‘Looping effects’ related to young people’s mental health: How young people transform the meaning of psychiatric concepts

Sofia Kvist Lindholm,Anette Wickström

doi:10.1177/2043610619890058

Abstract

Over the past decades, reports from official authorities and the media have suggested that there is a ‘crisis’ in young people’s mental health. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding how to interpret the data referred to in these alarming reports. The present article draws on ‘the minority voices’ of young people and theories developed by Ian Hacking to undertake a critical analysis of the conceptualisation of young people’s mental health. According to Hacking, systems of classifications formulate general truths about people and frame the suffering of individuals in specific ways. Classification changes people. However, young people are social actors who interact with classifications of their mental health and by doing so they could cause classifications to be redrawn. Hacking refers to these feedback effects as ‘looping effects’. Based on 51 interviews with 15-year-olds, this article explores how young people interact with psychiatric labels associated with their wellbeing such as anxiety and depression. We demonstrate how the participants gave new meaning to these psychiatric labels, devalued and gave nuance to them, and by doing so transformed them into cultural categories rather than diagnostic categories. We discuss the potential looping effects related to young people’s mental health and how the present findings can inform policy practice.

Highlights

Over the past decades, reports from governmental authorities, organisations and the media have portrayed young people as a homogeneous group who seem to be suffering from mental ill healthIt is from this review not possible to verify or disprove the general perception of a sharply rising frequency of mental disorders among Swedish children and adolescents. (Petersen et al, 2010: 13)The conclusion cited above establishes that the general perception of a sharply rising frequency of mental disorders is not verified in the epidemiological research
The dual narratives seen in the epidemiological research and the specific way of framing young people’s various problems as symptoms of psychopathology suggest a need to analyse critically the construction of dominant understandings about youth mental health and what it does to young people
We draw on interviews with 15-year-olds to explore how young people interact with dominant discourses regarding their mental health and what consequences this specific way of framing young people’s mental health bring for young people

Summary

Introduction

Reports from governmental authorities, organisations and the media have portrayed young people as a homogeneous group who seem to be suffering from mental ill healthIt is from this review not possible to verify or disprove the general perception of a sharply rising frequency of mental disorders among Swedish children and adolescents. (Petersen et al, 2010: 13)The conclusion cited above establishes that the general perception of a sharply rising frequency of mental disorders is not verified in the epidemiological research. Reports from governmental authorities, organisations and the media have portrayed young people as a homogeneous group who seem to be suffering from mental ill health. It is from this review not possible to verify or disprove the general perception of a sharply rising frequency of mental disorders among Swedish children and adolescents. The dual narratives seen in the epidemiological research and the specific way of framing young people’s various problems as symptoms of psychopathology suggest a need to analyse critically the construction of dominant understandings about youth mental health and what it does to young people. We draw on interviews with 15-year-olds to explore how young people interact with dominant discourses regarding their mental health and what consequences this specific way of framing young people’s mental health bring for young people.

Objectives

Conclusion