Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 407e417

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Psychosocial working conditions: An analysis of emotional symptoms and conduct problems amongst adolescent students Stephanie Plenty a, *, Viveca Östberg a, Ylva B. Almquist a, Lilly Augustine b, Bitte Modin a a b

Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden Swedish National Institute of Public Health (FHI), SE-831 40 Östersund, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Available online 31 March 2014

This study explored how psychosocial features of the schoolwork environment are associated with students’ mental health. Data was drawn from 3699 ninth grade (15 year-old) Swedish students participating in the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey. Using Structural Equation Modelling, perceived school demands, decision control and social support from teachers, classmates and parents were examined in relation to students’ emotional and conduct problems. Higher demands were associated with greater emotional symptoms and conduct problems. Although weaker social support predicted emotional symptoms and conduct problems, the relative influence of teachers, classmates and parents differed. Teacher support was more closely associated with conduct problems, particularly for girls, while classmate support was more strongly related to emotional symptoms. The findings indicate that while excessive school pressure is associated with poorer mental health, social support can assist in optimising adolescents’ emotional health and adaptive behaviour, as well as shaping perceptions of demands. Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Adolescence School stress Social support Emotional symptoms Conduct problems

Introduction Internalising and externalising problems during adolescence can impair academic achievement (McLeod & Fettes, 2009; McLeod, Uemura, & Rohrman, 2012) and have serious implications for students’ future physical and mental health (Fergusson, Horwood, & Ridder, 2005; Kasen & Cohen, 2009). Despite these concerns, emotional and conduct problems amongst young people are prevalent (Mojtabai, 2006; Pastor, Reuben, & Duran, 2012), and rates have increased in recent decades (Lager, Berlin, Heimerson, & Danielsson, 2012). Poor psychological and behavioural adjustment are often related to stressors (Longest & Thoits, 2012; Thoits, 2010) and school is a commonly reported source of distress amongst adolescents (Children’s Ombudsman, 2004:03, 2010:01). While demands are a part of working life, studies on adults show that excessive stressful conditions can have detrimental effects on health and wellbeing. Stress arises when an individual perceives a lack of resources available to help manage

* Corresponding author. CHESS, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: þ46 8 674 79 87. E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Plenty). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.03.008 0140-1971/Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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challenges (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The DemandeControleSupport (DCS) model (Karasek, 1979; Karasek & Theorell, 1990) describes aspects of work conditions that can help explain links between stress and poor health. This model presents control over working conditions and social support from supervisors and colleagues as critical resources for coping with work demands. Demands generally refer to time pressures and workload, while control refers to an individual’s degree of autonomy and decision authority over his or her work activities. Social support includes experiencing trust and affiliation (emotional support), as well as practical guidance to reach goals (instrumental support) (Karasek & Theorell, 1990). According to the DCS model, situations presenting high demands, low control and low support are likely to produce psychological strain, leading to ill health. High levels of control and social support are proposed to facilitate adaptive coping and also buffer the negative effects of excessive demands (Kaplan, Cassel, & Gore, 1977). Although the DCS model was developed within an occupational setting, students’ work situation shares many parallels with the adult work environment, such as deadlines, authority hierarchies and limited control over tasks and activities (Modin, Östberg, Toivanen, & Sundell, 2011). Although the spectrum of demands and decision control may be narrower for students than for employees, the health-related implications of these two dimensions need not necessarily be any less. Students report a considerable variation in the degree to which they receive practical help and emotional support from teachers, parents and other students (Brolin Låftman & Östberg, 2006; Hjern, Alfvén, & Östberg 2008). In regards to health benefits, these sources of social support may function in a similar way as supervisors and colleagues do for adult employees. Furthermore, adolescence is characterised by increased needs for autonomy, self- and relationship development (Eccles et al., 1993) and mismatches between these needs and the learning environment are likely stressors contributing to poor adjustment (Eccles & Midgley, 1989). In addition, Swedish students are covered by the Swedish Work Environment Act (Ministry of Labour, 1977: 1160; Swedish Work Environment Authority, 2007). This means that school principals, like employers, are obliged to provide a physical and psychosocial work environment in a way that promotes student wellbeing. Therefore, applying the DCS framework to adolescent mental health appears to be a fruitful approach to further understanding of how school-related stress may relate to emotional symptoms and conduct problems. Empirical findings within the school setting In line with expectations from the DCS model, experiencing excessive school pressure is positively associated with negative affect and psychosomatic complaints (Eriksson & Sellström, 2010; Gillander Gådin & Hammarström, 2003; Hjern et al., 2008; Natvig, Albrektsen, Anderssen & Qvarnstrøm, 1999). Although the model presents control (decision authority) as a key protective factor for coping with demands (work pressures), findings within the school context involving psychological symptoms (Gillander Gådin & Hammarström, 2003; Modin & Östberg, 2007), happiness (Natvig, Albrektsen, & Qvarnstrøm, 2003) and psychosomatic complaints (Natvig et al., 1999; Torsheim & Wold, 2001) have been inconsistent. Furthermore, a recent systematic review found limited evidence for the positive effects of student participation in class decision-making on health and externalising behaviours, such as fighting (Mager & Nowak, 2012). Social support is especially relevant to adolescence as this is a period of development when relational needs become particularly salient (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Wentzel, 1998). The importance of social relations has also been emphasised within developmental and motivational theories, arguing that social support is a fundamental psychological need for adaptive coping and wellbeing (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Bowlby, 1979; Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Ryan & Deci, 2000). During childhood parents are generally considered the main source of support, with the family environment being very important for both student achievement and health. Instrumental support (e.g. help with homework) from parents can be a particularly important resource for helping students cope with schoolwork. Moreover, due to their proximity to the school context, teachers are especially relevant and can readily act through both instrumental and emotional support (Danielsen, Samdal, Hetland, & Wold, 2009; Niemiec & Ryan, 2009). Perceptions of stronger parent and teacher support, involving caring and helpfulness are associated with lower psychological distress and psychosomatic symptoms, as well as less delinquency (Brolin Låftman & Östberg, 2006; Cattley, 2004; Fagg, Curtis, Stansfeld, & Congdon, 2006; Hjern et al., 2008; Murberg & Bru, 2009; Wang, 2009; Wang & Dishion, 2012). However, given the centrality of friendships to adolescence (Berndt, 1999), the role of peers should not be overlooked. While peer support is associated with academic outcomes, they are thought to play a key role in non-academic outcomes, particularly in emotion regulation (Martin, Marsh, McInerney, & Green, 2009; Wentzel, 1998). Similar to adults, lower peer support and acceptance is also associated with greater emotional problems, psychosomatic complaints and problem behaviour (Brolin Låftman & Östberg, 2006; Lopez & Dubois, 2005; Wang & Dishion, 2012). There is some evidence to suggest that peer support is particularly relevant for emotional symptoms and teacher support for conduct problems, while parent support is important for both types of difficulties (Garnefski & Diekstra, 1996; Stewart & Suldo, 2011). Thus, although teachers are in close proximity to a major stressor (school demands), support from classmates, parents and teachers may have unique implications for different aspects of mental health. However, it is important to consider these associations within adolescents’ work context by also addressing their perceptions of school demands and decision control. When multiple features of the psychosocial work environment are considered, school demands and peer relations have been shown to play a greater role in emotional difficulties (depression and anxiety) and psychosomatic symptoms than perceptions of decision control, teacher support or general social support (Gillander Gådin & Hammarström, 2003; Torsheim & Wold, 2001). However, a better understanding of the relative influence of decision control and social support, as well as their capacity to buffer against the negative consequences of stressful conditions is needed. Furthermore, as most research in

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this area has focused on psychosomatic and psychological difficulties, the implications that these processes may have for conduct problems is less clear. Gender differences A common trend during adolescence is for girls to report greater emotional difficulties, while boys show higher rates of conduct problems (Charbonneau, Mezulis, & Hyde, 2009; Hankin, Mermelstein, & Roesch, 2007; Ries Merikangas et al., 2010). Studies using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997), a widely used screening test for mental health problems, have consistently found such gender differences in the subscales of emotional symptoms and conduct problems (Smedje, Broman, Hetta, & Von Knorring, 1999; Van de Looij-Jansen, Goedhart, De Wilde, & Treffers, 2011; Van Roy, Grøholt, Heyerdahl, & Clench-Aas, 2006). In relation to school specifically, girls also tend to report greater school demands (Brolin Låftman & Modin, 2012), as well as academic worry and stress (Murberg & Bru, 2004; Plenty & Heubeck, 2013). Furthermore, girls are likely to be more relationally oriented than boys (e.g., Cheng & Chan, 2004; Johnson, 2004; Rueger, Malecki, & Demaray, 2008), often reporting greater social support from parents, teachers and peers (Bokhorst, Sumter, & Westenberg, 2010). These gender differences in experiences of school demands and social support may lead to differences in the relevance of these factors for boys’ and girls’ emotional and conduct problems. Some research has found that school demands do have a stronger effect on emotional symptoms for girls than boys (Eriksson & Sellström, 2010; Gillander Gådin & Hammarström, 2003; Undheim & Sund, 2005). Similar gender moderation effects have also been observed for social support, with several studies showing teacher, parent and/or peer relations playing a stronger role in girls’ psychological wellbeing and school stress than boys’ (Gådin Gillander & Hammarström, 2003; Rudolph, 2002; Undheim & Sund, 2005; Vieno, Santinello, Galbiati, & Mirandola, 2004). Others have found that support, particularly from classmates and school staff, is actually more relevant to the psychological and behavioural problems of boys (Hart & Mueller, 2013; Kuperminc, Leadbeater, & Blatt, 2001; Murberg & Bru, 2004; Rueger, Malecki, & Demaray, 2010; Wang & Dishion, 2012). However, several studies have also failed to find gender differences in the correlates of emotional and conduct problems (Brolin Låftman & Östberg, 2006; Loukas, Suzuki, & Horton, 2006; Shochet, Smith, Furlong, & Homel, 2011). Aim The current study will examine features of the psychosocial work environment that can serve to enhance student mental health from a DCS model perspective. This will build upon and extend previous research by using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to apply the three key dimensions of the DCS model to the schoolwork context and investigate both emotional and conduct difficulties; two key indicators of adolescent mental health that are often characterised by gender differences. To gain a multidimensional perspective of social support multiple sources (teachers, classmates and parents) will be examined. Potential buffering effects of decision control and social support against any negative effects of school demands on emotional symptoms and conduct problems will also be investigated. The hypothesised model is presented in Fig. 1, with school demands, decision control and the three sources of social support as five independent variables and emotional symptoms and conduct problems as two dependent variables. The following research questions are addressed: 1) Is school demands positively associated with both emotional symptoms and conduct problems? 2) Are perceived decision control and support from teachers, classmates and parents negatively associated with both emotional symptoms and conduct problems? If so, what is the relative importance of these resources for the two outcomes? 3) Does decision control and/or social support buffer the negative effect of demands on emotional symptoms and conduct problems? 4) Regarding gender differences, the analyses will a) evaluate whether the hypothesised measurement model is suitable for both boys and girls, b) examine mean differences in factor ratings and c) explore gender moderation effects on the associations amongst these factors. Method Participants and procedure This study draws on data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The HBSC survey is a large ongoing international project carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organisation with the aim to improve understanding of adolescent health, health behaviours and the social environment. The current study was based on Swedish data from the 2005/2006 and 2009/2010 surveys. This comprised of 3699 Grade 9 students (girls 49.91%; boys 50.19%; mean age ¼ 15.46, S.D. ¼ .34) from 180 school classes. Using a standardised procedure, the sample was recruited by using cluster sampling in two steps. First, a randomised sample of schools across Sweden was selected and then one class within each school was recruited. Principals and students provided informed consent. Parents were informed of the study and provided

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Too much Difficult

School demands

Tiring Fights Rules Acvies

Decision control

Class me

Obedient Conduct problems

Tempers Lies

Fair Friendly

Steals

Teacher support

Worries

Extra help

Fears

Get along Nice & helpful

Classmate support

Accept me

Emoonal symptoms

Unhappy Somac Nervous

School problems

Interested

Parent support

Homework Fig. 1. Hypothesised model. Note. Although multiple interactions will be explored, for simplicity, only the interaction between school demands and control is presented in Fig. 1; Correlations between the latent factors were modelled but are not shown for simplicity.

passive consent. Students completed self-report questionnaires during normal lesson time, with 45 min reserved for completion. They were informed that participation was voluntary and that their responses were anonymous. See Currie et al. (2010, 2012), Currie, Nic Gabhainn, and Godeau (2009) and Roberts et al. (2009) for a more detailed description of the HBSC survey, including survey design, sampling procedures, and ethical considerations.

Measures Emotional symptoms and conduct problems The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997) was used to assess emotional symptoms and conduct problems. The SDQ is a brief questionnaire designed to measure psychological wellbeing in children and adolescents. It consists of 25 items measuring five subscales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention, peer problems, and prosocial behaviour. Each subscale is hypothesised to consist of five items to which students rate themselves on a three-point response scale (‘not true’, ‘somewhat true’ and ‘certainly true’), reflecting how they have felt over the past six months. The current study focused on the two subscales addressing emotional symptoms (i.e. worrying, feeling fearful, unhappy, experiencing somatic complaints and nervousness) and conduct problems (i.e. fighting, obedience, losing one’s temper, lying or cheating, and stealing). Goodman, Meltzer, and Bailey (1997), Goodman (2000, 2001) report satisfactory reliability and validity of the SDQ. However, questions have been raised regarding the factor structure, particularly within Swedish samples and also application of the instrument across gender (Dickey & Blumberg, 2004; Essau et al., 2012; Hagquist, 2007; Koskelainen, Sourander, & Vauras, 2001; Smedje et al., 1999; Svedin & Priebe, 2008; Van de Looij-Jansen et al., 2011; Van Roy, Veenstra, & ClenchAas, 2008). Therefore, it was of interest to evaluate the suitability of the SDQ subscales within the current sample and also establish a gender-invariant model of emotional symptoms and conduct problems. Psychosocial working conditions School-related demands, decision control and social support were each comprised of three indicators. Students rated their agreement with statements on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘absolutely disagree’ to ‘absolutely agree’. In previous publications using HBSC data, these subscales have shown good validity and reliability (Haapasalo, Välimaa, & Kannas, 2010; Natvig et al.,. 1999; Samdal, Wold, & Torsheim, 1998; Torsheim & Wold, 2001; Torsheim, Wold, & Samdal, 2000). School demands reflect perceived pressures from schoolwork: ‘I have too much schoolwork’, ‘I find schoolwork difficult’ and ‘I find schoolwork tiring’.

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Decision control reflects students’ opportunities to exert an influence on their work at school: ‘Students help decide the rules’, ‘Students help decide which activities they do in class’, and ‘Students help decide how class time is used’. Teacher support measured perceptions of teachers as fair, friendly and available: ‘Our teachers treat us fairly’, ‘Most of my teachers are friendly’ and ‘If I need extra help I can get it from teachers’. Classmate support assessed peer affiliation, helpfulness and acceptance: ‘Students in my class get along together’, ‘Most of the students in my class are nice and helpful’ and ‘Other students accept me as I am’. Parent support addressed parent involvement and interest in their child’s schoolwork: ‘If I have a problem at school, my parents try to help me’, ‘My parents are interested in what happens to me at school’, and ‘My parents help me with my homework’. Statistical analyses Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and SEM using Mplus Version 6 (Muthén & Muthén, 2012) were performed. This involved using a two-step model-building process: first establishing the measurement model and then testing the structural model. All analyses controlled for clustering of students within schools to produce adjusted model fit indices and ensure that standard errors were not under-estimated. All items were treated as ordered-categorical measures, using a weighted least squares estimator. When using CFA and SEM, a hypothesised model (Fig. 1) is compared to the observed data (Barrett, 2007) and several indicators are considered to evaluate model fit. The current study used the chi-square test statistic, as well as the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), the TuckereLewis Index (TLI), and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). CFI and TLI values above .90 (Marsh, Hau, & Wen, 2004) and .95 reflect acceptable and excellent fit, respectively, while a RMSEA below or near .06 indicates an acceptable fit of data to a model (Hu & Bentler, 1999). To improve model specification, Modification Indices (MI) were examined to empirically identify potential sources of model misfit. As this procedure can risk freeing parameters that reflect sampling variability, MI suggestions were evaluated conservatively and only conceptually feasible paths were added. Multigroup CFAs were performed to assess measurement invariance across gender. This confirms if the factor structure fits in a similar way and that scale items function similarly across gender (Meade & Lautenschlager, 2004). Support for measurement invariance is accepted if model fit does not decrease significantly as equality constraints across groups are imposed on features of the model (Byrne, Shavelson, & Muthén, 1989), as indicated by chi-square differences tests. However, in large samples chi-square tends to be oversensitive (Barrett, 2007; Dumenci & Achenbach, 2008) and so changes in fit indices greater than .01 were also used as indicators of measurement non-invariance (Cheung & Rensvold, 2002). The first model allowed all factor loadings, thresholds and residuals to be freely estimated across gender. Subsequent models then progressively held each feature of the model equal across the groups. Multigroup analysis was also performed to examine the moderating role of gender in associations amongst the latent variables by comparing models with the structural paths freely estimated across gender to models with the paths held equal. Across all variables, less than 5% data was missing. Fourteen cases missing all data were excluded from the analyses, reducing the final sample to 3685 participants. Mplus uses all available data to estimate models using full information maximum likelihood estimation. This means that for missing data, each parameter is estimated directly without first filling missing data values for each individual (Muthén & Muthén, 2012). Results Measurement model: model fit and measurement invariance First, the factor structure of the 7-factor measurement model was examined. As seen in Table 1, this showed reasonable model fit. However several problematic indicators within the emotional symptoms and conduct problem factors were identified. Items obedient and nervous had low factor-loadings (.40 on conduct problems and .52 on emotional problems, respectively) and modification indices showed that tempers cross-loaded heavily on emotional problems. Similar findings were observed for males and females. Furthermore, items obedient and tempers were non-invariant across gender. At a given level of the latent construct (conduct problems), girls were more likely to endorse higher categories of these two items than boys. The measurement model was then modified by removing obedient and tempers, as these items were consistently failing to adequately reflect conduct problems. This resulted in excellent model fit and measurement invariance across gender. Descriptive statistics Descriptive statistics for the latent factors are presented in Table 2 and correlations in Table 3. Overall, students tended to report greater emotional symptoms than conduct problems. Social support from parents appeared to show the highest mean score, followed by classmates and teachers. As expected, girls reported significantly more emotional symptoms and fewer conduct problems than boys. Girls also reported greater school demands and lower classmate support than boys. All correlations amongst the latent constructs were in the expected direction. However, decision control showed a very strong positive association with teacher support.

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Table 1 Measurement model fit and measurement invariance.

Original model 7-Factors 7-Factors boys 7-Factors girls Modified model 7-Factors 7-Factors boys 7-Factors girls No constraints Factor þ thresholdsa Factor loadings þ thresholds þ residualsa

X2

df

CFI

TLI

RMSEA

1633.87 937.60 830.89

252 252 252

.96 .95 .97

.95 .95 .96

.039 .039 .035

943.30 682.50 578.72 1530.81 1903.74 1859.93

207 207 207 414 483 499

.98 .97 .98 .98 .97 .97

.97 .96 .97 .97 .97 .97

.031 .035 .031 .038 .040 .039

Note. Factors included: School demands, decision control, as well as teacher, classmate and parent support, emotional symptoms and conduct problems. a x2 diff ¼ .10). Modification indices indicated that a direct path with teacher support predicting school demands could be added to improve model specification. As this path was theoretically plausible, it was added to the final model and for parsimony, decision control was removed from the final model. Results for the final SEM model are presented in Fig. 2 (x2 ¼ 789.63, df ¼ 157, p < .05; CFI ¼ .97; TLI ¼ .97; RMSEA ¼ .033). School demands, as well as classmate support and parent support significantly predicted emotional symptoms (R2 ¼ .22). School demands showed the strongest association with emotional symptoms, followed by classmate support and then parent support. School demands were positively associated with conduct problems, while teacher support and parent support showed negative associations (R2 ¼ .18). Classmate support showed no significant association with conduct problems. Teacher support had the strongest effect on conduct problems, followed by school demands and parent support. Teacher support negatively predicted school demands (R2 ¼ .12) and showed an indirect effect on emotional symptoms through school demands (b ¼ .12). The total effect of teacher support on conduct problems however was mostly direct (b ¼ .23), with very little (b ¼ .07) acting indirectly through school demands. Two significant gender moderation effects were observed. The effect of teacher support on school demands was significantly stronger for girls than boys, as was the effect of teacher support on conduct problems. Interactions between school demands and social support were explored but none were significant. In other words, no buffering effects of social support were observed. Discussion The current findings indicate that features of the psychosocial work environment are important for promoting emotional and behavioural adjustment amongst students. Perceived school demands and social support from teachers, classmates and parents each played a role in adolescents’ mental health. However the relative importance of these constructs differed for emotional symptoms and conduct problems. Parental support was associated with both outcomes, while teachers were most relevant for conduct problems and classmates for emotional symptoms. Furthermore, features of the work environment were interrelated, as teacher support showed important associations with students’, particularly girls’, experiences of school demands. Consistent with expectations, students who felt more pressured by schoolwork also showed greater emotional symptoms and conduct problems. However, school demands were more closely related to emotional symptoms than conduct problems. Efforts to reduce students’ emotional and also conduct problems could benefit by addressing how they appraise assessment Table 2 Descriptive statistics for all latent factors. Range

Emotional symptoms Conduct problems School demands Decision control Teacher support Classmate support Parent support

0e2 0e2 1e5 1e5 1e5 1e5 1e5

a .69 .62 .76 .77 .75 .81 .83

Mean

.52 .25 3.68 2.94 3.86 4.02 4.31

SD

.48 .41 .82 .87 .74 .76 .76

Boys

Girls

U

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

.40 .34 3.60 2.92 3.86 4.05 4.33

.38 .45 .87 .94 .79 .76 .76

.75 .17 3.76 2.96 3.85 3.99 4.29

.45 .33 .76 .79 .68 .76 .77

Note. a ¼ Cronbach’s alpha; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001. Gender differences examined using ManneWhitney U Tests.

24.73*** 13.31*** 5.31*** 1.05 1.24 2.75** 1.39

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Table 3 Correlations between latent factors for the CFA and SEM analyses.

Conduct problems School demands Decision control Teacher support Classmate support Parent support

ES

CP

.24 .37 .07 .22 .32 .23

e .30 .18 .36 .17 .26

SD

DC

TS

CS

e .19 .34 .13 .15

e .60 .26 .26

e .42 .42

e .36

Note. ES ¼ Emotional symptoms; CP ¼ Conduct problems; SD ¼ School demands; DC ¼ Decision control; TS ¼ Teacher support; CS ¼ Classmate support.

tasks and the available resources. Taking steps to boost students’ understanding of school tasks, as well as their confidence and motivation to complete them may contribute to improved coping strategies and emotional health. It could be expected that students with poor conduct would be unconcerned by school demands (due to poor motivation and other priorities) and so no significant relationship would be observed. However, feeling daunted and exhausted by schoolwork was associated with a weaker tendency to engage in socially cohesive behaviour. Rather than simply apathy or disinterest in school, the current findings suggest that behavioural problems may reflect frustration or difficulties with learning tasks. Consistent with previous research (e.g. Charbonneau et al., 2009; Ries Merikangas et al., 2010; Van de Looij-Jansen et al., 2011; Van Roy et al., 2006), girls reported significantly more emotional symptoms, while boys reported more behavioural problems. However, girls also reported weaker classmate support than boys. As peer relations tend to be very salient for adolescents’ sense of self-worth and happiness, lower perceptions of classmate support may have contributed to girls’ relatively stronger emotional symptoms. Overall however, there were few gender differences in ratings of social support, suggesting that differences in the types of difficulties typically experienced by each gender are not primarily driven by differing levels of perceived support. Consistent with previous observations that girls tend to experience greater academic pressure and worry than boys (Brolin Låftman & Modin, 2012; Murberg & Bru, 2004; Plenty & Heubeck, 2013), girls in the current study also reported significantly greater school demands. Overall, a fairly consistent pattern of associations amongst the latent constructs was observed across gender. Despite the differences in mean ratings, school demands was associated with emotional and conduct problems to a similar extent for boys and girls, as were social support from classmates and parents. The role of teacher social support however, was an exception, with the importance of teacher relationships in conduct problems and also school demands being stronger for girls.

Too much Difficult

.78

School demands

-.45*** / -.25***

Tiring

Fair

Fights Conduct problems

Steals

.70

Teacher support

Friendly

-11**

.77

Worries

Extra help Get along Nice & helpful

Lies

.88

Classmate support

Emoonal symptoms

Fears Unhappy Somac

Accept me Nervous School problems

Interested

Parent support

Homework Fig. 2. Final model (Girls/Boys). Note. See Table 3 for correlations between the latent factors.

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The current study’s application of the DCS model showed that the quality of support can influence how individuals perceive and cope with work pressures. Thus for students who feel particularly burdened with schoolwork, a focus on improving perceptions of teachers as helpful, fair and approachable could be useful. Interestingly, despite showing a significant bivariate relationship, teacher support showed no significant effect on emotional symptoms after the effect of school demands were accounted for. This finding is consistent with suggestions that perceptions of stress are relative and do not occur in isolation of the social environment (Calvete & Connor-Smith, 2006). Despite expectations, no buffering effects of social support were observed. Instead, social support played an independent and additive role in supporting students’ psychological and behavioural adjustment. Furthermore, perceptions of a generally cohesive peer social environment were more relevant for emotional wellbeing than teacher or parent support. However, the modification indices revealed that the classmate support item, ‘other students accept me as I am’ was particularly associated with emotional symptoms (results not shown). This may indicate that being accepted as you are by same-aged peers is of special relevance for emotional heath during adolescence. It may also indicate however, that the personal relevance of support is central to the protective processes of social affiliation, as the other two items addressed the general social atmosphere amongst classmates. Contrary to the hypothesised model, student decision control, represented by involvement in decision-making in class or school-wide activities, showed no unique associations with the two outcomes. This is consistent with a growing body of research showing little influence of student decision making and democratic participation on health outcomes (Mager & Nowak, 2012), especially when the effect of demands and social support have been taken into account. Perhaps the null finding for decision control reflects the current measure’s reliance on an overall judgement, rather than a reflection of the student’s personal experience. Previous studies have shown that having a personal sense of control predicts adaptive emotional regulation and behaviour (see Leotti, Iyengar, & Oschner, 2010; Thompson, 2009). Thus, even if the student-body is permitted to participate in certain types of decision-making, this may have little impact on student wellbeing and effective coping strategies unless individuals feel that they can personally influence outcomes. Another explanation may be that processes of stress can share curvilinear associations with adaptive coping. Natvig et al. (2003) identified a U-shape effect for decision control on student reports of happiness, where the unhappiest students actually reported the highest decision control. Future research could further explore the role of different types of control within the school context and the role of possible non-linear effects. Limitations A key limitation of the current study was the cross-sectional design and so causal assumptions within the model must be considered with this in mind. While theory and previous findings indicate that social relations affect health (House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988), there is likely to be a reciprocal relationship between social support and such outcomes (Cheng, 1997). Although a lack of social support can lead to distress or misbehaviour, adolescents who feel greater negative affect or lower self-control may experience more difficulty in forming and embracing social connections, resulting in lower perceptions of support (Torsheim, Aaroe, & Wold, 2003). This two-way relationship needs further investigation, particularly across time (see Wang & Dishion, 2012). Although no buffering effects of social support were observed, such processes may only be present within subgroups of students. Cheng (1997) found that the buffering effect of social support for depression was only active amongst adolescents with high stress levels. Students with high levels of self-criticism and worry may require instrumental and emotional support to a greater extent than other students. Thus, analyses that examine the whole sample or a student group with relatively low stress levels may not capture such interactions between social support and demands. Although the SDQ is a well-established screening instrument, the current analyses revealed psychometric problems within the conduct problems scale. Items obedient and tempers were removed from the measurement model because they failed to adequately reflect the latent factor and did not perform equivalently across gender. This is consistent with a other studies reporting similar sources of misfit with the SDQ and contributes to suggestions on how the instrument could be improved (for example, Dickey & Blumberg, 2004; Essau et al., 2012; Hagquist, 2007; Koskelainen et al., 2001; Smedje et al., 1999; Svedin & Priebe, 2008; Van de Looij-Jansen et al., 2011). Although self-report data often receives criticisms about its subjective nature, self-report measures were considered appropriate for the purpose of this study. When assessing emotional difficulties, self-report measures are useful because many symptoms can go unnoticed by others (Semrud-Clikeman, Bennett, & Guli, 2003). Furthermore, objective measures of social support may not be as necessary for beneficial outcomes as the perception that one has access to support (Haber, Cohen, Lucas, & Baltes, 2007). Nevertheless, future research comparing multiple informants may shed light on important differences between how events and social interactions can be interpreted by students and observers. Finally, as students were nested in schools, the role of school or class-level effects could be examined to differentiate school environment effects on mental health from factors at the individual-level. Although social support and school-related stress have previously showed moderate levels of variance across school classes, effects of these factors at the individual-level tend to show a stronger influence on wellbeing (Torsheim et al., 2003; Torsheim & Wold, 2001). This suggests that addressing non-shared influences (as done in the current study) is a useful approach to targeting these constructs. Nevertheless, other institutional factors such as school-level SES, GPA or teacher stress may have a moderating influence on the DCS factors and their role should be considered in future research.

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Conclusions A key strength of the current study was to address adolescent wellbeing by considering both emotional symptoms and conduct problems, two facets of mental health that are central to adolescent adjustment and also often characterised by gender differences. By applying the DCS model to the student context, the findings show that optimising features of students’ psychosocial working conditions may assist in facilitating their positive psychological and behavioural wellbeing. However, the results also support literature questioning the health benefits of student involvement in decision making. Efforts towards school effectiveness and health promotion often emphasise the role of school climate, school belonging and student participation. The current findings demonstrate the additional importance of interpersonal social support and also coping skills for managing study pressures. 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