School Characteristics, School-related Stress and Mental Health in Adolescents Caracteristicas Escolares, Estrés Escolar y Salud Mental en Adolescentes

Although school environment and students' mental health are related, this relationship is not clear. Thus, our objectives were 1) to describe associations between school variables (physical structure, coexistence, curricular activities, teaching/routine) and measures of school stress, depression, quality of life and family support, 2) to test for between-groups differences for such variables and 3) to describe predictive relationships between such measures. We evaluated 196 high school students, from public and private schools, which differed in infrastructure and in teaching/routine. School type and school stress were significantly associated. There were significant and moderate correlations between mental health measures among themselves, and low (although significant) ones with school variables. The LGBTI + group had a lower quality of life and a higher depression level than heterosexual groups. In the regression analyzes, school stress was predicted by depression and family support, while the latter predicted depression and quality of life.