Associations between school difficulties and family type and the role of socioeconomic, behavior and health-related difficulties in early adolescents: a population-based study.

Objectives: Nowadays many early adolescents are living in non-intact families (parents divorced/separated, reconstructed families or single parents) and have many school difficulties (learning difficulty, skipping school, school absence due to family problems, grade repetition, low school performance, and school dropout ideation). This study assessed the associations between school difficulties and family type which remain little addressed and the confounding role of socioeconomic adversities and behavior, social support and health-related difficulties (BSSHDs).

Methods: The study population included 1559 middle-school adolescents from north-eastern France (mean age 13.