Social stressors and their association with psychosomatic problems among adolescents : Implications for school social work

Sammanfattning: The overall aim was to investigate associations between family-, school- and individual-related social stressors and adolescents’ psychosomatic problems, and which factors might moderate these associations. A cross-sectional study design was employed to collect data and 3764 Swedish adolescents (girls 51.8%), aged between13 and 15 years completed a questionnaire. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyse associations between social stressors and self-reported psychosomatic problems. Rasch analysis was used to psychometrically evaluate measurements in the studies (II-IV) and as a main method of analysis in study I to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. School-related stressors that showed significant associations with adolescents’ psychosomatic problems were schoolwork pressure, students’ perceptions of school staff’s bullying interventions and bullying victimization. Family-related stressors that showed significant associations with adolescents’ psychosomatic problems were family residency, parental unemployment and parents’ academic achievement expectations. Factors related to the individual that showed significant associations with psychosomatic problems were having a disability, lower degree of self-efficacy and adolescents’ own academic achievement expectations. Sex moderated the association between self-efficacy and psychosomatic problems. Conclusions are that school social workers should focus on strengthening students’ self-efficacy and target schoolwork pressure and academic achievement expectations. Special attention needs to be paid to girls and adolescents living with a single parent or no parents. Further conclusions are that social support from school staff is important in relation to students’ self-reported psychosomatic problems, irrespective of students’ bullying victimization. The General Self-Efficacy Scale is a valid and reliable measure to use among adolescents.