Large scale societal crises, e.g. recessions, pandemics, can have long-lasting effects on health and wellbeing. This is particularly the case when experienced at important times in life, such as in adolescence. Adolescence (age 10-25) is a time when young people experience many changes in terms of biological, social and cognitive development. It is also a time when many important transitions are made. For instance, leaving the family home, leaving school and entering further or higher education and work, and forming partnerships and families. Therefore, experiencing societal crises during this life stage may be particularly challenging and disruptive.

This project will look at the impact that societal crises have on the lives of adolescents across Europe. We will use comparable longitudinal datasets to examine the impacts that the Post-Communist Transformation had on families in Eastern Europe, the impact of the Covid pandemic on adolescent transitions, and the effect of the Great Recession in 2008.

This work forms part of a large, cross-European project for which we are currently seeking funding. The project uses large longitudinal datasets from multiple countries. ALSPAC provides an important comparator cohort to the Czech ELSPAC study. The Czech cohort were born during the time of great upheaval during the Post-Communist Transformation of the early 1990s. At this time there was growing socioeconomic inequality. In contrast, the ALSPAC cohort were born into a society with wide, persistent socioeconomic inequality. By directly comparing these two cohorts we will be able to look at the consequences of the Post-Communist Transformation and more broadly, family socioeconomic inequalities, for family mental health, particularly the mental health and wellbeing of adolescents.