Psychosocial aspects of health in adolescence: the influence of gender, and general self-concept.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to describe age and gender differences in psychosocial aspects of health in adolescents. A further aim was to explore if self-rated behavior problems varied with the adolescents' general self-concept and sense of coherence.


METHODS
Questionnaires on self-rated psychosocial aspects of health were answered by 282 (n = 282/390) randomly selected adolescents, aged 13-22 years (M 17.9/18.0). The instruments used were "I think I am (ITIA)," "Youth Self Report (YSR)," "Sense of coherence (SOC)," and "Family APGAR." Differences between males and females (cross-individual grouping) were analyzed using nonparametric tests. A cluster analysis was performed using a three-cluster solution to identify and describe profiles (person-centered grouping).


RESULTS
Compared with males, adolescent females scored less favorably on self-esteem (ITIA) (p = .028), reported more behavior problems (YSR) (p = .000), and showed a lower sense of coherence (SOC) (p = .003). The differences were most evident in the age group 15-17 years. The three clusters significantly differed from each other regarding how high proportions of problems the adolescents of each profile reported.


CONCLUSIONS
Compared with male adolescents, adolescent females experienced a poorer psychosocial health in somatic, depressive, and internalizing areas. The result indicated that psychological factors had a major impact on the proportions of problems that the adolescents reported.
Räty
Lena K A
LK
Division for Health and Caring Sciences, Department of Nursing Science, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden. lena.raty@kau.se
Larsson
Gerry
G
Söderfeldt
Birgitta A
BA
Larsson
Bodil M Wilde
BM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012933:Social Identification; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden