scholarly journals A bio-ecological framing of evidence on the determinants of adolescent mental health - A scoping review of the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study 1983–2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 100697
Author(s):  
Candace Currie ◽  
Antony Morgan
BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. e041489
Author(s):  
Nathan King ◽  
Colleen M Davison ◽  
William Pickett

IntroductionStudies of adolescent mental health require valid measures that are supported by evidence-based theories. An established theory is the dual-factor model, which argues that mental health status is only fully understood by incorporating information on both subjective well-being and psychopathology.ObjectivesTo develop a novel measure of adolescent mental health based on the dual-factor model and test its construct validity.DesignCross-sectional analysis of national health survey data.Setting and participantsNationally weighted sample of 21 993 grade 6–10 students; average age: 14.0 (SD 1.4) years from the 2014 Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study.MeasuresSelf-report indicators of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive and negative affect), and psychopathology (psychological symptoms and overt risk-taking behaviour) were incorporated into the dual-factor measure. Characteristics of adolescents families, specific mental health indicators and measures of academic and social functioning were used in the assessment of construct validity.ResultsProportions of students categorised to the four mental health groups indicated by the dual-factor measure were 67.6% ‘mentally healthy’, 17.5% ‘symptomatic yet content’, 5.5% ‘asymptomatic yet discontent’ and 9.4% ‘mentally unhealthy’. Being mentally healthy was associated with the highest functioning (greater social support and academic functioning) and being mentally unhealthy was associated with the worst. A one-unit increase (ranges=0–10) in peer support (OR 1.19; 95% CI 1.15 to 1.22), family support (OR 1.32; 95% CI 1.28 to 1.36), student support (OR 1.20; 95% CI 1.17 to 1.24) and average school marks (OR 1.18; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.27) increased the odds of being symptomatic yet content versus mentally unhealthy. Mentally healthy youth were the most likely to live with both parents (77% vs ≤65%) and report their family as well-off (62% vs ≤53%).ConclusionsWe developed a novel, construct valid dual-factor measure of adolescent mental health. This potentially provides a nuanced and comprehensive approach to the assessment of adolescent mental health that is direly needed.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Goodfellow ◽  
Malachi Willis ◽  
Joanna Inchley ◽  
Kalpa Kharicha ◽  
Alastair Leyland ◽  
...  

Adolescent loneliness and poor mental health represent dual public health concerns. Yet, associations between loneliness and mental health, and critically, how these unfold in school settings are less understood. Framed by social ecological theory, this study aimed to identify key predictors of adolescent mental health, and examine school-level variation in the relationship between loneliness and mental health.Cross-sectional data on adolescents from the 2018 wave of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC) in Scotland were used (N = 5,286). Mental health was measured as a composite variable containing items assessing: nervousness, irritability, sleep difficulties and feeling low. Loneliness was measured via a single item assessing how often adolescents felt ‘left out’. Multilevel models were used to identify key social ecological predictors of mental health, associations with loneliness, and between-school variation.Loneliness, as well as demographic, social, and school factors, were found to be associated with mental health. Schools accounted for around 8% of the variation in adolescents’ mental health, and the between-school difference in mental health was greater among adolescents with high levels of loneliness. Additionally, the negative effect of loneliness on mental health was stronger in schools with lower average mental health scores.The findings suggest that schools can play an important role in shaping adolescent mental health. Our study uniquely identifies that school-based interventions targeting mental health may be especially necessary among lonely adolescents, and programmes aimed at tackling loneliness may be more beneficial in schools with poorer mental health.


Author(s):  
Ellen Haug ◽  
Otto Robert Frans Smith ◽  
Jens Bucksch ◽  
Catherina Brindley ◽  
Jan Pavelka ◽  
...  

Active school transport (AST) is a source of daily physical activity uptake. However, AST seems to have decreased worldwide over recent decades. We aimed to examine recent trends in AST and associations with gender, age, family affluence, and time to school, using data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study collected in 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 in the Czech Republic, Norway, Scotland, and Wales. Data from 88,212 students (11, 13 and 15 years old) revealed stable patterns of AST from 2006 to 2018, apart from a decrease in the Czech Republic between 2006 and 2010. For survey waves combined, walking to and from school was most common in the Czech Republic (55%) and least common in Wales (30%). Cycling was only common in Norway (22%). AST differed by gender (Scotland and Wales), by age (Norway), and by family affluence (everywhere but Norway). In the Czech Republic, family affluence was associated with change over time in AST, and the effect of travel time on AST was stronger. The findings indicate that the decrease in AST could be levelling off in the countries considered here. Differential associations with sociodemographic factors and travel time should be considered in the development of strategies for AST.


2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Peltzer

The main objective of the ‘Health Behaviour among School-Aged Children’ (HBSC) study was to collect information on health-related behaviour of South African youth. Opsomming Die hoofdoelwit van die studie “Health Behaviour among School-aged Children” (Gesondheidsgedrag van skoolgaande kinders) studie is om inligting in te samel ten opsigte van gesondheidverwante gedrag van die Suid-Afrikaanse jeug. *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nour Hammami ◽  
Scott T. Leatherdale ◽  
Frank J. Elgar

Abstract Background Youth who go hungry have poorer mental health than their counterparts – there are gender differences in this relationship. This study investigated the role of social support in the association between hunger and mental health among a nationally representative sample of youth in Canada in gender-specific analyses. Methods We used a probability-based sample of 21,750 youth in grades 6–10 who participated in the 2017–2018 Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. Self-report data were gathered on hunger, mental health (measured via the World Health Organization-5 well-being index) and five sources of support – peer, family and teacher support as well as the school climate and neighborhood support. We conducted adjusted, gender-specific, multilevel regression analyses assessing the association between mental health, social support and hunger. Results We found that youth who reported lower support were more likely to experience going to bed hungry (relative to never hungry) across all support factors. As for the social support factors, all the social support factors were associated with a higher mental health score, even after controlling for hunger. Despite these results our final set of models showed that our measures of social support did not alleviate the negative association between hunger and mental health. As for gender-specific findings, the negative association between hunger and a mental health was more pronounced among females relative to their male counterparts. We also found that certain social support factors (i.e., family, teacher and neighborhood support) were associated with a higher mental health score among females relative to males while controlling for hunger status. Conclusions We find that five social support factors are associated with a higher mental health score among ever hungry youth; however, social support did not overpower the negative association between hunger and mental health. Food insecurity is a challenge to address holistically; however, hungry youth who have high social support have higher odds of better mental health.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document