article · Nature
Rapid urbanisation means more young people are living in cities, where environmental conditions frequently undermine psychological well-being despite offering educational and economic advantages. A global panel comprising researchers, practitioners, advocates, and young people participated in sequential surveys to establish and rank key features required to make cities supportive of youth mental health. These priorities span personal, interpersonal, community, organisational, policy, and environmental areas. Key priorities identified include fostering life skills, respecting young people's choices, establishing safe public spaces for social interaction, ensuring employment security, directly involving youth in urban planning, and addressing negative social determinants of health. The research also accounts for challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, linking specific interventions to these difficulties. Overall, the findings emphasise that creating supportive urban environments requires participatory, equitable urban design alongside cross-sector interventions across multiple levels of governance and community life.
As urban populations expand worldwide, the conditions of city life heavily influence the psychological development and future life trajectories of adolescents. Identifying the specific environmental, economic, and social characteristics that protect youth well-being helps municipal leaders, public health officials, and community organisations coordinate interventions. This guidance ensures that investments in urban infrastructure, public spaces, and youth programmes address the root causes of urban mental health challenges effectively.
This early-stage research provides a prioritisation framework rather than a commercial product. The ranked criteria could inform urban planning consultancies, municipal software platforms, or non-governmental organisations developing assessment tools and participatory design programmes for youth-friendly infrastructure. However, the abstract does not describe a ready-to-use technology or commercial tool, indicating that translating these priorities into deployable commercial services or urban evaluation systems will require further applied development and testing.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Urban life shapes the mental health of city dwellers, and although cities provide access to health, education and economic gain, urban environments are often detrimental to mental health<sup>1,2</sup>. Increasing urbanization over the next three decades will be accompanied by a growing population of children and adolescents living in cities<sup>3</sup>. Shaping the aspects of urban life that influence youth mental health could have an enormous impact on adolescent well-being and adult trajectories<sup>4</sup>. We invited a multidisciplinary, global group of researchers, practitioners, advocates and young people to complete sequential surveys to identify and prioritize the characteristics of a mental health-friendly city for young people. Here we show a set of ranked characteristic statements, grouped by personal, interpersonal, community, organizational, policy and environmental domains of intervention. Life skills for personal development, valuing and accepting young people's ideas and choices, providing safe public space for social connection, employment and job security, centring youth input in urban planning and design, and addressing adverse social determinants were priorities by domain. We report the adversities that COVID-19 generated and link relevant actions to these data. Our findings highlight the need for intersectoral, multilevel intervention and for inclusive, equitable, participatory design of cities that support youth mental health.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-07005-4
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
