Life Gets Better: Important Resilience Factors When Growing Up With ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: To explore emerging adults' descriptions of important resilience factors when growing up with ADHD. METHOD: Individual interviews with 10 emerging adults (21-24 years) who participated in a 10-year follow-up study, analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The main theme was that "life gets better." Resilience factors contributing to this positive development were strategies to regulate ADHD, valuable relationships, acceptance, seeing positive attributes of ADHD, receiving tailored, non-stigmatizing support, and participating in meaningful activities. CONCLUSION: Growing up with ADHD was associated with both challenges and positives, but the main resilience theme was that life gets better. A variety of resilience factors contributed to this, but relational and environmental factors seemed particularly important. Acceptance, both from society and self-acceptance, were related to all resilience factors in various ways indicating that better knowledge of ADHD might foster better understanding and acceptance of children and adolescents with ADHD.

Sexual harassment exposure among junior high school students in Norway: prevalence and associated factors.

Background: Sexual harassment is common in most countries and cultures. Less is known about sexual harassment, its risk factors, and psychosocial outcomes among young adolescents. The aim of the study was to examine the 12-month prevalence of sexual harassment exposure, and sociodemographic and psychosocial factors associated with exposure among junior high school students in Norway. Methods: A comprehensive cross-sectional study was completed by 83,297 Norwegian adolescents in junior high school in 2021. Data on exposure to sexual harassment were used in combination with sociodemographic measures and psychosocial outcomes: depressive symptoms, loneliness, self-esteem, and well-being. Group differences were analyzed with Chi Square tests, and sociodemographic risk factors were analyzed with logistic regression. Psychosocial outcomes were assessed with multivariate and univariate ANOVAs, and dose-response relationships were assessed with linear regression. Results: Among the adolescents, 32.6% had experienced sexual harassment during the past year. Girls had higher odds of exposure (OR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.84-1.96), whereas adolescents whose parents had higher education had lower odds (OR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.90-0.99). Exposure was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms (partial η2 [ES] = 0.11) and loneliness (ES = 0.07), and with lower self-esteem (ES = 0.06) and well-being (ES = 0.06). Among exposed adolescents, more frequent exposure was associated with poorer outcomes. Conclusion: Exposure to sexual harassment affects one third of junior high school students in Norway. Those who are exposed have poorer psychosocial outcomes, and there is a dose-response relationship between exposure and outcomes. Awareness of sexual harassment among young adolescents, and interventions to prevent and reduce it, are needed.

Mental health in refugee children.

Almost half of the world's forcibly displaced population are children, most commonly originating from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Health disparities are well documented, especially for mental health, but not consistent across groups, time or context. Despite high exposure to trauma and stress, refugee children also show remarkable resilience. An ecological model of refugee health including both risk and resilience factors is therefore recommended. The model also includes the dynamic inter-relationship of past traumatic experiences, ongoing daily stressors and the disruptions of basic systems affecting both the individual and families as a whole, offering a framework to better understand the health disparities and appropriate interventions for refugee children.

Syrian Refugee Youth Resettled in Norway: Mechanisms of Resilience Influencing Health-Related Quality of Life and Mental Distress.

Background: The importance of resilience factors in the positive adaptation of refugee youth is widely recognised. However, their actual mechanism of impact remains under-researched. The aim of this study was therefore to explore protective and promotive resilience mechanisms to inform future interventions and policy. Promotive resilience is seen as a direct main effect and protective resilience as a moderating effect. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of Syrian youth recently resettled in Norway, aged 13-24 years. Regression and moderation analyses were used to explore different interactions, including moderated mediation using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Result: A direct main effect of promotive resilience was found for health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and general mental distress, but not for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). No moderating effects of protective resilience were found. Post-migration stressors mediated the effects of potentially traumatic events (PTE) from war and flight, and this indirect effect was present at all levels of resilience. Conclusion: Despite high risk exposure and mental distress, resilience was also high. Broad resilience interventions targeting multiple factors would likely benefit the group, but these should include both individual assets and building supportive environments. Additionally, reducing current stress and providing treatment for those in need could enable recovery and increase the efficacy of resilience factors already present.

Health-related quality of life in refugee youth and the mediating role of mental distress and post-migration stressors.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to explore how potentially traumatic events (PTEs) from war and flight influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in young refugees after recent resettlement. In a model based on earlier theory, we tested if post-migration stressors and mental distress mediated the effect of PTEs on HRQoL, individually and in serial. We also explored how different types of post-migration stressors influenced different dimensions of HRQoL. METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional design where 160 Syrian youth recently resettled in Norway completed questionnaires at school between May and December 2018. Correlations between types of post-migration stressors and dimensions of HRQoL were explored and a serial multiple mediator model was tested. Models were adjusted for age and gender, using two types of mental distress; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and general mental distress. RESULTS: Higher levels of PTEs reduced experienced HRQoL, but this direct effect was mediated by post-migration stressors alone and in serial with mental distress. Despite high levels of mental distress, this did not affect HRQoL independently, only in serial mediation with increased post-migration stressors. Economic concerns and discrimination were types of post-migration stressors affecting several dimensions of HRQoL. CONCLUSION: Quality of life in refugee is affected by past events from war, stressors in current resettlement and elevated mental distress through complex interrelations. The study reiterates the importance of considering structural and everyday post-migration stressors in policy and intervention to improve the health and wellbeing of refugee youth.

Health-related quality of life in young Syrian refugees recently resettled in Norway.

Aims: Millions have fled from the civil unrest in Syria, and half of these are children and youth. Although they are a population with an elevated risk of health problems due to adverse pre-migratory and post-migratory experiences, few studies have explored their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This is considered a fundamental construct in public health and might provide complementary descriptions of their health and well-being after resettling in a new country. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 160 Syrian youth aged 13-24 years. Using KIDSCREEN-27, the results for five dimensions of HRQoL was compared to population norm data. Demographic factors and war-related adverse events were used to predict HRQoL in hierarchical regression. Results: For most participants, the overall HRQoL was good, but it was lower in the dimensions for friends, physical well-being and psychological well-being compared to population norms. Scores in the dimensions for autonomy/parental relation and the school environment were high and were the main contributors to a positive HRQoL. Age and number of reported stressful events (SE) had the greatest impact on HRQoL, but the final regression model only accounted for 21% of the total variance. Conclusions: HRQoL is a relevant and non-invasive measure for refugee youth. Contributors to lower scores in physical and psychological well-being should be explored further and indicate the potential for future interventions focussing on general psychological well-being and networks, regardless of the SE that have been experienced. These interventions could potentially be based in schools or in families in order to benefit from these being seemingly safe environments for the majority of the group.