own produce or rely on a CSA as your food is not being transported across state lines or across the country. You are teaching your children how to reduce waste when you can shop in bulk instead of making daily trips to the grocery store. Learn how to Cook from Scratch. Ditch the purchases at the grocery store and learn how to make your food.
Plant a Garden. We are in our 4th year of having a garden — no matter where you live or what your weather is, anyone can start a garden. If you have little space, then work with what you have to create one on your back porch, your windowsill or even container garden IN the house specific plants only. Not only will you be able to control how your garden grows and what goes on it, you will save yourself unnecessary trips to the grocery store, too.
Stock up on Pantry Staples. Skip the trip to the store for sugared kids cereal and stick with Steel Cut Oats, which will not only last longer, they will keep them fuller faster. Learn to be Content. Learning to be content eliminates unnecessary trips to the grocery store for items you may not have necessarily needed. Learn how to have simple fun with the kids without spending money. Self Education. Learn how to do things for yourself — from your own self care to cooking, home repairs and even perhaps self employment.
Work to Improve your Finances. Getting out of a debt is essential for self sufficiency — if you are in debt work towards paying off what you owe, and put more effort into your spending habits to control where your money goes.
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