Being Not Doing: The Church, Young People, and Mental Health

FREE resource download

In this paper, we discuss how children’s Christian ministry leaders can respond to the mental health challenges young people in Generation Z and Generation Alpha currently face. We establish what we believe are some of the biggest causes for concern in young people’s lives today, namely self-harm, anxiety and depression. We demonstrate how current social and political climates are contributing to young people’s mental health problems, particularly:

• social media’s contributions to body dissatisfaction and self-harm;

• the changing rates of anxiety in young people as a reflection of the current pressure on academic achievement;

• young people’s decline in mental health since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic;

• the rise of depression among Generation Z and Generation Alpha due to worries about climate change and political upheaval.

Fill in your details to get your FREE download today.