Changing adolescent activity patterns and the correlation of self-esteem and externalizing mental health symptoms across time: results from the USA from 1991 through 2020

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Psychol Med
• Personal Author:
  Kreski, Noah T. ; Askari, Melanie S. ; Cerdá, Magdalena ; Chen, Qixuan ; Hasin, Deborah S. ; Martins, Silvia S. ; Mauro, Pia M. ; Olfson, Mark ; Keyes, Katherine M.
• Description:
  Background.
  
  Common adolescent psychiatric symptoms cluster into two dominant domains: internalizing and externalizing. Both domains are linked to self-esteem, which serves as a protective factor against a wide range of internalizing and externalizing problems. This study examined trends in US adolescents’ self-esteem and externalizing symptoms, and their correlation, by sex and patterns of time use.
  
  Methods.
  
  Using Monitoring the Future data (N = 338 896 adolescents, grades:8/10/12, years:1991–2020), we generated six patterns of time use using latent profile analysis with 17 behavior items (e.g. sports participation, parties, paid work). Groups were differentiated by high/low engagement in sports and either paid work or high/low peer socialization. Within each group, we mapped annual, sex-stratified means of (and correlation between) self-esteem and externalizing factors. We also examined past-decade rates of change for factor means using linear regression and mapped proportions with top-quartile levels of poor self-esteem, externalizing symptoms, or both.
  
  Results.
  
  We found consistent increases in poor self-esteem, decreases in externalizing symptoms, and a positive correlation between the two across nearly all activity groups. We also identified a relatively constant proportion of those with high levels of both in every group. Increases in poor self-esteem were most pronounced for female adolescents with low levels of socializing, among whom externalizing symptoms also increased.
  
  Conclusions.
  
  Rising trends in poor self-esteem are consistent across time use groups, as is the existence of a group facing poor self-esteem and externalizing symptoms. Effective interventions for adolescents’ poor self-esteem/co-occurring symptoms are needed broadly, but especially among female adolescents with low peer socialization.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Adolescent Behavior Female Humans Mental Disorders Mental Health Self Concept Social Behavior
• Keywords:
  Externalizing Self-esteem Socialization Time Use
• Source:
  Psychol Med. 54(1):169-177
• Pubmed ID:
  37183659
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11618880
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01DA048860/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 DA048860/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; K01 DA045224/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 DA048853/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 DA037866/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R49-CE003094/CE/NCIPC CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R49 CE003094/CE/NCIPC CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  54
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:68cb6a5746950da3bd1bc27e4787fec7d6291fb69182b2eb14f3e66de9c67d9e25811b275c681e22b63ca0475b03ef933ff42bc0268ec9202777c8109a02131c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/174542/cdc_174542_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.24 MB ]