Psychosocial aspects of health in adolescence: the influence of gender, and general self-concept

Abstract 

Purpose

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.

Keywords:  Adolescence , Epilepsy , Gender , Health , Quality of life