Mental Health in Adolescents with a Migration Background in 29 European Countries: The Buffering Role of Social Capital

Abstract

Previous research is inconclusive as to whether having an immigration background acts as a risk factor for poor mental health in adolescents, and furthermore, what contribution the social context in which adolescents grow up may make. To address these questions, the current study uses an integrative resilience framework to investigate the association between immigration background and adolescent mental health, and the moderating role of social capital at the individual, the school, and the national level. The study uses data gathered from nationally representative samples of adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 years (N girls = 63,425 (52.1%); M age = 13.57, SD = 1.64) from 29 countries participating in the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Data analysis reveals that firstand second-generation immigrants reported higher levels of life dissatisfaction and psychosomatic symptoms than their native peers, and that this association varied across schools and countries. In addition, social capital was found to moderate the association between immigration background and adolescent mental health. Individual-level social support from peers and family and national-level trust protected against poor mental health in adolescents with an immigration background, while the opposite was true for individual-level teacher support. Supportive teacher-student relationships were found to provide more protection against poor mental health for native adolescents than for immigrant adolescents. Our findings indicate the importance of taking an ecological approach to design interventions to reduce the negative effects of having an immigration background on adolescent mental health.

Mental Health of Apprentices during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria and the Effect of Gender, Migration Background, and Work Situation

“…In addition, we found an effect of having a migration background on a number of mental health measures; in those with a migration background, mean depression, anxiety, and insomnia scores were higher; well-being scores were lower; and the likelihood of being over the cut-off for clinically relevant insomnia was higher than in those without a migration background. Aside from the pandemic, a migration background can be a risk factor for poor mental health in and of itself, especially in young people [52][53][54]. This has been explained by the impact of the migration experience [55], increased economic hardship in migrant families, the experience of social exclusion and discrimination [53,56], and difficulties accessing health care services [53,57].…”

The Impact of Social Capital on Mental Health: Evidence from the China Family Panel Survey

“…However, there is also a lot of work indicating that social capital has a significant impact on mental health [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Some of the literature has demonstrated the impact of social capital on the mental health of special groups, such as adolescents [ 31 , 32 , 33 ], ethnic minorities [ 34 , 35 ], immigrants [ 36 , 37 ], the aged [ 38 , 39 ], and the diseased population [ 14 , 40 ]. In addition, as the research on the specific sub dimensions of social capital has documented, cognitive social capital, cohesive social capital, and community social capital have significant impacts on residents’ mental health [ 21 , 41 , 42 ].…”

Positive Youth Development in Contexts

“…In the third study, a Slovenian sample of students formed part of a larger sample of students from 29 European countries (Delaruelle et al, 2021). The results reveal that first-and second-generation immigrants reported higher levels of life dissatisfaction and psychosomatic symptoms than their native peers.…”