The effect of campus environment on students’ health behaviour in four Central European countries

Journal of Social Research & Policy, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, pp. 125-138

Date: July 2017

ISSN: 2067-2640 (print), 2068-9861 (electronic)

Abstract The results of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (Espad Group, 2016) indicate that substance use among Hungarian students enrolled in the public education ranks on the top in Europe as the incidence of smoking and binge drinking is increasing. At the same time, international research states that the youth in the CentralEuropean countries surrounding Hungary (Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine) show better results in more aspects (Hibell et al, 2012). The results of Kopp (2012) justify these findings among Hungarian adults as well. However, we do not have explicit comparable data among university students. In the present study, we try to cover up the blank spaces of the previous studies. Firstly, we focus on the -students enrolled in higher education. Secondly, we measure the special character of minority students, as in the neighbour countries of Hungary there are Hungarian minority students, as well. In our investigation, we point out that students learning in the same higher educational campuses create a health behaviour interpretive community and their effects often overwrite the individual protective and risk factors.

Keywords: Health-Risk Behaviour; Higher Education; Added Value.