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Why do young people experience high stress levels? Pia Vedel Ankersen, S. Poulsen & F. Breinholt Larsen, Center for Public Health, Central Denmark Region
Citation preview
Why do young people
experience high stress levels?
Nordic Public Health conference Turku 2011
Pia Vedel Ankersen, S. Poulsen & F. Breinholt Larsen, Center for Public Health, Central
Denmark Region
Agenda
• Aim & Background
• Data and methods
• Results
• Conclusions
Aim & Background
Describe and explain why young people
experience high stress levels
Studies of young people’s wellbeing show
that young people experience high stress
levels
Study based on the health survey “How are
you?”, conducted in Central Denmark
Region, shows the same result
Data and methods I
Survey data Qualitative data based on
interviews
Questionnaire
• 16 years and older
• Random sample of 52.400 (2,500
respondents from 17 municipalities,
Aarhus 8,500 and Samsoe 1,400)
• Response rate of 65 pct. (34,584
respondents).
• From 16 years to 24 years sample
of 3902 response rate of 56 pct
Open interview (structured by themes)
• Personal interviews: 17
• Group interviews: 36 interviews with
4 resp. and 2 interviews with 3 resp.
• Background: Liable for military
service/draftee, High school
students, educational institution
specializing in technical studies,
young mothers, Health and social
education …
Data and methods II
Cohen’s Perceived Stress ScaleQuantitative questions
survey data
Data and methods III –
Qualitative dataInterview questions
– How are you?
– How is your day?
– Look at the questions (PSS)
– Are there anything you find hard or difficult?
Results
• Self-evaluated health
• Stress by age and gender
• Stress by educational level and occupation
• Experimenting for a path in life – a
stressful experience?
Figure 1. Proportion with bad self-evaluated
health – age and gender
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Pct
16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-79
Age
Male
Female
Figure 2. Proportion with high stress levels
(PSS>16) – age and gender
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Pct
16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-79
Age
Male
Femal
Figure 3. Proportion with high stress level
(PSS>16) age and gender
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Pct
16-18 19-21 22-24
Age
Male
Female
I. Experimenting for a path in life
– a stressful experience? I: So you learned something?
G: Yes – you learn a lot about yourself when
you are being pushed. Especially if you are
being pushed in areas where you don’t
expect to be challenged (Female, liable for
military service/draftee, PI).
II. Experimenting for a path in
life – a stressful experience?
• Relations and (new) situations
– Friends, parents
• Expectations
• Everyday life
• The wrong path in life
– Crime and drugs
III. Experimenting for a path in
life Relationships and situations
S: Well, she's schizophrenic. And have a split personality. So it's a little difficult just to find out what the hell is actually happening here? And so my father is an alcoholic. So he's been a little….. (Male, liable for military service/draftee, PI).
C: Everything has been hard for me.
I: How?
C: Well, first of all coming out as a lesbian, all the people I lost, and then figuring out how to behave with people. Suddenly I liked girls, right? People looked at me in a different way. People also noticed me more than before, because "Hey, that’s the girl that digs girls.” (Lesbian girl, PI).
IV. Experimenting for a path in
life Expectations
A: There was no room for being a little ignorant
pupil at all .. and after six months I just started to
cry every night, I was completely finished when I
came home from work. I could not, well, I did not
have anything left in me (Female, 19 years, jobs
Practice).
V. Experimenting for a path in
life Everyday life – finding time for everything
N: It’s stressful, when there’s several things we must do at the same time, that we must submit.. Well, it’s working late, I haven’t any time for myself, I don’t feel like I have (Female, 17 years SOSU, GI).
Jo: Yes, well, if it’s like big tasks, then you know that you have a lot of time before the task must be submitted. Then you don’t get started, and then you end up feeling stressed at the end (Male, 17 years, High School, GI)
M: Well, I really want to plan every day. Because I do a lot of sports. And then when something just piles up, and I can’t seem to fit it i, then it quickly gets…then it bothers me. And it influences everything, when I play or practice. Because it’s always in the back of my head, and irritates me. (Female 17 years, High School, GI).
VI. Experimenting for a path in
life The wrong path in life
M. I had some problems, when I was younger, because of some drugs and
stuff. And then I got away from it. It’s therefore that I have… half has been
sorted away (friends), and now I only have the ones left that I feel are my
good friends… Yes.. I don’t know, if you can call it a gang, but it was an
entire group controlling the area, where we lived. With drugs and all that
happened there.
I: And that was in XXX or what?
M: Yes. And also because of that, that I left it a little. That I could see for
myself, how friends became enemies, and stuff like that... All because of
money and drugs and... Yeah, well, I’m all right now, I don’t feel like there’s
any problems with my life. But I can see that many think, that when you do
hash and stuff like that, that’s not too smart, but I’m all right with it. (Male 24
years, Aarhus Tech, PI).
Conclusion
• Young people have a higher stress level
• Why?
• Finding a way in life
– Experiments
– Learning is when you are pushed
Figure 5. Self-evaluated life-quality
33
50
14
21
Good 83 % Fair/ bad 17 %
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Pct
Verygood
Good Fair Bad Verybad