Social and emotional wellbeing among young people : the mitigating role of ecological domains

To examine the role of neighbourhood, what Bronfenbrenner describes as an element in the exosystem, as a protective asset for adolescents' social and emotional wellbeing. The study used a subset of national data reported by adolescents and their parents from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). A linear mixed-effect model was used to estimate the association between neighbourhood indicators and trajectories in a measure of social and emotional wellbeing (the SDQ Total Difficulties score) at ages 12-13, 14-15 and 16-17, controlling for age and sex, peer and family relationships and household material resources. The analysis revealed that parents' perceptions of belonging and their subjective assessments of the condition of housing in the neighbourhood, as well as externally sourced data on neighbourhood accessibility and socio-economic status, were significantly associated with adolescents' total difficulties scores over time. The findings revealed the role of neighbourhood level protective assets as a potential influence on adolescents' social and emotional wellbeing. Greater attention should be given to understanding the complex interactions between the resources mobilised by individuals and their families, and the influence of wider environments and social structures on young people's social and emotional wellbeing.