Mental health problems are an important public health issue. However, in population studies, surveillance of the protective aspects of mental health has been somewhat overlooked in the public health community. Given this, the present thesis aimed to investigate whether academic performance, school social capital, and positive mental health are associated in a cross-sectional sample of 3880 adolescents from ninth grade in compulsory school (50.6%) and second grade in upper secondary school (49.4%). In total, the sample consisted of 51% females and 49% males. Using the well-validated instrument MCH-SF for well-being, the result revealed an association between academic performance (β=-.09, p=<.001), indicating that better academic performance was associated with higher levels of mental health. Further, all measured dimensions of school social capital revealed an association with mental health. The strongest association were found between the dimension of teacher support and mental health (β=.26, p=<.001). Next, the result showed a significant interaction effect from one dimension of school social capital, namely teacher support (β=-.03, p=<.05). Notably, more research in school social capital and determinants of teachers' work environment is valuable, as social capital formed by the relationship between teachers and students seemed highly important for adolescents' academic performance and mental health.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mdh-55082 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Rödlund, Andreas |
| Publisher | Mälardalens högskola, Hälsa och välfärd |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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