Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Aims: The primary aim was to investigate the association between somatic symptoms at ages 15 or 18 and reduced labour market participation at age 23, when socioeconomic, social, and mental health risk factors were taken into account. Methods: The study included 3223 participants from the West Jutland Cohort Study with questionnaire information on somatic symptoms at ages 15 or 18 and with register information on labour market participation at age 23, gathered from a national register on all public transfer benefits for a 52-week period. The analyses included additional information about socioeconomic background, number of negative life events, social climate in the family, social relations with friends, and depressive symptoms. Logistic regression analyses yielded odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Results: Among the males, associations between reporting somatic symptoms at age 18 and low labour market participation was seen in both crude and adjusted analyses (odds ratio: 1.66; 95% confidence intervals: 1.01–2.75), whereas the association among the females disappeared after adjustments (odds ratio: 0.97; 95% confidence intervals: 0.63–1.52). Conclusions: The males that reported somatic symptoms in late adolescence appeared to be the most vulnerable to future reduced labour market participation.

Keywords

Adolescence labour market participation somatic symptoms

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Viner

Ozer

Denny

et al . Adolescence and the social determinants of health. Lancet 2012;379:1641–52.

OECD. Education at a glance. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2011.

Winding

Labriola

Nohr

et al . The experience of demanding work environments in younger workers. Occup Med 2015;65:324–30.

Lund

Andersen

Winding

et al . Negative life events in childhood as risk indicators of labour market participation in young adulthood: a prospective birth cohort study. PLoS ONE 2013;8:e75860.

Harkonmäki

Korkeila

Vahtera

et al . Childhood adversities as a predictor of disability retirement. J Epidemiol Community Health 2007;61:479–84.

Crawley

Caporino

Birmaher

et al . Somatic complaints in anxious youth. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 2014;45:398–407.

Vila

Kramer

Hickey

et al . Assessment of somatic symptoms in British secondary school children using the Children’s Somatization Inventory (CSI). J Pediatr Psychol 2009;34:989–98.

Ghandour

Overpeck

Huang

et al . Headache, stomachache, backache, and morning fatigue among adolescent girls in the United States: associations with behavioral, sociodemographic, and environmental factors. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2004;158:797–803.

Jeffries

Milanese

Grimmer-Somers

KA.

Epidemiology of adolescent spinal pain: a systematic overview of the research literature. Spine 2007;32:2630–37.

10.

Brattberg

The incidence of back pain and headache among Swedish school children. Qual Life Res 1994;3:27–31.

11.

Christensen

Mortensen

Long-term prognosis in children with recurrent abdominal pain. Arch Dis Child 1975;50:110–14.

12.

Walker

Garber

Van Slyke

et al . Long-term health outcomes in patients with recurrent abdominal pain. J Pediatr Psychol 1995;20:233–45.

13.

Garralda

ME.

Unexplained physical complaints. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 2010;19:199–209.

14.

Hart

Hodgkinson

Belcher

et al . Somatic symptoms, peer and school stress, and family and community violence exposure among urban elementary school children. J Behav Med 2013;36:454–65.

15.

Jonsson

Hammarström

Gustafsson

PE.

Social capital across the life course and functional somatic symptoms in mid-adulthood. Scand J Public Health 2014;42:581–8.

16.

Bohman

Jonsson

Von Knorring

et al . Somatic symptoms as a marker for severity in adolescent depression. Acta Paediatr 2010;99:1724–30.

17.

Gureje

Simon

Von Korff

A cross-national study of the course of persistent pain in primary care. Pain 2001;92:195–200.

18.

Winding

Andersen

Labriola

et al . Initial non-participation and loss to follow-up in a Danish youth cohort: implications for relative risk estimates. J Epidemiol Comm Health 2014;68:137–44.

19.

Pedersen

CB.

The Danish Civil Registration System. Scand J Public Health 2011;39:22–5.

20.

Hjollund

Larsen

Andersen

JH.

Register based follow-up on social benefits and other transfer payments. Accuracy and degree of completeness in a Danish interdepartmental administrative database compared to a population based survey. Scand J Public Health 2007;35:497–502.

21.

Derogatis

LR.

SCL-90-R. Administration, scoring and procedures manual II. Towson: MDClinical Psychometric Research, 1983.

22.

Christensen

Fink

Toft

et al . A brief case-finding questionnaire for common mental disorders: the CMDQ. Fam Pract Adv Access 2005;22:448–57.

23.

Baadsgaard

Quitzau

Danish registers on personal income and transfer payments. Scand J Public Health 2011;39:103–5.

24.

Jensen

Rasmussen

AW.

Danish Education Registers. Scand J Public Health 2011;39:91–94.

25.

Epstein

Baldwin

Bishop

DS.

The McMaster family assessment device. J Manage Psychol 1983;9:171–80.

26.

Fendrich

Weissman

Warner

Screening for depressive disorder in children and adolescents: validating the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children. Am J Epidemiol 1990;131:538–51.

27.

Newcomb

Huba

Bentler

PM.

A multidimensional assessment of stressful life events among adolescents: derivation and correlations. J Health Soc Behav 1981;22:400–15.

28.

Turner

Wheaton

Lloyd

DA.

The epidemiology of social stress. Am Sociol Rev 1995;60:104–25.

29.

Murberg

TA.

The influence of optimistic expectations and negative life events on somatic symptoms among adolescents: a one-year prospective study. Psychology 2012;3:123–27.

30.

Steinberg

Morris

AS.

Adolescent development. Annu Rev Psychol 2001;52:83–110.

31.

Podsakoff

MacKenzie

Lee

et al . Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J Appl Psychol 2003;88:879–903.

Somatic Complaints in Adolescence and Labour Market Participation in Young Adulthood

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References