Disproportionately lower educational achievement, coupled with higher grade retention, suspensions, expulsions, and lower school bonding make educational success among Black adolescents a major public health concern. Mental health is a key developmental factor related to educational outcomes among adolescents; however, traditional models of mental health focus on absence of dysfunction as a way to conceptualize mental health. The dual-factor model of mental health incorporates indicators of both subjective wellbeing and psychopathology, supporting more recent research that both are needed to comprehensively assess mental health. This study applied the dual-factor model to measure mental health using the National Survey of American Life—Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A), a representative cross-sectional survey.
Citation
Rose, T., Lindsey, M.A., Xiao, Y. et al. (2017). Mental Health and Educational Experiences Among Black Youth: A Latent Class Analysis. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 46: 2321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0723-3