Department of Health Sciences, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden.
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetouan, Morocco.
Front Public Health. 2021 Jul 19;9:669958. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.669958. eCollection 2021.
Adolescence is a period in life characterized by major neurobiological, physiological, and psychological changes. Those changes may give rise to worsened mental health and an increased prevalence of somatic complaints combined with a negative psychosocial environment. Rapid changes in society, which may also affect young people in several ways, call for a renewed screening of today's adolescents' mental and somatic well-being. The present study's primary aim was to measure the level of self-rated psychological distress and the prevalence of somatic complaints in a sample of Swedish high school students. As a secondary aim, it identifies gender-specific patterns and examines mental and somatic health in relation to negative psychosocial factors (such as parental alcohol use problems or the experience of physical or psychological abuse). Two hundred and eighty-seven Swedish high school students completed a survey including the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and a questionnaire about the presence of defined somatic complaints. In order to examine the relationship between negative psychosocial factors and mental and somatic health, three groups were formed: those reporting (i) parental substance use problems, (ii) previous experience of abuse, (iii) none of these problems. The majority of the Swedish high-school students (>80%) reported no or only a few problems with psychological distress and no or only one somatic complaint. Female students disclosed a significantly higher psychological distress level captured by each BSI domain. The number of somatic complaints was similarly distributed between the genders. The students rarely reported parental substance use problems, but almost 40% of the male and 50% of the female students indicated the experience of physical and/or psychological abuse. Such negative psychosocial circumstances were related to an increased level of anxiety in the male and an increased general level of psychological distress in female students. The study confirmed female students' higher psychological distress level. Gender differences in the type of somatic complaints, but not in the number were detected. The experience of physical and/or psychological abuse was found to significantly worsen psychological distress in students of both genders.
青春期是人生中一个重要的神经生物学、生理学和心理学变化的时期。这些变化可能导致心理健康状况恶化，以及更多的躯体主诉，并伴有负面的社会心理环境。社会的快速变化也可能以多种方式影响年轻人，这就需要重新审视当今青少年的心理和身体健康状况。本研究的主要目的是测量瑞典高中生样本中自我报告的心理困扰水平和躯体主诉的发生率。作为次要目标，它确定了性别特异性模式，并研究了心理健康和躯体健康与负面社会心理因素（如父母的酒精使用问题或经历身体或心理虐待）之间的关系。287 名瑞典高中生完成了一项调查，包括简明症状量表（BSI）和一份关于特定躯体主诉存在的问卷。为了研究负面社会心理因素与心理健康和躯体健康的关系，形成了三个组：报告（i）父母物质使用问题、（ii）以前经历过虐待、（iii）没有这些问题的学生。大多数瑞典高中生（>80%）报告没有或只有很少的心理困扰问题，也没有或只有一个躯体主诉。女学生报告的每个 BSI 领域的心理困扰水平明显更高。躯体主诉的数量在性别之间分布相似。学生很少报告父母物质使用问题，但近 40%的男生和 50%的女生表示经历过身体和/或心理虐待。这种负面的社会心理环境与男生的焦虑水平增加和女生的一般心理困扰水平增加有关。该研究证实了女学生的心理困扰水平更高。在躯体主诉的类型上存在性别差异，但数量上没有差异。身体和/或心理虐待的经历被发现显著加重了两性学生的心理困扰。
