Young adulthood is a time of particular vulnerability to mental health problems. It’s a period of rapid developmental change, biologically, physically, emotionally, and socially. As young people navigate identity exploration and find their new roles in society, instability and uncertainty can make it harder to cope with stress.
But not only are young adults changing, so is the world around them. The combination of rapid personal development and societal shifts can intensify instability. Young people have to confront challenges that are different from those of previous generations, where we may collectively lack the skills, instincts, common experience, or learned practices to overcome.
Among these societal shifts is the predominance of the internet and social media in young people’s lives. Another is the continued urbanisation and growth of megacities.
This blog explores what it is for a young person to navigate Saudi Arabia’s rapidly changing society, and the experiences that shape their mental well-being. It offers insight into supporting young adults in this process, as parents and mental health professionals.
How Common Are Mental Health Disorders Among Saudi Youth?
A 2023 study found that 40.10% of Saudi youth had experienced at least one mental health disorder in their lifetime. Specifically:
- 26.84% had lived with an anxiety disorder
- 15.44% had lived with a disruptive behavioural disorder
- 9.67% had had a mood disorder
- 7.06% had had an eating disorder
- 4% had experienced a substance use disorder
But only a minority of young people (14.47%) received treatment for their mental health disorder.
The Impact of Social Media on Young People’s Mental Health
In the past decades, social media has become increasingly central to young people’s lives. Social media can facilitate socialisation, learning, and identity exploration, providing a platform where young people can meet like-minded people and discover more about their passions and interests, immersing themselves in an unprecedented diversity of information.
But social media can also be harmful. Studies from different places in the world have linked too much social media use with depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges. Spending too much time on social media may impact young people’s sleep, increase social anxiety, and inhibit social and emotional regulation skills.
Specific ways of using social media may leave young people especially vulnerable to mental health concerns. For example, tendencies to focus on self-presentation on sites like Instagram or Facebook can lead to a preoccupation with peer-evaluation and negative comparisons to others. The format of social media platforms, often revolving around instant feedback and sharing mechanisms, can encourage young people to value themselves on their social status or social ‘worth’, rather than appreciating themselves for who they are.
Research suggests that social comparison may be linked to body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression. A study in Saudi Arabia found that excessive social media use was linked to negative self-presentation patterns that may impact self-esteem, identity formation, and social comparison.
A study among Saudi youth aged 10-24 found that most young people had tried to reduce their social media use because of their mental health.
Parenting and Social Media Use
Protecting young people’s mental health on the internet isn’t about prohibiting internet or social media use altogether, or about intervening in an authoritarian way. Research suggests that reactive restrictions on social media use may encourage problematic internet use, rather than preventing it.
Instead, rule-setting around social media use should be collaborative, constituted by boundaries agreed upon by parents and young people. The boundaries may be co-formed through an open discussion about the dangers of excessive social media use and certain ways of using social media, as well as harmful content that young people may be exposed to.
Positive parenting more generally can also protect against problematic social media use. Parenting styles that centre around responsiveness to young people’s needs, affection, and healthy expectations are linked to a range of positive mental health outcomes, including healthier social media use.
Parenting styles that support young people in developing emotional and social skills may help them use social media safely and prevent them from becoming reliant on social media for their emotional and social needs.
Urbanisation and Mental Health Well-being
In the past century, rapid urbanisation has constituted one of the most dramatic changes in Saudi Arabia’s social landscape. As with most parts of the world, Saudi Arabia’s population is increasingly concentrated in cities, including mega-cities like Riyadh. Some estimates suggest that by 2030, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas.
However, rapid urbanisation brings psychological, social, and economic changes. Research has established that certain aspects of urban living can make people more vulnerable to mental health disorders. Socioeconomic inequality, social stress, pollution, and noise may all contribute to mental health challenges.
A study exploring urbanisation and mental health in Riyadh found that:
- Like in other urban centres, mental health disorders are common in Riyadh
- Anxiety disorders were the most prominent mental health disorders, followed by mood disorders
- Younger people were at a higher risk of mental health disorders
- Traumatic events were associated with all types of mental health disorders
- Only 2.9% of people with a mental health disorder sought treatment
Supporting young people’s mental health in an urban environment involves challenging some of the factors of urban living that harm our mental health. For example, spending time in urban parks or in nature outside of the city can help counter the effects of noise, pollution, and indoor living. Spending time in nature positively impacts our cognitive capacities, including attention and memory, emotional states, and experiences of stress.
A recent systematic review found that nature could improve young people’s well-being in different ways, such as increasing self-esteem, reducing stress, and building resilience.
Globalisation and Shifting Values
In the past decades, cultural and social values in Saudi Arabia have shifted. As Western enterprises have expanded across the globe, so has Western media and, with it, the values and social norms of the Global North.
Many young people’s values are shaped by ideals and axioms that are different from those of their parents or previous generations.
Among these are beauty ideals that define a specific, unrealistic and unattainable body shape as ideal. Internalisation of these ideals has been associated with eating disorder pathology, body image, and co-occurring mental health symptoms.
As more and more young people in Saudi Arabia are exposed to Western media, eating disorders have rapidly increased. Today, research suggests that between 10.2% to 48.1% of adolescents and young adults in Saudi Arabia experience disordered eating or eating disorders. Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions which, without effective support, cause long-term psychological, physical, and social harm.
In the face of these challenges, awareness and help-seeking are crucial. It’s important for parents to look out for the early signs of eating disorders and encourage a young person to seek professional support as soon as possible.
It’s also important for parents to create a positive culture around food and body image. This means avoiding dieting or restrictive behaviours themselves, and not making comments – positive or negative – about physical appearance, body weight, or shape. It means encouraging collective meal times, without pressuring young people to eat or not eat.
Although ideas about food and body shape usually play a role in the development of eating disorders, they’re not the root cause. Instead, disordered eating behaviours are underpinned and maintained by emotional and social experiences and cognitive traits, such as interpersonal difficulties and emotional dysregulation.
This means that preventing eating disorders also involves maintaining a positive home and environment with warmth, responsiveness, and health expectations that nurture supportive family relationships.
Challenging Stigma and Encouraging Help-Seeking
Supporting young adults’ mental health requires facilitating their access to professional support. Once mental health disorders have developed, it’s very difficult for someone to recover without professional help. Parents can play a key role in helping young people overcome some of the barriers to help-seeking.
One of the biggest barriers to help-seeking is stigma. Stigma surrounding mental health can cause young people to hide their experiences rather than reach out for support. Sometimes stigma causes parents and other family members to overlook or downplay mental health concerns, especially if they worry about their reputation or how others will perceive them.
Research shows that stigma is consistently reported as a key barrier to seeking mental health support in Saudi Arabia.
However, stigma around mental health is deeply dangerous, harmful, and built on misconceptions. Challenging mental health stigma is fundamental for young people and others to access the social and professional support they need. Parents should reinforce a positive culture around mental health that accepts young people’s experiences without shame or judgment.
Building Supportive Relationships and Social Systems
Navigating young adulthood in a rapidly changing world requires resilience. But resilience is not only about personal skills and practices. Instead, our resilience is built upon our relationships with other people, which can provide invaluable support, stability, and a sense of belonging.
Some of young people’s most important relationships are their family relationships. Families can constitute a system and structure of support, sharing, and connection. Positive family relationships can offer emotional support in challenging times while providing a sense of identity and belonging.
As children become young adults, it’s important for parenting to become fully collaborative, constituting a supportive partnership based on equality, respect, and autonomy. But even as parent-child relationships change and develop, parents should remain warm, responsive, and connected, regardless of their child’s age.
The Wave Clinic: Specialist Mental Health Support for Young People and Families
The Wave Clinic offers specialist mental health support for young people and families from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf region, and different parts of the world. We offer outpatient, intensive outpatient, and residential treatment for teens and young adults through a trauma-focused approach that promotes lasting change.
Our programs focus on building skills, growing in self-confidence, and forming connections with others.
We also offer intensives for families and parents, as part of or independently of residential treatment. Our family and parent intensives combine the lessons of months of outpatient therapy into a few days or weeks. We support families to provide effective support for a young person’s recovery, guiding a process of transformation and growth.
If you’re interested in our programs, get in touch today. We’re here to support you.
