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Intersecting social positions and mental wellbeing in adolescence: A population-based study
Eva Oberle1, Suiqiong Fan1, Xuejun Ryan Ji2
1Human Early Learning Partnership, School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada.
Background:
Gender, ethnicity, and family composition are jointly associated with adolescent mental wellbeing, but quantitative research examining their intersections remains limited. This study applied multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) to examine intersections of gender, ethnicity, and family composition in relation to satisfaction with life (SWL) and depressive symptoms in adolescence.
Methods:
We analyzed population-based cross-sectional data from the Middle Years Development Instrument (2022-2024) collected with students (N = 40,768) in grades 6-8 in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Intersectional social strata were constructed using intersections of self-reported gender, ethnicity, and family composition. Gender was categorized as cisgender boy, cisgender girl, and trans and gender diverse. Ethnicity was classified into 11 categories using a coding scheme from Statistics Canada. Family composition was grouped into two-parent, one-parent, part-time with each parent, and other arrangements. We examined multilevel models for SWL and depressive symptoms, with individuals nested within strata.
Results:
Of the possible 132 intersectional social strata, a total of 128 had at least 1 participant (n_range: 0-6015). Social strata accounted for 14% variance in SWL and 13% for depressive symptoms, but most were explained by the main effects of gender, ethnicity, and family composition. Identifying as trans and gender diverse showed the strongest main effect in the final adjusted models, with consistently lower wellbeing. There were several statistically significant intersectional effects. For example, higher-than-expected SWL was found among White cisgender boys in two-parent households and South Asian cisgender boys and girls in two-parent households; lower-than-expected SWL scores and higher-than-expected depressive symptoms scores were observed among East Asian cisgender boys in two-parent households.
Conclusion:
Intersectionality is related to mental wellbeing in complex ways. Policies need to be designed with intersectional nuance, recognizing that needs differ not only by individual characteristics but also by their combinations.
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