Psycho-social wellbeing among in-school adolescents of Sri Lanka; prevalence of selected attributes and associated factors

Abstract

Background Adolescence period is associated with psycho-social issues which affect their day to day activities and go beyond their adolescent age group. It has been recorded that prevalence of psycho-social issues are rising globally. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and factors associated with the selected attributes of psycho-social well-being among 13 to 17-year in-school adolescents of Sri Lanka using the Global School Health Survey (GSHS), conducted in Sri Lanka. Methods GSHS, was a cross-sectional study conducted among 3,650 adolescents of aged 13–17, attending government schools. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Psychosocial well-being included questions of four selected outcomes (i.e. bullying, felling alone, sleep disturbances due to a worry, suicidal ideation and practices) and 10 potential associated factors of these. The sample was selected through a two-staged cluster sampling technique. In determining the independent associated factors, multivariable analysis was done with multiple logistic regression. Results Most of the students who responded belonged to the 13–15 age group (66.5%) and with 51.1% were females. More than one third of the participants (37.7%, 95%CI 36.1–39.5) had experienced bullying 30 days prior to the study. ‘Feeling loneliness’ and ‘experiencing anxiety’ had been experienced by 9.0% (95%CI 8.0–10.0) and 4.7% (95%CI 3.9–5.4), respectively. The prevalence of planning an attempt of suicide was 6.3%, while 6.6% had at least once attempted suicide. Multivariable analysis revealed that lacked parental support and being engaged in a fight were independently associated with being bullied, feeling lonely and considering attempting suicide. Mutual association of the four outcomes with each other indicate that being bullied was significantly associated with experiencing loneliness and feeling anxiety. In addition, experiencing loneliness was independently associated “considering an attempt of suicide” (OR = 2.9, 95%CI = 2.0 to 4.3). Feeling anxiety was also associated with considering attempting suicide (OR = 3.4, 95%CI = 2.1 to 5.4). Conclusion This study demonstrated that the prevalence of psycho-social wellbeing is among school going adolescents is a major public health problem in Sri Lanka. School-based interventions to address these issues should be designed with the goal of increasing adolescents’ awareness of possible preventive measures of unintentional injuries.