Paper
Emotional Problems and Substance Use in Adolescents: Gender and Age Differences and Psychosocial Determinants
- Authors:
- Social Adventure Project Team; M. Carvalho; M. G. Matos
- Abstract
- Purpose of the research: the present study aimed at identifying gender and developmental aspects, and their psychosocial determinants and the time trends over 8 years in the prevalence of emotional problems among children and adolescents in Portugal. The three cross-sectional self-report surveys obtained from the HBSC nationally representative samples of 10-17 year old children and adolescents in 1998, 2002, and 2006, were used. Specific composite indexes included emotional and somatic symptoms, substance use, demographic and psychosocial factors. Results and conclusions: Girls reported more emotional symptoms and boys reported more substance use. Emotional symptoms, substance use and communication increased with age, opposite to school commitment and perception of safe neighbourhood, which have shown to decrease with age. Along the three waves, substance use and emotional symptoms have shown a general pattern of decrease. Innovation: Results were discussed according to literature and their consequences for the understanding of emotional problems and substances in childhood and adolescence, namely gender differences and the implications regarding school based interventions.
- Keywords
- Emotional Problems; Gender; Development; Trends; Psychosocial Determinants; HBSC; Adolescents
- StartPage
- 28
- EndPage
- 34
- Doi
- 10.5963/PHF0302002