Family Support, Parents Employment and Internalizing Problems at School-Aged Children in North Macedonia

Abstract

The well-being of young people, especially teenagers, is one of the phenomena that affects not only their individual lives in the future, but also societies as a whole. Family support appears as a very important factor in the psychosocial adjustment but also in the mental health of adolescents. More specifically, the more parents communicate with their children, the less the youth express externalizing problems. The purpose of this study is to predict internalizing problems in school-aged youth in the Republic of North Macedonia based on social media use and family support as well as parental employment. A total of 4481 teenagers aged 11, 13, and 15 years participated in this study, young people who learn in the two dominant languages in Macedonia, respectively, 70% of young people who learn in the Macedonian language of instruction and 30% who learn in Albanian language of instruction. Also, 50.4% of the subjects were male and 49.6% were female. The data presented are part of the cross-sectional study "Health and Behavior of School-aged Youth", collected during 2018. The results of the research showed that family support and the use of social media predict internalizing problems in adolescents. Also, the data show differences in the employment of parents and the use of social media between Albanian and Macedonian youth.