The Structure of Adolescent Mental Health Problems: the Role of Effortful Control and School Safety

INTRODUCTION:Adolescent mental health problems are widespread; however, there are still very few data on risk and protective factors for general and specific psychopathology. This study examined the structure of common mental health problems in Russian adolescents and the associations of temperamental effortful control and perceived school safety to the latent factors of adolescent mental health, taking age and gender into account.METHODS:Data were collected on 1850 adolescents (53% female) aged 12-18 using the self-report Eurasian Child Mental Health Study questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the abbreviated Effortful Control scale of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire-Revised. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the structure of common mental health problems and to examine the associations with age, effortful control, and school safety.RESULTS:The five-correlated-factors model comprising internalizing, body dissatisfaction, psychosomatics, externalizing, and substance use, and the bifactor-(S-1) models with internalizing and externalizing as reference domains and four specific factors showed an adequate fit to the data and sufficient reliability and validity. Analyses established full metric invariance of these models across gender. Effortful control showed a general association with adolescent mental health problems and a specific association with externalizing problems. School safety showed specific negative associations with externalizing and substance use and with girls' internalizing problems.CONCLUSIONS:These findings provide a strong basis for further cross-cultural research into the structure and determinants of adolescent mental health and highlight the need for effective interventions.