title: Adolescents' psychological health complaints and the economic recession in late 2007: a multilevel study in 31 countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The recent economic recession, which began in 2007, has had a detrimental effect on the health of the adult population, but no study yet has investigated the impact of this downturn on adolescent health. This article uniquely examines the effect of the crisis on adolescents' psychological health complaints in a cross-national comparison.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data came from the World Health Organization collaborative 'Health Behaviour in School-aged Children' study in 2005-06 and 2009-10. We measured change in psychological health complaints from before to during the recession in the context of changing adult and adolescent unemployment rates. Furthermore, we used logistic multilevel regression to model the impact of absolute unemployment in 2010 and its change rate between 2005-06 and 2009-10 on adolescents' psychological health complaints in 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Descriptive results showed that although youth and adult unemployment has increased during the economic crisis, rates of psychological health complaints among adolescents were unaffected in some countries and even decreased in others. Multilevel regression models support this finding and reveal that only youth unemployment in 2010 increased the likelihood of psychological health complaints, whereas its change rate in light of the recession as well as adult unemployment did not relate to levels of psychological health complaints.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In contrast to recent findings, our study indicates that the negative shift of the recent recession on the employment market in several countries has not affected adolescents' psychological health complaints. Adolescents' well-being instead seems to be influenced by the current situation on the labour market that shapes their occupational outlook.
authors.affiliation: 1 Institute of Medical Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany timo-kolja.pfoertner@medizin.uni-halle.de.
authors.forename: Timo-Kolja
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Pfoertner
authors.affiliation: 1 Institute of Medical Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rathmann
authors.affiliation: 2 Institute for Health and Social Policy and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Frank J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Elgar
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Margaretha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Looze
authors.affiliation: 4 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute - Health Promotion Research, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Research Unit Child Public Health, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ottova-Jordan
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Research Unit Child Public Health, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ravens-Sieberer
authors.affiliation: 6 Department of Health Psychology, Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Safarik University Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia 7 Department of Business Informatics and Mathematics, Faculty of Business Economy, University of Economics in Bratislava, Kosice, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bosakova
authors.affiliation: 8 Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit, School of Medicine, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK.
authors.forename: Candace
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Currie
authors.affiliation: 1 Institute of Medical Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D057172:Economic Recession; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology