Voices of a Generation: Centering Youth's Perspectives Amid an Adolescent Mental Health Crisis

• In Event: 30865 - Centering Child and Youth Perspectives: Young people as social thinkers and actors

Abstract

Public and scholarly discussion on how to respond to young people’s rising emotional distress often fails to incorporate the voices of adolescents themselves. This study centers the role of teenagers as social actors articulating and enacting their own understandings of mental health. Through analysis of in-depth interviews with 45 adolescents from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, this research finds that, despite ongoing stigma, most young people are open about the pervasiveness of mental health challenges among themselves and their peers. They believe their generation’s increased awareness of mental health will allow more people to get support for mental health concerns and frequently draw on their knowledge of mental health to provide emotional support to friends experiencing emotional distress. I conclude by arguing that efforts to improve adolescent mental health should not solely focus on controlling youth’s access to technology but should instead build on adolescents’ existing mental health knowledge, and commitment to peer support, to improve overall mental well-being.

Author

• Mahala Miller, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities