Sources of perceived social support and emotional difficulties in late adolescence

Abstract Background Late adolescence is a life phase when mental health problems are common. Social support is, however, associated with less problems. Social support stems from different sources with the family being the main provider in early life while friends gain in importance during adolescence. Using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), this study investigates the relative importance of different sources of support for emotional difficulties in girls and boys. Methods Data was derived from the Swedish population-based cohort study Futura01 (girls: n = 2105, boys: n = 1673). Adolescents in the final year in compulsory school (aged 15-16 years) were sampled in 2017 and followed up in 2019 (aged 17-18 years). Perceived social support was measured at 17-18 years by the MSPSS scale. Emotional difficulties were measured at 15-16 and 17-18 years by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) subscale. Linear regression analysis was used to study associations between support sources and emotional difficulties at 17-18 years, adjusting for all support sources, family type, upper secondary school program as well as prior emotional difficulties. Results Among girls, emotional difficulties were associated with perceived support from family (b=-0.22; 95% CI -0.29; -0.15) and friends (b=-0.26; 95% CI -0.35; -0.18) but not significant others (b = 0.00; 95% CI -0.10; 0.11). Among boys, emotional difficulties were associated with support from family (b=-0.10; 95% CI -0.18; -0.02), friends (b=-0.17; 95% CI -0.25; -0.09) and significant others (b=-0.13; 95% CI -0.22; -0.04). Conclusions The negative association between perceived social support and emotional difficulties, irrespective of prior emotional difficulties, suggests that support has a protective effect. In late adolescence, support from friends and, to a similar degree, the family seems to matter for mental health. Support from significant others did however not show a protective effect in girls. Key messages • Adolescents aged 17-18 years with higher levels of perceived social support report less emotional difficulties. • Efforts to increase family and friend support are relevant for adolescent mental health.


Background:
Previous research of aetiology of interruptions in working life have shown that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in sickness absence (SA) and disability pension (DP). However, we still lack knowledge about etiological factors contributing to sustainable working life. The aim was to study the importance of genetics, shared (mainly childhood) environmental factors, and individual (unique) environmental factors for remaining in the work force over the life-course, i.e., having a sustainable working life.

Methods:
The study population include 108,275 twin individuals born 1930-1990 (53% women) with comprehensive national register data on social security, health, and demographic factors. We utilized two measures of sustainable working life: 1) employed at least two consecutive years (n = 21,348), without interruptions due to SA (>14 days), DP, or unemployment; 2) 22-years of sustainable working life, i.e., those who were employed all years from 1994 to 2016 (n = 12,931) without SA (>14 days), DP, or unemployment. Old-age pension, emigration, or death were censored. The final sample included same-sexed twin pairs of known zygosity; monozygotic pairs n = 11,403 and dizygotic pairs n = 13,354. Classical twin modelling was applied to estimate the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in sustainable working life. Results: Individual differences for two consecutive years of sustainable working life were explained by genetics 36%, shared environment 8%, and unique environmental factors 56%. For 22-years of sustainable working life genetics accounted for 18%, shared environment 46%, and unique environmental factors for 37% of individual differences.

Conclusions:
Individual variation in sustainable working life is due to both genetic and environmental factors. Environmental experiences that twin siblings share while growing up is of importance, especially for long-term sustainable working life.

Key messages:
Childhood environmental circumstances as well as environmental exposures later in life seem to outweigh genetic influences on long-term sustainable working life. From a public health perspective, the importance of family and surrounding environment on sustainable working life implies a potential for workplace or societal interventions, or individual support.

Conclusions:
The negative association between perceived social support and emotional difficulties, irrespective of prior emotional difficulties, suggests that support has a protective effect. In late adolescence, support from friends and, to a similar degree, the family seems to matter for mental health. Support from significant others did however not show a protective effect in girls.

Key messages:
Adolescents aged 17-18 years with higher levels of perceived social support report less emotional difficulties. Efforts to increase family and friend support are relevant for adolescent mental health.

Introduction:
The value of evidence-informed development and implementation of public health measures and practices -often called ''good'' or ''best practices'' -has been widely acknowledged in order to effectively address public health challenges. Yet information on such measures and practices remains insufficiently accessible to practitioners, policy and decision-makers. On a national level, several European countries have developed ''Best Practice Portals'' in order to support the uptake, implementation and dissemination of acknowledged public health best practices or policies.

Objective:
Six countries in Europe with a national ''portal'' have recently compared the rationale, structure, and processes used by their respective national portals, gaining first insights into how development and implementation of best practices can be further supported from a national level. The workshop will present these first insights, as well as further promising approaches to facilitate access to best practices, such as innovative digital tools which local public health actors, policy and decision-makers may use to inform selection of best practices for their contexts.

Methods:
The workshop starts with three presentations to introduce and to illustrate the topic. In the second half of the workshop we ask for an active contribution of the participants. For interaction, the open space method will be used. Programme: 1. Three presentations of 10 minutes with 1-3 questions: The presentation of the results of a survey in Poland assessing the decision-makers' needs with regard to the implementation of best practices/evidence-informed policymaking A descriptive case comparison of six European program registries and the European Best Practice Portal, illustrating different approaches to support implementation of evidence-informed public health measures and practices Presentation of a digital tool to support evidence-informed planning and implementation of healthy and active environments by local public health actors 2. Discussion with the open space method (20 min) In each of the four corners of one room, there is a flipchart with a moderator and a discussion question. Every participant is free to choose one of the flipcharts to discuss the topic with other participants who have chosen the same topic. The participant is free to go to another corner if he/she wants to join also other discussions. The implementation of the project ''ProfiBaza'' was the unique opportunity to effectuate a data set with the possibility to showcase for the first time in Poland which public health (PH) interventions are taken and whether they cover population health needs. In order to be forethoughtful to this challenge, the needs of stakeholders within the health system were investigated. Particularly, considering the widely recognised knowledge-practice gap in the PH field. We would like to demonstrate the results of a needs analysis related to: the accessibility assessment of the information about PH interventions; the need of establishing a good practices database regarding health promotion and disease prevention; the possibility to use research findings in PH practice. All those