HBSC; adolescence; cross-national; gender differences; mental health; Humans; Adolescent; Male; Female; Cross-Sectional Studies; Sex Factors; Global Health; Medically Unexplained Symptoms; Somatoform Disorders/epidemiology; Adolescent Health/trends; Adolescent Health; Somatoform Disorders; Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Abstract :
[en] [en] OBJECTIVES: This study examined (non-)monotonic time trends in psychological and somatic complaints among adolescents, along with gender differences.
METHODS: Repeated cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) data from 1994 to 2022 covering 15-year-old adolescents from 41 countries (N = 470,797) were analysed. Three polynomial logistic regression models (linear, quadratic, cubic) were tested for best fit, including separate analyses by gender and health complaints dimension.
RESULTS: Time trend patterns varied by gender and health complaints dimension. Increases were found in 82.3% of cases (linear 25%, quadratic U-shaped 28.7%, cubic 28.7%), while 14% showed no clear trend, and 3.7% decreased. Boys typically showed linear increases or no clear trend over time, whereas girls generally showed cubic or U-shaped trends. Psychological complaints often displayed U-shaped or cubic patterns, whereas somatic complaints mostly showed linear increases.
CONCLUSION: Psychological and somatic complaints demonstrated diverse time trend patterns across countries, with non-monotonic patterns (U-shaped and cubic) frequently observed alongside linear increases. These findings highlight the complexity of changes within countries over three decades, suggesting that linear modelling may not effectively capture this heterogeneity.
Disciplines :
Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
Schrijvers, Karen; Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Cosma, Alina; School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland ; Olomouc University Social Health Institute, Palacky University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czechia
Potrebny, Thomas; Department of Health and Functioning, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
Thorsteinsson, Einar; School of Psychology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
CATUNDA, Carolina ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC) > Centre for Childhood and Youth Research
Reiss, Franziska; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
Hulbert, Sabina; Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS), University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
Kostičová, Michaela; Institute of Social Medicine and Medical Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
Melkumova, Marina; Arabkir Medical Centre, Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, Yerevan, Armenia
Bersia, Michela; Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, University of Torino, Torino, Italy
Klanšček, Helena Jeriček; National Institute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Gaspar, Tania; School of Psychology and Life Sciences, SPIC/Hei-Lab/Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal
Dierckens, Maxim; Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the government of Flanders (Belgium) and published with the support of the University Foundation of Belgium. The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey is funded by public sources in each member country. AC was supported by the project \u201CResearch of Excellence on Digital Technologies and Wellbeing CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004583\u201D which is co-financed by the European Union.
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