YoungPsych: Drivers and Implications of the Mental Health Decline among the Young

An increasing proportion of children and young people are seeking help for psychological problems related to anxiety and depression. This development has in some contexts been described as a "teen mental health crisis”. In addition to the challenges experienced by individuals, this development has also caused concern among researchers, the public, and policy makers about the long-term societal effects related to labor market participation, family formation, and social functioning. Several competing and complementary explanations for the increase in reported mental health problems among young people exist. These include an increasing use of social media. The YoungPsych project will examine the extent to which the changes in reported mental health problems can be attributed the use of social media. In addition, the project will shed light on which subgroups are particularly vulnerable to the use of social media. The project will further address pathways through which social media affect mental health, and whether there are long-term consequences of social media use for functioning in other life domains. To shed light on these issues, the project will use large longitudinal surveys. The results from the project will help policymakers, researchers and the interested public to better understand the recent increases in mental health problems in adolescents and young adults.

During the last decade, depression and anxiety have been on the rise among adolescents and young adults in Norway and other countries. This trend has been referred to as a “teen mental health crisis” and caused concerns regarding the immediate impact on well-being as well as the long-term consequences for affected individuals and society at large. The aim of this project is to identify causes and implications of this development. Several explanations have been brought forward, and this project will focus on one of the most prominent, the social media hypothesis: more widespread use of social media leading to mental health declines via changing sleep patterns, social comparison, altered leisure time activities, and online bullying. The project will produce novel insights about the links between social media use and mental health. These relate to pathways, buffering characteristics of individuals and families, associations between extensive use of social media with functioning in other life domains, and the role of age restrictions.