TY - JOUR A1 - Rathmann, Katharina A1 - Pförtner, Timo-Kolja A1 - Hurrelmann, Klaus A1 - Osorio, Ana M. A1 - Bosakova, Lucia A1 - Elgar, Frank J. A1 - Richter, Matthias T1 - The great recession, youth unemployment and inequalities in psychological health complaints in adolescents: a multilevel study in 31 countries T2 - International Journal of Public Health N2 - Objectives Little is known about the impact of recessions on young people’s socioeconomic inequalities in health. This study investigates the impact of the economic recession in terms of youth unemployment on socioeconomic inequalities in psychological health complaints among adolescents across Europe and North America. Methods Data from the WHO collaborative ‘Health Behaviour in School-aged Children’ (HBSC) study were collected in 2005/06 (N = 160,830) and 2009/10 (N = 166,590) in 31 European and North American countries. Logistic multilevel models were used to assess the contribution of youth unemployment in 2009/10 (enduring recession) and the change in youth unemployment (2005–2010) to adolescent psychological health complaints and socioeconomic inequalities in complaints in 2009/10. Results Youth unemployment during the recession is positively related to psychological health complaints, but not to inequalities in complaints. Changes in youth unemployment (2005–2010) were not associated with adolescents’ psychological health complaints, whereas greater inequalities in complaints were found in countries with greater increases in youth unemployment. Conclusions This study highlights the need to tackle the impact of increasing unemployment on adolescent health and health inequalities during economic recessions. KW - Subjective health KW - Health inequalities KW - Recession KW - Youth unemployment KW - Adolescence KW - Multilevel analysis Y1 - 2016 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-hsog/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2104 SN - 1661-8556 VL - 61 IS - 7 SP - 809 EP - 819 ER -