Building resilience in young people is an important goal if we are to strengthen capacity and promote skills that help to reduce mental health problems. One way to foster resilience in young people is through meaningful youth participation; that is, decision-making by young people that involves meaning, control, and connectedness. Whilst youth participation may occur in recognition of young people's rights to be involved in all decisions that affect them, meaningful participation can itself enhance a young person's sense of connectedness, belonging and valued participation, and thereby impact on mental health and well being. Based on its extensive experience working collaboratively with young people, the Inspire Foundation, in partnership with young people, has developed a flexible and diverse approach to youth participation. This paper outlines the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the model, and discusses the operationalisation of program goals, atmosphere and activities that seek to build resilience through meaningful youth participation.
Background: Increasing rates of mental health problems among adolescents are of concern. Teens who are most in need of mental health attention are reluctant to seek help. A better understanding of the help-seeking in this population is needed to overcome this gap. Methods: Five databases were searched to identify the principal barriers, facilitators and interventions targeting help-seeking for common mental health problems in adolescents aged 10-19 years. The search was performed in June 2018 and updated in March 2019. Two independent screening processes were made using the eligibility criteria. Quality assessment of each study was performed and findings summarised using a narrative synthesis. Results: 90 studies meet the inclusion criteria for this review for barrier and facilitators (n=54) and interventions (n=36). Stigma and negative beliefs towards mental health services and professionals were the most cited barriers. Facilitators included previous positive experience with health services and mental health literacy. Most interventions were based on psychoeducation, which focused on general mental health knowledge, suicide and self-harm, stigma and depression. Other types of interventions included the use of multimedia and online tools, peer training and outreach initiatives. Overall, the quality of studies was low to medium and there was no general agreement regarding help-seeking definition and measurements. Conclusion: Most of interventions took place in an educational setting however, it is important to consider adolescents outside the educational system. Encouraging help-seeking should come with the increased availability of mental health support for all adolescents in need, but this is still a major challenge for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. There is also a need to develop shared definitions, theoretical frameworks and higher methodological standards in research regarding help-seeking behaviours in adolescents. This will allow more consistency and generalisability of findings, improving the development of help-seeking interventions and ensuring timely access to mental health treatments.
Our results have shown a surprisingly high level of weight-related concerns among schoolgirls across mainland China. There would seem to be few cases of anorexia or bulimia, although some girls satisfy criteria for partial diagnoses. Our findings highlight the difficulty of identifying girls who are underweight, at least by applying the standard Western procedure for categorizing body mass index.
High disinhibitors are able to successfully suppress their thoughts about food and eating, at least across relatively short periods of time. However, there appears to be associated negative consequences.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.