Summary:
The main aim of the present thesis was to explore the relationships among
Subjective Health Complaints (SHC) and a number of individual, family and
social factors. A secondary aim was to assess the psychometric properties of
the Greek version of the HBSC-SCL instrument, which was used for SHC assessment.
The study was conducted within the framework of the KIDSCREEN study.
Self-reported questionnaires were administered to a Greek, nationwide, random,
school-based sample of pupils aged 12-18 years old and their parents. Bivariate
analyses and multiple linear and logistic regression models were performed in
order to investigate the associations of SHC with a number of
socio-demographic, individual, family and social factors. Additionally, the
psychometric properties of the HBSC-SCL were assessed.
The psychometric assessment of the HBSC-SCL showed that a) a model of two
significantly correlated factors (somatic and psychological) fitted the data
reasonably well and b) acceptable psychometric properties, except from
discriminant validity which should be re-assessed by using non self-reported
data. In investigating the associations among SHC and a number of
socio-demographic, individual, family and social life-related factors, the most
robust associations were shown for gender, age, family affluence, perceived
quality of financial resources, Health Related Quality of Life,
emotional/behavioural difficulties, smoking, binge drinking, perceived parental
mental health, parent-adolescent relationship, parent’s solicitous response to
child’s symptoms, as well as adolescent’s perception regarding his/her
well-being and functioning in the family, school and peer milieu.
Keywords:
Subhective health complaints (SHC), Psychosomatic complaints/symptoms, Psychosomatic ill-health, Medically unexplained symptoms, Adolescence
