Mental health in Swedish adolescents prior to and three years after the Covid-19 outbreak

Viewing mental health from a two continua perspective, this presentation focuses on results of pooled data from a recurrent cross-sectional survey, carried out in ninth and eleventh grade in lower and upper secondary school of Västmanland county, Sweden, 2020 - weeks prior to the Covid-19 outbreak - and 2023. In total, 7908 students participated of which 50% were girls (2020 N = 3880; 2023 N = 4028; response rate≈72%). A compilation of the results according to the two continua model and the six mental health status groups described in the previous presentation shows that 39.0% are categorized as having Complete Mental Health (CMH), 1.6% as Symptomatic But Content (SBC), 36.7% as Vulnerable (V), and 2.9% as being the Most Vulnerable (MV). Further, 12.8% are categorized as being Troubled (T) and 6.9% as Most Troubled (MT). Statistically significant differences are seen between boys and girls in the categories CMH (boys=47.4%, girls=30.8%), SBC (boys 1.0%, girls 2.1%), T (boys 7.2%, girls 18.3%) and MT (boys 3.7%, girls 10.1%). Significant changes over time, between 2020 and 2023, are seen in SBC (0.9% statistically significant increase) and MV (1.9% statistically significant increase). When divided by sex, significant changes over time are only seen among girls: in CMH (5.3% statistically significant decrease), MV (1.9% statistically significant increase) and SBC (1.3% statistically significant increase). No statistically significant changes are seen over time for boys. The result indicates that only four out of ten adolescents have a CMH. The differences between boys and girls are substantial; almost five out of ten boys and three out of ten girls has CMH. This emphasizes the importance of promoting mental well-being, especially among girls. The result also implies the importance of strengthening well-being in the large group without flourishing mental health since the latter can also provide a buffer against mental illness.