Center for Reproductive Health

Early Adolescents in Adversity: A Latent Class Approach to Understanding Patterns of Emotional and Behavioral Problems Across Low-Resource Urban Settings Worldwide

Shoshanna L Fine, Robert W Blum, Judith K Bass, Aimée M Lulebo, William Stones, Anggriyani Wahyu Pinandari, Siswanto Agus Wilopo, Xiayun Zuo, Rashelle J Musci

Early Adolescents in Adversity: A Latent Class Approach to Understanding Patterns of Emotional and Behavioral Problems Across Low-Resource Urban Settings Worldwide

Early adolescence (ages 10-14) is a critical period for psychosocial development. With a substantial proportion of lifetime mental health problems manifesting by age 14, poor psychosocial adjustment in early adolescence can set the stage for impairment throughout the life course. Youth living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at particular risk of experiencing emotional and behavioral problems, but little research on adolescent psychosocial development has been conducted in these settings. The aim of this study was to characterize prototypical patterns of emotional and behavioral problems among early adolescents living in four LMICs, and to explore the extent to which these patterns varied by country and sex.