0000000000846095
AUTHOR
Charli Eriksson
Trends in sleeping difficulty among adolescents in five Nordic countries 2002–2014
Sleep has been found to be an important factor in adolescents’ mental and physical health. The aim of the present study was to examine trends in sleep difficulty (i.e., difficulty falling asleep more often than once a week) in the Nordic countries among 11- to 15-year-olds. We analysed Nordic data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC), which is conducted every four years, looking specifically at trends in sleep difficulty over a 12-year period from 2002 to 2014. The participants were aged 11 to 15 years. The total number of participants across these years was 113,447. A large percentage (17% to 31% in 2014) of adolescents in the Nordic countries experience sleep dif…
Trends in perceived school stress among adolescentsin five Nordic countries 2002–2014
Abstract Associations between school-related stress and poor health, risk behaviours and low well-being are well documented. The aim of this paper was to estimate trends of perceived school stress experienced by boys and girls of different ages in the Nordic countries, and to describe trends in school stress between the Nordic countries. Nordic data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC) between 2002 and 2014 were used. The participants were aged 11–16 years. School stress was measured by a single item; “How pressured do you feel by schoolwork?” The participants answering “some” or “a lot” were categorised as reporting school stress. Sweden, Norway and Denmark had …
Trends in excellent self-rated health among adolescents: A comparative Nordic study
Abstract Background: Excellent self-rated health (SRH) can be seen as an important component of positive health among adolescents. The aim of this paper is to examine time trends of excellent health among adolescents in five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) between 2002 and 2014, including differences between countries, gender and age. Methods: Nordic data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey (including 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds) from 2002 (n = 19,009), 2006 (n = 29,656), 2010 (n = 33,232) and 2014 (n = 31,540) were analysed by design-adjusted binomial logistic regression models. Results: The trend analysis of excellent SRH for Nordi…
Nordic adolescents responding to demanding survey scales in boring contexts: Examining straightlining
Introduction Straightlining, or identical responses across all items within a multi-item scale, is often taken as an indication that responses to all items in a questionnaire are of poor quality. The purpose of this study was to examine straightlining on two scales: The Sense of Unity Scale (SUS) and the short version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS). Methods Data stem from the 2017–2018 data collections in four Nordic countries of the Health Behaviour in School-children study (HBSC) (15-year-old students only; 50.9% girls; n = 5928). Data were weighted to adjust for oversampling of Swedish-speaking Finnish students and to equalize sample size across countries. The…
Towards enhancing research on adolescent positive mental health
The positive mental health and well-being perspective represents innovative public health research of first-rank priority in Europe. Good mental health is both a state and a resource for everyday life. Hence, the concept often refers to a subjective feeling (hedonic component) as well as positive functioning (eudaimonic component). Different conceptualisations of mental health-related issues are a background to this paper, which gives a brief overview of three research issues in the Nordic countries. First, the development in the occurrences of adolescent mental health-related indicators such as life satisfaction, health, sleep, and school pressure. Second, review of Nordic methodological s…
Trends in high life satisfaction among adolescents in five Nordic countries 2002–2014
Abstract Life satisfaction is an important indicator when assessing positive mental health aspects in populations, including among adolescents. The aim of this study was to investigate trends over time in prevalence of high life satisfaction among adolescents from five Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We used data from four waves of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study from 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 (n=109,847). HBSC is a school-based study examining social circumstances, health and health behaviour among 11-, 13- and 15-years olds every four years in many European and North American countries. The Cantril Ladder, an 11-step visual analogue sc…
The Association between Loneliness, Mental Well-Being, and Self-Esteem among Adolescents in Four Nordic Countries
Positive mental health is central to adolescent well-being. The present study examines the prevalence of loneliness and positive mental health indicators (mental well-being and self-esteem) in four Nordic countries and associations between loneliness, mental well-being, and high self-esteem. This study is based on data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study which was conducted in 2018 in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. Participants were 5883 15-year-old boys and girls. To examine the associations between loneliness, mental well-being, and self-esteem, structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied. In the comparison of Nordic countries, the prevalence of lonel…
On the art of doing surveys among adolescents
Abstract The aim is to discuss methodological challenges for research on adolescent positive mental health. A first consideration is which questions should the measurement instrument answer. In the clinical context it should have the properties of giving enough information for making a diagnosis of high quality. In the public health context, its objective may be to give information that enables the researcher to describe trends at the population level and provide guidance on areas of intervention. The HBSC study is monitoring the health and health behaviour of school-aged children in a public health context. It is a population survey, defined by the form of data collection and the method of…
Setting the scene: controversies on trends in mental health among adolescents in the Nordic countries
Abstract At present there are different positions regarding trends in adolescent mental health. Can we trust trend data on the mental health among adolescents in the Nordic countries? Some question the trustworthiness of adolescent self-reports, which describe ordinary daily hassles as health complaints, which cannot be interpreted as signs of mental disorders. In addition, today there is a more open climate for talking about mental issues, which can lead to an overestimation of the prevalence of mental disorders. Statistics on mental health services statistics report increased psychopharmaceutic prescriptions as well as consumption of professional care. Such data argues for increased gover…
On the time trends among school-aged children in the Nordic countries
Abstract Long-term trends in mental health of school-aged children can be analysed in the HBSC study. In Sweden the proportion of the children that report at least two weekly health complaints during the last six months has increased from the first data collection 1985/1985 to the latest 2017/2018 among all age groups for both girls and boys. Among the 11-year-old it reached 41 % among girls and 30 % boys, and among 15-year-old girls 62 % and boys 35 %. Can we trust this? The prevalence of two or more weekly health complaints showed large differences by country over time and especially in 2014, when Iceland and Sweden showed an almost 10%-point larger prevalence of multiple weekly symptoms …