2023-05, Montero-Zamora, Pablo, Vos, Saskia R., Unger, Jennifer B., Zeledon, Ingrid, Lee, Ryan, Soto, Daniel W., Brown, Eric C., Duque, Maria, Garcia, Maria Fernanda, Scaramutti, Carolina, Ertanir, Beyhan, Schwartz, Seth J.

The political climate often changes following the installment of a new president. This volatility presents opportunities for examining how elections might affect vulnerable subgroups such as Hispanic/Latino (HL) adolescents. The present study explored the perception of negative political climate among HL adolescents before and after the 2020 U.S. presidential election and its association with internalizing symptoms and substance use. We conducted the study in Los Angeles and Miami between 2020 and 2021, with a sample of 304 HL adolescents (Females = 60.8 %), aged 15.3 years on average. Participants completed measures of negative political climate (pre- post-election) and measures of depressive symptoms, anxiety, substance misuse, and substance use intentions after the election. We used paired tests and linear mixed-effects modeling to explore changes in perceived negative climate before and after the election. Structural equation modeling was used to determine predictors of negative political climate and its associations with internalizing symptoms and substance use. Results indicated that following the election negative political climate increased significantly in Miami and among Cuban-origin adolescents but not in Los Angeles or among Mexican-origin adolescents. Pre-election perceived negative political climate was significantly predicted by gender, study site, and mother’s nativity. Pre-election negative political climate predicted post-election internalizing symptoms and substance use intentions indirectly through post-election negative political climate. HL youth’s perceived political climate is a complex construct that might vary across different sociopolitical contexts and populational sub-groups. Exploring variations in politically-based cultural stressors and their role as mental health and substance use risk factors is crucial to addressing HL disparities.

2021-04-09, Ertanir, Beyhan, Rietz, Christian, Graf, Ulrike, Kassis, Wassilis

The experience of stress is receiving increasing attention in the context of adolescent mental health, which is why a valid and reliable stress assessment instrument is of great importance. For this purpose, an English-language adolescent stress questionnaire (ASQ) was developed, which assesses the subjective stress experience of adolescents in different areas of life (e.g., at home, at school, and during leisure time). However, the latest long version of the questionnaire with 56 items (ASQ-2) was found to be too extensive, so a more economical short version ASQ-S with 27 items was developed. The aim of this study was to validate a German and a Greek version of the ASQ-S. In order to investigate the psychometric properties of the German and Greek ASQ-S confirmatory factor analysis, analyses of variance and correlations were applied to sample data from Switzerland, Germany, and Greece ( = 1,071 seventh-grade students; = 12.53; = 0.76). The results yielded only poor to moderate internal reliability across all three countries and the suggested 9-dimensional factor structure could not be confirmed. Instead, a modified 6-factor structure was tested which showed acceptable model fits while demonstrating form invariance across the three countries. Furthermore, the ASQ-S scales correlated positively with depressive symptoms and anxiety and negatively with self-esteem and life satisfaction, all of which supported adequate concurrent validity. The results revealed that the utility of the ASQ-S appears to be limited when translated to other languages and should be used with caution when administered in international contexts.

2022-12-01, Kassis, Wassilis, Janousch, Clarissa, Sidler, Petra, Aksoy, Dilan, Favre, Céline Anne, Ertanir, Beyhan, Nazari, Nabi

Adolescence is a developmental stage with high risks in terms of psychological challenges and adjustments related to subjective well-being. Thus far, the findings reported a general decrease in school-related well-being over time. We considered well-being a multidimensional and latent construct that included both feeling good and functioning well at the individual level, and focused on the interplay between hedonic and eudemonic factors. Data of = 377 high school students in Switzerland were used by conducting an online longitudinal study with two waves. Baseline data was gathered in autumn 2019 and the subsequent time point occurred 1 year later (2020; grades seven and eight). By applying a person-oriented analytical approach via latent class and latent transition analyses, we were able to identify and compare longitudinally three distinct well-being patterns and the respective trajectories. Regarding the distribution of the well-being patterns for both waves, significant changes over time were identified: particularly from wave 1 to wave 2, where there was an increase for the low and high well-being patterns, yet a decrease for the middle pattern. Comparing the stability of the respective patterns over time, the high well-being level showed the highest stability of all identified patterns. Multinomial logistic regression of covariates to the identified latent status membership established for both waves showed low but significant effects of socio-demographic variables. At wave 1, having a migration background was associated with a significant increase of being in a low versus high well-being level pattern. At wave 2, being female was associated with a significant increase of being in a low versus high and in a middle versus high well-being pattern.

2021-12-02, Ertanir, Beyhan, Kassis, Wassilis, Garrote, Ariana

This study aimed to explore changes in mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, home, and school stress) from before the first COVID-19 wave (autumn 2019) to the later stages of the same wave (autumn 2020) in a sample of N = 377 Swiss adolescents (Mage = 12.67; 47% female. The results showed that the expected impact of the pandemic on mental health was not noticeable in the later stages of the first COVID-19 wave. Only two effects were demonstrated in terms of intra-individual changes, namely, an effect of gender on depression and anxiety symptoms and an effect of reported COVID-19 burden on school stress symptoms. Moreover, few associations were found for selected predictors and students’ mean level scores, averaged across both time points.