Resilience, digital media, and parental participation in youth mental health

May 2, 2023

According to Singapore’s first nationwide epidemiology study, the NUS Youth Epidemiology and Resilience (YEAR), resilience is defined as an individual’s skill and aptitude to prepare for, tolerate, adapt to, and progress in the face of adversities. The research focuses on the mental health and resilience of Singapore’s teenagers, ages 10 to 18.

Associate Professor John Wong, Lin Jo Yan and Yeo Boon Khim Professor in Mental Health and Neuroscience, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), and a consortium of investigators from NUS Medicine’s Department of Psychological Medicine, NUS Mind Science Centre, Institute of Mental Health, and Erasmus University Medical Center, The Netherlands, are leading the YEAR study in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE). Tote Board and NUS Mind Science Centre seed grant gave the study grant together.

The YEAR study has demonstrated a strong association between mental health and resilience.

What the numbers tell

The study attempted to explain the relationship between resilience, risks, and protective factors in developing internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as well as how having resilience can lessen mental health distress. It covered four key areas, including mental health, resilience, identity development, and media activity use. These results were just presented at the NUS Youth Academic Symposium.

In the YEAR study, participants who scored higher on good mental health also scored higher on resilience. Based on a youth self-reported survey, respondents’ mental health symptoms were evaluated. In Singapore, one in three young people reported experiencing internalized mental health symptoms like depression, anxiety, and loneliness, with those between the ages of 14 and 16 expressing more severe signs.

Meanwhile, one in every six young people reported externalizing mental health symptoms such as hyperactivity, rule-breaking, and aggression. Internalizing symptoms can emerge as depression, anxiety, and somatization, which is the physical manifestation of psychological discomfort.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, demonstrating anger, and displaying disruptive behaviors are examples of externalizing mental health issues. The combination of these internalizing and externalizing symptoms indicates the level of mental health difficulty that the young people may be facing, the study finds.

Respondents who self-reported clinical-level mental health symptoms were invited to an in-depth face-to-face or online evaluation in the second phase of the study to determine the prevalence of mental health concerns among adolescent respondents. Parent-child interactions and quality of life were also questioned among adolescent respondents and their parents.

According to the YEAR study, one in ten, or 12%, of adolescents met full diagnostic criteria for having at least one current mental health disorder, while 6% of adolescents met criteria for at least one disorder more than a year ago and are no longer meeting the same criteria, indicating that their condition may have improved. Taken together, the findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between adolescents experiencing mental health symptoms as a result of the pandemic, life stressors, and developmental challenges, and those with diagnosed mental health disorders, which are influenced by a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors.

The Singapore Youth Resilience Scale (SYRESS) assesses resilience across ten domains, including perseverance/commitment, positive self-image/optimism, relationship/social support, humor/positive thinking, emotional regulation, spirituality/faith, personal confidence/responsibility, personal control, flexibility, and positive coping.

Parents must be involved

It is critical that our youth have a strong sense of resilience in order to deal with and manage life’s obstacles and hardships. The ages of 10 to 18 have been characterized as the “window of opportunity”, when youths are entering puberty and have the time and space to work on themselves to become the young adults they desire. “Both parents and educators can be educated on how to use these resilience domains as a guide to nurture their child and facilitate their youth’s growth,” Assoc Prof Wong added.

Parents must also be more involved in detecting and supporting their children’s mental health by increasing mental health literacy understanding, since the study found that parents were less likely to recognize mental health symptoms in their children.

In comparison to adolescents’ self-reported mental health symptoms, approximately 10% of parent respondents reported noticing clinical-level mental health symptoms in their children.

Taking advantage of digital media use

Nonetheless, the study found that parents vastly underestimate the amount of time and extent to which their children use digital devices on a daily basis. While the extent and duration of digital use are concerning, it appears that time spent online socializing and listening to music were significantly and positively correlated with both YSR internalizing and externalizing problem scores.

This suggests that youngsters typically resort to these two routes to address their inner psychological voids, in order to better integrate and process their emotions in a beneficial manner. As more young people resort to digital media for self-therapy and emotional regulation, parents and educators must understand their vital role in laying strong foundations of media literacy and habits early in their child’s life.

“When compared to previous generations, our youths have been exposed to the digital world from a very young age.” At home, parents must set the tone and demonstrate ethical media use for their children. With a solid foundation in media content literacy, guided by discernment and mindfulness, our adolescents will be able to better exploit the limitless opportunities from various digital avenues to discover and build interests, making their digital experience more enriching and experiential,” added Assoc Prof Wong.

“Instead of dismissing digital devices and media content as the root cause of evil, these findings surface the crucial need to examine the current media literacy level among the population. It is important for educators and parents alike to be educated on how to reap the benefits of this rich digital space to complement various modes of learning,” said Assoc Prof Wong.

Source: https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/news/building-resilience-is-key-to-good-mental-health-nus-youth-epidemiology-and-resilience-study/

Tags: adolescents, digital media, featured, mental health, Resilience