Predictors of flourishing for adolescents with asthma

Association among friendship skills, involvement in after-school activities, and flourishing for adolescents with asthma and comorbid emotional and behavioral problems

OBJECTIVES

Primary objectives were to examine the relations among abilities for making and keeping friends, involvement in after-school activities, and flourishing for adolescents with current asthma, as well as comorbid behavior problems, anxiety, or depression.

METHODS

Data from the 2021 National Survey of Child Health was analyzed. Parents provided data on one child. Multinomial logistic regression analyses, both unadjusted and adjusted for the sampling weight, were conducted for adolescents with current asthma and comorbid behavior problems, anxiety, or depression. Predictors of flourishing included difficulty in making and keeping friends and involvement in after-school activities. Sex, age, race/ethnic group, and having been bullied were covariates. To examine differences for children with varied comorbid emotional and behavioral problems, relations were tested separately for children with asthma and behavior problems, children with asthma and anxiety, and children with asthma and depression.

RESULTS

Skills for making and keeping friends were positively related to flourishing of adolescents with current asthma for all three types of mental health concerns. The relationship between involvements in after-school activities was less clear-cut, as this predictor was not always positively related to flourishing.

CONCLUSIONS

Abilities to make and keep friends were related to flourishing, indicating that peer support is a resilience factor. Conversely, it was not clear that involvement in after-school activities was a resilience factor and more research about factors constituting successful after-school involvement for adolescents with asthma is needed. Future research, illuminating how social support from peers and involvement in activities promote flourishing will extend knowledge.

A systematic review of adolescent flourishing

Traditionally, the study of well-being has been approached from the hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives. However, the last findings suggest that both aspects are complementary, giving place to an integrated conceptualization of well-being called flourishing. In spite of the constant increase of research around this construct, there is still little information regarding flourishing in adolescents. The objective of this study is to review the available literature on flourishing in adolescence in relation to its tie with other constructs, its study in different contexts and the way it has been operationalized. The selection of the studies was conducted in two phases. First, it was verified that the exclusion and selection criteria were met. Then, an evaluation of the quality of the pre-selected studies was carried out. The data were synthesized through the thematic synthesis method. For the results, 28 empirical studies were selected. Four thematic axes were identified: (a) Flourishing in different contexts, (b) Flourishing in regards to other results and positive psychological characteristics and/or their negative counterpart, (c) Flourishing and psychosocial vulnerability, and (d) indicators for the evaluation of flourishing. Suggestions are provided with the goal of consolidating the science of human flourishing.

Positive Parenting Matters in the Face of Early Adversity

INTRODUCTION

A negative relationship between adverse childhood experiences and both physical and mental health in adulthood is well established, as is the positive impact of parenting on child development and future health. However, few studies have investigated unique influences of adverse childhood experiences and positive parenting together within a large, diverse early childhood sample.

METHODS

The study used data on all children aged 0-5 years (n=29,997) from the National Survey of Children's Health 2011/2012 to examine effects of positive parenting practices and adverse childhood experiences on early childhood social-emotional skills and general development. All analyses were performed in 2017 and 2018.

RESULTS

More than a third of the sample reported experiencing at least one adverse childhood experience. More than a fourth (26.7%) met study criteria for social-emotional deficits, and 26.2% met criteria for developmental delay risks. The number of adverse childhood experiences exhibited negative marginal associations with social-emotional deficits and developmental delay risks, whereas the number of positive parenting practices showed independent protective effects. Risks associated with an absence of positive parenting were often greater than those of four or more adverse childhood experiences, even among no/low adversity families. The population attributable fractions for social-emotional deficits and developmental delay risks were 17.3% and 13.9% (translating to prevalence reductions of 4.5% and 3.6%) when adopting all positive parenting practices and 4.5% and 7.2% (prevalence reductions of 1.2% and 1.9%) when eliminating adverse childhood experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

The number of adverse childhood experiences was associated with both social-emotional deficits and developmental delay risks in early childhood; however, positive parenting practices demonstrated robust protective effects independent of the number of adverse childhood experiences. This evidence further supports promotion of positive parenting practices at home, especially for children exposed to high levels of adversity.

Adolescent flourishing in relation to having asthma: Results from a population-based cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated parent report of adolescent behaviors and flourishing of adolescents with asthma from a nationwide sample.

METHODS

A secondary analysis of the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health was conducted. There were 2,880 youth with asthma in our sample and 25,841 without asthma between 13 and 17 years of age. Analyses examined flourishing among adolescents with and without asthma and the impact of adolescent arguing, bullying, and mood difficulties on adolescent flourishing for adolescents with asthma, while controlling for sex, age, and race.

RESULTS

Findings indicated lower flourishing for youth with asthma compared to youth without asthma. Moreover, adolescents with asthma who experienced negative behaviors, such as arguing and bullying, and adolescents who were experiencing sad feelings had lower flourishing.

CONCLUSIONS

The results were consistent with literature, indicating that relatively poorer behavioral and emotional functioning is related to lower flourishing in adolescents with asthma. The results highlight the importance of screening for emotional functioning in adolescents and the need for further research to understand characteristics of adolescents related to their positive functioning.