New research will uncover brain biomarkers and mental health impacts to inform intervention efforts
Mental health problems in young adults are at historically high levels. Australia’s ‘Gen Z’ have faced a unique set of psychosocial stressors during their adolescent years, such as the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the pervasiveness of social media. We know that stressors like these can predict the onset of mental health problems later in life. However, our understanding of which specific stressors pose the greatest risk and how they take effect is quite poor. Our current conceptualisations of stressful experiences do not consider the range of social contexts that are important for the developing adolescent.
New research will use unique methodological innovations to help us understand how stressors impact future mental health. Led by Dr Nandita Vijayakumar, the researchers will use recently published brain growth charts and longitudinal neuroimaging data from the Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS). Integrating data from multiple levels of social and biological functioning to improve our understanding of how the effects of stress exposure become instantiated, which stressors we should intervene upon, and when we should do so.
Advancing our knowledge of how stressors act via the developing brain to impact future mental health.
The team will also be drawing on recent advances in ‘target trial’ approaches to help uncover the ideal timing to deliver ‘biologically-informed’ interventions. By applying leading epidemiological methods to neuroimaging data the team will pinpoint the best time to intervene to support both brain development and mental health.
Understanding which stressors to target during adolescence to prevent later mental health problems and support healthy brain development has impacts on not only the way we understand mental health and brain development itself, but also how we support adolescents and prevent problems later in life.
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