Sense of Coherence in Adolescents and Their Families in a Swedish Speaking Community in Finland (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sense of coherence and health behaviour in adolescence
Acta Paediatrica, 2011
Aim: To explore associations of Sense of coherence (SOC) with health behaviour and social competence among 15-year-old adolescents. Methods: Study population is a prospective cohort of a randomized cluster sample of families and their first-born children from southwestern Finland in 1986-1987. In this study, cross-sectional data of the 15-year-olds were used. The present data were based on mailed, pretested questionnaires. The outcome variable, SOC, was based on the 13-item scale of Antonovsky's Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ). The principal explanatory variables were health behaviour, including experienced oral health, and social competence. The statistical analysis was performed using linear regression modelling. Results: Strong SOC of adolescents associated significantly with lighter use of alcohol, being a non-smoker, better care of oral health and better social competence compared with the others. Conclusion: Sense of coherence is a useful tool for identifying adolescents in need of extra support and motivation for their health behaviour.
A sense of health and coherence in young rural schoolchildren in Sweden
International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 2021
Background: Little is known about how younger schoolchildren in a rural setting experience their sense of coherence (SOC), how they think and reason about health and what they perceive as important to achieve health goals. This study aimed to investigate children's SOC and their health perceptions. Method: In this mixed-method study 94 children (8-12 years) from three rural schools answered several questionnaires: The Child-SOC (CSOC), Positive Health Scale (PHS) and Cantril's ladder of life scale. Another 23 children (of 94) participated in four focus group interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes from the interview transcripts. Results: High SOC was reported by 48% of the boys and 22% of the girls. However, no significant gender differences were found. Four themes were generated from the qualitative analysis: Understanding health, Managing health, Doing bodily health and Socialising health. Both younger and older children had a holistic view of health in which health was seen as an individual's living habits in which social contacts mattered. Conclusion: In a rural context children need to adapt to activities that exist in their immediate environment. Thus, activities during school hours can be an important complement in health promotion.
Analysis of the importance of family in the development of sense of coherence during adolescence
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2012
Aims: The aim of this work was to study the influence of several family dimensions on sense of coherence (SOC) in adolescence, controlling the possible effects from the demographic variables, gender and age. Methods: The sample consisted of 7580 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18, who had taken part in the 2010 edition of the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study in Spain. Results: The results showed that there were no significant gender differences in SOC levels. However, age had a significant influence on SOC. Higher levels of SOC were found in adolescents aged 13 and 14 compared to older participants. Family variables explained 18% of SOC variability, with affection, easy communication with parents, and parental knowledge as the most outstanding variables. In addition, positive relationships between parents and family affluence had a significant role in explaining SOC levels. Conclusions: The results suggest that the family context plays an important role in providing meaningful experiences for the development of a strong SOC in adolescence.
Sense of Coherence and Health in Disadvantaged Adolescents
International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 1997
This research study included a questionnaire distributed to 750 adolescents between the ages of 12-24. Qualitative interviews with 60 adolescents in the sample and a questionnaire with a control group of 1,033 adolescents showed higher health strains among disadvantaged adolescents. In addition, those adolescents with a below-average sense of coherence had significantly more psychosomatic stress symptoms and experienced a greater degree of demoralization. I Until recently, the question of adolescent health has not been given much consideration. However, this has changed in the past few years since there is increasing evidence that the simple equation youth = health is no longer tenable. Researchers have come to interpret the augmenting health strains for adolescents as an indicator of the higher risks of growing up in modernized societies. The circumstances in which western youths live these days are marked by the process of social modernization and its ambivalent consequences. The ensuing loss of secure, traditional lifestyles offers less and less orientation. Children and adolescents are growing up in a world which has lost its unambiguous clarity (e.g. Beck, 1986, Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 1994). On the one hand, individuals are set free from given and obligatory lifestyles. On the other hand, though, adolescents are forced to develop a much greater
International Review of …, 2011
The salutogenic theory considers sense of coherence (SOC) as a cross-cultural concept (Antonovsky, 1987), meaning that in all cultures and at all stages of coping with a stressor, a person with a strong SOC is at an advantage in preventing tension from being transformed into stress. However, in seeking to understand how the SOC works, it is culture which seems to defi ne which resources are appropriate. The aim of our paper is to examine this theoretical assumption of Antonovsky. Data on personal and community SOC as well as on stress reactions were gathered after the last fi re in northern Israel (December 2010) among adolescents aged 12 – 18 belonging to three cultural groups (Jews, Druze, Muslims). We compared the pattern of personal versus community SOC in explaining stress reactions in the three cultures. Results indicate that personal SOC was the strongest predictor of stress reactions in all cultures. Community SOC, however, played a signifi cant role mainly for Druze. Results are discussed relating to Antonovsky ’ s theory and to adolescence as a ‘ universal ’ period, as well as considering the uniqueness of each culture separately.
Journal of Adolescence, 2013
Using a person-focused approach, the present study sought to identify meaningful constellations of contextual factors that led to predominantly high and low levels of sense of coherence (SOC). Specifically, the contributions of the quality of parent-child relationships, teacher and classmate support, models of behaviour in the peer group, and neighbourhood assets were examined in a representative sample of Spanish adolescents aged 13 to 18 that had taken part in the 2010 edition of the study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. The quality of parent-child relationships emerged as the main predictor of SOC for the whole sample, but the remaining factors also made significant contributions, which underlines the importance of the simultaneous analysis of the main contexts in adolescents' lives. Additionally, the identified constellations usually included compensatory effects, so no factor should be considered to be completely determining. Interestingly, the role of support at school was different depending on contextual profiles. Ó
BMJ open, 2015
Local government concerns over expenditure on social and healthcare are growing. The aim of the present study was to explore the association between a weak 'sense of coherence' (SOC) in teens and their subsequent risk of receiving social and healthcare benefits during young adulthood, and to monitor how SOC developed during this period. Prospective cohort study. North Denmark Region. 773 Pupils from seventh and eighth forms who answered a questionnaire in 1998. Different social benefits (from the Danish DREAM database embracing disbursed public social benefits). Change in SOC score from 1998 to 2010. 722 had answered seven items of the original SOC-13 questionnaire (denoted by SOC-7). Girls with a weak SOC-7 (the lowest 1st quartile) in 1998 had a significantly increased risk of receiving unemployment benefits (RR 1.3 (1.1 to 1.6)), social assistance (RR 1.8 (1.3 to 2.5)) and sickness benefits (RR 1.5 (1.2 to 2.0)) compared with girls with a strong SOC-7. For boys, only mino...
A sense of coherence and health. Salutogenesis in a societal context: Aland, a special case?
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 2007
Background: Antonovsky's salutogenic concept of a sense of coherence (SOC) has proved most influential in the way that health is now perceived. Aim: To (1) describe the distribution of SOC among 40-70-year-old Å landers; (2) examine the distribution of depression in Å land, Finland, and its relationship with SOC; and (3) discuss the findings within a salutogenic framework in a societal context. Design: A cross-sectional study design was adopted. Antonovsky's SOC Questionnaire (13 items) and the Beck Depression Inventory (13 items) were used. In addition, in a separate questionnaire, sociodemographic information about each participant was sought, together with a question specific to this study and designed to measure self-rated health. Setting: Å land, an autonomous island province of Finland. Results: The proportion of respondents reporting good health was high (64%). The overall mean (SD) SOC was 70.7 (11.7) points, whereas for farmers and fishermen it was 73.88 (8.8) and 74.33 (9.2) points, respectively. SOC was significantly and strongly related to the self-rated health score. The higher the SOC, the better was the health of the respondents. Furthermore, the study provided clear evidence of the potential of the SOC concept as a positive mental health indicator. Conclusion: The SOC seems to be a health-promoting resource that supports the development of a positive subjective state of health.
BMC Public Health
Background The sense of coherence is developed through the learning process and contributes to the positioning of individuals in the health-disease continuum, facilitating successful and adaptive personal outcomes. Health-related behaviours represent a health determinant of utmost importance for public health and the development of adolescent and youth health promotion policies, as they are related to the main risk factors and problems of morbidity and mortality in our society. Previous studies have analysed the relationship between sense of coherence and only some individual health outcomes such as oral health, the relationship of sense of coherence with smoking and alcohol consumption, concluding that salutogenic factors are related to quality of life and preventive behaviours. The aim of this systematic review was to describe the relationship of sense of coherence with different health-related behaviours investigated so far in the adolescent and youth population. Methods A system...
Social Science & Medicine, 1997
In order to expand our knowledge of how health inequalities are generated, a broader range of possible mechanisms has to be studied. Two mechanisms of potential importance here are childhood conditions and sense of coherence. Drawing on theoretical arguments and empirical findings in these two research fields, a conceptual model of the relationships between childhood conditions, sense of coherence, adult social class and adult health is presented. On the basis of this model, this paper sets out to analyse (1) the degree to which a low sense of coherence is based in childhood experiences, (2) the degree to which the impact of childhood conditions on adult health is mediated through sense of coherence, and (3) the importance of sense of coherence for class differences in ill health. The analyses are carried out on both cross-sectional data (n = 4390) and panel data (n = 3773) from the Swedish Level of Living Surveys in 1981 and 1991. The analyses indicate that childhood family size and the experience of a broken home are unrelated to sense of coherence later in life, while economic hardship has a small and indirect effect, mediated via class position in adulthood. Only dissension in the childhood family was found to have a direct, although fairly modest, effect on sense of coherence. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that sense of coherence does not mediate the effect of childhood factors on adult health. Rather, childhood conditions and adult sense of coherence appear to be complementary and additive risk factors for illness in adulthood. The results presented here also suggest that sense of coherence may be a factor involved in the shaping of class inequalities in health.