Gendered Differences in Experiences of Bullying and Mental Health Among Transgender and Cisgender Youth.

Even though previous studies have shown that transgender youth have poorer mental health and more experiences of being bullied than their cisgender counterparts, and that bullying associates with poorer mental health, knowledge on such associations in different gender identity groups is scarce. This study investigated how mental health problems and experiences of being bullied appear across different gender identity groups, and how bullying is associated with mental health among the groups in question. Data from the Finnish School Health Promotion 2021 study (n = 152,880, mean age 16.2 years (standard deviation 1.22)) was used and categorized into four gender identity groups: cisgender girls (n = 76,521), cisgender boys (n = 69,735), transfeminine youth (n = 1317), and transmasculine youth (n = 5307). Transgender youth experienced more bullying and reported poorer mental health than cisgender youth. While transfeminine youth faced the most bullying, transmasculine youth had the most mental health symptoms. In each group, bullying associated with poorer mental health. Compared to cisgender boys without bullying experiences, odds of poorer mental health were dozens-fold among transmasculine youth with weekly bullying experiences. In addition, compared to cisgender boys with bullying experiences, odds of poorer mental health were greater among all other gender identity groups with bullying experiences, and among transmasculine youth in particular (e.g., odds ratio of generalized anxiety = 8.36 (95% confidence interval, 6.59-10.6)). Bullying is associated with poorer mental health in all youth, but transgender youth, and especially transmasculine youth, may be in an even more vulnerable position for its implications. This suggests that there is a need for improving effective measures to decrease bullying in schools and to improve wellbeing of transgender youth.

Gambling Among Finnish 14-16-Year-Old Adolescents Before (2008-2009), During (2010-2011), and After (2013-2017) Setting the Legal Age Limit of 18 for Gambling and the Role of Socio-Economic Status.

Legislation prohibiting minors from engaging in gambling is a gambling policy measure set to protect adolescents from the harmful effects of gambling. The Finnish gambling system is based on a state monopoly, regulated by the Lotteries Act. After an amendment to the Lotteries Act, the new minimum legal gambling age was raised to 18 years old between 2010 and 2011. The main purpose of this study was to discover how the amendment to the act altered adolescents' gambling (14-16-year-olds) and to examine whether the amendment decreased socio-economic differences. Adolescents gambling was studied before (2008-2009), during (2010-2011), and after (2013-2017) the age limit of gambling was raised in Finland. The study based on five waves (2008-2009, 2010-2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) of the national repeated cross-sectional School Health Promotion Study. Cross-tabulations where gambling was studied by study year and socio-economic status (SES) were formulated, and the statistical differences were studied by using χ2-tests. Percentage change in gambling frequency was also examined by study year and SES. Study years were analyzed separately to model the weekly gambling via logistic regression models. Adolescent gambling significantly decreased over time. It appears that raising the legal gambling age had a permanent effect on under-aged gambling. However, differences in gambling by adolescents' family's SES increased during the study period, indicating widening inequalities in gambling among adolescents. Diminishing inequalities in adolescent gambling is likely to require both societal action and consensus on adolescent gambling being a significant social and public health concern.

Dampness and student-reported social climate: two multilevel mediation models.

BACKGROUND: Little previous research has analysed the relationship between schools' indoor air problems and schools' social climate. In this study, we analysed a) whether observed mould and dampness in a school building relates to students' perceptions of school climate (i.e. teacher-student relationships and class spirit) and b) whether reported subjective indoor air quality (IAQ) at the school level mediates this relationship. METHODS: The data analysed was created by merging two nationwide data sets: survey data from students, including information on subjective IAQ (N = 25,101 students), and data from schools, including information on mould and dampness in school buildings (N = 222). The data was analysed using multilevel mediational models. RESULTS: After the background variables were adjusted, schools' observed mould and dampness was not significantly related to neither student-perceived teacher-student relationships nor class spirit. However, our mediational models showed that there were significant indirect effects from schools' observed mould and dampness to outcome variables via school-level subjective IAQ: a) in schools with mould and dampness, students reported significantly poorer subjective IAQ (standardised ß = 0.34, p < 0.001) than in schools without; b) the worse the subjective IAQ at school level, the worse the student-reported teacher-student relationships (ß = 0.31, p = 0.001) and class spirit (ß = 0.25, p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Problems in a school's indoor environment may impair the school's social climate to the degree that such problems decrease the school's perceived IAQ.

Self-rated health, symptoms and health behaviour of upper secondary vocational students by field of study.

This article examines the self-rated health, symptoms and health behaviour of upper secondary vocational students in Finland. The data consist of the responses of first- and second-year vocational students (n = 34 554) to the 2013 School Health Promotion Survey. The data were analysed statistically and processed separately for girls and boys. Associations between self-rated health, symptoms and health behaviour and fields of study were examined by cross-tabulation. Statistical significance was measured using the chi-squared test. Self-rated health, symptoms and health behaviour were found to have a statistically significant association with field of study (p < 0.001). Vocational students in different fields had different experiences of health, different symptoms and different health behaviours. The results complement existing evidence about disparities in well-being among young people in the context of education.

Students' school satisfaction as predictor of teachers' sickness absence: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Although health is an important determinant of sickness absence, social relationships at the workplace may also affect levels of sick leaves. This study examined whether students' self-assessed satisfaction with school predicted sickness absence among teachers in Finnish secondary schools. METHODS: We measured school satisfaction of 17 033 students aged 14-16 years from 90 schools by a survey (the School Health Promotion Study) and aggregated school-specific scores of students' school satisfaction. For analysis, we linked these school-level data to records of sickness absence in the survey year and the following year among 2364 teachers working in the same schools (the 10-Town Study). For sickness absence longer than 9 days, we obtained diagnoses from national health registers. RESULTS: Multilevel Poisson and logistic regression models adjusted for relevant baseline covariates showed a rate ratio of 1.2 [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.0-1.5] for long-term (>3 days) sickness absence among teachers working in schools with two lowest thirds of student satisfaction compared with teachers in schools with high student satisfaction. The corresponding odds ratio (OR) was higher for sickness absence with a psychiatric diagnosis (OR 1.9, 95% CI: 1.1-3.2), more specifically, neurotic and stress-related disorders (OR 2.6, 95% CI: 1.2-5.9). Students' school satisfaction was not associated with teachers' short-term (1-3 days) sick leaves. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest a link between social relationships at school, as indexed by students' school satisfaction, and teachers' sick leaves, with the strongest associations seen for absences with mental health diagnoses.

Contribution of parental and school personnel smoking to health risk behaviours among Finnish adolescents.

BACKGROUND: This study compared parental smoking with school personnel smoking in relation to adolescents' smoking behaviours, alcohol use, and illicit drug use. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey for 24,379 adolescents was linked to a survey for 1946 school employees in 136 Finnish schools in 2004-2005. Surveys included smoking prevalence reported by school staff, adolescents' reports of school staff and parental smoking, adolescents' own smoking behaviours, alcohol use, and illicit drug use. Multilevel analyses were adjusted for individual and school-level confounding factors. RESULTS: Parental smoking was associated with all health risk behaviours among both sexes (risk range 1.39 to 1.95 for other outcomes; Odds Ratio OR for smoking cessation 0.64, 95% Confidence Interval CI: 0.57, 0.72 among boys, 0.72; 0.64, 0.81 among girls). Among boys, high vs. low smoking prevalence among school personnel was associated with higher probability of smoking (OR 1.19; 95% CI 1.01,1.41), higher frequency of smoking during school time (Cumulative Odds Ratio COR 1.81; 95% CI 1.32, 2.48), frequent alcohol use (OR 1.23; 95% CI 1.01, 1.50), illicit drug use (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.16, 1.69), and higher odds of reporting adults smoking at school (COR 1.51; 95% CI 1.09, 2.09). Among girls, high smoking prevalence among school personnel was related to higher odds of smoking (OR 1.18; 95% CI 1.02, 1.37) and lower odds of smoking cessation (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.72, 0.99). CONCLUSION: Parental smoking and school personnel smoking are both associated with adolescents' health risk behaviours but the association of parental smoking seems to be stronger.

Staff reports of psychosocial climate at school and adolescents' health, truancy and health education in Finland.

BACKGROUND: Psychosocial climate at school reported by school personnel may be related to pupils' reports of being heard at school, depression, physical and psychological symptoms, truancy and received health education. METHODS: Cross-sectional study combining data from two independent surveys conducted between 2004 and 2005 in 136 public schools in Finland. The pupil sample comprised 11 583 boys and 12 706 girls from the eighth and ninth grades of lower secondary school and first and second grades of upper secondary school. A personnel survey (n = 1946) was used to measure psychosocial climate indexed by trust and opportunity for participation, support for innovation, orientation towards high-quality work and accepted and clear goals. RESULTS: After adjustment for individual and school-level covariates, multilevel analyses revealed odds for pupils' opinion of not being heard were higher in schools where personnel reported poor trust and opportunity for participation (OR = 1.33) and low support for innovation (OR = 1.37). Poor trust and opportunity for participation and unclear work goals among staff were associated with high truancy among pupils (ORs = 1.54 and 1.39). Poor trust and opportunity for participation among staff were also related to pupils' depression [cumulative odds ratio (COR = 1.14)], and physical and psychological symptoms (COR = 1.17). Unclear goals among staff were associated with pupils' opinions that health education was insufficient (OR = 1.40). CONCLUSIONS: school climate is associated with adolescents' health, wellbeing and received health education.

Indoor air problems and the perceived social climate in schools: A multilevel structural equation analysis.

Indoor air problems in schools appear to influence learning outcomes and absence rates. However, previous research has not investigated whether indoor air problems influence the social climate of schools. Therefore, we studied whether indoor air problems observed in schools associate with students' perceptions of the teacher-student relationship and class spirit. The nationwide sample of Finnish schools (N=194 schools/27153 students) was analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling. Data on the schools' social climate collected from students were merged with independently collected data on observed indoor air problems from school principals. We found that the teacher-student relationship was reported to be worse in schools with observed indoor air problems compared to those without observed indoor air problems. Furthermore, the reported class spirit was worse in schools with observed indoor air problems, but only among students with a high grade point average. Our findings indicate that indoor air problems may affect the student-perceived social climate.

Association of pupil vandalism, bullying and truancy with teachers' absence due to illness: a multilevel analysis.

The aim of this study was to examine whether vandalism, bullying, and truancy among pupils at school are associated with absence due to illness among teachers. Data on such problem behaviour of 17,033 pupils in 90 schools were linked to absence records of 2364 teachers. Pupil reported vandalism and bullying at the school-level were associated with teachers' short-term (1- to 3-day) absences. Cumulative exposure to various forms of pupils' problem behaviour was associated with even higher rates of short-term absences among teachers. No association was found between pupils' problem behaviour and teachers' long-term (>3-day) absences. In conclusion, there seems to be a link between pupils' problem behaviour and teachers' short-term absence due to illness. Further work should determine whether problem behaviour is a cause or a consequence of absences or whether the association is noncausal.

Organizational justice at school and its associations with pupils' psychosocial school environment, health, and wellbeing.

It has been shown that the psychosocial environment perceived by school staff is associated with children's academic performance and wellbeing. In this study we examined the associations between organizational justice (procedural and relational justice) as reported by school staff and pupils' perceptions of their school environment, health problems, academic performance, and absenteeism. We combined data from two surveys: for the staff (the Finnish Public Sector Study, n = 1946) and pupils (the Finnish school health promotion survey, n = 11,781 boys and 12,842 girls) of 136 secondary schools, collected during 2004-2005. Multilevel cumulative logistic regression analyses showed that after adjustment for potential individual and school-level confounding factors, low procedural justice was associated with pupils' dissatisfaction with school-going. Low relational justice was associated with a 1.30 times higher risk of poor academic performance, 1.15 times higher risk of psychosomatic symptoms and 1.13 times higher risk of depressive symptoms among pupils. Both organizational justice components were associated with truancy. We concluded that staff perceptions of organizational justice at school are associated with pupils' reports of their psychosocial school environment, health, performance, and absenteeism due to truancy. Improving managerial and decision making procedures among school personnel may be an important factor for protecting pupils' academic performance and wellbeing.