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Measuring Adolescent Mental Health at the Population Level using a Single-Item Indicator of Experiences of Sadness and Hopelessness: A Cross-Sectional Study
Jorge Verlenden;
Sanjana Pampati;
Melissa Heim Viox;
Nancy Brener;
Laima Licitis;
Patricia Dittus;
Kathleen Ethier
ABSTRACT
Background:
Population-level monitoring of adolescent mental health is a critical public health activity used to help define local, state, and federal priorities.
Objective:
Evaluate a single-item indicator of adolescents’ experience of sadness and hopelessness.
Methods:
Data were from a 2022 panel survey of 737 adolescents ages 15 to 19 years. Unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios were calculated to examine associations between a single-item measure of having felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks and three other mental health measures.
Results:
Over 17% of adolescents reported having felt sad or hopeless. After adjusting for demographics, those adolescents were 3.3 times as likely to report moderate to severe depressive symptoms (aPR 3.33, 95% CI 2.45-4.55); 4.8 times as likely to indicate frequent mental distress (aPR 4.75, 95% CI 2.92-7.74); and 7.8 times as likely to indicate mental health usually or always interfered with their ability to do things (aPR 7.78, 95% CI 4.88-12.41).
Conclusions:
Findings suggest the single-item indicator provides a population-level snapshot of adolescent experiences of poor mental health.
Citation
Please cite as:
Verlenden J, Pampati S, Heim Viox M, Brener N, Licitis L, Dittus P, Ethier K
Measuring Population-Level Adolescent Mental Health Using a Single-Item Indicator of Experiences of Sadness and Hopelessness: Cross-Sectional Study