Abstract
Examining the mechanisms influencing mental health and life satisfaction simultaneously allows for a better understanding of adolescents psychological well-being. Six indicators of neighbourhood social capital (NSC), neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation (SecD) and their association with psychological well-being among young adolescents aged 10-15 from England and Wales were investigated. Using a random sample of 5201 adolescents (7253 observations) from the UK Household Longitudinal Study merged to aggregated local area census measures, we fitted a series of multilevel models. The findings showed that not being worried about crime and friendship networks mitigated the negative effects of deprivation on adolescent’s psychological well-being. These findings suggest that some forms of NSC may have a buffering and protective function, with the strongest effects in deprived neighbourhoods. We further found that psychological well-being of adolescents is dependent on both individual vulnerabilities and neighbourhood context. However caution is required if, and when public health policies are formulated to address this issue, given significant variations (27-36%) in the inter- and intra-individual psychological well-being were found among this group over time. Thus, policies designed to improve psychological well-being among adolescents should take into account the role of social processes in transmitting deprivation’s effects, as well as the various forms of social capital.
Highlights
Psychological wellbeing, defined as mental health and life satisfaction in this study, is an integral measure of public health, given the long-term and potentially crippling prolonged consequences of having poor psychological well-being [1]
Six indicators of neighbourhood social capital (NSC), neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation (SecD) and their association with psychological well-being among young adolescents aged 10-15 from England and
Moderation models were used to examine the associations, between NSC and psychological well-being among young adolescents, and whether it varies based on residency in a neighbourhood with greater or lesser level of SecD
Summary
Psychological wellbeing, defined as mental health and life satisfaction in this study, is an integral measure of public health, given the long-term and potentially crippling prolonged consequences of having poor psychological well-being [1]. Poor mental health is a leading cause of ill health, and it constitutes a major part of the global disease burden [2]. Overall life satisfaction among this group is approximately 75% [3]. These measures are understood as not being on the opposite ends of the same spectrum, the literature lacks analyses exploring the mechanisms influencing these separate but interrelated measures simultaneously. The current study is aimed at bridging the gaps in the scholarship
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