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- Bean, Christopher G., 1990-, et al.
(author)
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Group activity participation at age 21 and depressive symptoms during boom and recession in Sweden : a 20-year follow-up
- 2019
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In: European Journal of Public Health. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 29:3, s. 475-481
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Organized group activities (e.g. sports or arts clubs) have long been noted as important developmental settings for youth, yet previous studies on the relationships between participation and mental health outcomes have focused on short-term effects among school-aged adolescents. The subsequent period of life, emerging adulthood, has been largely overlooked despite being another important life stage where individuals face new existential challenges and may benefit from group activity participation. The potential for macroeconomic conditions to modify these relationships has also not been considered. Methods: Participants (n = 1654) comprise two cohorts, born in either 1965 (n = 968) or 1973 (n = 686), from the same middle-sized industrial town in Northern Sweden. Both cohorts completed detailed questionnaires at age 21 (macroeconomic boom for Cohort 65, recession for Cohort 73) and approximately 20 years follow-up (age 43 for Cohort 65, age 39 for Cohort 73). General linear models were used to assess concurrent and prospective associations between regular group activity participation and depressive symptoms, as well as the potential interaction with boom/recession. Results: After controlling for sociodemographic factors, regular group activity participation at age 21 was associated with lower depressive symptoms, both concurrently and at follow-up. Those exposed to recession at age 21 reported higher depressive symptoms at the time but there was no interaction between cohort (boom/recession) and group activity participation. Conclusions: Regular group activity participation during emerging adulthood is associated with lower depressive symptoms uniformly in times of boom and recession. Beneficial effects of such participation may contribute to better mental health over 20 years.
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| 2. |
- Bean, Christopher, 1990-, et al.
(author)
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Poor peer relations in adolescence, social support in early adulthood, and depressive symptoms in later adulthood : evaluating mediation and interaction using four-way decomposition analysis
- 2019
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In: Annals of Epidemiology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1047-2797 .- 1873-2585. ; 29, s. 52-59
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Supportive social relations are associated with good mental health, yet few studies have considered the prospective importance of adolescent peer relations for adult mental health and the potential mechanisms involved.Methods: Participants (n=941) were sourced from the Northern Swedish Cohort, a prospective study comprising school students aged 16 in 1981. Integrating life course epidemiology with four-way decomposition analysis, this paper considers the controlled direct effect of poor peer relations at age 16 on depressive symptoms at age 43, the pure indirect effect mediated by the availability of social support at age 30, and potential interactions between the exposure and the mediator.Results: After controlling for gender, baseline depressive symptoms and parental socioeconomic position, poor peer relations at age 16 were associated with depressive symptoms at age 43, largely irrespective of social support at age 30. Nonetheless, poor peer relations in adolescence were associated with poorer social support at age 30, and mediation accounted for a modest proportion (pure indirect effect 10%) of the association between poor peer relations and depressive symptoms at age 43.Conclusions: Policies to foster constructive peer relations for adolescents at school are encouraged; such policies may promote both the availability of social support and better mental health across the life course.
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| 3. |
- Bean, Christopher, 1990-, et al.
(author)
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Short sleep, psychosocial work stressors, and measures of obesity: results from an Australian cohort study
- 2019
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Introduction: Short sleep and workplace stress are both established risk factors for overweight and obesity, yet few studies have considered how these two factors may intersect. The aim of this study was to establish the associations between these two exposures and their relative associations with body mass index (kg/m2 ) and waist circumference (cm).Methods: A cross-sectional design sampled current employees (N=423) from an Australian cohort using a computer-assisted telephone interview and clinic-measured height, weight, and waist circumference. Short sleep (≤6h/ night) was reported by 25.8% of the participants. Psychosocial work stressors were defined using the Job Demand-ControlSupport (JDCS) model and calculated at the subscale level (psychological demands; skill discretion; decision authority; coworker support; supervisor support). General linear models were used to assess associations between short sleep, the JDCS subscales (split at median), and BMI and waist circumference.Results: Separate analyses identified short sleep and a lack of skill discretion at work as predictors of both BMI and waist circumference. Furthermore, when both predictors were entered in the same model, each was associated with elevated BMI (b=1.79, p=.003; b=1.08, p=.045) and waist circumference (b=4.20, p=.005; b=2.97, p=.028). Short sleep was also associated with high perceived psychological demands at work (b=1.81, p=.003). All models were adjusted for gender, age, work hours, blue vs. white collar job, and household income.Discussion: These findings indicate the importance of considering the interplay between short sleep and psychosocial work stressors, and their respective associations with measures of overweight Sleep Sci. 2019;12(Supl.3):1-75 26 and obesity. Further research using longitudinal data is needed to model potential mechanisms (e.g., behavioral and physiological). A novel feature was the subscale consideration of the prominent JDCS model of work stress. Advocacy for both improved habitual sleep (e.g., ≥7h/night) and job redesign to increase skill discretion at work may promote lower levels of overweight and obesity for employees.
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| 5. |
- Berg, Noora, et al.
(author)
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A 26-year follow-up study of heavy drinking trajectories from adolescence to mid-adulthood and adult disadvantage
- 2013
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In: Alcohol and Alcoholism. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0735-0414 .- 1464-3502. ; 48:4, s. 452-7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- AIMS: The aim of the study was to identify heavy drinking trajectories from age 16 to 42 years and to examine their associations with health, social, employment and economic disadvantage in mid-adulthood.METHODS: Finnish cohort study's participants who were 16 years old in 1983 were followed up at age 22, 32 and 42 (n = 1334). Heavy drinking was assessed at every study phase and based on these measurements trajectories of heavy drinking were identified. The trajectory groups were then examined as predictors of disadvantage at age 42.RESULTS: Five distinct heavy drinking trajectories were identified: moderate (35%), steady low (22%), decreasing (9%), increasing (11%) and steady high (23%). Frequencies of the trajectory groups differed by gender. Using the moderate trajectory as a reference category, women in the steady high trajectory had an increased risk of experiencing almost all disadvantages at age 42. In men, increasing and steady high groups had an increased risk for experiencing health and economic disadvantage.CONCLUSION: Steady high female drinkers and steady high and increasing male drinkers had the highest risk for disadvantage in mid-adulthood. By identifying heavy drinking trajectories from adolescence to mid-adulthood we can better predict long-term consequences of heavy alcohol use and plan prevention and intervention programmes.
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| 9. |
- Berg, Noora
(author)
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Accumulation of disadvantage from adolescence to midlife : A 26-year follow-up study of 16-year old adolescents
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- There is a wide range of evidence that childhood conditions are associated with adult wellbeing and disadvantage. However, in many cases, there is still a lack of knowledge on how and why these associations are formed. The life-course perspective examines these longitudinal mechanisms linking wellbeing and disadvantage in different life phases and tries to understand the continuities and discontinuities of individual lives. Information on these longitudinal associations is needed in order to be able to affect adverse life paths. For several decades, it has been suggested that disadvantage is a multidimensional concept that encompasses several dimensions of life such as health, social relations, socioeconomic factors and risky behaviour. Different forms of disadvantage are known to correlate, but less is known about how these disadvantages are interlocked in time. Accumulation of disadvantage refers to these processes, where previous disadvantages affect subsequent disadvantage. Mortality can be seen as an extreme end point of accumulation of disadvantage. The multidimensional approach to disadvantage is still underutilized in research in many ways. Often the focus has been in socioeconomic and health related forms of disadvantage or in risky behaviour, but rarely studies have taken several different dimensions of life into account simultaneously. The general aim of this study was to examine accumulation of disadvantage from adolescence to midlife in a life-course perspective. This study approaches the concept of disadvantage from a multidimensional perspective covering life dimensions of health, social relations, socioeconomic factors and risky behaviour. This study is a part of wider follow-up study Stress, Development and Mental Health –Study (TAM-project), which is carried out at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). The study has prospectively followed up a Finnish urban age cohort at the ages of 16, 22, 32 and 42. The original study population included all Finnish speaking ninth-grade pupils attending secondary schools in the spring of 1983 in Tampere, Finland. In the first phase of the study, 2194 pupils (96.7%) aged 16 years completed a self-administered questionnaire during school hours. In three later phases the study cohort was followed up using postal questionnaires when the subjects were 22 (n=1656, 75.5%), 32 (n=1471, 67.0%) and 42 (n=1334, 60.7%) years old. This study examined multidimensional disadvantage using life-course models of clustered disadvantage, chain of risk and accumulation and found support for all of them. According to the results of this study, several individual and clustered forms of disadvantage in adolescence were associated with mortality before midlife. Lack of educational plans or uncertainty of them at age 16 was the strongest single predictor of mortality. Multiple simultaneous forms of disadvantage related to social relations, risky behaviour and own and parental socioeconomic factors were associated with mortality. This was the case also when disadvantage extended to many dimensions of disadvantage simultaneously. We found that poor family relationships in adolescence played a role in chains of disadvantages lasting all the way to midlife. The pathways from poor family relationships to economic adversity in midlife were shaped by low education and poor mental health in 5 early adulthood in women. In men this association was found to be shaped by early adult education, but it was explained by poor school performance already at age 16, indicating that those men with poor family relationships are already in adolescence on a disadvantage trajectory that will continue into adulthood regardless of whether they have problems in family relationships. The pathways to poor mental health in midlife were shaped mainly by mental health in early adulthood and in women also by heavy drinking. In the final life-course model we focused on accumulation of heavy drinking and examined it by using trajectory models. The results indicate that women of the steady high alcohol trajectory from adolescence to midlife had an increased risk of experiencing almost all measured disadvantages at age 42 (health, social relations, socioeconomic factors). In men, those who increased their drinking or drank steadily heavily had an increased risk for experiencing health and economic disadvantage in midlife. Frequent heavy drinking in adolescence did not leave 'a scar' that would associate with midlife disadvantage, if the drinking was reduced after adolescence. Childhood and adolescent disadvantages have long-term effects on wellbeing/disadvantage all the way to midlife, but they do not inexorably determine people's lives, also conditions in other life phases shape the life course. This provides many possibilities for preventive actions that should be targeted, not only to early years of life, but to later life phases as well. Our results highlight the importance of targeting interventions to improving the family relationships, supporting the educational career of the disadvantaged and preventing detrimental alcohol use
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