Latent Profile Analysis Reveals Four Distinct Adolescent Mental Health Patterns for Targeted School Interventions

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.