LIAS Working Paper Series
https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/lias
<p>The Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies Working Papers Series is intended to:</p><ul><li>Provide a mechanism for publishing interdisciplinary research in a range of formats including preliminary findings, position papers, critical reflection papers, and policy briefs</li><li><p>Support the publication of provocation papers, aimed at stimulating debate about emerging research areas and complex research questions</p></li><li><p>Make interdisciplinary research and debates available within and beyond the academy, through open access publishing.</p></li></ul>
University of Leicester Open Journals
en-US
LIAS Working Paper Series
2516-4783
<span>Copyright © the author. All rights reserved.</span>
-
Learning from young people in Gauteng, South Africa, about their experiences of depression: a discussion space report
https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/lias/article/view/4384
<p>Across the world, rising youth depression is a pressing concern that has animated researcher and popular media attention. Mostly, this attention has missed that youth depression can be prevented, provided we can discover and mobilize protective mechanisms at different systemic levels that have differential (i.e. the most impactful) value for specific youth in specific cultures and contexts. Importantly, we need to consider what combinations of protective mechanisms matter most and pay more attention to mechanisms in the systems that young people are connected to (like their families and communities).</p><p>A handful of studies across a diversity of biological, social and environmental sciences are beginning to challenge the overly narrow focus on protective mechanisms at the level of the individual (Arango et al., 2021; Thapar et al., 2022). They show that a wide range of factors, like food security (Teasedale et al., 2021), less polluted or more temperate environments (Sugg et al., 2019; Theron et al., 2022), trusted social connections (Choi et al., 2020), opportunities for school and work engagement and social justice (Minh et al., 2021) matter as much, if not more, than individual resources for youth resilience to depression.</p><p>Further, the Resilient Youth in Stressed Environments (RYSE) study is showing that these factors work in combination. RYSE-related work on the multisystemic determinants of the psychosocial resilience of youth living in stressed environments in Canada and South Africa (Ungar et al., 2021), has shown that at-risk youth report negligible depression symptoms when they also report greater access to a culturally relevant combination of relational, institutional and ecological resources (Theron et al., 2022).</p><p>We wondered how these insights would hold up in stressed urban environments. We wanted to learn more about the intersection between multisystemic resources and young peoples’ real life experiences of mental poor health or depression in overcrowded, violent, stressed city spaces. To do this, we held a Discussion Space in Johannesburg in February 2023 to centre the voices of Black 18-24 year olds, and engage them in a participatory approach to navigate this emerging research landscape.</p>
Diane Levine
Matteo Bergamini
Karmel W Choi
Zainab Mai-bornu
Makananelo Makape
Celeste Matross
Michael Ungar
Linda Theron
Copyright (c) 2023 D. Levine, M. Bergamini, K. Choi, Z. Mai-Bornu, M. Makape, C. Matross, M. Ungar, L. Theron.
2023-03-29
2023-03-29
10 1
10.29311/lwps.2023104384
-
Learning from young people in Port Harcourt and Bayelsa, Nigeria, about their experiences of depression: a discussion space report
https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/lias/article/view/4419
<p>Recently, we reported a morning-long discussion (held 7<sup>th</sup> February 2023) that we held with a group of youth currently living in Johannesburg, South Africa, and self-identifying as Black African (Levine et al., 2023). Black African young people in South Africa typically have the least access to mental health supports, given South Africa’s Apartheid history and ongoing racialised inequity. We wanted to understand their lived experiences and observations of the risks and influences that make African young people vulnerable to elevated levels of depression (i.e., strong feelings of hopelessness, despondency, and sadness). While young people can experience other mental health challenges, our narrow interest in depression was prompted by the knowledge that youth depression is a global emergency, particularly in under-resourced contexts such as Africa (Sankoh et al., 2018), and that African youth are typically under-represented in mental health studies (Steel et al., 2022). Given our long-standing and enduring attention to human resilience since the early 2010s (Theron, 2016; Theron et al., 2013; Theron & Ungar, 2023; Ungar, 2011, 2018, 2021; Ungar & Theron, 2020), we were also interested in learning what young people believed might support youth resilience to mitigate or counter these risks. Finally, we were curious about young people’s thoughts on the value of an empirical study that would produce insight into how best to protect young people living in Africa against elevated levels of depression.</p>
Zainab Mai-Bornu
Diane Levine
Fyneface Dumnamene
Philip Godfrey
Michael Ungar
Linda Theron
Copyright (c) 2023 Zainab Mai-Bornu, Diane Levine, Fyneface Dumnamene, Philip Godfrey, Michael Ungar, Linda Theron
2023-07-24
2023-07-24
10 1
10.29311/lwps.2023104419