Psychosocial Problems, Indoor Air-Related Symptoms, and Perceived Indoor Air Quality among Students in Schools without Indoor Air Problems: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

The effect of students’ psychosocial problems on their reporting of indoor air quality (subjective IAQ) and indoor air-related (IA-related) symptoms has not been studied in schools in a longitudinal setting. Therefore, we analyzed whether changes in students’ psychosocial problems (socioemotional difficulties and perceived teacher–student relations) between the beginning of seventh grade (age 12–13 years) and the end of ninth grade (15–16 years) predicted subjective IAQ and IA-related symptoms at the end of ninth grade. In order to explore the independent effect of psychosocial factors, we focused only on students in schools without observed indoor air problems. The analysis was of longitudinal data (N = 986 students) using latent change modelling. Increased socioemotional difficulties were related to more IA-related symptoms (standardized beta = 0.20) and deteriorated subjective IAQ (standardized beta = 0.20). Increased problems in teacher–student relations were related to deteriorated subjective IAQ (standardized beta = 0.21). Although students’ psychosocial problems explained only 9–13% of the total variances, our findings support the notion that psychosocial factors also need to be taken into account in the evaluation of IAQ and the prevalence of IA-related symptoms in schools.