Abstract
ObjectiveMental health is critical to the healthy development of adolescents. However, mental health encompasses more than the absence of mental illness; and should include indicators of mental wellness. A critical review of available mental wellness instruments for adolescents were conducted to identify operational definitions of mental wellness concepts for this population group.MethodA systematic review of literature published between 2000 and 2020 was done to identify mental wellness instruments for adolescent populations. The review followed the PRISMA operational steps.ResultsWe identified 2,543 articles from the search strategy and screened titles and abstracts for eligibility. After appraisal, 97 studies were included in the qualitative synthesis; of which, 79 mental wellness instruments were identified. Most studies did not provide a definition for mental wellness. We identified thirteen mental wellness concepts from 97 studies, namely: life satisfaction, mental wellbeing [general], resilience, self-efficacy, self- esteem, connectedness, coping, self-control, mindfulness/spiritual, hope, sense of coherence, happiness, and life purpose.ConclusionThe review reflected previous research identifying a lack of consensus around the definitions of mental health, mental wellness, and mental wellbeing. This has implications for developing instruments for adolescents that adequately measure these constructs. Most of the instruments identified in the review were predominantly English and from developed countries. This indicates a need for instrument that are explicitly conceptualised and operationalised for adolescents in all their varied contexts.
Highlights
Adolescents are prioritised in the global public health agenda because they play a central role in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (World Health Organization, 2017; Guthold et al, 2019; Patalay and Gage, 2019)
The challenges related to the conceptualisation on mental wellness and related concepts and the lack of research focussing on both eudaimonic and hedonic mental wellness simultaneously makes it difficult to pinpoint the mechanism contributing to this phenomenon (Witten et al, 2019). We argue that this decrease-with-age tendency may occur when adolescents only focus on pursuing hedonic mental wellness without developing eudaimonic mental wellness as the former is associated with lower levels of meaning in life (Witten et al, 2019)
Due to the proliferation of quantitative studies aimed at measuring subjective wellbeing (SWB) in adolescents – we argue that more qualitative research is needed to explore why SWB decreases during these years, and which eudaemonic and hedonic factors may act as buffer to promote enduring mental wellness
Summary
Adolescents are prioritised in the global public health agenda because they play a central role in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (World Health Organization, 2017; Guthold et al, 2019; Patalay and Gage, 2019). It is further estimated that approximately 50% of all mental disorders have their onset during adolescence (Patalay and Gage, 2019; Peters et al, 2019; UNICEF, 2020b). Poor mental health hinders healthy adolescent development and is associated with poorer health, social and economic outcomes across their lifetime (Patalay and Gage, 2019; Peters et al, 2019). Adolescent mental disorders represent a significant burden of disease on health systems, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where mental health services and resources are lacking (Peters et al, 2019; World Health Organization, 2020; Sorsdahl et al, 2021)
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