Abstract
Previous research is inconclusive as to whether having an immigration background acts as a risk factor for poor mental health in adolescents, and furthermore, what contribution the social context in which adolescents grow up may make. To address these questions, the current study uses an integrative resilience framework to investigate the association between immigration background and adolescent mental health, and the moderating role of social capital at the individual, the school, and the national level. The study uses data gathered from nationally representative samples of adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 years (Ngirls = 63,425 (52.1%); Mage = 13.57, SD = 1.64) from 29 countries participating in the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Data analysis reveals that first- and second-generation immigrants reported higher levels of life dissatisfaction and psychosomatic symptoms than their native peers, and that this association varied across schools and countries. In addition, social capital was found to moderate the association between immigration background and adolescent mental health. Individual-level social support from peers and family and national-level trust protected against poor mental health in adolescents with an immigration background, while the opposite was true for individual-level teacher support. Supportive teacher-student relationships were found to provide more protection against poor mental health for native adolescents than for immigrant adolescents. Our findings indicate the importance of taking an ecological approach to design interventions to reduce the negative effects of having an immigration background on adolescent mental health.
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Acknowledgements
HBSC is an international study carried out in collaboration with WHO/EURO. The international coordinator of the 2017/18 study was Jo Inchley (University of Glasgow); and the data bank manager was Oddrun Samdal, (University of Bergen). The 2017/18 survey included in this study were conducted by the following Principal Investigators in the 29 countries and regions: Albania (Gentiana Qirjako), Austria (Rosemarie Felder-Puig), Flemish Belgium (Bart De Clercq), French Belgium (Katia Castetbon), Bulgaria (Lidiya Vasileva), Croatia (Ivana Pavic Simetin), Czech Republic (Michal Kalman), Estonia (Leila Oja, Katrin Aasvee), Finland (Jorma Tynjälä), Germany (Matthias Richter), Greece (Anna Kokkevi), Hungary (Ágnes Németh), Iceland (Arsaell M. Arnarsson), Ireland (Saoirse Nic Gabhainn), Italy (Franco Cavallo), Luxembourg (Helmut Willems), Malta (Charmaine Gauci), Netherlands (Gonneke Stevens, Saskia van Dorsselaer), Norway (Oddrun Samdal), Poland (Joanna Mazur), Portugal (Margarida Gaspar de Matos), Romania (Adriana Baban), Russian Federation (Anna Matochkina), Scotland (Jo Inchley), Serbia (Jelena Rakic), Slovenia (Helena Jericek), Spain (Carmen Moreno), Sweden (Petra Lofstedt, Lilly Augustine), Switzerland (Marina Delgrande-Jordan, Hervé Kuendig).
Funding
K.D. and M.D. work is supported by the government of Flanders. The funding source had no role in the design or conduct of the study. C.M.M.’s work was supported by the VI Plan Propio de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla 2018, under the action “II.5B Contrato de acceso al Sistema Español de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para el Desarrollo del Programa Propio de I + D + i de la Universidad de Sevilla”.
Data Sharing and DeclarationAfter a period of three years from the date that the international HBSC data file is finalised, access to specified parts of the file can be requested by researchers other than members of the HBSC Network. Access is granted through agreement with the International Coordinator and the Data Bank Manager and following appropriate consultation with Network members. For more information please see: https://www.uib.no/en/hbscdata/94218/license-agreement-use-data-hbsc-data-bank.
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K.D. conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination and drafted the manuscript; S.D.W. and G.W.J.M.S. participated in the study design, rewrote parts of the manuscript and gave critical feedback on the draft of the manuscript; M.R.K. participated in the study design, helped with the statistical analyses and gave critical feedback on the draft of the manuscript: M.D., B.D., C.C., C.M.M. and A.C. participated in the study design and gave critical feedback on, and input to, the draft of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ethical Approval
Research involving Human Participants: Approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital of Ghent (EC 2019/0755), and ethical clearance or equivalent approval to conduct the survey was granted in each country. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Active or passive consent was obtained from the parents/legal guardians, according to the demands of each country. Participation was voluntarily and anonymous and adolescents were allowed to opt out of participation at any time before or during the survey.
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Appendix
Appendix
Appendix A. Number of respondents per country
Country | N |
|---|---|
Albania | 1395 |
Austria | 3378 |
Belgium | 6658 |
Bulgaria | 4120 |
Croatia | 3937 |
Czech Republic | 9714 |
Estonia | 4369 |
Finland | 2864 |
Germany | 3733 |
Greece | 3530 |
Hungary | 3409 |
Iceland | 6279 |
Ireland | 3062 |
Israel | 5312 |
Italy | 3846 |
Luxembourg | 3238 |
Malta | 2169 |
Netherlands | 4486 |
Norway | 2198 |
Poland | 4717 |
Portugal | 5313 |
Romania | 3718 |
Russia | 3791 |
Scotland | 4208 |
Serbia | 3318 |
Slovenia | 5060 |
Spain | 3740 |
Sweden | 3527 |
Switzerland | 6662 |
Total | 121,751 |
Appendix B: Results of the multilevel analysis with regard to psychosomatic complaints (N countries = 29, N schools = 5144, N individuals = 121,751), country fixed approach
Model 4 | ||
|---|---|---|
b | (SE) | |
Individual level | ||
Intercept | 6.244*** | (0.179) |
Gender (boy = ref.) | 2.094*** | (0.030) |
Age | 0.370*** | (0.011) |
SES (Highest 20 percent = ref.) | ||
Lowest 20 percent | 0.043 | (0.050) |
Medium 60 percent | −0.073 | (0.039) |
Family structure (intact family = ref.) | ||
Single-parent family | 0.644*** | (0.042) |
Stepfamily | 0.900*** | (0.064) |
Non-parental family | 1.130*** | (0.096) |
Migration background (natives = ref.) | ||
First generation | 0.218* | (0.088) |
Second generation | 0.245*** | (0.048) |
Family support (a) | −0.488*** | (0.010) |
Teacher support (a) | −0.934*** | (0.021) |
Student support | −1.009*** | (0.023) |
Migration background × Family support | ||
First generation | −0.187*** | (0.041) |
Second generation | −0.202*** | (0.027) |
Migration background × Teacher support | ||
First generation | 0.281** | (0.085) |
Second generation | 0.132* | (0.052) |
Migration background × Student support | ||
First generation | −0.170 | (0.090) |
Second generation | −0.033 | (0.058) |
School level | ||
Culture of teacher support | −0.934*** | (0.021) |
Culture of student support | −1.009*** | (0.023) |
Migration background × Culture of teacher support | 0.031 | (0.238) |
First generation | 0.076 | (0.138) |
Second generation | ||
Migration background × Culture of student support | ||
First generation | 0.469 | (0.301) |
Second generation | 0.225 | (0.172) |
Country level | ||
Migration background × Trust | ||
First generation | −0.475*** | (’0.110) |
Second generation | −0.001 | (0.063) |
Country dummies | YES | |
Variance | ||
School level | ||
Intercept | 0.651 | (0.041) |
First generation | 2.029 | (0.380) |
Second generation | 0.236 | (0.124) |
Individual level | ||
Intercept | 26.133 | (0.109) |
2 LogLikelihood | 745303.02 | |
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Delaruelle, K., Walsh, S.D., Dierckens, M. et al. Mental Health in Adolescents with a Migration Background in 29 European Countries: The Buffering Role of Social Capital. J Youth Adolescence 50, 855–871 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01423-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01423-1