Differences and Similarities of Mental Health Problems Reported by Adolescents: From Greece, Japan, Russia, and Sweden

Abstract

The aims of the present study were to: 1) compare scores and scales of the Youth Self-Report (YSR) reported by healthy adolescents 15 - 17 years of age from Greece, Japan, Russia, and Sweden, 2) analyze gender and age effects of the YSR syndrome scores between and within countries, and 3) compare scores of competence scales and their associations to mental health problems. A comparison of problems (n = 812) yields a small effect size of 4.8% for cross-country in YSR total problems scores. There was a deviation above the overall mean for Greece and Russia, while Sweden and Japan had deviations below the mean. The effect sizes of country for narrowband and broadband scales were small or medium. Analysis within and between countries pointed out some problems that might be more/less common in some countries than others. In their total competence score, Greek adolescents scored higher than Swedish or Japanese. There were some negative associations between syndrome and competence scales across countries. Gender differences were shown across the countries with the exception of Japan. Age differences were less consistent due to the small range of age groups. Even though YSR is used in all four countries, translations and sampling procedure may influence (be one of) the variations.