BACKGROUND: The family is a very important institution that provides relationships and contexts for adolescents and can activate a trajectory of their positive development. Family-related adversity can endanger this development via associated negative emotions, such as feelings of hopelessness, hostility, and psychological distress. Therefore, we aimed first to explore the association of family-related adversity with positive youth development (PYD), and second whether psychological distress, hopelessness, and hostility mediate this association. METHODS: We obtained self-reported data from 308 Slovak adolescents (44.5% were boys, mean age = 12.55). Family-related adversity was measured using questions regarding the death of parents, divorce/separation, violence between parents, and parental substance abuse. Positive youth development was measured with the Very Short PYD questionnaire; psychological distress with the GHQ-12; hopelessness with the Hopelessness questionnaire and hostility with a subscale from the Aggression Questionnaire. RESULTS: We found that family-related adversity was not associated with the first PYD component – internal values (regarding the domains of character and caring). However, it was negatively associated with its second component – self- and social efficacy (regarding the domains connection, competence and confidence): regression coefficient B= -0.32; 95%; confidence interval CI: -0.57 to -0.06). Next, we found that psychological distress (0.38; -0.50 to -0.26), hopelessness (-0.18; -0.31 to -0.05) and hostility (-0.23; -0.33 to -0.13) were associated with self- and social efficacy. Moreover, all potential mediators had statistically significant indirect effects: psychological distress − 0.11, hopelessness − 0.09 and hostility − 0.08. CONCLUSION: These findings may provide suggestions for programs supporting adolescents from families in adversity. These could be directed at better coping with psychological distress and addressing hostility and hopelessness. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-025-03098-w.

• Keywords
• Family-related adversity, Hopelessness, Hostility, Positive youth development, Psychological distress,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

BACKGROUND: Emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) are the most common mental health issues during adolescence, and their incidence has increased in recent years. The system of care for adolescents with EBP is known to have several problems, making the provision of care less than optimal, and attention needs to be given to potential improvements. We, therefore, aimed to examine what needs to be done to improve the system of care for adolescents with EBP and to assess the urgency and feasibility of the proposed measures from the perspective of care providers. METHODS: We used Concept mapping, a participatory mixed-method research, based on qualitative data collection and quantitative data analysis. A total of 33 stakeholders from 17 institutions participated in our study, including psychologists, pedagogues for children with special needs, teachers, educational counsellors, social workers and child psychiatrists. RESULTS: Respondents identified 43 ideas for improving of the system of care for adolescents with EBP grouped into 5 clusters related to increasing the competencies of care providers, changes at schools and school systems, support for existing services, transparency of the care system in institutions and public administration, and the adjustment of legislative conditions. The most urgent and feasible proposals were related to the support of awareness-raising activities on the topic of EBP, the creation of effective screening tools for the identification of EBP in adolescents, strengthening the role of parents in the process of care, comprehensive work with the family, creation of multidisciplinary support teams and intersectoral cooperation. CONCLUSIONS: Measures which are more accessible and responsive to the pitfalls of the care system, together with those strengthening the role of families and schools, have greater potential for improvements which are in favour of adolescents with EBP. Care providers should be invited more often and much more involved in the discussion and the co-creation of measures to improve the system of care for adolescents with EBP.

• Keywords
• Adolescents, Care providers, Children, Concept mapping, Emotional and behavioural problems, System of care,
• MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Emotions MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Problem Behavior * psychology   MeSH
• Parents psychology   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

OBJECTS: Health Behaviours in School-aged Children (HBSC) is an international survey programme aiming to investigate adolescents' health behaviours, subjective perception of health status, wellbeing, and the related contextual information. Our scoping review aimed to synthesise the evidence from HBSC about the relationship between family environmental contributors and adolescents' health-related outcomes. METHODS: We searched previous studies from six electronic databases. Two researchers identified the qualified publications independently by abstract and full-text screening with the assistance of an NLP-based AI instrument, ASReview. Publications were included if they were based on HBSC data and investigated the effects of family environment on adolescents' health outcomes. Researches addressed family-related factors as mediators or moderators were also included. RESULTS: A total of 241 articles were included. Family environmental contributors could be mapped into six categories: (1) Demographic backgrounds (N = 177); (2) General family's psycho-socio functions (N = 44); (3) Parenting behaviours (N = 100); (4) Parental health behaviours (N = 7); (5) Family activities (N = 24); and (6) Siblings (N = 7). Except for 75 papers that assessed family variables as moderators (N = 70) and mediators (N = 7), the others suggested family environment was an independent variable. Only five studies employed the data-driven approach. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest most research studies focussed on the influences of family demographic backgrounds on adolescents' health. The researches related to parental health behaviours and siblings are most inadequate. Besides, we recommend further research studies to focus on the mediator/moderator roles of the family, for exploring the deep mechanism of the family's impacts. Also, it would be valuable to consider data-driven analysis more in the future, as HBSC has mass variables and data.

• Keywords
• AI-assisted scoping review, HBSC database, adolescents’ health, family environment, parenting behaviour,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Scoping Review MeSH

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause serious mental problems in adolescents and therefore may expected to be associated with higher use of psychosocial care, potentially varying by type of specific ACE. The aim of our study is to explore the association of the number of ACE and types of specific ACE with entering and using psychosocial care. METHODS: We used data from the Slovak Care4Youth cohort study, comprising 509 adolescents from 10 to 16 years old (mean age 13.2 years, 48.6% boys). We used logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, and family affluence to explore the associations of number and type of specific ACE with the use of psychosocial care. RESULTS: Having three or more ACE as well as experiencing some specific ACE (death of a mother/father, death of somebody else you love, problems of a parent with alcohol or drugs, conflicts or physical fights between parents, and separation/divorce of parents) increased the likelihood of using psychosocial care. Regarding experience with the death of somebody else you love, we found a decreased likelihood of the use of psychosocial care. CONCLUSION: Experiencing ACE above a certain threshold (three or more) and parent-related ACE increase the likelihood of adolescent care use.

• Keywords
• adolescence, adverse childhood experiences, mental health, parent-related ACE, use of psychosocial care,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

This study aims to explore the associations of schoolmate and teacher support with emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) and whether schoolmate and teacher support affects the associations of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and of EBP in adolescence. We obtained data from 5220 students aged from 11 to 15 (48.7% boys), who participated in the Health Behaviour in a School-aged Children study (2018, Slovakia). Using logistic regression adjusted for gender, age and family affluence we assessed the modification of the relations of ACE and EBP by schoolmate and teacher support. Schoolmate and teacher support decreased the probability of EBP (Odds Ratios, 95% confidence intervals: 0.76, 0.74|0.79; and 0.86, 0.83|0.89, respectively). However, we found no statistically significant interactions of schoolmate and teacher support regarding the association of ACE with EBP. Schoolmate and teacher support decreased the likelihood of EBP among adolescents but do not buffer the relation of any previous ACE with EBP.

• Keywords
• adolescence, adverse childhood experiences, emotional and behavioural problems, schoolmate and teacher support,
• MeSH
• Adolescent Behavior * MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Emotions MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Adverse Childhood Experiences * MeSH
• Problem Behavior * MeSH
• Students MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

Objectives: To explore the role of resilience as a mediator in the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) among adolescents. Methods: We used data from the Slovak 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, comprising 2,839 adolescents aged 13-15 (mean age 13.93; 49.6% boys). We used multivariate linear regression performed on 5000 bootstrap samples adjusted for age, gender, family affluence to explore mediation of the associations between ACE (measured using the adapted Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire) and EBP (measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) by resilience (measured with the Child and Youth Resilience Measure). Results: We found ACE [B = 0.78; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.67|0.90] and resilience (B = -0.73; 95% CI: -0.79|-0.67) to be significantly associated with EBP. The association of ACE and EBP was mediated by resilience. The mediated indirect effect of resilience was ab = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.18|0.32. Conclusion: Resilience seems to play a mediator role in the relationship between ACE and EBP. Helping adolescents with ACE to build and use internal and external sources of resilience can decrease the negative impact of ACE on EBP.

• Keywords
• adolescents, adverse childhood experiences, behavioral problems, emotional problems, resilience,
• MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Emotions MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Adverse Childhood Experiences * MeSH
• Child, Preschool MeSH
• Problem Behavior * MeSH
• Resilience, Psychological * MeSH
• Family MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Child, Preschool MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Care for adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems (EBP) is frequently unequally distributed. Parents may play a role in the access to this care. Therefore, the aim was to explore the association between parental characteristics and their adolescent's enrollment in psychosocial care. We used data from the Care4Youth cohort study. Our sample consisted of 446 adolescents (mean age 13.22 years, 48% boys) and 382 parents (mean age 42.95 years, 14% males). EBP combined with enrollment created four groups: 1, no EBP/no care; 2, no EBP/care; 3, EBP/no care; 4, EBP/care. We assessed differences in parental characteristics among the groups. Group 2 had a significantly lower socioeconomic position (p < 0.01), more psychological distress (p < 0.001), poorer supervision (p < 0.001) and lower family social support (p < 0.05) than Group 1. Group 4 had a significantly lower socioeconomic position (p < 0.01) and poorer supervision (p < 0.001) than Group 1. Group 3 had significantly poorer supervision (p < 0.001) than Group 4. The poor supervision in Group 3 requires attention, as these adolescents receive no care. The quality of parental supervision should be addressed generally, e.g., by providing better parenting support and more parental training.

• Keywords
• adolescence, emotional and behavioral problems, parental characteristics, psychosocial care,
• MeSH
• Adolescent Behavior * MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Cohort Studies MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Problem Behavior * MeSH
• Psychiatric Rehabilitation * MeSH
• Parenting MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and poor family support and communication can increase emotional and behavioural problems (EBP). Therefore, we assessed the association of difficult communication with mother and with father separately with both emotional and behavioural problems (EBP), and whether adolescents' communication with mother and with father moderates the association of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) with the EBP of adolescents. METHODS: We used data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study conducted in 2018 in Slovakia, comprising 5202 adolescents aged from 11 to 15 (mean age 13.53; 49.3% boys). EBP were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. We used generalized linear regression adjusted for age, gender and family affluence to explore the modification of the associations between ACE and EBP by communication (easy vs. difficult communication) with mother and father. RESULTS: Difficult communication or a complete lack of communication due to the absence of mother and father increased the probability of emotional (exp (b): 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92|1.00; and 0.95, 95% CI: 0.91|0.99, respectively) and also of behavioural problems (exp (b): 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92|1.00; and 0.94, 95% CI: 0.90|0.97, respectively). We found a statistically significant interaction of communication with father on the association of ACE with EBP, showing that the joint effects were less than multiplicative. CONCLUSION: Difficult communication with mother and father is related to EBP among adolescents, and adolescents' communication with father moderates the association of ACE with both emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents.

• Keywords
• Adolescents, Adverse childhood experiences, Behavioural problems, Emotional problems, Family communication,
• MeSH
• Adolescent Behavior * MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Mental Disorders etiology   MeSH
• Emotions * MeSH
• Communication * MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Adverse Childhood Experiences * psychology   statistics & numerical data   MeSH
• Fathers MeSH
• Problem Behavior * psychology   MeSH
• Parents * MeSH
• Parent-Child Relations * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Slovakia MeSH