The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting the adolescents'' mental health and to develop a predictive model that explains adolescents'' mental health. A hypothetical model was constructed on the basis of the Haase'' ARM and Keyes'' Complete state model of health and review of literature on adolescents'' mental health. The exogenous variables of the hypothetical model were life events stress, family function, and social support. the endogenous variables of the hypothetical model were self-esteem, resilience, well-bing, and mental illness.
The data were collected between Nov. 10 and Dec. 10, 2012. To collect data, male & female students from high school responded to a questionnaire. Among 420copies of the distributed questionnaire, 409 copies without any missing data were used for analysis.
The research scale was a questionnaire composed with SCL-47-R, one part of SWLS, one part of MSLSS, Resilience Scale, Self-esteem Scale, Social Support Scale, FACES Ⅲ, Recent life events & changes Questionnaire and general characteristics. These scales'' Cronbach''s α score ranged from .85 to .96. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 program for descriptive statistical analysis and covariance structural analysis.
This study findings are as following:
1. The last model showed a much higher degree of fitness((p)=636(<.001), =2.505, GFI=.882, TLI=.925, CFI=.936, RMSEA=.063) to the empirical data than the hypothetical model.
2. The 18 paths established in this research model and 10 paths were significant statistically. 4 paths(social support→self-esteem, self-esteem→resilience, resilience→well-being, self-esteem→mental illness) had direct and total effect, 1 path(family function→resilience) had direct effect, 3 paths(social support→resilience, social support→well-being, social support→mental illness) had indirect and total effect, 1 path(resilience→mental illness) had indirect effect, and 1 path(self-esteem→well-being) had direct, indirect and total effect.
3. Factors that influence the adolescents'' mental health were identified family function, social support, self-esteem, and resilience.
Significant variables to well-being were social support(indirect, total effect), self-esteem(direct, indirect, total effect), resilience(direct, total effect) and these variables had 48% explanation for well-being. Significant variables to mental illness were social support(indirect, total effect), self-esteem(direct, total effect), resilience(direct effect) and these variables had 24% explanation for mental illness. Conclusively, these variables explained 72% for mental health. Also, the more social support, self-esteem and resilience they have, the higher their level of mental health is. In particular, adolescent who have more self-esteem / more resilience displayed higher well-being and those with more self-esteem showed lower mental illness, which can confirm self-esteem and resilience as the most influential prediction factor.
In conclusion, this research model is a comprehensive model that fully predicts and explains adolescents'' mental health by including some variables that consider individual risk factors, family protective factors, social protective factors, individual protective factors and psychosocial factors. Therefore, the program development and application to health education in school for health improvement, using family function, social support, self-esteem and resilience as a mediator will help enhance the well-being for adolescents and prevent their mental illness. These measures will prove effective for the improvement of adolescents'' mental health.