The United States is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis among people of all ages, according to the White House. Two in five American adults report symptoms of anxiety and depression, and more than half of parents express concern over their children’s mental well-being. Over 40 percent of teenagers state they struggle with persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Mental health is now one of the top reasons many college students are considering dropping out of school, according to a recently released report by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation.
On a global level, threats to mental health include growing social and economic inequalities; protracted conflicts such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine; violence; and public health emergencies, according to WHO’s 2022 report World mental health report: transforming mental health for all. For example, more than five million people have fled the Russian invasion, and many have carried with them trauma and loss, says an article in The Economist. That has been compounded by the economic stress of living abroad and by family separation, it says. The WHO estimates that at least half a million of these refugees are suffering from mental health issues, according to the article.
Sociologists are uniquely positioned to understand challenges related to mental health and offer ways in which public policy can be shaped to address them. In this issue of Footnotes titled “Sociological Insights on Mental Health,”sociologists delve into a variety of issues, including:
- The role the college environment plays in understanding mental health and substance use among college students.
- Gun trauma in the U.S.
- The impact of technology and social media use on mental health and well-being.
- Work conditions that affect mental health of family members.
- The diverse pathways through which families matter for mental health while recognizing the multiple structural forces that shape both families and mental health across social positions and over the life course.
- The risk and protective factors that have been identified with respect to the patterns of mental health associated with migration.
- The ways in which war trauma manifests in both short- and long-terms.
What becomes clear through these essays is that there is an urgent need to address the ongoing mental health crisis within the U.S. and globally, and sociological research can greatly help inform relevant policy.
