Adolescence in crisis: Insights from the 2024 ESPAD report and a nursing perspective

TL;DR

Adolescents worldwide are struggling with mental health issues, and this paper proposes a human-centered, preventive approach led by nurses to address the crisis.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel, globally applicable model for adolescent well-being that integrates nursing science, education, and public health.

Findings

Adolescent well-being is declining globally, with rising anxiety, self-harm, and substance use.

Current mental health responses are insufficient, emphasizing the need for preventive, person-centered care.

Nursing offers a pathway to a new preventive paradigm through empathy and community engagement.

Abstract

Around the world, adolescents are facing unprecedented levels of psychological distress, loneliness, and digital saturation. Data from the ESPAD 2024 survey, WHO’s Global Health Estimates, and UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children reveal a consistent decline in subjective well-being and a surge in anxiety, self-harm, and substance use. Despite an explosion of mental-health advocacy, the everyday environments where adolescents live and learn remain poorly equipped to foster resilience and belonging. This paradox—rising awareness but weakening support—marks a critical failure of preventive healthcare systems. By linking the 2024 ESPAD evidence with nursing science and educational reform, this perspective offers a methodologically rigorous and globally transferable model to address the adolescent well-being crisis through preventive, person-centered care.This perspective argues that the adolescent well-being crisis is not primarily a psychiatric phenomenon but a social and educational one. The dominance of therapeutic and pharmacological responses has obscured the preventive and relational dimensions of care. Nursing, with its foundations in empathy, communication, and community engagement, offers a pathway toward a new preventive paradigm—one that unites evidence and humanity. Drawing on nursing taxonomies (NANDA-I, NIC, and NOC) and contemporary pedagogical frameworks, this article reframes prevention as an educational and ethical responsibility that extends beyond clinical boundaries.By integrating insights from epidemiology, pedagogy, and nursing science, the article calls for a human-centered transformation of adolescent health policy and professional education. Empowering nurses to lead preventive action can bridge the gap between public-health data and lived experience, restoring emotional literacy, connection, and purpose among young people. The next revolution in adolescent mental health will not be purely technological or therapeutic—it will be profoundly human.

Health sciences; Medicine; Medical science; Public health; Patient social context

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