Researchers have studied academic orientation—students’ valuing of and commitment to education—as in part a function of a cultural fit between students’ cultural capital, competencies, identity, and ...the institutional culture of the education system. Recent research on students’ aspirations and commitment highlights the moral undertones of such cultural fit. Scholars have identified the perceived moral connotations of becoming “an educated person” and illustrated how students’ academic orientation may be intertwined with the unique moral culture of the education system. Neoinstitutional scholars have examined modern education systems’ emphasis on an individualizing type of moral culture, that is, an institutional moral culture emphasizing individual autonomy, rights, and achievement over traditional mores, knowledge, and social hierarchies. Scholars have yet to bridge these streams of research by examining the link between students’ personal moral culture and the institutional moral culture of education systems. In this study, we consider whether students whose moral orientation matches the individualizing moral culture of education systems are more academically oriented. We conceptualize this link as moral fit, and we use moral foundations theory to identify students’ personal moral culture. Analysis of a unique sample of students drawn from all secondary schools in Iceland (N = 10,525) shows (1) individualizing moral intuitions (those that emphasize the individual as the basic moral unit) are associated with a greater academic orientation, net of parental involvement, cultural capital, and other important controls, and (2) this association is only lightly moderated by differences in the school structure.
Abstract Purpose Compare the lifetime prevalence of eight forms of substance use (alcohol, drunkenness, oral tobacco, snuff, sleeping pills/tranquilizers, sniffed glue, marijuana, and amphetamine) ...among adolescent e-cigarette (EC) users, conventional cigarette (CC) smokers, dual users, and nonusers. Methods We analyzed population-level school-survey data collected from 10th-grade students (aged 15–16 years) in February 2015 in Iceland (N = 3,477; response rate, 84.4%). Results Smoking rates were similar for both sexes. Around 17% had used ECs and almost 8% had used ECs and not combustible tobacco, 5%–6% had smoked CCs but not ECs, around 9% were dual users. EC-only users were significantly more likely than nonusers to have used the eight substances investigated in the study but were less likely to have used these substances than CC smokers and dual users. Conclusion The four groups assessed in this study appear to form a sequential risk gradient to the use of other substances.
Stressful life experiences, such as sexual abuse and family violence/conflict, relate to an increased risk of mental health problems. Religion and spirituality may prevent this negative impact, but ...religion and spirituality are lower among survivors of stressful life experiences. To explore this effect, we examined the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and family violence/conflict on anger and depressed mood. Survey data were collected from a large population–based sample of Icelandic adolescents (N = 7,365) on their stressful life experiences, religion, spirituality, and mental health. Survivors of stressful life experiences (sexual abuse or family violence/conflict) were significantly lower on religion and spirituality than others. A hierarchical linear regression showed that stressful life experiences contributed uniquely to higher levels of anger and depressed mood. Spirituality was associated with decreased anger and depressed mood. The religion of parents and peers was also associated with decreased anger. Religious participation, on the contrary, did not have a relationship with mental health outcomes. In addition, the negative association between spirituality and anger was stronger among survivors of sexual abuse than nonabused individuals. These results confirm previous research, indicating that survivors of stressful life experiences may experience less religion and spirituality. The results also extend existing knowledge by showing that spirituality may be even more beneficial among sexual abuse survivors, as a protective factor against anger. These findings can help in the minimization of the negative mental health impact of stressful life experiences.
Adolescent substance use—the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and other harmful drugs—remains a persistent global problem and has presented ongoing challenges for public health authorities and ...society. In response to the high rates of adolescent substance use during the 1990s, Iceland has pioneered in the development of the Icelandic Model for Primary Prevention of Substance Use—a theory-based approach that has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing substance use in Iceland over the past 20 years. In an effort to document our approach and inform potentially replicable practice-based processes for implementation in other country settings, we outline in a two-part series of articles the background and theory, guiding principles of the approach, and the core steps used in the successful implementation of the model. In this article, we describe the background context, theoretical orientation, and development of the approach and briefly review published evaluation findings. In addition, we present the five guiding principles that underlie the Icelandic Prevention Model’s approach to adolescent substance use prevention and discuss the accumulated evidence that supports effectiveness of the model. In a subsequent Part 2 article, we will identify and describe key processes and the 10 core steps of effective practice-based implementation of the model.
Abstract Theory holds that income inequality may harm adolescent mental health by reducing social capital within neighborhood communities. However, research on this topic has been very limited. We ...use multilevel data on 102 public schools and 5958 adolescents in Iceland (15 and 16 years old) to examine whether income inequality within neighborhoods is associated with emotional distress in adolescents. Moreover, we test whether indicators of social capital, including social trust and embeddedness in neighborhood social networks, mediate this contextual effect. The findings show that neighborhood income inequality positively influences emotional distress of individual adolescents, net of their personal household situations and social relations. However, although the indicators of social capital negatively influence emotional distress, they do not mediate the contextual effect of neighborhood income inequality. The study illustrates the role of economic disparities in adolescent mental health, but calls for more research on the underlying social and social-psychological mechanisms.
This is the second in a two-part series of articles about the Icelandic Model for Primary Prevention of Substance Use (IPM) in this volume of Health Promotion Practice. IPM is a community ...collaborative approach that has demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in reducing substance use initiation among youth in Iceland over the past 20 years. While the first article focused attention on the background context, theoretical orientation, evaluation and evidence of effectiveness, and the five guiding principles of the model, this second article describes the 10 core steps to practical implementation. Steps 1 to 3 focus on building and maintaining community capacity for model implementation. Steps 4 to 6 focus on implementing a rigorous system of data collection, processing, dissemination, and translation of findings. Steps 7 to 9 are designed to focus community attention and to maximize community engagement in creating and sustaining a social environment in which young people become progressively less likely to engage in substance use, including demonstrative examples from Iceland. And Step 10 focuses on the iterative, repetitive, and long-term nature of the IPM and describes a predictable arc of implementation-related opportunities and challenges. The article is concluded with a brief discussion about potential variation in community factors for implementation.
In two decades, the Icelandic prevention model (IPM) has been employed to dramatically reduce rates of adolescent substance use in Iceland. Briefly, the IPM is a multisectoral, community-based, ...collaborative system where researchers, policy makers, administrative leaders, and practitioners join forces to reduce the odds of adolescent substance use over time. Comparatively, Iceland now ranks among the lowest in adolescent substance use in all of Europe. Since 2005, the IPM has garnered considerable international attention, and several countries or municipalities within them have adapted, or are presently adapting, the model to their needs. In this commentary, we first briefly review the history and formation of the IPM in Iceland from a school-based survey to a fully integrated prevention system. In the second part, we present a short overview of the national consensus building and institutional collaboration that led to the implementation of the model in Chile in Latin America, as a demonstrative example. In this volume of Health Promotion Practice, we also present a series of two practice-based articles that introduce the IPM. The first article, titled “Development and Guiding Principles of the Icelandic Model for Preventing Adolescent Substance Use,” introduces the theoretical origins of the model, five guiding principles, and evidence of effectiveness to date. In the second article, titled “Implementing the Icelandic Model for Preventing Adolescent Substance Use,” we outline 10 practice-based steps to guide model implementation in other countries. Both articles are available via open access, and both are also available online in Spanish.
Drawing on R. Agnew's (Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology 30: 47-87, 1992) general strain theory, this paper examines whether depressed mood and anger ...mediate the effects of family conflict on delinquency. We examine data on 7,758 students, 14-16 years old, attending the compulsory 9th and 10th grades of the Icelandic secondary school system. We use structural equation modeling to show that exposure to arguments and fights at home are positively related to both depressed mood and anger among adolescents. Anger is positively associated with delinquent behavior whereas depressed mood has no effect on delinquency.
The aim of this study was to examine age- and gender-related patterns of PA and depressive symptoms among students through their adolescent years.
Data from three population-based surveys were ...analysed to determine levels of moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA), participation in organized sports and depressive symptoms among 10−19-year-old adolescents.
Questionnaires assessing PA and depressive symptoms were administered to 32 860 students in compulsory and upper-secondary schools in Iceland.
As age increased, depressive symptoms increased and PA decreased with over half of the adolescents in upper-secondary schools not achieving recommended daily PA. There were gender differences in PA and depressive symptoms with girls being less active and reporting higher levels of depressive symptoms than boys. MVPA was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms among both genders while organized sports had more impact on depressive symptoms among girls.
To our knowledge, this study is the first to simultaneously examine patterns of PA and depressive symptoms among students through their adolescent years. Our findings show that the decrease in PA and increase in depressive symptoms is most pronounced around the transition from compulsory to upper-secondary school, or around the age of 15–16. Thus the findings provide important information about when to tailor public health efforts to reduce the burden of depressive symptoms among adolescents, for example by employing PA interventions.
•We simultaneously examine patterns of PA and depressive symptoms in adolescence.•With increasing age, PA decreases and depressive symptoms increase.•Most pronounced differences seen around the age of 15–16.•MVPA is associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms among boys and girls.•Girls benefit more than boys from participation in organized sports.
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