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

Summary

The working-age population in Norway is shrinking due to demographic processes. Next to productivity increases and immigration, integrating and retaining young adults in the labor market is 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 to the widespread use of social media, school pressure, and a more demanding labor market. On the other hand, it has 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. We will also study whether school pressure, stressful employment, and widespread social media contribute to recent changes in mental health. Not least, we 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 and of large population surveys. 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.