Open Access

ARTICLE

Determinants of Positive Mental Health in Adolescents–A Cross-Sectional Study on Relationships between Positive Mental Health, Self-Esteem, Character Strengths and Social Inclusion

by Hanna Ahrnberg^1,*, Kaija Appelqvist-Schmidlechner², Pekka Mustonen¹, Sari Fröjd³, Katja Aktan-Collan¹

1 The Finnish Medical Society, Helsinki, 00100, Finland
2 Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Mental Health Unit, Helsinki, 00271, Finland
3 Faculty of Social Sciences, Health Sciences Unit, Tampere University, Tampere, 33520, Finland

* Corresponding Author: Hanna Ahrnberg. Email:

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2021, 23(3), 361-374. https://doi.org/10.32604/IJMHP.2021.016408

Received 03 March 2021; Accepted 01 May 2021; Issue published 23 July 2021

Abstract

Adolescence is a crucial time period with especial vulnerability for development of mental health problems. Growing interest is focusing on the determinants of positive mental health in order to find the key concepts that could be influenced in the promotion of mental well-being of adolescents. In this study we aim to explore the relations between self-esteem, character strengths and experience of social inclusion as determinants of adolescents’ positive mental health controlled for selected sociodemographic background factors. The study population (n = 195) consisted of comprehensive school students who filled in an electronic questionnaire of adolescent’s mental well-being in Fall 2019. The questionnaire included measures of Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS), VIA Youth-measure 96, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Experience of Social Inclusion Scale. The methods included group comparisons and General Linear Model computed by SPSS 24.0. The strongest association was found between positive mental health and self-esteem (β = 0.789, p < 0.001), followed by character strengths of hope and kindness and experience of social inclusion. Interestingly, family’s socioeconomic factors did not associate significantly with positive mental health in the final statistical model. In terms of our results, it seems that self-esteem, character strengths and experience of social inclusion might have stronger association with adolescents’ mental well-being than family’s socioeconomic determinants. Therefore, it should be discussed whether psychological determinants overcome the individual effect of poor socioeconomic status as factors that influence positive mental health. Further studies are needed to establish these results more firmly.

---

Keywords

---