title: Associations between parents' subjective time pressure and mental health problems among children in the Nordic countries: a population based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The home, the family and the parents represent a context of everyday life that is important for child health and development, with parent-child relationships highlighted as crucial for children's mental health. Time pressure is an emerging feature of modern societies and previous studies indicates that parents with children living at home experience time pressure to a greater extent than people with no children living at home. Previous studies of children's mental health in relation to parents' time pressure are lacking. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the association between parents' subjective time pressure and mental health problems among children in the Nordic countries as well as potential disparities between boys and girls in different age groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  4592 children, aged 4-16 from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, participating in the 2011 version of the NordChild study, were included. The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to measure children's mental health and associations to parents' time pressure were assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among children of parents experiencing time pressure, 18.6% had mental health problems compared to 10.1% among children of parents experiencing time pressure not or sometimes. The odds of mental health problems were higher among both boys (OR 1.80 95% CI 1.32-2.46) and girls (OR 1.95 95% CI 1.42-2.66) if their parents experienced time pressure when adjusted for financial stress. The highest prevalence of mental health problems in the case of parental time pressure was found among girls 13-16 years old (23.6%) and the lowest prevalence was found among boys 13-16 years old (10.7%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study an association between parents' subjective time pressure and increased mental health problems among children was found. Given that time pressure is a growing feature of modern societies, the results might contribute to an explanation as to mental health problems are common among children in the Nordic countries in spite of otherwise favourable conditions. Additional research on the linkage between parents' experienced time pressure and children's and adolescents' mental health problems is needed to confirm the novel findings of this study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Social Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. hildur.gunnarsdottir@hv.se.|Department of Nursing, Health and Culture, University West, 461 86, Trollhättan, Sweden. hildur.gunnarsdottir@hv.se.
authors.forename: Hrafnhildur
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gunnarsdottir
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. ylva.bjereld@socwork.gu.se.
authors.forename: Ylva
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bjereld
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Social Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. gunnel.hensing@socmed.gu.se.
authors.forename: Gunnel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hensing
authors.affiliation: Centre for applied biostatistics, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Section of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. max.petzold@amm.gu.se.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petzold
authors.affiliation: Unit for Health Promotion Research, University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg, Denmark. lene.povlsen@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lene
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Povlsen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013995:Time