Diss. Göteborg : University.

This study investigates the impact social vulnerability has on subjective mental health among adolescents. Furthermore, this study aims to measure which of the independent variables that represent social vulnerability has the most effect on mental health. The independent variables include sex, gender, NPD-diagnosis, ethnic background, and subjective social status. Several studies have investigated these topics before, but few studies measure different kinds of socially vulnerable groups together and compare them side by side. A quantitative approach is used, namely cross-table analysis and regression analysis. The theoretical framework consists of theories on gender, minority stress, social fields, social status, and a holistic approach to the understanding of health. The results show that 16 percent of the variation within subjective mental health can be traced to social vulnerability. The most vulnerable to subjective mental health issues were adolescent girls (in the biological sense), followed by adolescents with NPD-diagnosis, and then adolescents with a queer gender identity. The least vulnerable to subjective mental health issues were adolescents with low social status. However, it seems that an adolescent’s social status within the school is more important than their family’s social status in society.