Mental health of adolescents: variations by borderline intellectual functioning and disability

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of elevated stress for many young people, and it is possible that the challenges of adolescence are different for vulnerable groups. We aimed to document the depressive and anxiety symptoms, emotional-behavioural difficulties and suicidal/self-harming behaviours among adolescents with borderline intellectual functioning (BIF) or a disability, compared to those with neither disability nor BIF. Data were drawn from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Participants were 2950 adolescents with complete data for waves 3-6 (years 2008-2014), aged 14-15 years in 2014. Anxiety and depression symptoms and self-harming/suicidal thought/behavio..