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- Buli, Benti Geleta
(författare)
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Mental health problems among adolescents in Sweden : Analysis of trends, developmental trajectories, and associated factors
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate trends and trajectories of mental health problems and associated factors among adolescents in Sweden. The project consisted of four studies, with the first presenting trends and the subsequent ones exploring influencing factors. The first two studies used data from SALVe, repeated cross-sectional surveys from 2004 – 2020, while the third used national HBSC data from 2002 – 2018. Study IV was based on data from SALVe cohorts conducted among young people born in 1997 and 1999 where data were collected in four waves every three years from 2012 – 2021. Study I investigated trends in mental health problems among adolescents in Västmanland County, revealing an overall decrease but disparities based on socioeconomic status (SES) and sex. Higher SES was associated with reduced mental health problems, while lower SES showed an increase. Girls exhibited a more pronounced decrease in depressive symptoms and suicidal ideations than boys. Study II, using the same dataset, confirmed these trends and identified school-related factors influencing mental health problems, with improvements correlating with reduced problems in the high SES group. Study III found a significant increase in PSS over time, higher in girls, and linked to lifestyle factors, particularly alcohol drunkenness among high SES adolescents. Study IV focused on cohorts born in 1997 and 1999, exploring the impact of family and peer relationships on depressive and anxiety symptoms among young people.The results indicate that intermediary factors, including school-related factors, lifestyle choices, and social relationships, which vary across SES gradients, are linked to adolescent mental health problems. The associations between these intermediary factors and the mental health problems were, in most cases, influenced by a group of factors, including SES, sex, country of origin, and birth cohort, collectively named structural determinants. These determinants discriminated results between boys and girls, high SES and low SES, Nordic and non-Nordic origin, and the 1997 and 1999 cohorts. This underscores the need for at least two-tiered policy intervention. The first involves an immediate to mid-term response, targeting these intermediary factors with a special focus on the low SES group, girls, and young people with foreign backgrounds. The second entails a long-term policy intervention to narrow the divide.
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| 2. |
- Buli, Benti Geleta, et al.
(författare)
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The impact of family and peer relationships on developmental trajectories of depressive and anxiety symptoms among young people
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Adolescent mental health is a growing global concern, with depressive and anxiety symptoms on the rise over recent decades. The significance of supportive social relationships, particularly within family and peer groups, is well-established in research. However, limited evidence exists on the impact of social relationships in predicting the developmental trajectories of mental health problems over time.Methods: This study aims to fill this gap by identifying distinct trajectories of depressive and anxiety symptoms among adolescents and exploring the impact of various factors, including family relationships, peer relationships, sex, and country of origin, on predicting individuals' likelihood of belonging to specific trajectories. Based on data collected from adolescents in Sweden born in 1997 and 1999, the study utilized Group-Based Trajectory Modeling (GBTM) to analyze longitudinal data. Statistical analyses, including multinomial logistic regression, were conducted to examine the predictive effects of social relationships on depressive and anxiety symptom trajectories.Results: Positive social relationships with family and peers emerged as robust predictors across depressive and anxiety symptom trajectories. Female participants consistently exhibited higher mean scores of depressive and anxiety symptoms than males, while participants originating from countries outside the Nordic region were at higher risk of belonging to depressive symptom trajectory groups with higher mean scores. Despite limitations such as high attrition rates, the study's methodological rigor offers valuable insights into the predictive effects of social relationships on mental health trajectories.Conclusions: The study underscores the importance of addressing social factors in adolescent mental health prevention strategies. Despite facing limitations such as high attrition rates, the study's strengths lie in its methodological rigor, providing valuable insights into the predictive effects of social relationships on mental health trajectories and addressing crucial gaps in the literature. This pioneering approach offers implications for future intervention and prevention strategies, emphasizing the importance of social factors in understanding and addressing adolescent mental health.
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| 3. |
- Buli, Benti Geleta, et al.
(författare)
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Trends in adolescent mental health problems and the role of lifestyle factors
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background:Adolescent mental health problems are on the rise globally, including in Sweden. One indicator is an increase in psychosomatic symptoms (PSS) over time. Lifestyle factors such as physical activity (PA), diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption may influence the trends in PSS. However, we found limited research on such associations.Methods:This study is based on data collected every four years from nationally representative samples of 15-year-old boys and girls in Sweden (N = 9,196, 50.5% girls), as part of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. PSS was measured using a scale developed from the HBSC symptom checklist. We analyzed the trends in PSS from 2002 to 2018 and fitted models to investigate the associations between the trends and lifestyle factors. We included interaction terms between time and each lifestyle factor and fitted separate models for the high and low socioeconomic status (SES) groups.ResultsIn general, the mean scores for PSS increased from 2.26 in 2002 to 2.49 in 2018 (p<.001). Compared to the average mean scores during preceding years, the changes in PSS mean scores at each survey year were also significant in all years except 2010. More frequent breakfast intake, daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, and higher PA were associated with lower PSS mean scores while smoking and alcohol consumption had the opposite association. The only significant interaction (B = .050; CI: .015, ¬ .085; p<.01) was observed in the high SES group, indicating that the increasing trend in PSS was stronger among those who had been drunk once or more in a lifetime, compared to those who had never been drunk.ConclusionsThe results indicate increasing trends in mental health problems among young people in Sweden. Furthermore, the study revealed that alcohol drunkenness was associated with a more substantial rise in PSS over time among those in the high SES group. Further research is needed to understand the reasons behind these findings.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Buli, Benti Geleta, et al.
(författare)
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Trends in mental health problems among Swedish adolescents : Do school-related factors play a role?
- 2024
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - 1932-6203. ; 19:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimThe aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which school-related factors, such as school liking, participation in decision-making, school-related parental support, teachers’ support, and school physical environment, explain trends in mental health problems. The problems considered are psychosomatic symptoms (PSS), depressive symptoms (DS), suicidal ideations (SI), and suicide attempts (SA) among Swedish adolescents of varying socioeconomic status (SES) from 2004 to 2020.MethodsWe analyzed data collected through repeated cross-sectional surveys from 19,873 15-year-old students at schools in a county in Sweden. Boys and girls each constituted 50% of the participants. We fitted linear and logistic regression models to investigate associations between the school-related factors and trends in mental health problems.ResultsIncreased school-related parental support and school liking were cross-sectionally associated with decreased PSS, DS and SI, with school liking also associated with decreased SA. Conducive school physical environment was also found to be cross-sectionally associated with lower PSS and DS scores. Over time, mental health problems have shown a general increase among adolescents in the low SES group and a decrease among those in the high SES group. While school-related factors explained the improvement in mental health in the high SES group, we found such association only between parental support trends in PSS and DS, along with participation and trends in SA over time among adolescents in the low SES group.ConclusionsThe results show that school-related factors play significant roles in influencing adolescent mental health. The influence, however, varied across SES gradients over time. This suggests that working against inequities in school-related factors would help address inequities in mental health.
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| 6. |
- Buli, Benti Geleta, et al.
(författare)
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Trends in psychosomatic symptoms among adolescents and the role of lifestyle factors
- 2024
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - 1471-2458. ; 24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Adolescent mental health problems are on the rise globally, including in Sweden. One indicator of this trend is increased psychosomatic symptoms (PSS) over time. Lifestyle factors such as physical activity (PA), diet, smoking, and alcohol consumption may influence the time trends in PSS; however, the evidence base is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between time trends in PSS and lifestyle factors.Methods The study was based on data collected from a nationally representative sample of 9,196 fifteen-year-old boys and girls in Sweden using the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) symptom checklist. The sample comprised nearly equal proportions of girls (50.5%) and boys. The lifestyle factors examined in this study included PA, regular breakfast intake, consumption of fruits, vegetables, sweets, or soft drinks, smoking, and alcohol drunkenness. We used data from 2002 to 2018 and stratified by family affluence scale (FAS) to demonstrate how the associations varied among the FAS groups. We fitted separate regression models for the high- and low-FAS groups, where interaction terms between the year of survey and each lifestyle factor were used to estimate the level and direction of associations between the factors and trends in PSS.Results There was a generally increasing trend in PSS mean scores from 2.26 in 2002 to 2.49 in 2018 (p <.001). The changes in each survey year compared to the average mean scores during the preceding years were significant in all years except 2010. Regular breakfast intake, daily fruit and vegetable consumption, and higher PA were associated with lower PSS mean scores, while smoking and drunkenness had opposite associations with PSS. The only significant interaction between survey year and the lifestyle factors was observed regarding drunkenness in the high FAS group, suggesting that the association between trends in PSS and the experience of getting drunk at least twice got stronger over time (B = 0.057; CI:0.016, 0.097; p <.01).Conclusions The results indicate increasing trends in PSS among young people in Sweden from 2002 to 2018, with a significant increase observed among adolescents in the high FAS group who reported getting drunk on at least two occasions.
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| 7. |
- Dahlén, Micael, et al.
(författare)
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Changes in Physical Activity Are Associated with Corresponding Changes in Psychological Well-Being : A Pandemic Case Study
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1660-4601 .- 1661-7827. ; 20, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Societal crises and personal challenges are often followed by substantial changes in physicalactivity. Is there a link between such changes and psychological well-being? Seeking to answerthis question, we conducted a correlational study on a representative sample in Sweden during thefirst year of the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 1035). About 49% of the sample had decreased theirphysical activity compared to their self-reported activity level prior to the pandemic, whereas 32%had increased it. The results showed a positive and robust association between changes in dailyactivity level and corresponding changes in psychological well-being. Specifically, individuals whohad reduced their physical activity over the last year reported lower life satisfaction than before, andindividuals who had increased their physical activity reported higher life satisfaction than before.The amount of complete physical inactivity (sitting) showed a similar pattern as the exercise data,meaning that individuals who reported increasing inactivity per day also reported a greater declinein life satisfaction. Additional analyses showed that the association between daily activity level andlife satisfaction was somewhat stronger for men than for women, but there was no difference whencomparing individual versus organized activities. The current study was based on a cross-sectionaldesign, measuring self-reported change over time. Recent work from other research teams have usedlongitudinal data and experience-sampling in different settings, finding similar results. We concludethat there is good reason to recommend physical exercise as a coping strategy in difficult times.
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| 8. |
- Dahlén, Micael, et al.
(författare)
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The comeback effect : How happy are people who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection?
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Wellbeing. - : International Journal of Wellbeing. - 1179-8602. ; 12:2, s. 114-133
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is already a large body of research on the dramatic negative effects of COVID-19 on peoples’ mental and physical health. Millions of people have died, and the pandemic has negatively influenced the lives of billions of people. Luckily however, the vast majority of people infected with the virus, recovers. The happiness and wellbeing of these people have not been extensively studied. In the current paper, we ask the question: Are people who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection happier than those who have not been infected at all? Building on previous research on hedonic adaptation and counterfactual thinking, we hypothesize, and find, that those who have had an infection appear slightly happier than others. The study relies on two surveys conducted in Sweden during the pandemic in 2020 (n=1029) and 2021 (n=1788).
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| 9. |
- Eklöf, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Publiceringsetik utan gränser : En seminarieserie i samverkan
- 2024
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Marie Cederschiöld högskola (MCHS) och Sophiahemmet Högskola (SHH) samarbetar kring en gemensam seminarieserie i publiceringsetik. Seminarierna vänder sig till högskolornas doktorander, forskare och bibliotekarier. Med liten arbetsinsats från en grupp med forskare och bibliotekarier har vi en bra samverkan både mellan våra högskolor och mellan olika professioner på högskolorna.
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| 10. |
- Elvén, Maria, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic : A Swedish Population Study
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 19:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Governments have enforced measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 with varying degrees of success, which could affect people’s physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior. This study aimed to examine changes in PA levels, types of PA, and sedentary behavior in the Swedish population before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Associations between changed PA levels and demographical and behavioral determinants were also investigated. In December 2020, 1035 individuals (18–79 years old) completed a survey about their PA and sedentary behavior before and during the pandemic. Factors influencing their PA were also explored. Fifty-one percent of the sample reported reduced total PA, 18% had no change, and 31% increased their PA. Overall, organized PA decreased the most and sedentary behavior increased. The youngest and oldest age groups reported the greatest reduction in PA, while middle-aged groups reported the most increased PA. Men reported a larger increase in sedentary behavior than women. Mental and physical capability was associated with change in PA. In conclusion, this study indicates that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the Swedish population have decreased PA levels with a concurrent increase in sedentary behavior, which may have negative health consequences. Interventions are recommended to address both PA and sedentary behavior, specifically to strengthen people’s ability to perform PA and focusing on the youngest and oldest age groups.
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