While there is a growing focus on mental health impacts among adolescents, we have little information about these impacts or how we can intervene, and there is even less data on a global scale. As a partner with the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS), we teamed up with Johns Hopkins University to elevate our local youth voices around the topic of child and adolescent mental health to contribute to global data being compiled by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as part of the 2021 State of the World’s Children (SOWC) report. The SOWC Report reaches a worldwide audience and, as such, this partnership hopes to inform best practices when it comes to involving and including young people’s lived experience in the design, delivery, and analysis of research on this topic. 

IWES invited young people in New Orleans ages 12-19 already engaged with our youth programs to participate in conversations about mental health and emotional well being. Our goal was to learn more about how young people process and understand challenges to mental and emotional wellbeing and to determine how to tailor our approaches to better serve the health needs of young people. Members of our Research & Evaluation team conducted 4 focus group discussions of 4-6 youth based on age group and gender identity. Youth offered general impressions and personal accounts about:

• what contributes to mental health and emotional challenges, and what might protect young people from these problems;

• the ways in which young people cope with mental health problems, including help-seeking behaviors;

• how they think about positive mental health and its components;

• what they see as solutions to preventing and managing mental health problems in the future.

Key Themes

Depression and anxiety

When we asked our young people what they thought the most serious problems young people their age faced related to how they feel, depression and anxiety emerged as themes across groups. They spoke about feeling pressure from their families, not being able to express their emotions, bullying, worries about school and social isolation as contributors to depression and anxiety. 

People expecting us to be perfect [can lead to] stress. (Younger girl, New Orleans)

Maybe not knowing how to express their emotions, or like being in a place where you can't really express your emotions. (Older girl, New Orleans)

I’m worried about school because it’s harder for me to learn not in person. (Younger Boy, New Orleans)

I think people my age would feel sad having to spend a chunk of their lives inside. (Younger Boy, New Orleans)

Managing mental health

When discussing how youth can be protected from developing problems like anxiety and depression, support was a key theme mentioned across all of the focus groups. It is important for adolescents to have people or places where they feel safe and can share their experiences. 

I feel like things like this [shared virtual space with peers] where you can vent or get stress off of your chest. (Older boy, New Orleans)

Support from loved ones. (Younger boy, New Orleans)

Trying to, like, get them help, just in case, like someone to talk to. (Older girl, New Orleans)

Having a safe place or someone comfortable, that you’re comfortable with that you could talk to and really open up to like without being judged. (Older girl, New Orleans)

Talking to people who can listen. Not caring about what nobody says about you. (Older girl, New Orleans)

While they spoke about some protective factors against mental health issues, they also brought attention to how there aren’t many places for young people to go. One older girl from New Orleans said, “I feel like we have to protect ourselves.” 

Coping techniques

In addition to discussing how young people can be protected from developing problems like depression and anxiety, we also spoke with them about how they cope with mental health challenges. While talking with peers and listening to music were mentioned heavily across the groups, youth also shared a multitude of different coping strategies they employ:

...like doing an activity to, like, get their mind off of things. Make them more motivated to do something. (Older girl, New Orleans)

Meditating. (Younger boy, New Orleans)

Music or playing video games. (Older boy, New Orleans)

Praying, writing down our feelings, talk to friends, and getting out the house. (Younger girl, New Orleans)

...we have a lot more access to the internet and social media now, um, we turn a lot to that to cope, because it's a very good distraction. You know, it doesn't really matter what kind of online base it is, it's just a good distraction from what they're going through. (Younger girl, New Orleans)

These conversations were transcribed by members of the team, de-identified, and shared back with the GEAS team at Johns Hopkins to analyze in conjunction with similar conversations held with GEAS partners around the globe. We continue to participate in this analysis process, and we’re excited to share back more findings with our community in the near future. The UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report, which will reflect analyses of all participating countries’ focus group discussions, will be publicly-released in the first quarter of 2022, so look out for it soon.