Positive Youth Development in Croatia: School and Family Factors Associated With Mental Health of Croatian Adolescents

Abstract

IntroductionA framework for understanding the interrelationship of individual and environmental factors that influence adolescent health and well-being, as well as opportunities for policy-level interventions, is known as Positive Youth Development (PYD). The current study represents one of the largest studies of Croatian adolescents to date, and aimed to examine associations between school and family factors linked to PYD, and mental health outcomes experienced by Croatian youth.MethodsA multi-site survey study was conducted among adolescents (N = 9,655) residing in the five most populous cities in Croatia, with the aim of examining cross-sectional associations of family and school factors with adolescent mental health. The mean age of participants was 16.3 years (SD = 1.2), and 52.5% of participants were female. School and family factors included school attachment, school commitment, family communication, and family satisfaction. Depression, anxiety, and stress were assessed as outcomes. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine relations of interest among female and male adolescents.ResultsAmong school factors, increased school attachment was found to be significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress for female adolescents, and with decreased depression and stress for male adolescents. Increased school commitment was significantly associated with decreased depression and anxiety for female adolescents; conversely, an increase in school commitment was associated with an increase in anxiety and stress for male adolescents. Increases in family communication were significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress only for male adolescents, while increased family satisfaction was significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress for female adolescents and with decreased depression and stress for male adolescents.ConclusionFindings suggest that interventions for mental health promotion and prevention of internalizing problems should address both school and family contexts, and may be more effective when accounting for differing developmental experiences of female and male adolescents.

Negative life events and internalizing problems among Romanian youth

“…In our case, high levels of family support had a protective role against reported depression and anxiety. This is in line with previous research showing that high level of perceived parental support is likely to decrease the risk of developing emotional problems among adolescents (Novak et al, 2021; Murberg & Bru, 2004; Leontopoulou, 2012; Steinberg, 2001; Stojiljković & Stanković, 2018; Ren et al, 2019). Adolescents with poor parental bonding relationship are likely to be more vulnerable in displaying depressive symptoms when facing adverse life events compared with adolescents with more optimal bonding relationships (Kraaij et al, 2003).…”

“…Adolescents with poor parental bonding relationship are likely to be more vulnerable in displaying depressive symptoms when facing adverse life events compared with adolescents with more optimal bonding relationships (Kraaij et al, 2003). Starting from this statement, it is advisable that prevention programs need to focus more on increasing the quality of relationships among the family members (Kassis et al, 2017; Novak et al, 2021; Oliva et al, 2014; Stojiljković & Stanković, 2018). As for peer support, we noticed no significant relationship.…”

Family Characteristics as Determinants of Mental Health in Adolescents

“…The following instruments were used in the research: General Data Questionnaire for students, Family Satisfaction Scale, Family Communication Scale, Positive Mental Health Scale, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and Stressful events in the family checklist. The measures were either translated from English and validated in previous researches on Croatian samples (Maurović et al 2020;Novak et al 2021) or constructed in Croatian.…”

Assessing the interaction effects of brain structure longitudinal changes and life environmental factors on depression and anxiety

“…In addition, numerous life environmental factors were reported to be associated with depression and anxiety. For example, smoking (Byeon, 2015 ), alcohol drinking (Bahorik et al, 2016 ), and insomnia (Li et al, 2016 ) may induce the development of depression and anxiety, while high family satisfaction (Novak et al, 2020 ), physical activity (Philippot et al, 2022 ), and vitamin D (VD; Casseb et al, 2019 ) could play beneficial roles in both disorders. Concretely, individuals with smoking are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety than those with nonsmoking or quit smoking (Baiardini et al, 2014 ; Byeon, 2015 ).…”