Andleg líðan unglinga í 10. bekk: Niðurstöður úr fyrirlögn Short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being kvarðans

The importance of adolescents’ health and well-being has been an increasing issue in
both public discourse and scientific research over the past years. In many international
studies, a general trend of declining mental health in this age group has been observed. This has been met with a call to arms by the scientific community, emphasising
more rigorous studies and implementation of evidence-based interventions and policies.
However, given the predominant clinical emphasis of studies in this field, it is important
to contemplate what mental health means in a more holistic sense. The World Health
Organization (WHO) defines it as a state of well-being, in which people are aware of their own abilities, can successfully deal with the stressors of daily life, can succeed in their
work and contribute to society. This definition emphasises that mental health is not merely the absence of disease or feeling good. Rather, it centres around the age-old question
of the good life, that has been around from the time of Aristotle to modern day positive
psychology; that is, whether it would be more beneficial to focus on the momentary
joys of life (hedonia), or whether it is more important to do something worthwhile (eudaimonia). The hedonic aspect focuses on being happy, experience pleasure, and freedom
from discomfort. The eudaimonic view is more centred on human possibilities, meaning and self-discovery. In the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children
Study (HBSC), the largest of its kind in the world, mental wellbeing has been measured
by various means. Growing concerns about the deterioration in mental health among
adolescents led researchers from the Nordic countries to include more variables dealing
with this topic in the 2017/2018 wave of the study, including a shorter version of the
Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS). This scale includes 7
items that are phrased in a positive manner and target positive aspects of mental health.
Previous studies, including some within adolescent samples, have shown it to be reliable
and valid. A total of 2,245 Icelandic students answered the questionnaire in 2017–2018.
Of those, 1,1084 were boys (48.4%), 1,111 were girls (49.5%) and 48 (2.1%) defined their
gender as “Other”. The mean score on the SWEMWBS for all participants was 24.8;
25.7 for boys, 24.2 for girls and19.8 for those that defined their gender as “Other”. In
all analyses, the last-mentioned group had much worse scores than boys and girls. Also
interesting in terms of gender was the fact that Icelandic boys scored significantly higher
than girls on the SWEMWBS in all our analyses. The scores fell within the range of
normal distribution as estimated by skewness and kurtosis values. A strong correlation was found between both the total score on SWEMWBS and its individual items, and
other measurements that had previously been used to assess wellbeing in the HBSC-
-study, such as the Cantril scale, self-rated health and the HBSC Symptom Checklist. It
was clear, though, that the SWEMWBS scores did not represent exactly the same phenomena as the previously used measures. Background variables such as family financial
status, country of birth, and relations with parents, school and friends, all influenced
the distribution of SWEMWBS scores. Adolescents coming from poorer families, born
outside of Iceland, and with worse relations with parents, school and friends, scored
consistently and significantly lower on the SWEMWBS than their peers. We conclude
that the scores from the current study of the shorter version of the Warwick–Edinburgh
Mental Well-Being Scale, are a valid and valuable addition to research measures focusing
on adolescent health.