Limited data exist on the mental health challenges facing First Nations adolescents and the factors that modify these difficulties. The current study compared levels of common mental health challenges among 112 off-reserve First Nations and 3334 non-First Nations adolescents (12–17 years old) and examined the impact of maternal psychological distress on these mental health challenges. First Nations adolescents self-reported higher symptoms of conduct, oppositional-defiant, attention-deficit hyperactivity, major depressive, social phobia, generalized anxiety, and separation anxiety disorders and all associations remained statistically significant after adjusting for covariates. Moderation analyses found that increasing levels of maternal distress were associated more strongly with symptoms of oppositional defiant, attention-deficit hyperactivity, major depressive, and generalized anxiety disorders in First Nations adolescents. Future work aimed at improving the mental health of First Nations youth that focus on supporting these adolescents, and their mothers in particular, could result in substantial benefits.

关于原住民青少年面临的心理健康挑战以及改变这些困难的因素的数据有限。目前的研究比较了 112 名非保留原住民和 3334 名非原住民青少年（12-17 岁）的常见心理健康挑战水平，并检查了孕产妇心理困扰对这些心理健康挑战的影响。原住民青少年自我报告的行为症状、对立违抗、注意力缺陷多动、重度抑郁症、社交恐惧症、广泛性焦虑症和分离焦虑症的症状较高，并且所有关联在调整协变量后仍具有统计学意义。适度分析发现，母亲痛苦程度的增加与对立违抗、注意力缺陷多动、原住民青少年的主要抑郁症和广泛性焦虑症。未来旨在改善第一民族青年心理健康的工作，重点是支持这些青少年，尤其是他们的母亲，可能会带来巨大的好处。