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YoungWork: Young adults’ mental health and labor market exclusion – causes, consequences and trends

Project

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The purpose of the project is to shed light on the extent to which school pressure, demanding job conditions, and openness about mental health issues explain the increase in mental health diagnoses among young people.

Summary

The purpose of the project is to shed light on the extent to which school pressure, demanding job conditions, and openness about mental health issues explain the increase in mental health diagnoses among young people.

The working-age population in Norway is shrinking due to demographic processes. To integrate and retain young adults in the labor market is thus considered crucial for sustaining a comprehensive welfare state. However, increasing rates of mental health problems in young persons – especially depression and anxiety – have caused concerns about young adults’ well-being as well as their ability to contribute to the labor force.

Potential explanations of the increase in mental health problems among younger adults in recent years point, among other things, to school pressure and a more demanding labor market. It has also been claimed that the increase in young adults’ reported and diagnosed mental health problems might reflect reduced stigma around mental health problems, better health care provision, and increasing medicalization of conditions that were previously considered “normal”.Against this background, the YoungPsych project examines whether society has become more or less inclusive of young persons with mental health problems and whether young adults with mental health problems today are more (or less) likely to complete education and to be active in the labor force. The project will further examine whether school pressure and stressful employment contribute to recent changes in mental health. Not least, the project will assess to what extent more openness about mental health problems and changing norms related to help-seeking contribute to observed increases in reported mental health problems.

In order to address these issues, the project will make use of a comprehensive collection of Norwegian register data. Results of this project will help policy makers, academics, and the interested public to better understand recent increases in mental health problems in adolescents and young adults and how they might affect the labor markets in the future.

Project leader

Jonas Minet Kinge, Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Project participants

Fartein Ask Torvik, Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Martin Flatø, Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Jonathan Wörn, Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Bjørn-Atle Reme, Health Services Research, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Magnus Nordmo, Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Siri Eldevik Håberg, Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Ole Jørgen Røgeberg, Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research
Bernt Magne Bratsberg, Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research
Ian Colman, University of Ottawa
Tilmann Martin von Soest, PROMENTA, University of Oslo
Elin Anita Fadum, Norwegian Armed Forces Health Registry

Start

01.04.2024

End

31.03.2028

Status

Active

Project owner/ Project manager

Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Project manager

Jonas Minet Kinge

Published |Updated