Quality of life, health perception, learning motivation and behavior of adolescents in an educational institution.

Objective: to analyze sociodemographic variables, quality of life, self-perceived health, learning motivation and behavior of adolescents in 2018 and 2021.

Method: observational cross-sectional study with 124 adolescents in 2018, and 68 in 2021. A Form for sociodemographic variables, Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, Self-Perceived Health instrument, Learning Motivation Scale and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire were used to collect data. Data collection was carried out using forms on Google Forms. For the analysis, descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used.

Results: the majority of participants belonged to class A. In the comparison between 2018 and 2021, there was a worsening in the assessment of self-perceived health. In the assessment of QoL by parents, there was a statistically significant difference between the scores of the social and psychosocial dimensions. Among adolescents, there were differences between QoL scores in the physical and psychosocial dimensions.

Conclusion: the adolescent with a better mental health assessment had a greater chance of having a better quality of life in the periods investigated (OR=5.35 and OR=5.51). Younger students showed greater motivation to learn, increasing the chance of improving their quality of life by up to 9.75 and 5.02 times in the two periods, respectively.

Background: (1) The school environment is a space favorable to promoting physical, mental and social health.

Background: (2) Awareness about healthy lifestyle habits should be carried out during adolescence.

Background: (3) Aspects related to health can influence behavior and learning.

Background: (4) Quality of life (QoL) and its dimensions are related to the motivation to learn.

Background: (5) Adolescent mental health is related to self-perception of QoL.