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Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing

Modifiable environmental and behavioural factors influence youth mental health; however, past studies have primarily used regression models that quantify population average effects. Decision trees are an analytic technique that examine complex relationships between factors and identify high-risk sub...

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Autores principales: Battista, Katelyn, Patte, Karen A., Diao, Liqun, Dubin, Joel A., Leatherdale, Scott T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36078594
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710873
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author Battista, Katelyn
Patte, Karen A.
Diao, Liqun
Dubin, Joel A.
Leatherdale, Scott T.
author_facet Battista, Katelyn
Patte, Karen A.
Diao, Liqun
Dubin, Joel A.
Leatherdale, Scott T.
author_sort Battista, Katelyn
collection PubMed
description Modifiable environmental and behavioural factors influence youth mental health; however, past studies have primarily used regression models that quantify population average effects. Decision trees are an analytic technique that examine complex relationships between factors and identify high-risk subgroups to whom intervention measures can be targeted. This study used decision trees to examine associations of various risk factors with youth anxiety, depression, and flourishing. Data were collected from 74,501 students across Canadian high schools participating in the 2018–2019 COMPASS Study. Students completed a questionnaire including validated mental health scales and 23 covariates. Decision trees were grown to identify key factors and subgroups for anxiety, depression, and flourishing outcomes. Females lacking both happy home life and sense of connection to school were at greatest risk for higher anxiety and depression levels. In contrast with previous literature, behavioural factors such as diet, movement and substance use did not emerge as differentiators. This study highlights the influence of home and school environments on youth mental health using a novel decision tree analysis. While having a happy home life is most important in protecting against youth anxiety and depression, a sense of connection to school may mitigate the negative influence of a poor home environment.
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spelling pubmed-95182122022-09-29 Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing Battista, Katelyn Patte, Karen A. Diao, Liqun Dubin, Joel A. Leatherdale, Scott T. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Modifiable environmental and behavioural factors influence youth mental health; however, past studies have primarily used regression models that quantify population average effects. Decision trees are an analytic technique that examine complex relationships between factors and identify high-risk subgroups to whom intervention measures can be targeted. This study used decision trees to examine associations of various risk factors with youth anxiety, depression, and flourishing. Data were collected from 74,501 students across Canadian high schools participating in the 2018–2019 COMPASS Study. Students completed a questionnaire including validated mental health scales and 23 covariates. Decision trees were grown to identify key factors and subgroups for anxiety, depression, and flourishing outcomes. Females lacking both happy home life and sense of connection to school were at greatest risk for higher anxiety and depression levels. In contrast with previous literature, behavioural factors such as diet, movement and substance use did not emerge as differentiators. This study highlights the influence of home and school environments on youth mental health using a novel decision tree analysis. While having a happy home life is most important in protecting against youth anxiety and depression, a sense of connection to school may mitigate the negative influence of a poor home environment. MDPI 2022-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9518212/ /pubmed/36078594 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710873 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Battista, Katelyn
Patte, Karen A.
Diao, Liqun
Dubin, Joel A.
Leatherdale, Scott T.
Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing
title Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing
title_full Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing
title_fullStr Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing
title_full_unstemmed Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing
title_short Using Decision Trees to Examine Environmental and Behavioural Factors Associated with Youth Anxiety, Depression, and Flourishing
title_sort using decision trees to examine environmental and behavioural factors associated with youth anxiety, depression, and flourishing
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518212/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36078594
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710873
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