Pernilla Åsenlöf wants to engage Sweden's young generations in creating a healthier future

“Today there is an often alarmist narrative surrounding young people's mental health, where we almost expect Swedish teenagers to feel bad. Without in any way diminishing the challenges that many young people actually face, we must instead convey faith in the future and trust in one's own capacity to change a life situation,” says Pernilla Åsenlöf, Professor of Physiotherapy at Uppsala University.

On Monday 18 November, Pernilla is one of the seven selected experts participating in the premiere of the Faculty of Pharmacy's new initiative Kunskap För Livet. In a packed University Main Auditorium, she will - together with research colleagues Emma Frans and Christian Benedict, among others – meet 1,550 high school students joining from all over Uppland to get tools to make smarter choices in their everyday lives and set the direction for a healthier lifestyle.

“If we want to create a sustainable future, we must involve the younger generations, and meeting all these students in the Main Auditorium offers a fantastic opportunity to arouse their commitment. But just as relevant is the opportunity for us to listen to the young people's thoughts, and I really hope that we succeed in creating such a good and open dialogue that the meeting will become yet another important step on our joint journey forward.”

A common thread in Pernilla Åsenlöf's research is to establish science among the young population. She is currently leading the national study Young People's Mental Health in Focus, where 9,000 Swedish 15-29-year-olds are invited to – via a specially developed mobile app – answer questions about their lives, how they feel, how they spend their days and how meaningful they find their free time. After only a few weeks, more than 650 young people have logged in and with another 9,000 invitations in the works, the research group aim to soon reach 1,500 registered participants.

“We know that many young people are willing to share how they feel, but also that they prefer to do it on their own home ground. Therefore, we offer a digital solution that we have developed together with a group of young people who provided invaluable input on everything from name and layout to functions. The process was yet another important reminder of the necessity to listen to your target group, and now we have a tool that is received very positively among the users,” states Pernilla Åsenlöf.

The aim of the study is to, over a longer period of time, follow each participant's perceived mood, willingness to take risks, ability to process and act on information as well as a number of other psychological variables. In the long term, the ambition is to identify potential risk groups and to develop interventions that healthcare and other social organisations can use to help young people prevent future ill health.

“We also want to contribute to in-depth knowledge of the complex factors that cause mental illness. But at the same time, the challenges young people face today require instant action. For example, many teenagers express that they want to reduce their screen time, exercise more, manage school stress better and sleep tight at night. In our digital culture, these are not entirely easy steps, and therefore I hope that we in the Main Auditorium can provide the young people with at least some of the tools they need to take their everyday lives in the right direction.”

Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, UPIC a o