The Phenomenisation of the Youth Mental Health Crisis
Name of applicant
Frederikke Skaaning Knage
Title
Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution
Manchester Metropolitan University
Amount
DKK 450,000
Year
2023
Type of grant
Internationalisation Fellowships
What?
In the project, I study how youth mental health problems over the last decade has transformed into the phenomenon of a 'youth mental health crisis', by exploring the historical, political, societal, material and discursive aspects which together have enabled such a ‘crisis’ to emerge as a phenomenon. I further study how gendered, socio-economic and racialised negotiations influence the phenomenon.
Why?
Over the last decade, research aimed at understanding the youth mental health crisis has increased. There is little consensus about the immediate causes of the crisis, yet there is agreement that such a crisis does exist and is in urgent need of resolution. Further, young people’s mental health problems are often integrated with negotiations of social categories (fx the "12-grade girl").
How?
The empirical material will comprise qualitative data generated from historical records, policy documents, strategic solution reports, public debate and other material-discursive aspects concerning youth mental health in Denmark and the UK. A key goal is to analyse how different agencies work together strategically and repeatedly over time in the formation of the youth mental health crisis.