Psychosomatic symptoms among 14?16 year old Finnish adolescents

Higher levels of psychosomatic symptoms were observed in pupils with non-intact family structure and in those with poor school performance, and in children from working class families and children from higher social classes.

Abstract

The occurrence of psychosomatic symptoms and their associations with school performance and some sociodemographic characteristics (family structure, number of siblings, birth order, the parents' socioeconomic status) was studied among all eighth-grade pupils (n=2246) in secondary schools in a Finnish town. The same pupils were re-examined twice: after 5 months and after 17 months. The mean age of the pupils at the beginning of the study was 14.5 years. Girls experienced more psychosomatic symptoms than boys throughout the study, but there was an increase in symptoms among both sexes during the follow-up. Transient symptoms were common, but about one tenth of adolescents reported frequent symptoms throughout the follow-up. Higher levels of psychosomatic symptoms were observed in pupils with non-intact family structure and in those with poor school performance. There was a systematic though small increase in symptoms as the number of siblings increased. Children from working class families reported slightly greater scores than children from higher social classes.