Measuring Teen Mental Health Across 12 Nations - a Mind the Kids podcast

In this episode of Mind the Kids, Clara Faria is joined by Dr. Ariadna Albajara-Saenz and Dr. Amirah Wahdi to discuss adolescent mental health in low- and middle-income countries, drawing on findings from a major cross-country study published in JCPP Advances.

The conversation explores mental health measurement across 12 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa and Southeast Asia, the challenges of comparing data across cultures, and why issues such as food insecurity, gender, and service access matter for global child and adolescent mental health research.

Together, they examine the importance of culturally sensitive mental health measures, the complexities of conducting large-scale international surveys, and what future research should prioritise to improve understanding and support for young people worldwide.

Read the paper ‘Mental health measures among adolescents in 12 low- and middle-income countries: Measurement invariance and cross-sectional analyses of Disrupting Harm survey data’ - https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.70087 Ariadna Albajara Sáenz, Sebastian Kurten, Jennifer Saxton, Daniel Kardefelt-Winther, Tamsin Ford, Amy Orben, Simon R. White First published: 04 December 2025

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