Factors Associated with Psychological Maladjustment of Mexican Adolescents Living in Poverty

The objectives of this study were to test the replicability of the Youth Self-Report structure in Mexican adolescents living in poverty; to determine gender and rurality differences in internalizing and externalizing problems; and to identify predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems. Data were collected from a probabilistic sample of households that are beneficiaries of the Oportunidades program, including the heads of those households, their spouses and their adolescent children. The self-reports of parents and children were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results confirmed the Youth Self-Report structure in Mexican adolescents, and indicated higher levels of emotional disorders in females, higher levels of behavioral disorders in males, and higher levels in all the Youth Self-Report scales in rural adolescents. Internalizing and externalizing problems were mediated by the presence of loneliness, oppositional behavior and stress, through which the model’s other latent variables exerted indirect influence on the determination of youth psychopathology.