Globally, 14% of all 10–19-year-olds experience a mental health disorder. More research is needed to identify and compare risk and protective factors associated with adolescent mental health in an international context. This study aimed to explore the association between social determinants and mental health among adolescents across nine countries. Using PISA 2018 cross-sectional data and multilevel modeling, this study investigated how individual, family, and school characteristics were associated with adolescents’ mental health symptoms in Bulgaria (n = 3,988), Georgia (n = 4,452), Hong Kong (n = 5,212), Ireland (n = 5,344), Mexico (n = 6,196), Panama (n = 4,873), Serbia (n = 4,992), Spain (n = 28,160), and the United Arab Emirates (n = 17,228). Individual and school characteristics were significantly associated with adolescent mental health across all countries, highlighting that positive school experiences and prosocial interactions are related with fewer mental health symptoms. The study also identified variations in the association between family characteristics and mental health, suggesting nuanced differences across cultural and national contexts. This study affirmed the associations between individual and school characteristics and adolescent mental health globally, highlighting the important relationship between supportive educational environments and youth well-being. These results could help researchers and practitioners design school-based mental health interventions that incorporate both universally applicable factors and context-specific considerations.
Mahatmya et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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