Precision Public Health Approaches to Adolescent Mental Health and Risk Behaviors in the Digital Era

Adolescent mental health and risk behaviors constitute a major and growing public health concern worldwide. Over the past decade, rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, substance use, and other risk behaviors have noticeably increased, with clear social gradients shaped by structural and contextual factors. The digital era has transformed the environments where adolescents interact, affecting their social connections, access to information, health behaviors, and opportunities for care. The emergence of digital platforms and novel data streams provides opportunities for real-time surveillance, early identification of vulnerability, and targeted prevention. Precision Public Health brings together high-resolution data, social determinants of health, and population-level interventions to better capture heterogeneity in risk and to develop more effective and equitable strategies for adolescents. Even as these approaches show promise, important questions remain about how digital and social factors interact, and how best to apply innovative data and technologies to improve adolescent mental health and reduce risk behaviors.This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of how Precision Public Health approaches can be applied to adolescent mental health and risk behaviors in the digital era. The objective is to gather interdisciplinary research that leverages innovative data sources, analytical approaches, and implementation frameworks to identify vulnerable subpopulations, understand mechanisms of risk and resilience, and inform targeted, scalable prevention strategies. Special attention is given to the influence of social determinants of health including socioeconomic position, education, digital access, environmental factors, family context, and community setting, and how these intersect with digital environments to shape mental health outcomes. By integrating epidemiological, behavioral, technological, and policy perspectives, this Research Topic seeks to promote data-driven decision-making, reduce health inequities, and support population-level mental health promotion and prevention for adolescents in varied contexts.The scope of this Research Topic includes precision-oriented approaches to surveillance, prevention, and intervention in adolescent mental health and risk behaviors, with an emphasis on equity and digital transformation. To gather further insights in this area, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Digital and real-time surveillance systems for adolescent mental health• Use of big data, social media, or mobile technologies for mental health monitoring• Social determinants and contextual factors influencing adolescent risk behaviors• Geospatial and sociodemographic stratification of mental health outcomes• Ethical and equity considerations in digital and precision public health• Evaluation of scalable, school-based, community-based, or digitally delivered prevention strategiesWe welcome various article types, including original research articles, systematic or scoping reviews, methodological papers, implementation studies, and policy-relevant analyses, that contribute to improving adolescent mental health and reducing risk behaviors through precision public health frameworks. Topic editors: Marcela Carcamo, Patricia Matus, Mayumi Hangai Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79164/precision-public-health-approaches-to-adolescent-mental-health-and-risk-behaviors-in-the-digital-era