How are young people with mental health problems doing later on? A prospective cohort study of self-reported mental health problems in adolescence and living conditions in young adulthood

Studies have shown an increase in adolescents’ self-reported mental health problems during the past decades, in Sweden as well as in other Western countries. There is however uncertainty about what different indicators of self-reported mental health problems represent.

To draw conclusions about the significance of adolescents’ mental health problems, it has been argued that information about their effects on individuals’ everyday functioning and opportunities later in life is central.

From a clinical perspective, knowledge about the effects of different types and different levels of mental health problems is also important.The project aims to study the duration of mental health problems in late adolescence (measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ) and psychiatric care, educational success, and labour market attachment in young adulthood (measured through registers).

Data are drawn from Futura01, a cohort study of adolescents born in 2001 who completed questionnaires on two occasions, in 2017 (n=5,576) and in 2019 (n=4,150), who will be followed-up in registers.

SDQ includes subscales of different types of problems (emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, as well as a subscale on prosocial behaviour). SDQ also enables analyses of different levels of problems by using various cutoffs.

Gender and socioeconomic position will be considered throughout.The project can generate knowledge of relevance for preventive work and early interventions.

Awareness about which types of problems, and which levels of problems, that are most clearly linked with ill-health and living conditions in young adulthood is decisive for identifying needs and designing effective interventions for youth.

The project may inform decisions about whether preventive measures shall be targeted towards individuals with elevated symptom levels (indicated prevention) or towards groups with broader risk factors (selective prevention).