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Environmental risk and protective factors of adolescents’ and youths’ mental health: differences between parents’ appraisal and self-reports

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An Erratum to this article was published on 07 November 2012

Abstract

Purpose

We investigated the effect of parents’ mental health, life events, and home life (among other factors) on adolescents’/youths’ mental health, whether such an effect varies when several variables are assessed jointly, and also whether the informant source of the mental health problem modifies the estimations.

Methods

We studied a representative sample of 454 Spanish adolescents/youths studied longitudinally (2 assessments, 3 years apart). We considered factors associated with adolescents’/youths’ mental health (conduct, emotional, and hyperactivity scores [SDQ]): risk factors (parents’ mental health and life events) and mediators (social and financial support). Structural equation modeling was applied. We constructed two models: (a) with parents’ SDQ responses and (b) with self-reported SDQ responses (in a subsample of N = 260).

Results

Model fit was adequate for parents’ appraisal. Parents’ mental health (p < 0.05) and undesirable life events (p < 0.05) were the most important risk factors. The same model showed poorer fit when self-reported measures were used. Home life exerted a stronger protective effect on adolescents’/youths’ mental health when reported by adolescents/youths. The negative effect of parents’ mental health was significantly protected by home life in emotional [−0.14 (0.07)] and hyperactivity scores [−0.2 (0.08)].

Conclusions

Even in the presence of other factors, parents’ mental health has an important effect on adolescents’/youths’ mental health. Good levels of home life are protective, especially when adolescents’/youths’ mental health is self-reported.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by FIS Expt. PI042315, DURSI-GENCAT (2005-SGR-00491) and Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FSE (JCI-2009-05486). The authors want to acknowledge Aurea Martin Morris and Dave McFarlane for their assistance in the elaboration of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Services Research Unit, IMIM-Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain

    Ester Villalonga Olives, Carlos Garcia Forero, Josué Almansa, Jose M. Valderas, Montserrat Ferrer, Luis Rajmil & Jordi Alonso

  2. CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain

    Ester Villalonga Olives, Carlos Garcia Forero, Jose M. Valderas, Montserrat Ferrer, Luis Rajmil & Jordi Alonso

  3. Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Alonso

  4. Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Alberto Maydeu-Olivares

  5. Catalan Agency for Health Information, Assessment and Quality (CAHIAQ), Barcelona, Spain

    Jorge A. Palacio Vieira & Luis Rajmil

  6. Health Services and Policy Research Group, Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Jose M. Valderas

  7. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Spain

    Montserrat Ferrer

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  1. Ester Villalonga Olives
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Correspondence to Jordi Alonso.

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Olives, E.V., Forero, C.G., Maydeu-Olivares, A. et al. Environmental risk and protective factors of adolescents’ and youths’ mental health: differences between parents’ appraisal and self-reports. Qual Life Res 22, 613–622 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-012-0167-x

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