The Happiest Kids on Earth. Gender Equality and Adolescent Life Satisfaction in Europe and North America

Looze, Margaretha de; Huijts, Tim; Stevens, Gonneke W. J. M.; Torsheim, Torbjørn; Vollebergh, Wilma

doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0756-7

Cited by 62 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Data from the HBSC 2010 survey revealed that the mean Cantril Ladder scores for all countries was 7.58 and that 28 of 31 countries had a mean value between 7 and 8 (Looze, Huijts, Stevens, Torsheim, & Vollebergh, 2018). This indicates that to understand variation over time and to study differences in measures related to positive mental health, more ambitious cut-off points may provide further information regarding adolescent life satisfaction using the Cantril Ladder -an assertion supported by other scholars (Proctor, Linley, & Maltby, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…When studying relatively similar countries, the individual-level factors associated with having high life satisfaction may be of less importance in explaining the country-level differences, especially when studying trends over time. A range of contextual factors have been shown to be associated with the prevalence of child and adolescent life satisfaction, among these socioeconomic and gender equality, acculturation, cultural values and factors related to school (Chu et al, 2010;Jose, Ryan, & Pryor, 2012;Lim et al, 2017;Looze et al, 2018;Proctor et al, 2008;Tov & Diener, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1) Most HBSC studies have used a cut-off point of 0-5 versus 6-10 to categorise low vs. high score. However, data from the HBSC 2010 survey revealed that the mean value for life satisfaction for all countries using the Cantril Ladder was 7.58 and that 28 of 31 countries had a mean value between 7 and 8 (Looze et al, 2018). In the present study, we have therefore applied scores of 9-10 as a distinct measure of high life satisfaction versus low and medium scores of 0-8.…”

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Trends in high life satisfaction among adolescentsin five Nordic countries 2002–2014

Due

Eriksson

Torsheim

et al. 2019

Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research

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Life satisfaction is an important indicator when assessing positive mental health aspects in populations, including among adolescents. The aim of this study was to investigate trends over time in prevalence of high life satisfaction among adolescents from five Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We used data from four waves of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study from 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 (n=109,847). HBSC is a school-based study examining social circumstances, health and health behaviour among 11-, 13-and 15-years olds every four years in many European and North American countries. The Cantril Ladder, an 11-step visual analogue scale, was used as the measure of life satisfaction, and was dichotomised into two groups: high life satisfaction (scoring 9 or 10 on the scale) and medium/low life satisfaction (scoring <9). Over the 12-year period studied, between 28.6 and 44.8% of adolescents in the five countries rated their life satisfaction as high. Relatively large changes in prevalence levels occurred at the country level over the period. Denmark and Finland showed a steady, significant decline in the prevalence of high life satisfaction over the years. Iceland showed the highest prevalence in 2010. Norway and Sweden showed similar development until 2010, followed by a clear increase for Norway and a sharp decline in adolescent high life satisfaction for Sweden up until 2014. In all countries, high life satisfaction was most prevalent in 11-year-olds and least prevalent in almost all surveys among 15-year-old girls.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Trends in high life satisfaction among adolescentsin five Nordic countries 2002–2014

Due

Eriksson

Torsheim

et al. 2019

Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research

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“…The national differences among the Nordic countries will be analysed using additional statistic as per previous HBSC studies. One example is the analysis of gender equality, where linear multilevel regression analyses indicated that adolescents in countries with relatively high levels of gender equality report higher life satisfaction than their peers in countries with lower levels of gender equality (de Looze et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards enhancing research on adolescent positivemental health

Eriksson

Arnarsson

Damsgaard

et al. 2019

Nordisk välfärdsforskning | Nordic Welfare Research

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The positive mental health and well-being perspective represents innovative public health research of first-rank priority in Europe. Good mental health is both a state and a resource for everyday life. Hence, the concept often refers to a subjective feeling (hedonic component) as well as positive functioning (eudaimonic component). Different conceptualisations of mental health-related issues are a background to this paper, which gives a brief overview of three research issues in the Nordic countries. First, the development in the occurrences of adolescent mental health-related indicators such as life satisfaction, health, sleep, and school pressure. Second, review of Nordic methodological studies reporting on different mental health-related measures. Third, the selection of measures of positive mental health employed in the 2017-2018 Health Behaviour among School-aged Children (HBSC) data collection in the Nordic countries. Using the Nordic HBSC data for 2002-2014, it was found that symptom and problem-oriented analyses of mental health can improve our understanding of the challenges adolescents face. However, there is also a need to examine positive aspects of mental health in order to enhance our understanding of different mental health-related dimensions. New measures were included in the 2017-18 HBSC data collection in the Nordic countries, enabling researchers to answer different research questions including analysing factors mediating and moderating positive mental health among school-aged children. Extending the perspective from a symptom-and problem-oriented view to a more positive and asset-based perspective adds additional value to studies of mental health.

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“…Gender equality is defined by UN Women as the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys [23]. It is considered an important determinant of population health [24] including different aspects of adolescent mental health [25]. One multi-country study showed higher national gender equality to be associated with higher life-satisfaction among adolescents in Europe and North America.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender inequality and adolescent suicide ideation across Africa, Asia, the South Pacific and Latin America – a cross-sectional study based on the Global School Health Survey (GSHS)

Assarsson

Petersen

Högberg

et al. 2018

Global Health Action

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Background: Suicide ideation is a health issue affecting adolescents worldwide. There are significant variations in suicide ideation between countries and genders, which have not been fully explained. Research is especially lacking in countries outside Europe and North America. Gender equality has been shown to matter in other aspects of adolescent mental health, such as life satisfaction, but has not been researched in relation to suicide ideation at national level. Objective: To investigate how national gender inequality is related to self-reported suicide ideation among adolescents, and whether this association differs between boys and girls. Methods: This is a cross-national, cross-sectional study using individual survey data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey, a survey in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the South Pacific, developed and supported by among others the WHO and the CDC; connecting this to national data: the gender inequality index from the UNDP; controlling for GDP per capita and secondary school enrolment. The data was analysed using a multilevel logistic regression method and included 149,306 students from 37 countries. Results: Higher national gender inequality, as measured by the gender inequality index, was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of suicide ideation in both girls and boys (odds ratio: 1.38 p-value: 0.015), but for girls and both sexes this was only after adjusting for selection bias due to secondary school enrolment (as well as GDP/capita). Interaction models showed that this association was stronger in boys than in girls. Conclusions: National gender inequality seems to be associated with higher levels of suicide ideation among adolescents in mainly low-and middle-income countries, especially among boys.

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The Happiest Kids on Earth. Gender Equality and Adolescent Life Satisfaction in Europe and North America

Cited by 62 publications

References 52 publications

Trends in high life satisfaction among adolescentsin five Nordic countries 2002–2014

Trends in high life satisfaction among adolescentsin five Nordic countries 2002–2014

Towards enhancing research on adolescent positivemental health

Gender inequality and adolescent suicide ideation across Africa, Asia, the South Pacific and Latin America – a cross-sectional study based on the Global School Health Survey (GSHS)

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