Browsing by Subject "yleistynyt ahdistuneisuus"

Anxiety disorders typically onset in adolescence, often resulting in significant impairment. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are among the clinically most important anxiety disorders in adolescents and may have a significant effect on schoolwork. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of perceived difficulties in schoolwork with SAD and GAD. It also aimed at determining if the comorbidity between SAD and GAD is associated with higher rates of school difficulties than seen in SAD or GAD without comorbidity. The study also assessed if the associations are different for boys and girls, and whether parental education level, parental unemployment, family structure, and school performance explain the possible associations. The study data was based on the School Health Promotion Study of 2015 and included survey data from 37 905 Finnish upper secondary school students. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine indicators for academic and social difficulties in school. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the multivariate associations between anxiety symptoms and perceived difficulties in schoolwork, conducted separately for both genders. Three different logistic models were formed for each association, academic and social difficulties each being the dependent variable in turn. Each model had 1, 4, or 5 independent background variables, in addition to self-reported anxiety symptoms. The main finding of this study was that both social anxiety and general anxiety were associated with perceived difficulties in schoolwork in upper secondary school students. Adolescents with SAD or GAD had a significantly increased risk for difficulties in schoolwork. The comorbidity between SAD and GAD was associated with significantly higher rates of social difficulties than non-comorbid SAD or GAD. In academic difficulties, GAD especially increased the risk significantly whether or not it was comorbid with SAD. The associations were for the most part similar for boys and girls. Parental unemployment, low parental education level, other than nuclear family structure, and poor school performance were associated with school difficulties. However, those variables only explained a small proportion of the association between anxiety symptoms and school difficulties. This study showed that adolescents with anxiety symptoms face challenges that they probably need support for in the school environment.