Research project The new generation of youth feel worse than in the past
Youth mental health is an important asset for modern societies. During the last three decades, a progressive deterioration of youth mental health has occurred. However, the reason for this decline is largely unknown. This project aims at filling these gaps.
Youth mental health is an important asset for modern societies. Nevertheless, recent reports from Sweden, but also other countries, have highlighted the fact that youth, especially girls, feel worse than in the past and that a constant and progressive deterioration of youth mental health in the last three decades has occurred. However, the reason for this decline is largely unknown. Moreover, we do not know if youth mental health problems persist after the transition to adulthood. This project aims at filling these gaps.
Project description
We will investigate the role of a range of lifestyle and individual factors (i.e. physical activity, sleep habits, use of media, school-related factors), interpersonal factors (i.e. relations with peers, parents and teachers), and of some individual characteristics (i.e. gender, Socio-Economic Status) on the increase of youth mental health problems, i.e. depressive and psychosomatic symptoms. Moreover, we will investigate whether this increase persists after the transition to adulthood and whether it is associated with a subsequent increase in internalising disorders in young adulthood. Finally, we will explore differences due to gender and SES.
To achieve our aims, we will use two unique datasets, which contain aggregated and longitudinal data respectively of 2 000 youths each.
The first dataset comes from a survey that has been biennially distributed to all 9th graders (15–16 years) and covers a period from 2004 to 2016.
The second comes from the “SALVe” study, which aims at following children from two cohorts, namely children born in 1999 and in 1997, until they become 19 and 21 years old respectively.
Our findings may help to identify crucial and appropriate ingredients when designing and improving interventions to improve youth mental health.
Project members
Project managers
Fabrizia Giannotta
Guest Researcher
Members
Peter Larm
Lecturer
Kent Nilsson
Professor
Cecilia Åslund
Professor