Abstract
The aim of this article is to provide a detailed description of the Youth and Mental Health Study (YAMHS),a population-based, representative (cluster sampling), prospective cohort study that was conducted to investigate risk and resilience factors for mental health conditions, specifically depressive symptoms and disorders, from adolescence to adulthood. The baseline data were collected in 1998 (T1) in two counties in central Norway from 2464 adolescents (response rate 88.3%, mean age 13.7 years). The first follow-up was conducted in 1999 (T2) (n = 2432, response rate of 87.1%, mean age 14.9 years). A subgroup of individuals was assessed at T2 (n = 345) with clinical interviews, and this subgroup was reassessed in 2005 (T3) (n = 265, 70.1%, 20 years). The last follow-up (of participants assessed at T1 and T2) was conducted in 2012 (T4) (n = 1266, 51.9%, 27.2 years). Demographics, depressive symptoms, general psychopathology, suicidal ideation and attempts and psychological and somatic factors were recorded. Among adolescents of both sexes, psychosocial variables were correlated with and predicted depressive symptom severity. The strongest predictors were sex (female), the levels of depressive symptoms the preceding year, and the total number of stressful events. The association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms was moderated by physical activity, while the relationship between stressful events and coping style was mediated by depressive symptoms. The rate of use of specialised mental health services among the depressed was low. The lifetime prevalence of depressive disorders was 23% at 15 years, and the most common disorder was minor depression. Adolescents who attempted suicide were more often victims of violence and less resilient than were non-suicide attempters. The existing longitudinal data from the cohort will be further analysed. Follow-up data will be obtained from existing national registries by links created with individual identification numbers.
Highlights
Mental health problems in adolescence may persist into adulthood and have lifelong consequences [1,2,3]
Youth and Mental Health Study (YAMHS) goes beyond existing studies and combines register data with comprehensive self-reports on psychological and somatic strengths and vulnerabilities assessed from early adolescence up to mid-adult age
Except for a sedentary lifestyle, which emerged as a risk factor for boys only, and having a non-Norwegian background and experiencing school-related stress, which were risk factors among girls only [78], the risk factors were strikingly similar between the two sexes
Summary
Mental health problems in adolescence may persist into adulthood and have lifelong consequences [1,2,3]. Prior to the YAMHS, there were no Norwegian longitudinal influential studies of adolescents’ mental health in a population-based cohort including a thoroughly assessed clinically depressed subgroup. There are few comparable population-based cohorts using linkage to national registers to follow the adolescents into mid-adulthood, exploring the range of depressive problems in relation to risk and resilience factors. YAMHS goes beyond existing studies and combines register data with comprehensive self-reports on psychological and somatic strengths and vulnerabilities assessed from early adolescence up to mid-adult age. What is the course of depressive symptoms and disorders from early adolescence to midadulthood in a general population sample using self-reported data and register data regarding: mental health physical health. Information letters containing results and publications were distributed to all respondents in all waves
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