Peer-reviewed article
Latent Profile Analysis Reveals Four Distinct Adolescent Mental Health Patterns for Targeted School Interventions.
Morales D, Gaete J, Robinson J, Núñez D ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study analyzed mental health patterns in 1,541 Chilean adolescents aged 13-20 from public schools using latent profile analysis. The researchers identified four distinct mental health profiles based on symptoms of common mental disorders, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and emotion regulation strategies. The profiles ranged from low symptomatology (16.5%) to markedly high symptomatology with suicidal ideation (29.2%), with differences in how adolescents regulated emotions. The findings suggest that school-based prevention programs should be tailored to match these different risk profiles rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.
Key points
- Four distinct mental health profiles identified: low symptomatology (16.54%), mild-moderate (26.98%), high symptomatology (27.24%), and markedly high with suicidal ideation (29.24%)
- Suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and psychotic experiences were the most influential factors distinguishing the highest-risk profile
- Higher-symptom profiles showed elevated cognitive restructuring scores, while cognitive reappraisal characterized healthier profiles
- Profile membership differed by biological sex
- Study recommends stratified, school-based prevention programs tailored to adolescents' specific risk profiles
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study that identifies patterns at one point in time, so it cannot establish causation or predict how adolescents' profiles might change over time. The study does not report on the effectiveness of any actual intervention delivered, only provides a typology for guiding future prevention efforts.
Abstract
Adolescent mental health problems are prevalent, yet assigning individuals to appropriate prevention interventions remains challenging. Latent profile analysis (LPA) offers a person-centered approach to address this. Through LPA, we categorized 1,541 adolescents aged 13-20 from 21 public schools in Chile (M = 15.34, SD = 1.02; 52.3% women) based on symptoms of common mental disorders, suicidal ideation (SI), hopelessness, and emotion regulation (ER) strategies. We found four profiles: "low symptomatology" (16.54%), "mild-moderate symptomatology" (26.98%), "high symptomatology" (27.24%), and "markedly high symptomatology and suicidal ideation" (29.24%), which also differed in ER strategy use. SI, hopelessness, and psychotic experiences were the most influential factors distinguishing the highest-risk profile. The higher-symptom profiles showed elevated cognitive restructuring scores, while cognitive reappraisal characterized healthier profiles. Profile membership also differed by biological sex. These findings support school-based, stratified prevention programs tailored to adolescents' specific risk profiles.