“Everybody’s Mind is Different. Like, It’s Not Gonna Work the Same”: An Exploratory Study of Youth Perspectives on Mental Health

Youths’ perspectives, unique from adults, are shaped by their developmental experiences. This study contextualizes the meaning of mental health and being mentally healthy from adolescent perspectives. Four focus groups of students in grades 9 to 12 ( N = 27) were recruited from a school in an urban city. Participants were mainly female ( n = 22) and majority students of color (e.g., Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx; n = 21). Researchers interpreted the data through a pragmatic lens. Three main themes emerged: Describing Mental Health, Defining Mentally Healthy, and Integrating the Role of Social Environments. Two subthemes were also identified. The study highlights the significance of including youth contributions in defining terms such as mental health and being mentally healthy and underscores the importance of the environmental context to youth’s conceptualization of mental health, with a focus on resiliency-building factors. Findings have applicability for incorporating youth voice in interventions designed to improve youth mental health and foster positive youth development.