Abstract
BackgroundThe exposure to an accumulation of various risk factors during childhood and adolescence relative to a single risk is associated with poorer mental health. Identification of distinct constellations of risk factors is an essential step towards the development of effective prevention strategies of mental disorders. A Latent class analysis (LCA) extracts different combinations of risk factors or subgroups and examines the association between profiles of multiple risk and mental health outcomes.MethodsThe current study used longitudinal survey data (KiGGS) of 10,853 German children, adolescents and young adults. The LCA included 27 robust risk and protective factors across multiple domains for mental health.ResultsThe LCA identified four subgroups of individuals with different risk profiles: a basic-risk (51.4%), high-risk (23.4%), parental-risk (11.8%) and social-risk class (13.4%). Multiple risk factors of the family domain, in particular family instability were associated with negative mental health outcomes (e.g. mental health problems, depression, ADHD) and predominately comprised late adolescent girls. The social environment represented a more common risk domain for young males.ConclusionThe understanding of multiple risk and different risk “profiles” helps to understand and adjust targeted interventions with a focus on vulnerable groups.
Highlights
The exposure to an accumulation of various risk factors during childhood and adolescence relative to a single risk is associated with poorer mental health
According to the multiple risk perspective, the exposure to an accumulation of various risk factors relative to a single risk is associated with poorer mental health in children and adolescents, and described as a cause for mental disorders in young people [2, 5, 7,8,9]
Substantial research has shown that the exposure to an accumulation of various risk factors relative to a single risk is associated with poorer mental health
Summary
The exposure to an accumulation of various risk factors during childhood and adolescence relative to a single risk is associated with poorer mental health. The presence of a single risk factor during childhood and adolescence is very common and associated with little to no developmental consequences [5, 6]. According to the multiple risk perspective, the exposure to an accumulation of various risk factors relative to a single risk is associated with poorer mental health in children and adolescents, and described as a cause for mental disorders in young people [2, 5, 7,8,9]. The purpose of the present study was to identify the subgroups of co-occurrence of multiple risk factors across domains in a young sample and their association with mental health outcomes
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