Влияние на социалната среда върху психо-соматичното и психично здраве в юношеска възраст
Social context and its impact on adolescents’ psychosomatic and mental health

Summary/Abstract: Objective: The importance of social context for raising healthy young people is higher in adolescence. This study investigates the impact of many factors coming from different social domains on adolescents’ health. Methods: A national representative sample of 11-, 13- and 15-aged Bulgarian students was investigated as part of the international network “Health behavior in school-aged children”. The adolescents rated their health by means of three different instruments–the Psychosomatic checklist, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire. Factors related to family (parental communication, satisfaction from family relations, family affluence), to school (communications with teachers and classmates, bullying at school) and spending time with peers outside school were studied. Results: Binary logistic regression models were used to estimate the impact of the investigated factors on thestudied health indicators. The analyses demonstrated that good communication, no matter with whom - parents, teachers or peers, is most influential on adolescents’health. It is very important for children and adolescents to share their problems, to have a high level of perceived support and acceptance from their parents, teachers and peers. Relevancy and contributions: Teaching good communication skills is an important task for both parents and teachers. The combined efforts of parents, teachers, psychologists and experts on adolescent’ health are needed to increase these protective mechanisms of the immediate social context. The measures for overcoming aggression and bullying play an important role for improving the school setting.

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