Sexual harassment is commonly considered unwanted sexual attention and a form of gender-based violence that can take physical, verbal and visual forms and it is assumed to cause later depression in adolescents. There is a dearth of research explicitly testing this assumption and the directional pathway remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to use a feminist theoretical framework to test competing models in respect of the direction of the relationships between dimensions of peer sexual harassment victimization and dimensions of depressive symptoms from ages 14 to 16 in adolescents. The study also aimed to investigate gender differences in these pathways. Cross-lagged models were conducted using a three-wave (2010, 2011 and 2012) longitudinal study of 2330 students (51 % females) from Sweden, adjusted for social background. Girls subjected to sexual harassment in grade seven continued to experience sexual harassment the following 2 years. There was weaker evidence of repeated experience of sexual harassment among boys. Depressive symptoms were stable over time in both genders. Sexual name-calling was the dimension that had the strongest associations to all dimensions of depressive symptoms irrespective of gender. In girls, name-calling was associated with later somatic symptoms and negative affect, while anhedonia (reduced ability to experience pleasure) preceded later name-calling. Physical sexual harassment had a reciprocal relationship to somatic symptoms in girls. In boys, name-calling was preceded by all dimensions of depressive symptoms. It is an urgent matter to prevent sexual harassment victimization, as it is most likely to both cause depressive symptoms or a reciprocal cycle of victimization and depression symptoms in girls as well as boys.

Despite a well-documented gender pattern in adolescent mental health, research investigating possible explanatory factors from a gender-theoretical approach is scarce. This paper reports a grounded theory study based on 29 focus groups. The aim was to explore 16-to 19-year-old students' perceptions of what is significant for mental health, and to apply a gender analysis to the findings in order to advance understanding of the gender pattern in adolescent mental health. Significant factors were identified in three social processes categories, including both positive and negative aspects: (1) social interactions, (2) performance and (3) responsibility. Girls more often experienced negative aspects of these processes, placing them at greater risk for mental health problems. Boys' more positive mental health appeared to be associated with their low degree of responsibility-taking and beneficial positions relative to girls. Negotiating cultural norms of femininity and masculinity seemed to be more strenuous for girls, which could place them at a disadvantage with regard to mental health. Social factors and processes (particularly responsibility), gendered power relations and constructions of masculinities and femininities should be acknowledged as important for adolescent mental health.

Cyberbullying can be seen as an extension of IRL bullying. A combination of IRL- and cyberbullying seems to be particularly negative for mental health. Interventions should focus on improved school environment and body image as well as anti-violence programmes. Gender aspects of bullying need to be acknowledged.

The quality of parental and peer relationships in adolescence predicts adult mental and functional somatic health as much as 26 years later, even when accounting for confounders and adolescent symptomatology. This study extends past research by exploring how both adolescent parental and peer relationships (self-reported as well as teacher reported) predict adult self-reported health.

No abstract

Experiences of several types of violence should be highlighted as factors associated with mental health problems in adolescents. The victim-perpetrator relationships of violence are gendered and likely influence the psychological distress association. Gendered hierarchies and norms likely influence the extent to which adolescents experience violence and how they respond to it in terms of psychological distress.

Deliberate self-harm is common and more frequently reported by girls than boys. Psychological distress, experiences of different types of violence, and school-related factors (academic, social and safety-related), should be considered risk factors for DSH in young people. Findings can be applied to health-promotion policy and interventions in various contexts, for example schools.

Depressive symptoms in adolescents are an increasing public health issue in Sweden and in most Western countries. Aim: To explore how individual, psychosocial, and structural determinants are associated with depressive symptoms in Swedish adolescents. Methods: A webbased questionnaire was answered by 1193 13-to 16-year-old boys (n = 566) and girls (n = 627). Stepwise logistic regressions were employed to analyse the association between depressive symptoms and various determinants at the individual level (self-efficacy), the psychosocial level (parental, peer, and teacher support, school demands, sexual harassment, and bullying) and the structural level (family affluence, having less money than friends, and parental foreign background). Results: Determinants at the individual, psychosocial, and structural levels were independently associated with high levels of depressive symptoms in both boys and girls. The full model explained a high proportion of the variance in depressive symptoms in both genders; 34.1% in boys and 36.8% in girls. The psychosocial level contributed the most to explaining the variance in depressive symptoms in boys. In girls, when harassment variables were separated from psychosocial variables, the harassment variables contributed as much to the full model as the rest of the psychosocial variables combined. Conclusions: Addressing psychosocial determinants provides the greatest benefits for preventing depressive symptoms in adolescents. Acknowledging the association between sexual harassment and depressive symptoms for girls and having less money than their friends for boys and girls are particularly important.