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The link between ethnicity, social disadvantage and mental health problems in a school-based multiethnic sample of children in the Netherlands

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Abstract

To investigate to what extent differences in prevalence and types of mental health problems between ethnic minority and majority youth can be explained by social disadvantage. Mental health problems were assessed in a sample of 1,278 schoolchildren (55 % Dutch, 32 % Moroccan and 13 % Turkish; mean age: 12.9 ± 1.8) using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire self-report and teacher report. Measures of family socioeconomic status, neighbourhood deprivation, perceived discrimination, family structure, repeating a school year, housing stability and neighbourhood urbanization were used as indicators of social disadvantage, based on which a cumulative index was created. Ethnic minority youth had more externalizing and fewer internalizing problems than majority youth. Perceived discrimination and living in an unstable social environment were associated with mental health problems, independent of ethnicity. A dose–response relationship was found between social disadvantage and mental health problems. The adjusted odds ratio for mental health problems was 4.16 (95 % CI 2.49–6.94) for more than four compared with zero indicators of social disadvantage. Social disadvantage was more common in ethnic minority than in majority youth, explaining part of the differences in prevalence of mental health problems. Ethnic minority youth in the Netherlands have a different profile of mental health problems than majority youth. In all ethnic groups, the risk of mental health problems increases with the degree of social disadvantage. The higher prevalence of externalizing problems among ethnic minority youth is explained partly by their disadvantaged social position. The findings suggest that social factors associated with ethnicity are likely to explain mental health problems in ethnic groups.

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Notes

  1. This method will have misclassified 1.7 and 2.2 % of Moroccan and Turkish ethnic minority youth, respectively, as ethnically Dutch, because not their parents, but their grandparents were born in a foreign country (third generation immigrants). The third generation of Moroccans and Turks in the Netherlands is small [21].

  2. The analysis assessing the relationship between cumulative social disadvantage and hyperactivity, adjusting for sex and age, in Turkish youth is slightly underpowered when the rule of thumb of at least 20 cases per explaining variable in a logistic regression model is followed (the number of cases in the category of the dependent variable with the lowest N is 54, with three explaining variables).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant from the Department of Integration and Society of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment of the Government of the Netherlands. The authors gratefully acknowledge all participating children and teachers and all research assistants involved.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU Medical Centre, PO Box 303, 1115 ZG, Duivendrecht, The Netherlands

    Marcia Adriaanse, Theo Doreleijers & Lieke van Domburgh

  2. Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, Parnassia Academy, Oude Parklaan 123, 1901 ZZ, Castricum, The Netherlands

    Marcia Adriaanse & Wim Veling

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Wim Veling

  4. Intermetzo Youth Care, Research and Development, PO Box 94, 7200 AB, Zutphen, The Netherlands

    Lieke van Domburgh

Authors
  1. Marcia Adriaanse
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  2. Wim Veling
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  3. Theo Doreleijers
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  4. Lieke van Domburgh
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Correspondence to Marcia Adriaanse.

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Adriaanse, M., Veling, W., Doreleijers, T. et al. The link between ethnicity, social disadvantage and mental health problems in a school-based multiethnic sample of children in the Netherlands. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 23, 1103–1113 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0564-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0564-5

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