Sekaran Varalakshmi Chandra, Prabhu Vidya, Ashok Lena, D'Souza Brayal, Shetty Surekha Devadasa, Nair Ravichandran
Department of Health Policy, Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal 576104, India.
Department of Social and Health Innovation, Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal 576104, India.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2024 Mar 24;21(4):393. doi: 10.3390/ijerph21040393.
Mental illnesses are one of the major contributors to the overall burden of disease among the young. We investigated the predictors of emotional and behavioral problems among in-school adolescents in the Indian context.
Using stratified sampling, 1441 adolescents were recruited to participate in the study in Udupi taluk. The study instruments included a socio-demographic pro forma and the adolescent self-reporting version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to assess the emotional and behavioral problems among them. We explored the predictors of total difficulties, as well as externalizing and internalizing problems and gender differences. SPSS version 25 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics, a Chi-square test for associations, an independent -test to explore the gender differences, correlation analysis, and backward stepwise logistic regression for the predictors were used.
The mean age of the participants was 15.31 ± 0.76. An almost equal percentage of male (49.6%) and female (50.4%) participants provided data. Abnormal scores were highest under conduct problems (8.5%), and the total difficulties reached 5.1%. The male participants had higher levels of conduct, hyperactivity, peer relationship, and externalizing problems the while the female participants experienced higher levels of emotional and internalizing problems. It was observed that there was a significant positive relationship between age and emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, and total SDQ score. An older age predicted an abnormal total difficulties score and externalizing and internalizing behaviors, while the type of school predicted the total difficulties and internalizing behaviors.
The age of the adolescent, their gender, and the type of school they attended emerged as predictors of the emotional and behavioral problems among them.
精神疾病是导致年轻人整体疾病负担的主要因素之一。我们在印度背景下调查了在校青少年情绪和行为问题的预测因素。
采用分层抽样，在乌杜皮县招募了1441名青少年参与研究。研究工具包括一份社会人口学表格和青少年版的长处与困难问卷（SDQ），以评估他们的情绪和行为问题。我们探讨了总困难、外化和内化问题的预测因素以及性别差异。使用SPSS 25版软件进行数据分析。采用描述性统计、卡方检验进行相关性分析、独立样本t检验探索性别差异、相关分析以及对预测因素进行向后逐步逻辑回归分析。
参与者的平均年龄为15.31±0.76岁。提供数据的男性（49.6%）和女性（50.4%）参与者比例几乎相等。品行问题方面的异常得分最高（8.5%），总困难得分达到5.1%。男性参与者在品行、多动、同伴关系和外化问题方面的水平较高，而女性参与者在情绪和内化问题方面的水平较高。研究发现，年龄与情绪问题、品行问题、多动、同伴问题以及SDQ总分之间存在显著的正相关关系。年龄较大预示着总困难得分异常以及外化和内化行为，而学校类型则预示着总困难和内化行为。
青少年的年龄、性别以及他们就读的学校类型成为他们情绪和行为问题的预测因素。
