Børge Sivertsen

Norwegian Institute of Public Health · Division for Mental Health

Background Universities worldwide are witnessing a surge in mental health problems among students, particularly in anxiety and depression. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) is a popular screening tool, but its reliability in identifying mental disorders remains debated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the criterion validity of the HSCL-25,...

This study explored the prospective associations between sleep patterns, mental health and registry‐based school grades among older adolescents. In the spring of 2019, 1st year high‐school students in Western Norway were invited to a survey assessing habitual sleep duration, insomnia, depression and anxiety. Sleep patterns, depression and anxiety w...

The completion rates of higher education are low among young adults with a history of foster care. Understanding how students from foster care alumni fare is imperative for facilitating attainment and preventing drop-out. The aim of this study was to compare students from foster care alumni and the general student population by examining (1) sociod...

Background To examine whether weekday-to-weekend sleep duration (WWD) difference and specific WWD patterns are associated with mental and somatic health and academic performance in a student population. Methods This study utilized cross-sectional data from the SHoT-2018 survey which includes responses from 50,054 full-time university/college stude...

Background The intensive use of social media among adolescents has caused concern about its impact on their mental health, but studies show that social media use is linked to both better and worse mental health. These seemingly contradictory findings may result from the diverse motivations, interactions, and experiences related to social media use,...

Background and aims Unemployment rates are elevated among individuals with disordered gambling, yet the directionality of the relationship remains unclear. The present study investigated paid and unpaid unemployment as risk factors for future gambling disorder (GD). Methods The study employed a case-control design, including all adult Norwegians r...

The current study aimed to compare mental health outcomes of children and adolescents with maltreatment experiences to a general population sample. A secondary aim was to examine sex differences in mental health outcomes, and the association between polyvictimization and mental health. The two samples were age-and sex-matched, and data was collecte...

Social media plays a significant role in adolescents’ lives, with both positive and negative effects. Implementing interventions to mitigate the negative aspects and enhance the positive ones could improve adolescents’ well-being. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of evidence-based interventions available. To fill this gap, we have developed a sch...

Introduction High levels of alcohol consumption among college students have been observed across countries. Heavy drinking episodes are particularly prevalent in this population, making early identification of potentially harmful drinking critical from a public health perspective. Short screening instruments such as the Alcohol Use Disorders Identi...

Background Although gaming problems are associated with poor mental health, few population-based studies have examined its association with self-harm and suicidality. This study investigates the association between gaming problems, non-suicidal self-harm and suicidality within the past year, stratified by sex among Norwegian full-time students. Me...

Background The association between sleep duration and mental illness has been established in middle-aged and older populations, yet remains less explored in younger adults. Additionally, a common limitation to existing studies is the lack of statistical power to explore less common disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine sleep duration...

There is a growing concern that the mental health of recent generations of youth is deteriorating, yet the etiology of these secular changes is not fully understood. We aimed to review the evidence on trends in mental health problems among young people in Norway. Seven large-scale repeated cross-sectional studies were included in this study, compri...

Background To examine whether weekday-to-weekend sleep duration difference (WWD) and specific WWD patterns are associated with mental and somatic health and academic performance in a large student population. Methods This study utilized cross-sectional data from the SHoT-2018 survey which includes responses from 50,054 full-time university/college...

Objectives To investigate the frequency of energy drink (ED) consumption, and the association between ED consumption and selected sleep characteristics and parameters in Norwegian college and university students. We also explored whether these associations varied based on sex. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Data were gathered from the SHOT2022 s...

Purpose Previous approaches used to assess problematic social media use risk inflating prevalence numbers and classifying unproblematic social media use as problematic. The main aim of this study was to take an exploratory view as to how different types of activities, experiences, and motivations on social media are associated with problematic ment...

Background Social media (SOME) use has been linked to psychological problems in some studies, but the results are mixed. Digital stress may explain the link between SOME and mental health, but the underlying components that constitute the subjective stress experience that may stem from SOME use remain uncertain. Different conceptualizations of digi...

Background Previous approaches used to assess problematic social media use risk inflating prevalence numbers and classify unproblematic social media use as addictive or problematic. The main aim of this study was to take an exploratory view as to how different types of activities, experiences, and motivations on social media are associated with pro...

Background There is evidence of increasing levels of loneliness in Norwegian young people before the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not clear how the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated necessary restrictions, impacted on these trends. Aims To examine how loneliness in young people changed across the pandemic, how loneliness relates to demographic cha...

Background Self-report data indicate a sharp increase in mental health problems among college and university students in recent years, but accurate prevalence estimates of mental disorders are lacking. The current study used a validated psychiatric diagnostic survey, developed into a self-administered electronic version, to examine the prevalence o...

Sleep problems are an important but understudied health problem in adolescents exposed to childhood maltreatment. The current study aimed to examine sleep characteristics and insomnia in a population with maltreatment history and compare them to a general population sample of adolescents. Data from a sample of Norwegian 16-19-year-old adolescents w...

Background: The aim of the present study was to assess to what extent risky substance use (RSU) acts as an important risk factor for school dropout from upper secondary school in a prospective study of Norwegian adolescents, and how externalising and internalising mental health problems influenced this association. Methods: We used data from a larg...

Objective: The present study investigates the association between sleep in late adolescence and completion of upper secondary school. Methods: The data are drawn from the youth@hordaland study, a large population-based study conducted in 2012, linked with official educational data in Norway (N = 8838). Results: High school dropout was more pre...

Objective/background: Digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (dCBT-I) improves several sleep and health outcomes in individuals with insomnia. This study investigates whether changes in Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep (DBAS) during dCBT-I mediate changes in psychological distress, fatigue, and insomnia severity. Patient...

Background Marital status is a robust correlate of disordered gambling, but few studies have examined the direction of this association. Methods The present study used a case–control design by including all adults receiving their first gambling disorder (GD) diagnosis between January 2008 to December 2018 (Norwegian Patient Registry, n = 5,121) an...

There is a growing concern that the mental health of recent generations of youth is deteriorating, yet the etiology of these secular changes is not fully understood. We aimed to review the evidence on trends in mental health problems among young people in Norway. Seven large-scale repeated cross-sectional studies were included in this study, compri...

Insomnia is associated with fatigue, but it is unclear whether response to cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia is altered in individuals with co-occurring symptoms of insomnia and chronic fatigue. This is a secondary analysis using data from 1717 participants with self-reported insomnia in a community-based randomized controlled trial of digit...

The present study explored the associations between school start time and sleep habits among older adolescents, and whether these associations depended on circadian preference. The sample comprised 4010 high school students aged 16–17 years who completed a web‐based survey on habitual school start time, sleep, and health. The survey included the Mu...

It is well established that mental health problems are highly recurrent and persistent from childhood to adolescence, but less is known to what extent mental health problems also persist from adolescence into young adulthood. The aim of the current study was therefore to examine the chronicity and risk of mental health problems and suicidality from...

Objective: Previous literature has established associations between psychosocial working conditions and sickness absence (SA), but only few studies have examined associations among younger employees. This study aimed to investigate associations between psychosocial working conditions and SA among employees, aged 15-30 years, who entered the labor...

There is limited knowledge on how caring contexts impact young adults providing informal care for persons with chronic conditions. This study examines associations between outcomes in young adult carers (YACs) and type of relationship (e.g., close or distant family member, partner, or someone outside the family) and type of illness in the care-rece...

(1) Background: The inclusion of Internet Gaming Disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) led to a rapid development of assessment instruments based on the suggested diagnosis. However, previous studies suggest that some of the symptoms in the diagnosis reflect engagement in gaming rather than a disorder or add...

Individual preferred timing of sleep and activity patterns, known as circadian preference, ranges from definitely morning types to definitely evening types. Being an evening type has been linked to adverse sleep and mental health outcomes. This study aimed to explore the associations between circadian preference and self-reported sleep, depression,...

The research on mental health problems in adult international adoptees is limited, and while perceived discrimination has been related to increased psychological distress, less is known about its influence on more severe mental health problems. The study investigated mental health problems and the importance of pre- and post-adoption risk factors a...

Upward social comparison and aspects of self-presentation on social media such as feedback-seeking and strategic self-presentation may represent risk factors for experiencing negative mental health effects of social media use. The aim of this exploratory study was to assess how adolescents differ in upward social comparison and aspects of self-pres...

Introduction: Smoking and mental health problems are public health concerns worldwide. Studies on smoke-free tobacco products, especially snus are scarce. Snus is considered less harmful than smoking and in the US allowed to be marketed accordingly, but may still add to the burden of disease. Methods: Data stem from the Norwegian Students' Healt...

Previous research has documented that youth in joint physical custody (JPC) often report fewer mental health problems than peers in other postseparation living arrangements. Whether JPC is associated with functional outcomes such as academic achievement has been less examined, and existing work has relied on self-reported school grades and pertinen...

Background Blue-depleted light environments (BDLEs) may result in beneficial health outcomes for hospital inpatients in some cases. However, less is known about the effects on hospital staff working shifts. This study aimed to explore the effects of a BDLE compared with a standard hospital light environment (STLE) in a naturalistic setting on nurse...

Objectives To investigate the association between subjective socioeconomic status (SES) and a) frequency and daily duration of social media use, and b) self-reported negative experiences on social media platforms. Methods The present study is based on the cross-sectional school-based “LifeOnSoMe”-study (N = 3,415) recruiting high school students a...

Aim To provide estimates of the distribution of alcohol-related problems in a national sample of college and university students in 2021, i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic, in comparison with pre-pandemic data from 2018. Design Longitudinal data from linkage of two recent national health surveys from 2018 to 2021. Setting Students in higher educ...

Objectives: To investigate associations between family structure, family complexity, and sleep in adolescence. Background: Family structure may be associated with sleep patterns and sleep problems among adolescents. Yet, research documenting this association has not captured the complexity of modern families and used crude measures of sleep. Metho...

The present study investigated the association between symptoms of depression in late adolescence and completion of upper secondary school, taking symptoms of ADHD and conduct disorder, and parental education into account. The study is based on the youth@hordaland-survey, conducted in Western Norway in 2012. A total of 9157 adolescents (aged 16–19...

Aspects of self-presentation on social media such as feedback-seeking, strategic self-presentation, and social comparison, may represent risk factors for experiencing negative mental health effects of social media use. The aim of this exploratory study was to assess how adolescents differ in aspects of self-presentation on social media, and whether...

Purpose To estimate associations between multiple forms of substance use with self-harming thoughts and behaviours, and to test whether gender is an effect modifier of these associations, both independently and along with perceived risk of cannabis use. Methods Data were drawn from the 2018 Norwegian Students’ Health and Wellbeing Study (SHoT 2018...

Objective: Previous studies on effects of emotional demands on depression have relied on self-reported exposure data and lacked control for potential confounding by pre-employment risk factors for depression. This study used a register-based design to examine the risk of hospital-treated depressive disorder in relation to occupational levels of em...

Childhood maltreatment is a global problem with the risk of serious health consequences for children and adolescents, including sleep problems. Former systematic reviews have examined the association between childhood maltreatment and sleep problems in adults, but no systematic review has investigated the literature on childhood maltreatment and sl...

Study objectives Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a well-established treatment for insomnia, but few studies have explored its impact on work- and activity impairment. Methods Data stem from 1721 participants enrolled in a randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of digital CBT-I compared with patient education (PE)....

Using data from 1721 participants in a community-based randomized control trial of digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia compared with patient education, we employed linear mixed modelling analyses to examine whether chronotype moderated the benefits of digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia on self-reported levels of insom...

Abstract Background Young adults (18–25 years) with informal care responsibilities have received limited attention in the research literature, and little is known on how caring responsibilities are related to functioning across different life domains. In the present study we examine associations between care responsibilities and study progress, rec...

Objectives To examine mental health problems among elite athletes in a student population, compared to the general student population, and to explore the association between weekly hours of training across mental health indicators. Methods Data are from a national study from 2018 of all college and university students in Norway. Participants indic...

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on higher education, with the closure of student campuses. The aim of this study was to examine changes and prevalence of mental health problems, suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviour, and their associations with COVID-19-related restrictions. Design, setting and participants As part...

Background Research about predictors of response to cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is ongoing. We examined any whether pre-intervention expectations or post-intervention appraisals of difficulties in utilizing face to face (FtF) or digital (dCBT-I) versions of the therapy were associated with outcome. Methods Self-rating data wer...

Background: Blue-depleted light environments (BDLEs) may in some cases benefit health outcomes for hospital inpatients. However, less is known about the effects on hospital staff. This study aimed to explore the effects of a BDLE compared with a standard hospital light environment (STLE) in a naturalistic setting on nurses’ functioning during shift...

Sleep problems are prevalent among adolescents, especially among those diagnosed with mental health disorders. There is insufficient knowledge about sleep among adolescents within child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in comparison to the general population. The data are drawn from the youth@hordaland study, a large population-based s...

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between daily screen time and sleep, evening screen time and sleep, and between social media addiction and sleep in a student population. This cross-sectional study is based on data from a national survey of all college and university students in Norway (the SHoT2018 study; n = 49,051). The sleep...

Objective To explore associations between intraindividual variability (IIV) in sleep patterns and sleep problems, lifestyle factors, and mental and physical health in individuals with chronic insomnia. Methods Cross-sectional study of 1720 adults with chronic insomnia (67.8% female, mean age = 44.5) who completed online self-report questionnaires...

Parental mental illness is a major risk factor for youth psychopathology, but few studies have used data from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to investigate this group. We used a unique linkage between a CAMHS-registry and a large population-based survey of Norwegian adolescents aged 16–19 years. Nine hundred and seventy adolesc...

Objectives Sleep problems are common in adolescence. We aimed to investigate sleep patterns and insomnia in Norwegian adolescents who have been in contact with child welfare services (CWS), both adolescents living in foster care (FC) and adolescents receiving in-home-services (IHS). Both groups were compared to youth who reported they were not rece...

Background: Existing studies have documented high levels of mental distress in University and college students, complemented with poor help-seeking behavior. Colleges and universities offer a unique setting to address mental health problems that might overcome some of the most prominent barriers to help-seeking. Objective: We aim to describe the us...

There has been great concern about the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19)‐related school lockdown on adolescent health. The aim of the present study was to compare sleep patterns before and during COVID‐19‐related school lockdown, in a large sample of high school students. The present study is based a prospective, longitudinal survey on...

Background: Students pursuing higher education are struggling with psychological distress, which in turn may negatively affect their academic self-efficacy and study progress. Although psychotropic drug use is widespread and increasing, patterns of psychotropic drug use among students are not well-known. Aim: To describe prevalence and gender diffe...

Aim: The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among Norwegian adults from a general population and to identify potential associations with demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Methods: A randomly drawn sample (N = 61,611) from the public registry of inhabitants was invited to partici...

Study objectives: Digital CBT-I (dCBT-I) has demonstrated efficacy in reducing insomnia severity in self-referred and community samples. It is unknown, however, how dCBT-I compares to individual face-to-face (FtF) CBT-I for individuals referred to clinical secondary services. We undertook a randomized controlled trial to test whether fully automat...

Study objectives To investigate circadian typology in a large, representative sample of Norwegian adolescents, and its implications for sleep health. Methods The sample included 3920 1st year high school students aged 16–17 years. Respondents completed a web-based survey, including the short version of the Horne-Ostberg Morningness-Eveningness Que...

Purpose: Previous epidemiological studies have shown higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among professional musicians, compared to the general workforce. Similar findings have been observed for psychotherapy use among musicians. To date, large-scale investigations of prevalence rates among music and arts students are lacking. Methods:...

Objective Numerous epidemiological studies have been conducted to examine the prevalence and comorbidities of insomnia and document sleep duration, but a common limitation in many studies is the lack of use of agreed-upon definitions of insomnia, as well as insufficient statistical power to examine comorbid mental and physical disorders/conditions....

Background Young adults with heart disease constitute a growing group with the risk of cognitive and physical impairment. The knowledge of their academic performance and mental and physical health is, however, scant. This study aimed to compare young adults with CHDs or arrhythmia with their peers. Methods Information on physical health (Somatic S...

Background Child maltreatment is prevalent and associated with both short- and long-term health problems. Previous studies have established child maltreatment as a risk factor for a wide range of problems over the life course such as mental- and somatic health problems, self-harm, alcohol- and drug abuse and decreased work-life participation. Still...