Psychosomatic health complaints among adolescents in Stockholm : The role of supportive relations with parents and teachers

Family and school are the two major socialization agents for young people with important implications for their social, psychological and cognitive development. This thesis aimed to investigate the extent to which family conditions in terms of parental attachment and support (PAS) and school conditions in terms of participation and teacher support were associated with adolescents’ psychosomatic health. The thesis also explored whether school participation and support (SPS) could compensate for the potentially negative health implications of experiencing poor relational support at home. Association patterns according to gender and grade were also investigated. Data were derived from a classroom survey of all ninth and eleventh-grade students carried out in Stockholm 2006 (n=9,560). Results from linear regression analyses showed that both PAS and SPS were negatively associated with psychosomatic complaints. Gender and grade differences were also noted in respect to PAS and SPS as well as in the interaction between them. The study failed to find a compensatory function of school characteristics for less advantaged students, but modifying effects were nevertheless found. Students with a combination of high PAS and low SPS had worse health than expected, thus indicating that poor condition in school modifies the positive health effect of PAS in a negative way.