Mental Health of Emerging Adults: Navigating Identity Formation and Social Integration in Times of Global Crises and Social Inequalities

The transition to adulthood has historically been conceptualized as a period of “volitional exploration” characterized by identity formation, optimism, and a sense of open possibilities. However, the conditions for this development are being fundamentally reshaped. Today’s emerging adults (ages 18-30) face the challenge to navigate their integration into society amidst a “Polycrisis”: the accelerating convergence of climate change, geopolitical conflicts, forced migration, economic volatility, and digital saturation.Scientific discourse, exemplified by the recent Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health, has explicitly identified such macro-level “megatrends” as primary drivers of the global deterioration in mental well-being of emerging adults. The Commission highlights that the rising burden of distress is not incidental but structurally driven, exacerbating vulnerabilities particularly among those facing socioeconomic disadvantage, displacement, or discrimination. However, while this causal link is increasingly recognized, a crucial theoretical gap persists: How are global abstractions like “ideological erosion”, “climate threat”, or “structural precarity” translated into mental health outcomes and the micro-level of individual psychopathology of emerging adults?This Research Topic seeks to address this gap. We posit that contemporary distress is often not merely a symptom of individual deficit, but a response to structural incoherence manifesting as a clash between the normative demand for stability and an environment of permanent crisis. We invite contributions that trace the pathways from systemic disruption to individual experience, utilizing integrated frameworks to understand the “person in context”.Scope and Focus To achieve this, we welcome scholars from diverse disciplines (Psychology, Public Health, Sociology, Educational Sciences, etc.) to submit empirical papers, systematic reviews, or conceptual pieces.Themes of interest include, but are not limited to: • Global Crises, Identity, and Future Perspectives: How do megatrends (e.g. climate change, economic instability) and digital environments shape identity formation and the perception of the future? We welcome research on how young adults navigate uncertainty, algorithmic amplification and the “foreclosure” of traditional life paths.• Social Inequalities and Systemic Vulnerabilities: Investigating the “syndemic” nature of the polycrisis. How do factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, digital divide, migration history, or displacement interact to exacerbate mental health risks?• Pathways from Structure to Psyche: Tracing the mechanisms between structural determinants (e.g., housing markets, precarious employment, crisis narratives in social media, discrimination) and individual mental health outcomes. How do these barriers frustrate basic psychological needs?• Resilience, Agency, and Interventions:Moving beyond pathology to explore protective factors and effective support systems. We seek research on “emerging adult agency” and context-sensitive interventions developed with meaningful participation of the target group.Submission Criteria & Fit To ensure a coherent and theoretically robust collection, we invite contributors to consider the following guidelines:We prioritize contributions that explicitly bridge the gap between macro-societal factors and micro-individual outcomes. Successful submissions will likely adopt an interdisciplinary lens, integrating developmental psychology with e.g. insights from public health, sociology, or cultural studies. We welcome a methodological pluralism, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches that capture the complexity of lived experiences.Please note: While we value robust empirical data, manuscripts relying solely on de-contextualized psychometrics (e.g., descriptive correlations without reference to the socio-ecological environment) are likely outside the scope of this collection. Topic editors: Paulo Pinheiro, Anna Christina Nowak, Yudit Namer Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/74633/mental-health-of-emerging-adults-navigating-identity-formation-and-social-integration-in-times-of-global-crises-and-social-inequalities