Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GenerationZ (Current perspectives on adolescent mental health: within-individual, time trends and cross-national differences)
Reporting period: 2022-02-01 to 2024-01-31
Recent research suggests that today’s adolescents (i.e. Generation Z; the Zoomers, born between 1997 and 2015) are experiencing worse mental health than previous generation (i.e. the Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996). However, at the time of the project’s writing (i.e. first part of the COVID-19 pandemic), there was limited evidence on specific longitudinal (within-individual) trajectories of mental health (especially when focusing on the dynamic between subjective well-being and psychopathology as based on the dual-factor model), as well as international differences in the profiles of the dual-factor mental health model. More research was needed to test the predictors of change over time both at the individual (i.e. family relationships, school factors) and country level (i.e. income inequality; gender inequality) in the trends in adolescent mental health. GenerationZ project aimed address these gaps and to investigate variation and trends in adolescent mental health across 45 European countries, and analysing changes in individual mental health as children progress through adolescence as well as to investigate their perspectives on what is mental health, and to test cross-national variation and time trends in population-level adolescent mental health across 40+ European countries.
The work undertaken as part of the WP1 has focused on validating the Dual Factor Model of mental health using national and cross-national samples; validating WHO-5 Well-being instrument for cross-national use and documenting the COVID-19 impacts on adolescent mental health. Firstly, using the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) data we showed that there have been changes over time in the classes of mental health as conceptualised by the Dual Factor Model and that there are wide school variations in these classes. Secondly, given that there is a need of well validated instruments on adolescent well-being which are suitable for cross-national comparisons, we undertook the validation of the WHO-5 Well-being index in two cross-national samples (2018 HBSC data from 15 countries and 2022 HBSC data from 43 countries). Finally, we documented the perceived impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health.
WP2 was set to analyse cross-national variation in time trends in adolescent mental health by testing individual and country level mechanisms of change over time. This work was broken down in three components and the fellow has worked alongside collaborators across several European countries. Firstly, the first paper aimed to uncover societal processes that contribute to changes over time in adolescent mental health problems by using HBSC data from 43 countries from 2010 to 2018. The second paper has built on previous research whilst also addressing recent findings suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an exacerbation of deteriorating trends in mental health among adolescents, and examined trends in adolescents’ psychological and somatic complaints across 35 countries from 2010 to 2022 (i.e. whether observed values in 2022 were in line with predicted values based on 2010-2018 linear trends), and tested trends in socio-demographic inequalities in these outcomes between 2018 to 2022. The third paper examined whether the gender gap in psychological symptoms increased more in more gender-equal countries in the period 2002-2022 and if so, to what extent this could be explained by changes over time in the experience of stressors (i.e. schoolwork pressure, body dissatisfaction, low classmate support) among boys and girls in these countries.
Work undertaken in WP3 documented young people’s perspective on what is mental health, what are the drivers of mental health and why their generation (GenZ) are reporting worse mental health than the previous generation. This work was complemented by the management and editing of a Research Topic issue in Frontiers in Psychology (i.e. Contemporary Perspectives in Adolescent Mental Health).
Finally, throughout this fellowship, the researcher has been involved in the management of all aspects of the fellowship. The researcher has availed extensive training available, has attended 12 national and international conferences, has undertaken secondment at a non-university partner and has disseminate the findings to academic and non-academic audiences.
WP2 was set to analyse cross-national variation in time trends in adolescent mental health by testing individual and country level mechanisms of change over time. This work was broken down in three components and the fellow has worked alongside collaborators across several European countries. Firstly, the first paper aimed to uncover societal processes that contribute to changes over time in adolescent mental health problems by using HBSC data from 43 countries from 2010 to 2018. The second paper has built on previous research whilst also addressing recent findings suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an exacerbation of deteriorating trends in mental health among adolescents, and examined trends in adolescents’ psychological and somatic complaints across 35 countries from 2010 to 2022 (i.e. whether observed values in 2022 were in line with predicted values based on 2010-2018 linear trends), and tested trends in socio-demographic inequalities in these outcomes between 2018 to 2022. The third paper examined whether the gender gap in psychological symptoms increased more in more gender-equal countries in the period 2002-2022 and if so, to what extent this could be explained by changes over time in the experience of stressors (i.e. schoolwork pressure, body dissatisfaction, low classmate support) among boys and girls in these countries.
Work undertaken in WP3 documented young people’s perspective on what is mental health, what are the drivers of mental health and why their generation (GenZ) are reporting worse mental health than the previous generation. This work was complemented by the management and editing of a Research Topic issue in Frontiers in Psychology (i.e. Contemporary Perspectives in Adolescent Mental Health).
Finally, throughout this fellowship, the researcher has been involved in the management of all aspects of the fellowship. The researcher has availed extensive training available, has attended 12 national and international conferences, has undertaken secondment at a non-university partner and has disseminate the findings to academic and non-academic audiences.
The work outputs of this fellowship do make significant contributions to the progress beyond the state of the art in contemporary research in adolescent mental health. Firstly, this work showed that there has been an increase in adolescent psychological symptoms from 2002 to 2022 and that these population changes in adolescent psychological and somatic complaints during the COVID-19 pandemic among a large and diverse group of countries across Europe and North America were greater than would be expected based on previous trends. Additionally, we documented a widening over time in the mental health differences between boys and girls, especially in more gender and income equal countries, and that factors such as increases over time in schoolwork pressure, body dissatisfaction or obesity might be drivers of these developments over time. Secondly, this work has made contributions to adolescent mental health methodology and cross-national monitoring efforts. Thirdly, the perspectives of young people on mental health have been documented and disseminated. Notwithstanding, these findings also could inform EU policy initiatives, particularly the Comprehensive Approach To Mental Health, and also the monitoring of cross-national differences in adolescent mental health and well-being.