Lereya, Suzet Tanya;
Patalay, Praveetha;
Deighton, Jessica;
(2022)
Predictors of mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing in adolescents: A longitudinal study.
JCPP Advances
, 2
(2)
, Article e12074. 10.1002/jcv2.12074.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mental health and subjective well-being are of great interest in both health policy and research. There has been considerable debate regarding whether mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing are two distinct domains or different ends of a single mental health spectrum. This study investigates if predictors of mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing are the same or different in a large-scale community-based sample in the United Kingdom. METHODS: 13,500 adolescents in year 7 (aged 11-12) and again in year 8 (aged 12-13) completed surveys on emotional strengths and skills, support networks, mental health difficulties and wellbeing. Socio-demographic factors were gathered from the National Pupil Database. Mental health difficulties and wellbeing scores were standardized to allow comparisons. RESULTS: The correlation between mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing was -0.48, indicating a moderate overlap between the two domains. Some of the predictors (e.g., gender, ethnicity, problem solving, emotion regulation) in year 7 predicted both mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing in year 8. However, some of the predictors in year 7 only predicted mental health difficulties (e.g., special education needs, empathy) and some only subjective wellbeing (e.g., prosocial behaviour, peer support) in year 8. CONCLUSION: This study provides further evidence for differences in what predicts adolescents' mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing. It highlights the importance of not only focusing on preventing or treating symptoms of mental illness but also focusing on improving children's wellbeing.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Predictors of mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing in adolescents: A longitudinal study |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/jcv2.12074 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12074 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2022 The Authors. JCPP Advances published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | determinants, longitudinal, mental health, psychiatric epidemiology, psychopathology, wellbeing |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Cardiovascular Science > Population Science and Experimental Medicine > MRC Unit for Lifelong Hlth and Ageing |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10177280 |
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