Youth mental health is affected by many factors. These include developmental changes, family environment, education and lifestyle choices, childhood trauma, social media, and bullying.
A common theme in the analysed articles was a strong wish to be self-reliant and to safe-guard one’s health. There was also a positive depiction of personal change after help-seeking.
Developmental Trends
Adolescence is a time of rapid emotional, social and cognitive development. It’s a time when poor mental health can put youth at risk for other problems, including drug use, violence and unintended pregnancy. The same prevention strategies that promote mental health—like helping youth feel connected to school and family—can protect against negative experiences and behaviors.
Many adolescents have multiple risk factors for poor mental health, including exposure to trauma and social isolation. They can be especially vulnerable if they are living in humanitarian and fragile settings; have a chronic illness, intellectual or developmental disability or substance use disorder; are pregnant or adolescent parents; or belong to minority ethnic or sexually diverse or marginalized groups. These youth often have a harder time accessing quality mental health care and support services. The latest 2023 CDC data highlight troubling trends, such as that 2 in 5 high school students report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and suicidal thoughts and behavior.
Social Determinants
Social determinants are the structural conditions that people experience on a daily basis, and which influence mental health outcomes. These conditions include a person’s economic circumstances, physical living conditions and quality of education, access to affordable, effective healthcare and support systems in family and community, as well as neighbourhood social and environmental factors that can buffer against or reinforce risk.
Early psychiatric epidemiology studies used cross-sectional data to identify associations between neighbourhood social determinants and mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and non-affective psychotic disorder. These studies typically estimated average levels of neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation and found significant associations, which were interpreted as evidence of both social selection and social causation 235.
More recent studies have focused on the role of inequality in adolescent mental health, identifying associations between neighbourhood-level patterns of inequality and internalizing and externalizing disorders, cognitive performance and physical health outcomes. For example, longitudinal research suggests that adolescents growing up in highly unequal neighbourhoods, where trust is low and social ties are weak, have poorer mental health compared with those who live in less-equal areas.
Economic Trends
Economic conditions can have a profound impact on youth mental health. Untreated mental health problems can cause children to fail in school, seek special education services, repeat grades, score poorly on standardized tests and become involved in risky behaviors that lead to arrest (Currie & Stabile 2006).
A recent study finds that increases in state-level unemployment rates are associated with higher levels of adolescent suicidality. Moreover, economic trends like stock market fluctuations can have psychological and behavioral effects that linger well after the markets return to normal. For example, when a teen is diverted to the mental health docket in court, a long wait for treatment can exacerbate their condition and may even contribute to their incarceration (Cunningham et al. 2024). These economic forces are also present in community settings like schools, homes and neighborhoods. They can increase the use of psychiatric care and decrease positive measures of emotional wellbeing like life satisfaction and happiness (Simmon & Cotti 2018).
Environment
Over the past two decades, there has been a significant rise in anxiety and psychological distress, self-harming behaviours, and suicidal thoughts and attempts among young people. This reflects a true global mental health crisis and is not simply due to increased awareness or better diagnosis. It may be related to a variety of factors including climate change, family environment, educational pressures, intergenerational inequality and social media use. Many of these factors are likely exacerbated by the impact of neoliberal policies.
Building positive relationships and strong connections with peers, adults and communities is vital to promoting healthy behaviours and protecting youth from negative outcomes, including mental health problems. This is especially important for those living with the challenges of poverty and other social determinants, such as those from marginalised groups like racial or ethnic minorities, foster youth and those in the juvenile justice system. It is also essential to support the development of strong coping and resilience skills and the promotion of alternatives to risk-taking activities, such as substance and other harmful use.