Engaging Young People in Mental Health Research
May 9, 2022
Young people in the United States are experiencing “soaring rates of mental health disorders,” the New York Times reports, resulting in what the US Surgeon General calls a “devastating” mental health crisis among adolescents. As researchers work to reverse this trend, they will need to incorporate the lived experience of children, youth, and their families in every step of the scientific process, Erin G. Fox, Nicole F. Kahn, and Gabrielle Battle maintain in Issues. “Engaging youth in the research process is particularly necessary,” the authors write, “because the experiences of young people today are very unlike those of generations before them.”