The role of a family office is to manage a family’s wealth, with a long-term perspective that looks forward to future generations. It may coordinate investments, estate planning, business oversight, property management, and charitable giving.
But managing a family’s wealth and overseeing business decisions is not just about financial decision-making. It also involves thinking about the individuals (family members) and systems (including the family system) that make these decisions and impact the direction and success of a business.
Family offices are increasingly recognising the role of mental health in wealth management. Mental health impacts a family’s decision-making and continuity, their choice of investments and resilience. These impacts are inseparable from wealth and finances.
Teenage mental health holds a specific kind of importance in a family business. Teenagers are the future heirs of family wealth and the future board members of family businesses; they will be crucial to its success in the years to come. For family offices, concerned with the intergenerational preservation of wealth, teenagers’ well-being is crucial.
Mental Health, Family Businesses, and Wealth Management
Family wealth isn’t primarily impacted by outside factors, like falls in markets or changing investment interests. Family wealth preservation and business success are largely dependent on the dynamics within a family and their ability to make skilful business and wealth decisions.
This means that both an individual family member’s well-being and the dynamics of the family system can impact a family’s wealth. Tensions and conflicts within a family can jeopardise decision-making processes and lead to the dissolution of family businesses. Individual mental health disorders and stress can impact cognitive processes, decision-making, and the ability to fulfil a governance role.
Moreover, there is a bidirectional relationship between the structure and dynamics of a family and the well-being of individual members. Harmful patterns in the family system can cause distress to family members, impacting their mental health. Equally, mental health disorders may strain the family system, especially when it’s not equipped to provide effective support.
Teenage Mental Health and Family Offices
Teenagers may not yet be in decision-making roles within family wealth and business. But a teenager’s mental health has a huge impact on their skills and well-being as adults when they take on these roles.
Teenage mental health can also have a profound effect on family dynamics and well-being, impacting those who are currently in decision-making roles.
Understanding the Relationship Between Adolescent and Adult Mental Health
Roughly half of all lifetime mental health disorders start by the mid-teens, and having a mental health disorder as a teenager is a powerful predictor of mental health problems during adulthood.
Studies show that adolescent depression is associated with adult depression and anxiety. It’s also linked to substance abuse, any mental health disorder, and experiencing violence from a partner.
Some mental health disorders, when untreated, can lead to a range of social and occupational difficulties in adults. For example, adolescent borderline personality disorder is associated with disruption to education, transition to employment, and independent adult functioning.
Teenage mental health challenges can also disrupt developmental processes. Stress may impact adolescent brain development, affecting their emotional, social, and cognitive processes as they grow older.
Teen Mental Health and Family Well-being
When a teenager is experiencing mental health challenges, parents often feel worried and distressed. Parents and other family members may develop strained relationships with one another and sometimes experience mental health symptoms themselves.
This means that a teenager’s mental health can quickly impact the entire family. Reaching out for support is vital for everyone’s well-being.
What Kinds of Mental Health Problems Do Teenagers Experience?
Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems. During their teenage years, young people experience profound changes biologically, emotionally, physically, and socially. They become more independent, exploring their new roles in society and the family system, as well as their own identity.
This growth and change also bring instability, which can make mental health disorders more likely.
Adolescent brains continue developing until around the age of twenty-five. During adolescence, the impulsive and emotional brain regions are more pronounced. This means adolescents are more likely to engage in impulsive, high-risk, and compulsive behaviours.
Teenagers can experience a range of mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm and personality disorders.
Teen Mental Health in the UAE
A 2021 meta-review analysed the prevalence of ADHD, depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorders, and tobacco use disorder among children and adolescents in six Gulf states, including the UAE. They found that the prevalence of child and adolescent mental health disorders was relatively high compared to other countries. In particular:
- The prevalence of ADHD was around 13% (26% according to one scale)
- The prevalence of depressive symptoms was around 45% (26% according to one scale)
- The prevalence of anxiety and stress was 57%, 17%, and 43% depending on the scale used
- The prevalence of disordered eating was 31%
Studies have also found that:
- 24% of students at a university in Dubai had disordered eating behaviours and a possible eating disorder
- 73% of female and male adolescents experienced body dissatisfaction
- 22.5% of a group of adolescents in Amman, Jordan, another Middle-Eastern country, had self-harmed at least once in their lives.
What Are the Signs of Mental Health Challenges in Teens?
It’s not always easy to know when a young person is living with a mental health disorder. Some families may notice behavioural changes first, especially eating and sleeping patterns. They may start sleeping much less than usual or for longer. Or they may have a big change in appetite.
While it’s normal for teenagers to change their eating and sleeping habits as they develop, big shifts can be a signal that something is wrong.
Adolescents may also become more isolated and withdrawn, or hyperactive and impulsive. They may develop more oppositional behavours, such as defiant or aggressive behaviours.
Some teenagers may speak about distressing or challenging thoughts and feelings to their parents, such as anxiety or low mood. It’s important for parents to hold open and regular communication with teenagers about their emotions so they feel comfortable sharing when they need to.
Addressing Mental Health Challenges Among Teenagers
Protecting teenagers’ mental health and well-being requires awareness, support, and prioritisation. This means being aware of the signs of mental health disorders and noticing when something might not be right.
Parents are usually among the best placed to recognise the early stages of mental health challenges. Parents and other family members, as well as young people themselves, may want to attend psychoeducation sessions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the causes and nature of mental health disorders and the signs to look out for. They can also help parents understand how best to offer support if mental health challenges do develop.
Family offices may want to have a network of adolescent and adult psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists to refer to for support.
If a teenager experiences mental health challenges, it’s important that they access professional support as soon as possible. It’s very hard for a young person to recover from a mental health disorder on their own. Ensuring access to support may also involve challenging any stigma that may be associated with mental health problems, which can prevent families from reaching out for help.
In these citations, family offices can help by recommending trusted adolescent mental health services to families. But it’s also important that treatment seeking is collaborative and that young people have a say in the kind of treatment they receive.
Focusing on Family Dynamics
If a teenager is facing mental health challenges, it’s important that their family is involved in the treatment process. Families can be an invaluable source of support in a young person’s recovery journey. On the other hand, unhelpful family dynamics can help to maintain mental health problems.
Research shows that mental health support involving parents has a significantly greater impact on adolescent well-being than interventions that include adolescents alone.
Family offices can help encourage families to engage in family therapy and other interventions, emphasising its importance for the intergenerational well-being and financial assets of the family.
Preventing Mental Health Challenges
It’s also important to take steps to prevent mental health challenges from developing among teens in the first place. Families may want to attend workshops or therapy sessions that focus on addressing family dynamics and relations that may cause stress within the family, while learning new skills to build stronger internal structures.
Unhealthy work cultures and poor work-life balance can take time away from parents, impacting parent-child relationships and family life. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance should be a priority for family offices.
What Are Some Practical Steps that Family Offices Can Take?
There are a few practical steps that family offices might take to prioritise and support teen mental health. These include:
- Prioritising psychological well-being of all family members in family governance structures
- Delivering education programs for the next generation that touch upon resilience, identity, and purpose
- Building relationships with therapists to support in transitions, conflicts, and other challenges
- Supporting access to confidential professional support for teenage family members
The Wave Clinic: Specialist Recovery Programs for Young People and Families
The Wave Clinic offers specialist recovery programs for young people and families experiencing mental health challenges. We provide confidential, tailored support from our treatment spaces in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. We offer a trauma-focused, whole-person approach that centres the family as a powerful tool for mental health recovery.
Our programs offer a diverse selection of evidence-based modalities, including talk therapy, creative therapies and experiential therapies. We focus on creating new ways of being and relating, through togetherness and self-belief.
If you’re interested in our programs, reach out to us today. We’re here to help.
