In this article, we explore challenges and opportunities in research oriented to understanding the relations among elements of socio-economic life and mental health (MH) and the development and evaluation of mental health promotion (HP) initiatives. We review the population health intervention research (PHIR) literature and respond to recommendations regarding social determinants of health and health inequities-focused research. We discuss three inter-related issue areas: first, the continued dominance of linear and individually oriented theories within predominantly quantitative research approaches and the underdevelopment of ontological and theoretical perspectives that capture complexity; second, the inconsistent use of measures of socio-economic status and health with a lack of attention to taken for granted assumptions; and third, the continued focus on measuring MH challenges to the neglect of exploring the meaning of MH in a positive sense. We extend recommendations within the PHIR literature by sharing our application of a historical–dialectical ontological perspective within a process of social praxis with diverse Canadian young people with varying degrees of access to socio-economic resources. Young people were engaged to explore the relations among socio-economic processes, young people’s MH and implications for mental HP. We argue that this ontological perspective can support the development of structurally oriented critical qualitative research approaches in PHIR.

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Developing meaningful indicators to track youth mental health (MH) is important to support the development and evaluation of responsive mental health promotion (MHP) initiatives that address the socio-economic determinants of youth MH. Development of relevant indicators is challenged, however, by the lack of knowledge regarding the relations among socio-economic factors and youth MH. Thirty diverse young people from a Canadian metropolitan area were engaged within a process of social praxis to explore their experiences of the inter-relationship between their socio-economic environments and their MH and their processes of seeking to realize their MH. Participants emphasized ‘needs’ as foundational to MH, whereas ‘wants’, driven by materialistic and wealth-oriented values and social norms, constrained their MH. Their reflections on the inter-relations among their MH and socio-economic processes highlight eight inter-related MH needs within the Canadian socio-economic context. In this paper, we present these needs and show how these needs, young people’s affective states, and their access to resources within co-evolving socio-economic processes (to enable their needs) illustrate the fundamental inter-relation between young people’s MH and socio-economic processes. We identify implications for measuring youth MH within MHP practice, including the importance of iterative indicator frameworks that include measures of young people’s access to resources to enable their MH needs and their degree of distress.

Understanding how socio-economic processes inter-relate with young people’s mental health is important to inform the development of responsive mental health promotion initiatives. Thirty diverse Canadian young people were engaged within a process of social praxis, underpinned by a historical-dialectical ontological perspective, to explore the inter-relation among socio-economic processes and youth mental health and implications for mental health promotion initiatives. Findings show several inter-related contradictory processes within two overarching contradictory dynamics that Canadian youth are navigating as they seek to realize their mental health needs. The first overarching contradictory dynamic is between monetized, private, individualistic, profit-oriented economic processes and young people’s need for resources, freedom and time, and inclusive social spaces to enable their mental health needs. Participants’ descriptions of their approaches to seeking to realize their mental health needs in this context reflects a second inter-related overarching contradiction between communal and individual approaches to enabling young people’s mental health needs. In this context, young people are oriented inward to meet their mental health needs at the individual and inter-personal level, despite the crucial role of socio-economic processes to enabling their mental health needs. Despite varied access to resources, all participants struggled to balance meeting their mental health needs. Implications of these findings entail the need to focus on promoting synergistic relations among young people and socio-economic processes whereby enabling universal access to resources for young people’s survival, physical health and comfort is foundational to multi-level mental health promotion initiatives.