Civic engagement and mental health trajectories in Norwegian youth

Frontiers in Public Health

Public Health

Elisabeth Årdal¹  Helga Bjørnøy Urke¹  Torill Marie Bogsnes Larsen¹  Sara Madeleine Kristensen¹  Bente Wold¹  Nora Wiium²  Kateryna Karhina²  Tormod Bøe²  Margarida Gaspar de Matos³ 

[1] Department of Health Promotion and Development, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway;Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway;Instituto de Saúde Ambiental, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal;

关键词: civic engagement;    youth mental health trajectories;    SES;    gender;    Norway;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2023.1214141

 received in 2023-04-29, accepted in 2023-09-28,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionApplying variable-centered analytical approaches, several studies have found an association between civic engagement and youth mental health. In the present study, we used a person-centered approach to explore whether civic engagement was related to optimal trajectories of mental health compared to other trajectories. We also examined how sociodemographic factors, such as socioeconomic status (SES), gender and age were related to youth mental health trajectories.MethodsOur sample comprised 675 students (aged 16–22) who had participated in three waves of data collection (Mage = 18.85, SD = 0.55; 43% males) in the COMPLETE project, a cluster-randomized controlled trial that involved Norwegian upper secondary schools.ResultsThe results revealed three trajectories of mental health (reflecting a combination of mental distress and mental well-being): optimal, intermediate, and sub-optimal. Contrary to our expectations, higher levels of civic engagement were not related to the optimal trajectory of mental health vs. other trajectories. However, we found that students who reported higher levels of SES and males were more likely to follow the optimal trajectory compared to other trajectories.DiscussionWhile the findings on civic engagement could be due to our measurement’s inability to capture the concept of “dugnad,” a well-established civic activity in the Norwegian society, the findings regarding the influence of SES and gender suggest that there is still more work to be done concerning the assessment and advancement of factors that can address mental health inequalities across SES and gender.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Wiium, Kristensen, Årdal, Bøe, Gaspar de Matos, Karhina, Larsen, Urke and Wold.