Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern Norway, Nydalen, P.B. 4623, 0405, Oslo, Norway.
Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Forskningsveien 3A, 0373, Oslo, Norway.
BMC Psychol. 2020 Nov 7;8(1):117. doi: 10.1186/s40359-020-00483-5.
Adolescents' self-defined concerns about their mental health are understudied. Yet gaining insight into the individual concerns of this group could be helpful in providing better services to the adolescent population. In this study, an idiographic procedure called Assert was used to increase our knowledge of which concerns are reported by adolescents as the most salient, in a primary mental health care situation.
231 unique concerns were reported by 70 adolescents in a primary mental health context in Norway. These concerns were analysed qualitatively by a group of experts, to define categories. The distribution of these categories, and differences in gender and age, were analysed quantitatively. The alleviation experienced on the subjective concerns over the course of counselling was measured. Two linear multilevel models were analysed, to examine whether alleviation on self-defined concerns, as measured with Assert, differed-based on the main category of the concern or the number of times Assert was used.
Three main categories of concerns emerged, related to (1) Self, (2) Relationships and (3) Life domains; as well as nine sub-categories: (1a) Autonomy, (1b) Mental health, (1c) Somatic health, (2a) Improving of relationships, (2b) Feeling safe from people around them, (2c) Taking responsibility for others, (3a) School, (3b) Work and (3c) Spare time. Girls reported fewer Life domain concerns than boys. Younger adolescents (12-16) more frequently reported no Self concerns, and older adolescents (17-23) more frequently reported no Relationship concerns. The adolescents felt less bothered by their subjective concerns after counselling, and there were some differences in alleviation depending on the category of concern.
The adolescents defined their own concerns at the start of counselling and were less troubled by these concerns after counselling. The content of the concerns might suggest that these adolescents experienced a need to improve across several arenas: personal, relational and academic. Research to extend the current study, to understand individual adolescent concerns, should include contextual and social factors and personal characteristics-and explore how counselling interventions can best help alleviate these personal concerns.
青少年自我定义的心理健康问题尚未得到充分研究。然而，深入了解这一群体的个体关注点，有助于为青少年群体提供更好的服务。在这项研究中，采用了一种名为“Assert”的个体化程序，以增加我们对挪威初级心理健康护理环境中青少年最关注的问题的了解。
在挪威的初级心理健康护理环境中，70 名青少年报告了 231 个独特的问题。这些问题由一组专家进行了定性分析，以确定类别。分析了这些类别的分布情况以及性别和年龄差异，并对咨询过程中主观关注点的缓解程度进行了测量。使用两个线性多层模型，分析了是否基于关注的主要类别或使用 Assert 的次数，自我定义关注的缓解程度存在差异。
出现了三个主要的关注类别，分别与（1）自我、（2）关系和（3）生活领域相关；以及九个子类别：（1a）自主性、（1b）心理健康、（1c）身体健康、（2a）改善人际关系、（2b）感到周围人的安全、（2c）对他人负责、（3a）学校、（3b）工作和（3c）业余时间。女孩报告的生活领域问题比男孩少。年龄较小的青少年（12-16 岁）更频繁地报告没有自我关注问题，年龄较大的青少年（17-23 岁）更频繁地报告没有关系关注问题。青少年在咨询后对主观关注的困扰程度减轻，并且根据关注的类别，缓解程度存在一些差异。
青少年在咨询开始时定义了自己的关注点，在咨询后对这些关注点的困扰程度降低。关注的内容表明，这些青少年经历了在个人、关系和学术等多个领域提高的需求。为了进一步研究青少年的个体关注点，应该包括情境和社会因素以及个人特点，并探讨咨询干预措施如何最好地帮助缓解这些个人关注点。
