Psychological and biological factors affecting mental health

Throughout our lives many different determinants influence our mental health, whether it is to protect or undermine it. Individual psychological and biological factors can make people more vulnerable to mental health problems. Likewise, exposure to unfavourable social, economic and environmental circumstances increases people’s risk of experiencing mental health conditions. While taking that into account it is worth mentioning that protective factors similarly occur throughout our lives and serve to strengthen resilience. They include individual social and emotional skills and attributes as well as positive social interactions, quality education and decent work, among others (World Health Organization: WHO, 2022a).

Regarding vulnerability and mental health problems, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a global crisis for mental health, where it has been estimated that anxiety and depressive disorders at more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic, all the while mental health services have been severely disrupted. In all countries, mental health conditions are highly prevalent. About one in eight people in the world live with a mental disorder (World Health Organization: WHO, 2022b).

One of the key findings of OECD. (2021) was that young people’s (15-24 year-old) mental health has significantly worsened in 2020-21. As many as 64% of all young people are at risk of depression, and young people are between 30% and 80% more likely to report symptoms of depression or anxiety than adults, while also reporting higher levels of loneliness. In addition, mental health support for young people has been disrupted while closures of educational institutions at all levels have contributed to weakening of protective factors.

COVID-19 world impact to mental health in numbers: