Eduard Vieta
Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Barcelona, Head of the Psychiatry and Psychology Department at Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, and researcher at the Biomedical Research Centre in Mental Health (CIBERSAM)
The article focuses on an extremely important topic, namely emotional distress, community mental health, and perceptions of unhappiness. The study has a sound scientific basis, although it is based on reported information and is therefore necessarily subjective. In this sense, it is more about perceived mental health than actual mental health, and also about an assessment of social well-being and happiness, or rather their antonyms, social distress and unhappiness.
The results are novel and have implications for perceptions of life and life satisfaction, especially among young people. The authors propose a number of factors that could explain young people's emotional distress, some of which I agree with, such as limited economic power and access to housing, and especially the impact of social media via smartphones, which globalise distress and radicalise social perceptions.
However, I believe that the contrast between expectations and reality should also be mentioned in a more general way. The younger generations in most of the countries included in the study have received a very overprotective education and have developed a low tolerance for frustration. I believe that this aspect is also relevant in explaining their emotional distress.