Högskolan i Skövde

This study attempts to understand the role that optimism could play in the context of a health asset approach to promote (and protect) adolescent health related quality of life (HRQOL).  Two hypotheses were formulated, a) there is an association between adolescents’ self-rated optimism and pessimism and their HRQOL, (b) age, gender and socio-demographic characteristics influence this association. We explore optimism and pessimism as a bi-dimensional construct and its impact on HRQOL among adolescents in two age groups (11-13 years and 14-16 years). Adolescents answered a self-report questionnaire consisting of two validated scales for measuring HRQOL and the concepts of optimism and pessimism. This study has shown that optimism is an important protective factor for HRQOL and low levels of pessimism were also seen to be protective of HRQOL in both age groups.  This infers the potential of an optimistic orientation about future goals might function as a health asset during adolescence that could be useful in the planning of health promotion strategies.

Stress among adolescents in Western societies is becoming an issue of increasing concern, and the global trend of adolescents’ health shows a gradual deterioration that is independent of national differences and increases with age. The aim of this study was to explore the main concern of adolescents and about how they cope with demands in everyday life. Participants were 14–16 years old, and data were collected from three sources. A constructivist grounded theory was used as a method for generating a model of the adolescents’ description of how they cope with demands in their everyday lives. The main concern described by participants in this study was to strive to be successful and to succeed in the present and throughout their lives. We conclude that differences between girls and boys, in terms of coping with demands in their everyday lives, are important to consider in the development of health promotion initiatives targeted at adolescents. 

Stress among adolescents in Western societies is becoming an issue of increasing concern of adolescent’s health. The aim of this study was to gain greater knowledge about how girls and boys perceive and cope with school-related stress. Participants were 14- to 15-year-old adolescents from a medium-sized municipality in southern Sweden. The data were collected from focus group interviews. The data were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The findings show that adolescents ‘‘prioritizing the future or the present by making choices, finding their own private sphere to relax, and recovering with family and friends.’’ There were gender differences in how these strategies were used. The findings could be used for initiating and planning health promotion interventions in school with focus on supporting girls’ and boys’ equal terms to cope with school-related stress in present and for the future and to give equal condition for future studies and opportunities in life. 

Background; Adolescents’ experiences of stress have increased in recent decades and is associated with an increase of psychosomatic symptoms and poorer academic achievement. Identification of ways to support adolescents’ handling of school related stress is a major challenge to promote their health and academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to describe the stakeholder’s perspectives on services that are needed for supporting adolescents in secondary school when coping with school-related stress. Methods; Representatives from the school health service and school management organization (n=23) from five secondary schools and parents (n=4) were recruited by snowball sampling. Interviews were analyzed by qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach.   Results; The study highlight different aspects of stakeholders’ perceptions of what is needed to support adolescents who experience school-related stress. Described are actions such as highlighting and changing organizational and contextual structures and developing the dialogue between the school and the home. Other described actions are to support adolescents’ abilities to plan and visualizing how time is used and to strengthen their adolescents’ belief in their own abilities. Conclusions; Our findings could be used in schools for developing interventions from a salutogenic approach to promote adolescents’ health in the present and for the future.