Sara Brolin Låftman
Biographic Data
| ID | 217220 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sara Brolin Låftman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sara Brolin |
| FAMILY NAME | Låftman |
| SIGNATURE | LÅFTMAN S B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stockholm University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3573-6301 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 99 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 44 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Problematic social media use and self-rated health among Swedish adolescents
Our study revealed a significant, graded relationship between PSMU and poor SRH, highlighting the need to limit excessive social media use among adolescents to prevent health issues. The finding, that high family support may serve as a potential protective factor against poor SRH in adolescents with PSMU underscores the role of family engagement in safeguarding adolescent well-being
School pressure and psychosomatic complaints among Swedish adolescents
Background: School pressure is a significant stressor in the lives of adolescents, recognised to be associated with psychosomatic complaints. Therefore, the exploration of potential buffering factors is a relevant task. This study aimed to examine the association between school pressure and psychosomatic complaints and the potentially moderating role of physical activity in a Swedish national sample of adolescents. Methods: Data were derived from…
Exposure to parental problem drinking during adolescence and symptoms of depression and anxiety in young adulthood
Weight status and psychosomatic complaints in Swedish adolescent boys and girls
The findings of this study highlight the importance of public health initiatives aimed at preventing childhood obesity. They also underscore the significant role of family support in reducing psychosomatic complaints among adolescents with obesity. Further research is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of these relationships
Loneliness, belonging and psychosomatic complaints across late adolescence and young adulthood
Loneliness and belonging (separately and the cross-combinations of these) were cross-sectionally associated with psychosomatic complaints in late adolescence and in young adulthood. Prospectively, only the most vulnerable group in the dual continuum model, the socially distressed group, experienced more psychosomatic complaints than the socially fulfilled group, indicating a temporal relationship. Knowledge about the more nuanced links may be use…
Bullying experiences before and after the transition from lower to upper secondary school
For a majority of adolescents who experience bullying in lower secondary school, but not all, the transition to upper secondary school proves to be beneficial as the bullying typically does not persist. However, bullying can have long-term health effects, in particular for females. These findings emphasise the importance of effective measures to address bullying within schools
Prospective associations between psychosomatic complaints in adolescence and depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood
Psychosomatic complaints in adolescence were associated with depression and anxiety symptoms in young adulthood. This was true for the frequency, number, and persistence of psychosomatic complaints. Among girls, those who reported persistent psychosomatic complaints from middle to late adolescence had the highest likelihood of reporting subsequent depression and anxiety symptoms. Taken together, the results indicate that psychosomatic complaints …
Perceived problematic alcohol use in the family and adolescents’ stress-related complaints
The findings provide support for the assumption that favourable conditions in schools can buffer against negative health consequences of problematic conditions in the family, thus serving a compensatory role
Parents’ drinking, childhood hangover? Parental alcohol use, subjective health complaints and perceived stress among Swedish adolescents aged 10–18 years
The current study's results show that parental alcohol consumption is associated with poorer offspring adolescent health. Public health policies that aim to reduce parental drinking or provide support to these adolescents may be beneficial. Further studies investigating the health-related outcomes among young people living with heavy-drinking parents in the general population are needed to gain more knowledge about these individuals and to implem…
There’s a tear in my beer
Victims of bullying are at an increased risk not only of developing adverse mental health, but also of engaging in health risk behaviours. One way in which adolescents may cope with the health-related consequences of bullying victimisation is through substance use such as alcohol and narcotics, as posited by the self-medication hypothesis. Indeed, previous research has found a link between traditional (face-to-face) bullying victimisation and alc…
Internalising and externalising problems during adolescence and the subsequent likelihood of being Not in Employment, Education or Training (Neet) among males and females
Mental health problems are associated with a greater risk of being Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) during young adulthood. Yet evidence on the extent to which self-reported mental health problems precede males' and females' NEET status and on the potential pathways linking mental health problems to NEET is lacking. This study examines the longitudinal associations that internalising and externalising problems during adolescence sh…
Poor family relationships in adolescence as a risk factor of in-patient somatic care across the life course
Poor family relationships in adolescence are associated with an increased risk of severe consequences for somatic health lasting to late adulthood even when controlling for confounders including in-patient psychiatric care, emphasising the potentially important role of early interventions
Psychosocial Working Conditions in School and Life Satisfaction among Adolescents in Sweden
Poor psychosocial working conditions in school have consistently been shown to be associated with adverse health among adolescents. However, the relationships between school demands, teacher support, and classmate support and positive aspects of health have not been explored to the same extent. The aim of this study was to examine differences in psychosocial working conditions in school and in life satisfaction by gender and by grade, and to inve…
Teacher-Rated School Leadership and Adolescent Gambling
So-called "effective schools" are characterised by properties such as a strong and purposeful school leadership and a favourable school ethos. In a previous study we showed that a school's degree of teacher-rated ethos was inversely associated with student gambling and risk gambling. Building on these findings, the current study aims to examine the associations that teachers' ratings of the school leadership share with gambling and risk gambling …
Excellent Self-Rated Health among Swedish Boys and Girls and Its Relationship with Working Conditions in School
The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which school demands, teacher support, and classmate support were associated with excellent self-rated health among students, and to examine if any such statistical predictions differed by gender. Data were drawn from the Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study of 2017/18, performed among adolescents in grades five, seven, and nine (n = 3701). Linear probability models s…
School Ethos and Recurring Sickness Absence
School absence has been identified as a severe problem in Sweden, both at the individual level and for society as a whole. Despite the multitude and complexity of reasons behind school absence, health-related problems are likely to be one important determinant. This indicates that knowledge about factors that may contribute to preventing health-related absence among students is relevant. The aim was to investigate whether a higher level of teache…
School ethos and adolescent gambling
This study showed that school ethos was inversely associated with students' inclination to engage in gambling and in risk gambling. In more general terms, the study provides evidence that schools' values and norms as reflected by the teachers' ratings of their school's ethos have the potential to counteract unwanted behaviours among the students
Poor Family Relationships in Adolescence and the Risk of Premature Death
Poor family relationships during childhood have been shown to have long-term negative effects on an offspring's health. However, few studies have followed the offspring to retirement age, and relatedly, knowledge about the link between poor family relationships and premature death is scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the association between poor family relationships in adolescence and the risk of premature death, even when considering …
School Choice at a Cost? Academic Achievement, School Satisfaction and Psychological Complaints among Students in Disadvantaged Areas of Stockholm
School choice allows students from more disadvantaged district areas in metropolitan Swedish cities to commute to more prestigious schools outside of their residential area. This study examined how such students fare compared to their peers who attend more deprived schools in their own district area. Multilevel analysis was applied, estimating 2-level random intercept linear regression models based on cross-sectional survey data collected among n…
Future orientation, gambling and risk gambling among youth
The aim of this study was to analyze the association between adolescents’ future orientation and their engagement in gambling and in risk gambling, respectively. The data used come from the Stockholm School Survey, collected in 2016 among students in the ninth grade in elementary school (15–16 years) and in the second grade of upper secondary school (17–18 years) in Stockholm municipality (n = 11,661). The results showed that adolescents who expe…
Self-reported mental health problems in adolescence and occupational prestige in young adulthood
Many studies have reported a negative association between mental health problems and school performance and some studies have shown long-term negative consequences of such health problems, especially in relation to education. However, less is known about the link between different types of self-reported mental health problems in adolescence and occupational prestige in young adulthood. Using prospective survey data collected among 10–18-year-olds…
Future Orientation among Students Exposed to School Bullying and Cyberbullying Victimization
Future orientation can be defined as an individual's thoughts, beliefs, plans, and hopes for the future. Earlier research has shown adolescents' future orientation to predict outcomes later in life, which makes it relevant to analyze differences in future orientation among youth. The aim of the present study was to analyze if bullying victimization was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting a pessimistic future orientation among sch…
School Demands and Coping Resources−Associations with Multiple Measures of Stress in Mid-Adolescent Girls and Boys
Stress, and stress-related health complaints, are common among young people, especially girls. Since studies have shown that school demands are an important driver of stress in adolescents, identifying if school-based resources can protect against stress is highly relevant. The aim of this study was to analyse task-related demands and task-related coping resources as aspects of the school work environment of potential relevance for stress in mid-…
School Contextual Features of Social Disorder and Mental Health Complaints—A Multilevel Analysis of Swedish Sixth-Grade Students
This study addressed school-contextual features of social disorder in relation to sixth-grade students' experiences of bullying victimization and mental health complaints. It investigated, firstly, whether the school's concentrations of behavioural problems were associated with individual students' likelihood of being bullied, and secondly, whether the school's concentrations of behavioural problems and bullying victimization predicted students' …
Bullying as a Stressor in Mid-Adolescent Girls and Boys–Associations with Perceived Stress, Recurrent Pain, and Salivary Cortisol
Bullying involves repeated exposure to negative actions while also invoking a power asymmetry between the involved parties. From a stress perspective, being bullied can be seen as a severe and chronic stressor, and an everyday social-evaluative threat, coupled with a shortage of effective social resources for dealing with this particular stressor. The aim of this study was to investigate whether exposure to bullying among mid-adolescent girls and…
The Mental Health Advantage of Immigrant-Background Youth
Children of immigrant background, despite problems with acculturation, poverty, and discrimination, have better mental health than children of native parents. We asked whether this is a result of immigrant families' characteristics such as family structure and relations. Using a new comparative study on the integration of immigrant-background youth conducted in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (N = 18,716), particularly strong associ…
School-performance indicators and subjective health complaints
Although boys and girls are generally located in the same physical school environment, it may be experienced differently by, and have varying implications for, boys and girls. Girls like school more and achieve higher school marks, but they also perceive more school-related pressure. Based on a total sample of 8456 ninth grade pupils in Stockholm in 2004, this study uses multilevel linear regression to analyse differences between boys and girls w…
The pros and cons of social relations
Students' accounts of school-performance stress
The aim of the study is to examine students' experiences of school performance as a stressor. Accounts of school-performance stress at both the individual level and in relation to group mechanisms are studied through qualitative interviews with eighth-grade students in a high-performing school in Stockholm, Sweden (n=49). Using qualitative content analysis, three overarching themes emerged. Students' aspirations include accounts of students whose…
Family Structure and Children’s Living Conditions. A Comparative Study of 24 Countries
Cyberbullying and subjective health
The Living Conditions of Children with Shared Residence – the Swedish Example
Among children with separated parents, shared residence – i.e., joint physical custody where the child is sharing his or her time equally between two custodial parents’ homes – is increasing in many Western countries and is particularly common in Sweden. The overall level of living among children in Sweden is high; however, the potential structural differences between children in various post-separation family arrangements have not been sufficien…
The Complexity of Stress in Mid-Adolescent Girls and Boys
The Gendered Mirror on the Wall
The study investigated gender differences in satisfaction with physical appearance as a domain-specific aspect of self-esteem, and its association with global self-esteem and psychosomatic complaints. The data used was from the Stockholm School Survey, conducted among ninth grade students (15–16 years), with pooled information from six cross-sectional surveys in 2004–14 (n = 32,117). Girls reported lower satisfaction with their appearance than bo…
Immigrant Integration and Youth Mental Health in Four European Countries
The mental health of children of immigrant background compared to their majority peers is an important indicator of integration. We analyse internalizing and externalizing problems in 14–15-year-olds from England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (n=18,716), using new comparative data (Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries). Studying more than 30 different origin countries, we find that despite potential proble…
Future orientation climate in the school class
It is well known, based on previous research, that adolescents' thoughts and feelings about their future are related to the risk of delinquency, alcohol use as well as health. However, other well-known facts are that adolescents' actions are substantially shaped in interaction with peers and that, during adolescence, individuals spend a considerable amount of the day at school, in interaction with classmates. Despite this, there is an almost comp…
There’s a tear in my beer
Victims of bullying are at an increased risk not only of developing adverse mental health, but also of engaging in health risk behaviours. One way in which adolescents may cope with the health-related consequences of bullying victimisation is through substance use such as alcohol and narcotics, as posited by the self-medication hypothesis. Indeed, previous research has found a link between traditional (face-to-face) bullying victimisation and alc…
Self-reported mental health problems in adolescence and occupational prestige in young adulthood
Many studies have reported a negative association between mental health problems and school performance and some studies have shown long-term negative consequences of such health problems, especially in relation to education. However, less is known about the link between different types of self-reported mental health problems in adolescence and occupational prestige in young adulthood. Using prospective survey data collected among 10–18-year-olds…
Girls with highly educated parents have less somatic complaints
In Sweden, as in Western countries generally, somatic complaints are common in adolescents. These complaints are clearly connected with gender while the evidence of socioeconomic inequalities is less conclusive. The aim of this study is to analyse the combined relevance of gender and parental education for adolescents’ somatic complaints, using national data with direct information from adolescents and their parents (n=7,393). Among girls, but no…
Parent presence and gender-typicalness of educational choice1
Given parental influence on children's educational choices, new family constellations may impact on sex segregation in school and thus in the labour market. This paper addresses the question of what consequence father absence and stepfather presence may have for choice of the male-dominated natural science/technology (NT) programme in Swedish upper secondary school. The data include register information on all pupils who attended the ninth grade …
The pros and cons of social relations
Parent presence and gender-typicalness of educational choice1
Given parental influence on children's educational choices, new family constellations may impact on sex segregation in school and thus in the labour market. This paper addresses the question of what consequence father absence and stepfather presence may have for choice of the male-dominated natural science/technology (NT) programme in Swedish upper secondary school. The data include register information on all pupils who attended the ninth grade …
Family Structure and Children’s Living Conditions. A Comparative Study of 24 Countries
School-performance indicators and subjective health complaints
Although boys and girls are generally located in the same physical school environment, it may be experienced differently by, and have varying implications for, boys and girls. Girls like school more and achieve higher school marks, but they also perceive more school-related pressure. Based on a total sample of 8456 ninth grade pupils in Stockholm in 2004, this study uses multilevel linear regression to analyse differences between boys and girls w…
Students' accounts of school-performance stress
The aim of the study is to examine students' experiences of school performance as a stressor. Accounts of school-performance stress at both the individual level and in relation to group mechanisms are studied through qualitative interviews with eighth-grade students in a high-performing school in Stockholm, Sweden (n=49). Using qualitative content analysis, three overarching themes emerged. Students' aspirations include accounts of students whose…
Cyberbullying and subjective health
The Complexity of Stress in Mid-Adolescent Girls and Boys
Future orientation climate in the school class
It is well known, based on previous research, that adolescents' thoughts and feelings about their future are related to the risk of delinquency, alcohol use as well as health. However, other well-known facts are that adolescents' actions are substantially shaped in interaction with peers and that, during adolescence, individuals spend a considerable amount of the day at school, in interaction with classmates. Despite this, there is an almost comp…
Immigrant Integration and Youth Mental Health in Four European Countries
The mental health of children of immigrant background compared to their majority peers is an important indicator of integration. We analyse internalizing and externalizing problems in 14–15-year-olds from England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (n=18,716), using new comparative data (Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries). Studying more than 30 different origin countries, we find that despite potential proble…
Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction
Bullying is a major problem in schools and a large number of studies have demonstrated that victims have a high excess risk of poor mental health. It may however also affect those who are not directly victimized by peers. The present study investigates whether peer victimization among classmates is linked to internalizing problems, self-esteem, and life satisfaction at the individual level, when the student's own victimization has been taken into…
School Leadership and Cyberbullying—A Multilevel Analysis
Cyberbullying is a relatively new form of bullying, with both similarities and differences to traditional bullying. While earlier research has examined associations between school-contextual characteristics and traditional bullying, fewer studies have focused on the links to students' involvement in cyberbullying behavior. The aim of the present study is to assess whether school-contextual conditions in terms of teachers' ratings of the school le…
Teacher Rated School Ethos and Student Reported Bullying—A Multilevel Study of Upper Secondary Schools in Stockholm, Sweden
School ethos refers to the school leadership's purposive efforts to shape and direct the attitudes, values and behaviors needed in order to promote an active learning environment and to prevent the emergence of undesirable behaviors by creating shared meaning and common goals for the school. The aim of this study was to examine how teacher rated aspects of school ethos are linked with manifestations of bullying among 11th grade students. Five tea…
School Collective Efficacy and Bullying Behaviour
As with other forms of violent behaviour, bullying is the result of multiple influences acting on different societal levels. Yet the majority of studies on bullying focus primarily on the characteristics of individual bullies and bullied. Fewer studies have explored how the characteristics of central contexts in young people's lives are related to bullying behaviour over and above the influence of individual-level characteristics. This study expl…
The Living Conditions of Children with Shared Residence – the Swedish Example
Among children with separated parents, shared residence – i.e., joint physical custody where the child is sharing his or her time equally between two custodial parents’ homes – is increasing in many Western countries and is particularly common in Sweden. The overall level of living among children in Sweden is high; however, the potential structural differences between children in various post-separation family arrangements have not been sufficien…
The Gendered Mirror on the Wall
The study investigated gender differences in satisfaction with physical appearance as a domain-specific aspect of self-esteem, and its association with global self-esteem and psychosomatic complaints. The data used was from the Stockholm School Survey, conducted among ninth grade students (15–16 years), with pooled information from six cross-sectional surveys in 2004–14 (n = 32,117). Girls reported lower satisfaction with their appearance than bo…
Girls with highly educated parents have less somatic complaints
In Sweden, as in Western countries generally, somatic complaints are common in adolescents. These complaints are clearly connected with gender while the evidence of socioeconomic inequalities is less conclusive. The aim of this study is to analyse the combined relevance of gender and parental education for adolescents’ somatic complaints, using national data with direct information from adolescents and their parents (n=7,393). Among girls, but no…
The Mental Health Advantage of Immigrant-Background Youth
Children of immigrant background, despite problems with acculturation, poverty, and discrimination, have better mental health than children of native parents. We asked whether this is a result of immigrant families' characteristics such as family structure and relations. Using a new comparative study on the integration of immigrant-background youth conducted in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (N = 18,716), particularly strong associ…
Future Orientation among Students Exposed to School Bullying and Cyberbullying Victimization
Future orientation can be defined as an individual's thoughts, beliefs, plans, and hopes for the future. Earlier research has shown adolescents' future orientation to predict outcomes later in life, which makes it relevant to analyze differences in future orientation among youth. The aim of the present study was to analyze if bullying victimization was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting a pessimistic future orientation among sch…
School Demands and Coping Resources−Associations with Multiple Measures of Stress in Mid-Adolescent Girls and Boys
Stress, and stress-related health complaints, are common among young people, especially girls. Since studies have shown that school demands are an important driver of stress in adolescents, identifying if school-based resources can protect against stress is highly relevant. The aim of this study was to analyse task-related demands and task-related coping resources as aspects of the school work environment of potential relevance for stress in mid-…
School Contextual Features of Social Disorder and Mental Health Complaints—A Multilevel Analysis of Swedish Sixth-Grade Students
This study addressed school-contextual features of social disorder in relation to sixth-grade students' experiences of bullying victimization and mental health complaints. It investigated, firstly, whether the school's concentrations of behavioural problems were associated with individual students' likelihood of being bullied, and secondly, whether the school's concentrations of behavioural problems and bullying victimization predicted students' …
Bullying as a Stressor in Mid-Adolescent Girls and Boys–Associations with Perceived Stress, Recurrent Pain, and Salivary Cortisol
Bullying involves repeated exposure to negative actions while also invoking a power asymmetry between the involved parties. From a stress perspective, being bullied can be seen as a severe and chronic stressor, and an everyday social-evaluative threat, coupled with a shortage of effective social resources for dealing with this particular stressor. The aim of this study was to investigate whether exposure to bullying among mid-adolescent girls and…
School effectiveness and truancy
Truancy is a problem associated with a range of negative consequences at the individual and societal level, both in the short and the long term. Few earlier studies have investigated the association between school effectiveness and truancy. The aim of this study is to examine the links between three teacher-rated features of school effectiveness – school leadership, teacher cooperation and consensus, and school ethos – and student-reported truanc…
Problematic familial alcohol use and adolescents’ heavy drinking
The aim of the present study is to assess the association between problematic alcohol consumption in the family and youth alcohol consumption and to explore the extent to which this association is moderated by conditions in school in terms of schools’ degree of student focus. We use data from the Stockholm School Survey performed among 10,757 ninth grade students and the Stockholm Teacher Survey performed among 2,304 teachers in the same schools.…
Poor Family Relationships in Adolescence and the Risk of Premature Death
Poor family relationships during childhood have been shown to have long-term negative effects on an offspring's health. However, few studies have followed the offspring to retirement age, and relatedly, knowledge about the link between poor family relationships and premature death is scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the association between poor family relationships in adolescence and the risk of premature death, even when considering …
School Choice at a Cost? Academic Achievement, School Satisfaction and Psychological Complaints among Students in Disadvantaged Areas of Stockholm
School choice allows students from more disadvantaged district areas in metropolitan Swedish cities to commute to more prestigious schools outside of their residential area. This study examined how such students fare compared to their peers who attend more deprived schools in their own district area. Multilevel analysis was applied, estimating 2-level random intercept linear regression models based on cross-sectional survey data collected among n…
Psychology (40 works) · Medicine (33 works) · Developmental psychology (26 works) · Clinical Psychology (19 works) · Clinical Psychology (17 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Demography (16 works) · Psychiatry (16 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Demography (15 works)