Perceived Stress and Psychiatric Symptoms in Swedish Upper Secondary School Students

Thorsén, Frida; Antonson, Carl; Sundquist, Jan; Sundquist, Kristina

doi:10.5539/jedp.v6n2p183

Cited by 11 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The female adolescents in both countries in our study reported lower scores on the sub-scale 'Psychological well-being' than the male adolescents. A lower psychological well-being in females than males is well-known from earlier findings in Sweden (Bremberg, 2006;Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2010;Hagquist & Forsberg, 2007;Petersen, 2007;Thorsén, Antonson, Sundquist, & Sundquist, 2016), although, to our best knowledge, it has never previously been shown in the Soviet-bloc. The lower self-esteem in females in the sub-scale 'psychological well-being' in both Sweden and Bulgaria could possibly have a biological explanation, as we see no difference between the two countries.…”

Section: Psychological Well-beingsupporting

confidence: 67%

Democracy, Dictatorship, and Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Across the Iron Curtain

Antonson¹,

Thorsén²,

Berg³

et al. 2019

JEDP

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Democracy and dictatorship are opposite forms of governance and may influence children differently, partly through the school curriculum.Methods: Data were collected in the communistic dictatorship of Bulgaria before the fall of the Berlin wall and in the West-European democracy of Sweden. The aims were to compare self-esteem between Swedish and Bulgarian adolescents, examine sex differences and investigate potential interactions between country and sex. We used the well-validated self-reporting questionnaire 'I Think I Am' scale (ITIA) measuring self-esteem.

show abstract

Section: Psychological Well-beingsupporting

confidence: 67%

Democracy, Dictatorship, and Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Across the Iron Curtain

Antonson¹,

Thorsén²,

Berg³

et al. 2019

JEDP

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The girls in both countries had lower results in the sub-scale 'Psychological well-being' than the boys at both waves. Thus the pattern with girls reporting lower levels of psychological wellbeing that we are used to seeing in western democracies over decades [9,11,26] was also found in Bulgaria at both times, with different governance.…”

Section: Main Findingssupporting

confidence: 52%

“…The deterioration of 'Psychological well-being' in Sweden follows other studies in Western democracies over in the whole post-war period [26,[41][42][43]. Many hypotheses concerning the genesis of this have been formed.…”

Section: The Deterioration Of Psychological Well-being In Swedenmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…The status anxiety could increase with a comparison not just on the local level but also nationally and globally through social media. An increased distance between expectations and possibilities in life has also been proposed to increase deteriorating psychological well-being although living conditions have improved [26]. This could also become exaggerated by the global comparisons in social media, which could lead to even higher and more improbable expectations.…”

Section: The Deterioration Of Psychological Well-being In Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Self-Esteem in Adolescents: A Two-Wave Time-Lag Study across the Iron Curtain

Antonson¹,

Thorsén²,

Berg³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The aim was to conduct a time-lag study on how democracy and dictatorship may influence self-esteem in adolescents. Methods: Adolescents (aged 15-16) from Sweden and Bulgaria were compared using the 'I Think I Am' questionnaire measuring self-esteem 1989-1991 (T1) when Bulgaria was a communistic dictatorship and Sweden a parliamentary democracy and 2015-16 (T2) when both countries were democracies. Results: The lower global self-esteem in Bulgaria compared to Sweden at T1 equalised at T2, which mainly was related to the sub-scales ' Relations with others' and ' Psychological well-being '. Both global self-esteem and ' Relations with others ' had a significant interaction between time and country, indicating that the country differences in self-esteem were modified by time, i.e. our proxy for governance. The differences that existed between the sexes in Sweden at T1 equalised at T2. The girls in both countries had lower results in the sub-scale ' Psychological well-being ' than the boys at both time-points. Conclusion: The prior differences in selfesteem between a democracy and a communistic dictatorship equalised over a generation of democracy. We suggest that the amelioration self-esteem in the former dictatorship is due to decrease of social stressors. This lower self-esteem related to others could be seen as 'Dictatorship damage'. Background Different forms of governance, i.e. dictatorship or democracy, form different compatriots [1-4] and how dictatorships impact the well-being among its citizens has been discussed since the time of the ancient Greeks [5]. Despite this, few studies have been conducted on the psychological impact of governance. This scarcity of studies is at least partially related to the difficulties of getting permission to examine an autocratic state as dictators tend to fear criticism and opposition [4]. A wave of democratic changes swept over Europe in the early 1990s after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. These changes cleared a path for the formation or restoration, in some cases, of liberal democratic institutions in Europe, as well as elsewhere in the world [6].Our previous study [7] compared levels of self-esteem in adolescents in Bulgaria and Sweden, two countries on either side of the Berlin Wall before it fell in 1989; the study was cross-sectional in design. In our previous study, we found that the adolescents in Bulgaria had a lower global selfesteem related to relations to others than their Swedish counterparts, which was suggested as being related to the higher presence of dictatorship-related macro-environmental stressors in the communistic dictatorship Bulgaria and to a more equal distribution between the sexes in the Bulgarians [7].Self-esteem is often defined as a personality characteristic that mirrors the level of global regard that one has for oneself as a person [8,9]. It is widely recognised that self-esteem is strongly and closely related to psychopathology in adolescents where low levels of self-estee...

show abstract

“…Good sleep is important for mental as well as somatic health in adolescents (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). In Sweden, studies have shown that people aged 16 to 24 years, especially females, have over time exhibited an increase in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization (7,8). Psychiatric disorders have, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), now become the second most common non-communicable health concern worldwide (cardiovascular disease being the leading concern) (9, 10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep in relation to psychiatric symptoms and perceived stress in Swedish adolescents aged 15 to 19 years

Thorsén

Antonson

Sundquist

et al. 2020

Scandinavian Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Sleep affects psychiatric health and perceived stress during adolescence. Objective: The first aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of poor sleep in a sample of Swedish adolescents aged 15 to 19 years. The second aim was to investigate correlations between: a) sleep and psychiatric symptoms and; b) sleep and perceived stress. The third aim was to examine possible sex differences in sleep. Method: In 2011, a total of 185 Swedish adolescents (aged 15 to 19 years) from two upper secondary schools participated in this cross-sectional study. We used three different psychometric scales: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Symptoms Checklist (SCL-90), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to measure sleep, general psychiatric health and perceived stress. Results: In total, 76% of the female students and 71% of the male students had poor overall sleep quality. A large majority, 93%, reported daytime dysfunction and 60% reported problems staying awake during daily activities. The correlation between sleep and general psychiatric health was 0.44 and the correlation between sleep quality and perceived stress was 0.48. Female students reported significantly more sleep disturbances than male students do. Conclusions: Three out of four of the upper secondary school students presented with poor overall sleep that associated with psychiatric symptoms and perceived stress. These findings add to results from earlier studies and imply that interventions to improve sleep in adolescents, individually as well as on a societal level, should be considered as one way of trying to impact the observed rising numbers of psychiatric complaints. Such interventions may improve mental and somatic health in adolescents and prevent the development of psychiatric and stress-related symptoms. Further studies of possible methods, and their implementation, for improving sleep in adolescents should be of high priority.

show abstract

Perceived Stress and Psychiatric Symptoms in Swedish Upper Secondary School Students

Abstract: Background: Previous studies in adolescents have rarely used validated questionnaires to assess stress and psychiatric symptoms.

Cited by 11 publications

References 49 publications

Democracy, Dictatorship, and Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Across the Iron Curtain

Democracy, Dictatorship, and Adolescent Self-Esteem: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Across the Iron Curtain

Self-Esteem in Adolescents: A Two-Wave Time-Lag Study across the Iron Curtain

Sleep in relation to psychiatric symptoms and perceived stress in Swedish adolescents aged 15 to 19 years

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About