TY - JOUR

T1 - Adolescent mental health in Japan and Russia: The role of body image, bullying victimisation and school environment

AU - Zhang, Xiao

AU - Slobodskaya, Helena R

AU - Kaneko, Hitoshi

N1 - The authors are grateful to Professor Andre Sourander for providing helpful comments, Associate Professor Masayoshi Ogura for collecting the Japanese data, Drs. Nadezhda B. Semenova and Margarita V. Safronova for collecting the Russian data and study participants. HS was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant # 21-15-00033. © 2023 International Union of Psychological Science.

PY - 2024/2

Y1 - 2024/2

N2 - This study examined associations between self-reported mental health problems, body image, bullying victimisation and school safety in large adolescent samples in Japan and Russia, considering the effects of gender, culture and their interactions. In both Japan and Russia, girls reported a greater number of mental health problems, less bullying victimisation and much higher body dissatisfaction than boys did. Japanese adolescents rated themselves higher on total difficulties, reported less body dissatisfaction and bullying victimisation, and rated their school safety lower than that of Russian youths. Cross-cultural differences in total difficulties and body image were qualified by gender. Body dissatisfaction, bullying victimisation and school safety all independently contributed to adolescent mental health problems. The protective effect of school safety on total difficulties was larger for girls than for boys; the strength of the association between bullying victimisation and adolescent mental health problems differed across genders and cultures. The findings indicate a need for a cross-cultural approach and provide a strong basis for targeted interventions that seek to improve adolescent mental health.

AB - This study examined associations between self-reported mental health problems, body image, bullying victimisation and school safety in large adolescent samples in Japan and Russia, considering the effects of gender, culture and their interactions. In both Japan and Russia, girls reported a greater number of mental health problems, less bullying victimisation and much higher body dissatisfaction than boys did. Japanese adolescents rated themselves higher on total difficulties, reported less body dissatisfaction and bullying victimisation, and rated their school safety lower than that of Russian youths. Cross-cultural differences in total difficulties and body image were qualified by gender. Body dissatisfaction, bullying victimisation and school safety all independently contributed to adolescent mental health problems. The protective effect of school safety on total difficulties was larger for girls than for boys; the strength of the association between bullying victimisation and adolescent mental health problems differed across genders and cultures. The findings indicate a need for a cross-cultural approach and provide a strong basis for targeted interventions that seek to improve adolescent mental health.

KW - Body image

KW - Bullying victimisation

KW - Cultural differences

KW - Gender differences

KW - School safety

KW - Bullying/psychology

KW - Humans

KW - Japan

KW - Body Image

KW - Male

KW - Mental Health

KW - Crime Victims/psychology

KW - Adolescent

KW - Female

KW - Schools

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85172085119&origin=inward&txGid=51e1e0fbb9b9d3251729586abf04f830

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/452c8dab-de33-3a5b-9232-e0258ace1f00/

U2 - 10.1002/ijop.12947

DO - 10.1002/ijop.12947

M3 - Article

C2 - 37753538

VL - 59

SP - 64

EP - 73

JO - International Journal of Psychology

JF - International Journal of Psychology

SN - 0020-7594

IS - 1

ER -