Background: The mental health of young people has become a public health priority in recent years. Many early symptoms of mental health disorders first appear during adolescence. The aim of this study was to develop a contemporary profile of the mental health of Canadian adolescent girls from farms and determine whether they differed from girls with non-farm backgrounds.Methods: Cross-sectional analyses of an established, school-based survey, the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (2014) were conducted. Study subjects were adolescent girls who reported living or working (n = 1,346) and not living or working (n = 13,158) on a farm and attending schools in rural, small, medium and large/metropolitan centers. Scales examining positive (prosocial behaviour, life satisfaction) and negative (psychological problems, overt risk-taking) mental health indicators were compared between the two groups of girls by grade and community size.Results: Both farm and non-farm girls in upper grades reported lower life satisfaction scores and higher scores for psychological problems and overt risking-taking compared to girls in lower grades. By community size, girls from farms in the most rural schools reported more positive mental health than non-farm girls, with the exception of overt risk-taking, where girls in grades 9-10 from the most rural backgrounds reported markedly higher levels of risk-taking, particularly girls from farms.Conclusions: This study identified differences in mental health of girls from farms as community size increases, with more positive indicators among girls in the most rural communities. However, across all community sizes, overt risk-taking was higher in girls from farms. Thus, it appears that agrarian culture and norms have both protective and negative effects on the mental health of girls from farms.

中文翻译：

---

农场和非农业环境中女童心理健康的当代概况。

背景：近年来，年轻人的心理健康已成为公共卫生的重点。精神健康障碍的许多早期症状首先在青春期出现。这项研究的目的是对加拿大农场中少女的心理健康状况进行当代研究，并确定他们是否与非农业背景的少女有所不同。方法：对一项既定的，以学校为基础的调查，进行了学龄儿童的健康行为（2014年）。研究对象是报告在农场，农村，中小，中型和大型/大城市中心生活或工作（n = 1,346）而没有生活或工作（n = 13,158）的少女。量表检查正面（社会行为，生活满意度）和负面（心理问题，结果）：两组女孩的年级和社区规模对心理健康指标进行了比较。结果：高年级的农场女孩和非农场女孩的生活满意度得分较低，心理问题和公开冒险的得分更高与低年级女生相比。从社区规模来看，大多数农村学校的农场女孩的心理健康状况要比非农业女孩好，除了冒险行为外，来自大多数农村背景的9-10年级女孩的风险水平明显更高结论：本研究确定了随着社区规模的扩大，农场女孩的心理健康水平有所不同，在大多数农村社区中，女孩的积极指标更高。但是，在所有社区规模中，农场女孩的公开冒险精神更高。因此，耕种文化和规范似乎对农场女童的心理健康既有保护作用，又有负面作用。