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Mental Health Challenges Among First Nations Adolescents Living Off-Reserve in Ontario, Canada

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Abstract

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.

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Funding

No funding role declared.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MD/PhD Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, L8N 3Z5, Canada

    Sawayra Owais & Ryan J. Van Lieshout

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8N 3Z5, Canada

    Calan D. Savoy & Ryan J. Van Lieshout

  3. Department of Education, Brock University, Hamilton, ON, L8K 1V7, Canada

    Troy Hill

  4. Department of Education & Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 2T5, Canada

    Jessica Lai & Jacob A. Burack

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  1. Sawayra Owais
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  2. Calan D. Savoy
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  3. Troy Hill
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  4. Jessica Lai
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  6. Ryan J. Van Lieshout
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Correspondence to Sawayra Owais.

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Owais, S., Savoy, C.D., Hill, T. et al. Mental Health Challenges Among First Nations Adolescents Living Off-Reserve in Ontario, Canada. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 54, 1242–1249 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01333-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01333-8

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