Enhancing Social Connectedness for Youth Mental Health: Mechanisms, Risk Profiles, and Preventive Interventions

Rising mental health risks among young people have highlighted the need for protective systems that can be strengthened before problems become severe. Social connectedness refers to perceived and enacted bonds with close others and wider communities, including a sense of belonging, support, recognition, and participation. Weak, unstable, or exclusionary connections may amplify social pain, emotion dysregulation, and disengagement, whereas supportive relationships can buffer stress and foster resilience. However, youth social life is rapidly changing under digital media, academic pressure, migration, family transitions, and community inequalities. Existing studies often focus on one context, one outcome, or one cultural setting, limiting theory and practice. A more integrative approach is needed to understand when, for whom, and through what mechanisms strengthening connectedness prevents mental health risks.Social connectedness has emerged as a central protective system for youth mental health, yet research and practice often remain fragmented across isolated relationship domains, single risk outcomes, or intervention programs without precise risk stratification. This Research Topic aims to bring together interdisciplinary evidence on how connectedness across family, peer, school, community, and digital environments can be assessed, strengthened, and translated into preventive strategies for children, adolescents, and young adults. We seek contributions that move beyond documenting associations by clarifying developmental mechanisms, identifying heterogeneous risk profiles, and testing scalable practices that enhance belonging, support, meaning, and help-seeking. By integrating longitudinal, experimental, clinical, educational, and public-health perspectives, the collection will provide a timely platform for advancing social connectedness as a modifiable target for mental health promotion and risk prevention.Submissions may address: (1) conceptual and measurement advances in social connectedness, belonging, loneliness, and social support; (2) developmental pathways linking family, peer, teacher-student, school, community, and digital connectedness to depression, anxiety, NSSI, suicide-related outcomes, sleep, well-being, and meaning in life; (3) mechanisms such as emotion regulation, social rejection, help-seeking, resilience, identity, purpose, and biological or environmental sensitivity; (4) person-centered profiles, trajectories, and risk stratification; (5) prevention and intervention studies in schools, families, communities, online settings, or clinical/community services; and (6) equity-focused work with vulnerable or underserved groups. We welcome Original Research, Brief Research Reports, Reviews, Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses, Methods, Study Protocols, Hypothesis and Theory, Perspectives, and Policy or Practice papers. Studies using longitudinal, diary/EMA, mixed-method, experimental, randomized controlled, network, person-centered, cross-cultural, or implementation-science designs are especially encouraged. Topic editors: Zihao Zeng, Yiqiu Hu, FENG DU, Sophie Hendrikse, Chengzhen Liu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85929/enhancing-social-connectedness-for-youth-mental-health-mechanisms-risk-profiles-and-preventive-interventions