IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i3p636-648.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Psychological distress among adolescents, and its relationship to individual, family and area characteristics in East London

Author

Listed:
  • Fagg, James
  • Curtis, Sarah
  • Stansfeld, Stephen
  • Congdon, Peter

Abstract

This paper identifies factors associated with variation in psychosocial distress among adolescents in a relatively deprived and ethnically diverse inner city setting in London, UK. The research draws on literature which discusses whether neighbourhood socio-economic conditions are associated with mental health, as well as attributes of individual adolescents and their families. We report an analysis of data from the Research with East London Adolescents: Community Health Survey (RELACHS). The survey collected data on mental health measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and on various aspects of individual and family circumstances. These data were linked with information about social and economic conditions in 'middle layer standard output areas' (MSOA) used for the population Census 2001, having a mean total population of 6767 in the study area. Census statistics including the Indices of Deprivation for 2004 proposed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, were used to describe the socio-economic conditions within these areas. Although the socio-economic disparities among small areas were not typical of those across the whole of the country, there were differences in levels of deprivation and crime, social fragmentation, and ethnic composition. A Bayesian regression analysis using Gibbs sampling in the programme WinBugs investigated whether there was variability in SDQ at both individual and area (MSOA) level, and whether the predictor variables at both levels were significantly associated with SDQ. Individuals from Asian or Black ethnic groups, and those in families with harmonious relationships and no financial stress had significantly lower SDQ scores, i.e. better health. Those who had special educational needs or long standing illness, or were from reconstituted families had significantly worse SDQ scores. About 6% of the variation in SDQ was associated with area differences. However, this area variation was not related to differences in area indicators of socio-economic deprivation, crime or social fragmentation. There was a complex association between SDQ and ethnic composition of neighbourhoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Fagg, James & Curtis, Sarah & Stansfeld, Stephen & Congdon, Peter, 2006. "Psychological distress among adolescents, and its relationship to individual, family and area characteristics in East London," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 636-648, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:3:p:636-648
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00093-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Congdon, 1996. "The Epidemiology of Suicide in London," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 159(3), pages 515-533, May.
    2. Drukker, Marjan & Kaplan, Charles & Feron, Frans & van Os, Jim, 2003. "Children's health-related quality of life, neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation and social capital. A contextual analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 825-841, September.
    3. Subramanian, S.V. & Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores & Osypuk, Theresa L., 2005. "Racial residential segregation and geographic heterogeneity in black/white disparity in poor self-rated health in the US: a multilevel statistical analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 1667-1679, April.
    4. David J. Spiegelhalter & Nicola G. Best & Bradley P. Carlin & Angelika Van Der Linde, 2002. "Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(4), pages 583-639, October.
    5. McMunn, Anne M. & Nazroo, James Y. & Marmot, Michael G. & Boreham, Richard & Goodman, Robert, 2001. "Children's emotional and behavioural well-being and the family environment: findings from the Health Survey for England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 423-440, August.
    6. Drukker, Marjan & Buka, Stephen L. & Kaplan, Charles & McKenzie, Kwame & Van Os, Jim, 2005. "Social capital and young adolescents' perceived health in different sociocultural settings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 185-198, July.
    7. West, Patrick, 1997. "Health inequalities in the early years: Is there equalisation in youth?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 833-858, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lima, Julie & Caughy, Margaret & Nettles, Saundra M. & O'Campo, Patricia J., 2010. "Effects of cumulative risk on behavioral and psychological well-being in first grade: Moderation by neighborhood context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(8), pages 1447-1454, October.
    2. Fagg, James & Curtis, Sarah & Stansfeld, Stephen A. & Cattell, Vicky & Tupuola, Ann-Marie & Arephin, Muna, 2008. "Area social fragmentation, social support for individuals and psychosocial health in young adults: Evidence from a national survey in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 242-254, January.
    3. Fan, Yingling & Chen, Qian, 2012. "Family functioning as a mediator between neighborhood conditions and children's health: Evidence from a national survey in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(12), pages 1939-1947.
    4. Bécares, Laia & Nazroo, James & Albor, Christo & Chandola, Tarani & Stafford, Mai, 2012. "Examining the differential association between self-rated health and area deprivation among white British and ethnic minority people in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 616-624.
    5. Lee, Min-Ah, 2009. "Neighborhood residential segregation and mental health: A multilevel analysis on Hispanic Americans in Chicago," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 1975-1984, June.
    6. Dinwiddie, Gniesha Y. & Gaskin, Darrell J. & Chan, Kitty S. & Norrington, Janette & McCleary, Rachel, 2013. "Residential segregation, geographic proximity and type of services used: Evidence for racial/ethnic disparities in mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 67-75.
    7. Min-Ah Lee, 2019. "Volunteering and Happiness: Examining the Differential Effects of Volunteering Types According to Household Income," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 795-814, March.
    8. Cummins, Steven & Curtis, Sarah & Diez-Roux, Ana V. & Macintyre, Sally, 2007. "Understanding and representing 'place' in health research: A relational approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1825-1838, November.
    9. Pickett, Kate E. & Shaw, Richard J. & Atkin, Karl & Kiernan, Kathleen E. & Wilkinson, Richard G., 2009. "Ethnic density effects on maternal and infant health in the Millennium Cohort Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1476-1483, November.
    10. Zilanawala, Afshin & Sacker, Amanda & Nazroo, James & Kelly, Yvonne, 2015. "Ethnic differences in children's socioemotional difficulties: Findings from the Millennium Cohort Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 95-106.
    11. Ivory, Vivienne C. & Collings, Sunny C. & Blakely, Tony & Dew, Kevin, 2011. "When does neighbourhood matter? Multilevel relationships between neighbourhood social fragmentation and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(12), pages 1993-2002, June.
    12. Fagg, James H. & Curtis, Sarah E. & Cummins, Steven & Stansfeld, Stephen A. & Quesnel-Vallée, Amélie, 2013. "Neighbourhood deprivation and adolescent self-esteem: Exploration of the ‘socio-economic equalisation in youth’ hypothesis in Britain and Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 168-177.
    13. Baranyi, Gergő & Di Marco, Martín Hernán & Russ, Tom C. & Dibben, Chris & Pearce, Jamie, 2021. "The impact of neighbourhood crime on mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    14. Debrand, Thierry & Pierre, Aurélie & Allonier, Caroline & Lucas-Gabrielli, Véronique, 2012. "Critical urban areas, deprived areas and neighbourhood effects on health in France," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 92-101.
    15. Afshin Zilanawala & Laia Bécares & Aprile Benner, 2019. "Race/ethnic inequalities in early adolescent development in the United Kingdom and United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(6), pages 121-154.
    16. Kenisha Russell Jonsson & Joan Busfield & Marita Södergren & Miia Karen & Nicholas Kofi Adjei, 2020. "Social Capital, Deprivation and Psychological Well-Being among Young Adolescents: A Multilevel Study from England and Wales," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-19, May.
    17. Abada, Teresa & Hou, Feng & Ram, Bali, 2007. "Racially mixed neighborhoods, perceived neighborhood social cohesion, and adolescent health in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 2004-2017, November.
    18. Vivienne Ivory & Karen Witten & Clare Salmond & En-Yi Lin & Ru Quan You & Tony Blakely, 2012. "The New Zealand Index of Neighbourhood Social Fragmentation: Integrating Theory and Data," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(4), pages 972-988, April.
    19. Roman Pabayo & Michel Janosz & Sherri Bisset & Ichiro Kawachi, 2014. "School Social Fragmentation, Economic Deprivation and Social Cohesion and Adolescent Physical Inactivity: A Longitudinal Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-12, June.
    20. Takagi, Daisuke & Kondo, Katsunori & Kondo, Naoki & Cable, Noriko & Ikeda, Ken’ichi & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2013. "Social disorganization/social fragmentation and risk of depression among older people in Japan: Multilevel investigation of indices of social distance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 81-89.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kate Levin & Torbjorn Torsheim & Wilma Vollebergh & Matthias Richter & Carolyn Davies & Christina Schnohr & Pernille Due & Candace Currie, 2011. "National Income and Income Inequality, Family Affluence and Life Satisfaction Among 13 year Old Boys and Girls: A Multilevel Study in 35 Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 179-194, November.
    2. Engström, Karin & Mattsson, Fredrik & Järleborg, Anders & Hallqvist, Johan, 2008. "Contextual social capital as a risk factor for poor self-rated health: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2268-2280, June.
    3. Snelgrove, John W. & Pikhart, Hynek & Stafford, Mai, 2009. "A multilevel analysis of social capital and self-rated health: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 1993-2001, June.
    4. Abada, Teresa & Hou, Feng & Ram, Bali, 2007. "Racially mixed neighborhoods, perceived neighborhood social cohesion, and adolescent health in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 2004-2017, November.
    5. Aminzadeh, Kaveh & Denny, Simon & Utter, Jennifer & Milfont, Taciano L. & Ameratunga, Shanthi & Teevale, Tasileta & Clark, Terryann, 2013. "Neighbourhood social capital and adolescent self-reported wellbeing in New Zealand: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 13-21.
    6. Stefania Maggi, 2006. "Analytic and Strategic Review Paper: International Perspectives on Early Child Development," Working Papers id:690, eSocialSciences.
    7. Giulia El-Dardiry & Christine Dimitrakaki & Chara Tzavara & Ulrike Ravens-Sieberer & Yannis Tountas, 2012. "Child Health-Related Quality of Life and Parental Social Capital in Greece: An Exploratory Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 105(1), pages 75-92, January.
    8. Susan Lagaert & Thom Snaphaan & Veerle Vyncke & Wim Hardyns & Lieven J. R. Pauwels & Sara Willems, 2021. "A Multilevel Perspective on the Health Effect of Social Capital: Evidence for the Relative Importance of Individual Social Capital over Neighborhood Social Capital," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-21, February.
    9. Shiell, Alan & Hawe, Penelope & Kavanagh, Shane, 2020. "Evidence suggests a need to rethink social capital and social capital interventions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    10. Fagg, James H. & Curtis, Sarah E. & Cummins, Steven & Stansfeld, Stephen A. & Quesnel-Vallée, Amélie, 2013. "Neighbourhood deprivation and adolescent self-esteem: Exploration of the ‘socio-economic equalisation in youth’ hypothesis in Britain and Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 168-177.
    11. Fagg, James & Curtis, Sarah & Stansfeld, Stephen A. & Cattell, Vicky & Tupuola, Ann-Marie & Arephin, Muna, 2008. "Area social fragmentation, social support for individuals and psychosocial health in young adults: Evidence from a national survey in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 242-254, January.
    12. Buddhavarapu, Prasad & Bansal, Prateek & Prozzi, Jorge A., 2021. "A new spatial count data model with time-varying parameters," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 566-586.
    13. Mumtaz, Haroon & Theodoridis, Konstantinos, 2017. "Common and country specific economic uncertainty," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 205-216.
    14. Jesse Elliott & Zemin Bai & Shu-Ching Hsieh & Shannon E Kelly & Li Chen & Becky Skidmore & Said Yousef & Carine Zheng & David J Stewart & George A Wells, 2020. "ALK inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer: A systematic review and network meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, February.
    15. Christina Leuker & Thorsten Pachur & Ralph Hertwig & Timothy J. Pleskac, 2019. "Do people exploit risk–reward structures to simplify information processing in risky choice?," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(1), pages 76-94, August.
    16. Francois Olivier & Laval Guillaume, 2011. "Deviance Information Criteria for Model Selection in Approximate Bayesian Computation," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, July.
    17. Raggi, Davide & Bordignon, Silvano, 2012. "Long memory and nonlinearities in realized volatility: A Markov switching approach," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(11), pages 3730-3742.
    18. Angelica Gianfreda & Francesco Ravazzolo & Luca Rossini, 2023. "Large Time‐Varying Volatility Models for Hourly Electricity Prices," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(3), pages 545-573, June.
    19. Rubio, F.J. & Steel, M.F.J., 2011. "Inference for grouped data with a truncated skew-Laplace distribution," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(12), pages 3218-3231, December.
    20. Alessandri, Piergiorgio & Mumtaz, Haroon, 2019. "Financial regimes and uncertainty shocks," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 31-46.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:3:p:636-648. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.