Exploring mechanisms behind the increasing gender gap in adolescent psychological symptoms, 2002-2022: the role of national-level gender equality.

Background: Internalising problems have increased considerably among adolescents in the last decades, particularly among girls, resulting in widening gender gaps. This study examined whether the gender gap in psychological symptoms increased more in more gender-equal countries in the period 2002-2022, and if so, to what extent this could be explained by changes over time in the experience of stressors (i.e.

Cross-National Trends in Adolescents Psychological and Somatic Complaints Before and After the Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: Building on research suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an exacerbation of deteriorating trends in mental health among adolescents, this paper examined trends in adolescents' psychological and somatic complaints across 35 countries from 2010 to 2022, and tested trends in sociodemographic inequalities in these outcomes between 2018 and 2022.

Methods: Using data from 792,606 adolescents from 35 countries (51% girls; mean age = 13.5; standard deviation 1.

Cultural accommodation of internet-based interventions for substance use and related disorders: a proposed comprehensive framework based on a pilot study and a literature review.

Despite the low utilization rates of substance use and related disorders services, and the ability of internet-based interventions for substance use and related disorders (IBIS) to address challenges related to service engagement, limited attention has been placed on the processes for the accommodation of these interventions to diverse cultural settings. This study aimed to develop a framework for the cultural accommodation of IBIS across populations based on a pilot study and a literature review. A pilot study of cultural accommodation of an existing internet intervention for alcohol use was carried out in Israel, which involved focus groups and daily online surveys of prospective consumers ( = 24) as well as interviews with experts ( = 7) in the substance abuse treatment field.

Risk, resilience and family relationships among at-risk Ethiopian immigrant youth in Israel: A focus group investigation.

Despite the pivotal role that parents play in their adolescent children's lives, intervention programs aimed at at-risk, immigrant youth have often neglected the role of the parents. Informed by an ecological perspective, the current study explored how the intersecting experiences of parents and adolescents in the Ethiopian immigrant community in Israel inform adolescent risk and resilience. A sample of 55 parents and adolescent children, who were involved in a program serving at-risk families, and eight service providers participated in five focus groups.

Impact of new country, discrimination, and acculturation-related factors on depression and anxiety among ex-Soviet Jewish migrants: data from a population-based cross-national comparison study.

Migration, displacement, and flight are major worldwide phenomena and typically pose challenges to mental health. Therefore, migrants' mental health, and the factors which may predict it, have become an important research subject. The present population-based cross-national comparison study explores symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization, as well as quality-of-life in samples of ex-Soviet Jewish migrants settling in three new countries: Germany, Austria and Israel, as well as in a sample of non-migrant ex-Soviet Jews in their country of origin, Russia.

Access to medical care and its association with physical injury in adolescents: a cross-national analysis.

Background: Strong variations in injury rates have been documented cross-nationally. Historically, these have been attributed to contextual determinants, both social and physical. We explored an alternative, yet understudied, explanation for variations in adolescent injury reporting-that varying access to medical care is, in part, responsible for cross-national differences.

Gender Differences in Bullying Reflect Societal Gender Inequality: A Multilevel Study With Adolescents in 46 Countries.

Purpose: Social patterns in bullying show consistent gender differences in adolescent perpetration and victimization with large cross-national variations. Previous research shows associations between societal gender inequality and gender differences in some violent behaviors in adolescents. Therefore, there is a need to go beyond individual associations and use a more social ecological perspective when examining gender differences in bullying behaviors.

The role of psychologists in international migration research: Complementing other expertise and an interdisciplinary way forward.

This research note addresses the current and potential future role of psychologists in the study of international migration. We review ways in which psychologists have contributed to the study of migration, as well as ways in which psychological scholarship could be integrated with work from other social science fields. Broadly, we discuss four major contributions that psychology brings to the study of international migration-studying migrants' internal psychological experiences, incorporating a developmental perspective, conducting experimental studies, and integrating across levels of analysis.

Positive and negative social contacts with immigrants from different groups: Investigating the role of group appraisal and opportunity for contact using network analysis.

What can enhance positive inter-group contacts in a world of mass immigration is a subject high on the theoretical and practical agenda. However, there is a lack of research examining how contacts with different immigrant groups are related to characteristics of the group, as perceived by the receiving society. Using Threat-Benefit Theory (Tartakovsky & Walsh, 2016a, 2016b, 2019, 2020), the present study examines how different domains of positive and negative appraisal of a specific immigrant group may relate to contacts with group members.

Mental Health in Adolescents with a Migration Background in 29 European Countries: The Buffering Role of Social Capital.

Previous research is inconclusive as to whether having an immigration background acts as a risk factor for poor mental health in adolescents, and furthermore, what contribution the social context in which adolescents grow up may make. To address these questions, the current study uses an integrative resilience framework to investigate the association between immigration background and adolescent mental health, and the moderating role of social capital at the individual, the school, and the national level. The study uses data gathered from nationally representative samples of adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 years (N = 63,425 (52.

Personal Value Preferences, Threat-Benefit Appraisal of Immigrants and Levels of Social Contact: Looking Through the Lens of the Stereotype Content Model.

The study examines a model proposing relationships between personal values, positive (i.e., benefits) and negative (i.

Smoking behavior and symptoms of depression and anxiety among young adult backpackers: Results from a short longitudinal study.

Levels of smoking and smoking initiation have been found to increase during the transition to adulthood. Symptoms of depression and anxiety may both precede or follow smoking behavior, yet there is equivocal evidence regarding the direction of this relationship. The aim of the current study was to examine the direction of this relationship in a group of young adult backpackers who traveled to social environments which are permissive of smoking.

"What's a normal weight?" - Origin and receiving country influences on weight-status assessment among 1.5 and 2nd generation immigrant adolescents in Europe.

Many adolescents struggle with adequately assessing their weight-status, often leading to unnecessary weight-related interventions or preventing necessary ones. The prevalence of weight-status over- and underestimation differs considerably cross-nationally, suggesting that individual weight-status assessment is informed by cross-nationally differing standards of evaluation. For adolescents with a migration background, this brings up the possibility of a simultaneous influence of origin- and receiving country standards.

Cross-National Time Trends in Adolescent Mental Well-Being From 2002 to 2018 and the Explanatory Role of Schoolwork Pressure.

Purpose: Previous research has shown inconsistent time trends in adolescent mental well-being, but potential underlying mechanisms for such trends are yet to be examined. This study investigates cross-national time trends in adolescent mental well-being (psychosomatic health complaints and life satisfaction) in mainly European countries and the extent to which time trends in schoolwork pressure explain these trends.

Methods: Data from 915,054 adolescents from 36 countries (50.

Clusters of Contemporary Risk and Their Relationship to Mental Well-Being Among 15-Year-Old Adolescents Across 37 Countries.

Purpose: Adolescents' mental well-being has become a growing public health concern. Adolescents' daily lives and their engagement in risks have changed dramatically in the course of the 21st century, leading to a need to update traditional models of risk to include new exposures and behaviors. To date, studies have examined the relationship between (mainly traditional) risk behaviors and adolescent mental well-being or looked at risk factors that jeopardize mental well-being such as lack of social support but have not combined them together to highlight the most significant risks for adolescent mental well-being today.

Intersectionality and Adolescent Mental Well-being: A Cross-Nationally Comparative Analysis of the Interplay Between Immigration Background, Socioeconomic Status and Gender.

Purpose: Intersectionality theory highlights the importance of the interplay of multiple social group memberships in shaping individual mental well-being. This article investigates elements of adolescent mental well-being (life dissatisfaction and psychosomatic complaints) from an intersectional perspective. It tests mental well-being consequences of membership in combinations of multiple social groups and examines to what extent such intersectional effects depend on the national context (immigration and integration policies, national-level income, and gender equality).

Social Media Use and Cyber-Bullying: A Cross-National Analysis of Young People in 42 Countries.

Purpose: Social media use (SMU) has become an intrinsic part of adolescent life. Negative consequences of SMU for adolescent health could include exposures to online forms of aggression. We explored age, gender, and cross-national differences in adolescents' engagement in SMU, then relationships between SMU and victimization and the perpetration of cyber-bullying.

Factors affecting the psychological well-being of immigrants: The role of group self-appraisal, social contacts, and perceived ethnic density.

Objectives: Using a threat-benefit theory (Tartakovsky & Walsh, 2016b, 2019; Walsh, Tartakovsky, & Shifter-David, 2018), we aimed to examine a new theoretical model in which the psychological well-being of immigrants is associated with the appraisal of their own immigrant group as bringing benefits (and not just threats) to the receiving society. The model suggests that group self-appraisal is related to psychological well-being, both directly and indirectly, through levels of social contact with the majority population and fellow immigrants.

Method: The survey was conducted in a representative sample of 400 adult first-generation immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel.

A Phenomenological Study of Immigrant Parents of Adolescents with Delinquent Behavior in Israel.

Scarce qualitative literature has focused on understanding the perspective of parents of adolescents involved in crime, and no prior literature has examined how the status of being a parent of an adolescent who is involved in delinquency intersects with being an immigrant parent. The current phenomenological study examined, through the eyes of immigrant parents, how they comprehend their children's involvement in delinquent behavior. This study examined in-depth semistructured interviews conducted with fourteen immigrant parents (10 mothers and 4 fathers) from the former Soviet Union in Israel of children treated in rehabilitation facilities for delinquent youth.

Is there "smoke without fire"? Applying the theory of values to the study of motivational aspects of ethnic stereotypes: The case of Jewish stereotypes in Russia.

Few studies have examined to what extent commonly held stereotypes reflect real intergroup differences in motivational goals. Taking a values perspective (Schwartz et al., 2012), the study examines value preferences among Jews and Russians in Russia, to assess the extent to which commonly held stereotypes reflect values of group members.

Bullying victimization: time trends and the overlap between traditional and cyberbullying across countries in Europe and North America.

Objectives: This study explores recent cross-national trends over time (2002-2014) in the occurrence of victimization by bullying; then it documents the overlap between cybervictimization and traditional bullying in 2014 among adolescents in 37 countries.

Methods: Data from four cycles (2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014) of the cross-national Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study were included (N = 764,518). Trends in traditional victimization were evaluated using logistic regression models in 37 countries.

Early adulthood psychiatric diagnoses and the subsequent risk of life-time incarceration: a cohort study.

Background: The association between incarceration and psychiatric disorders has been noted. Yet, existing studies are cross-sectional or examine the risk of recidivism, which has limited the predictive validity of psychiatric disorders as a risk factor for incarceration. To overcome this limitation, this study used a prospective cohort to examine whether psychiatric diagnoses in early adulthood predicted incarceration throughout a 30-year follow-up.

Association of Early-Life Exposure to Income Inequality With Bullying in Adolescence in 40 Countries.

Importance: While the association between income inequality and interpersonal violence has been attributed to the psychosocial effects of inequality (eg, increased class anxiety, reduced social capital), longitudinal evidence for this pathway is limited by a reliance on small ecological studies and cross-sectional data. The developmental consequences of early-life inequality for subsequent involvement in violence have not been investigated.

Objective: To examine the association between income inequality during infancy and early childhood and adolescents' involvement in bullying others, experiences of being bullied, or both.

Ethnic Disparities in Physical Activity among Adolescents in Israel.

In this study, we examined physical activity (PA) levels among Jewish and Arab adolescents in Israel, as well as factors associated with PA. We used a socio-ecological framework to understand differences in levels of PA across ethnic groups and the factors associated with these differences. We used data based on the Israeli population as reported in the 2014-15 Health Behavior of School-Aged Children standardized survey, which studied 16,145 Israeli adolescents.