PLOS Mental Health Community Case Studies: The Importance of the Asenze Cohort Study in Supporting Adolescent Mental Health in Under-Resourced Settings
In our final ‘Community Case Studies’ blog of 2024, PLOS Mental Health speaks to Kathryn Grace Watt (University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban) and Dr Laura Rossouw (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) following their recent publication, which focuses on identifying the social determinants that affect adolescents’ mental health in peri-urban South Africa, with the aim to inform the design of interventions in under-resourced settings. We learn more about their efforts and hopes for how this field progresses in the coming years…
Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into this field of research
Our collaboration began in 2023 with an opportunity to write joint papers using data from The Asenze Cohort Study and has flourished in the succeeding year. Laura, a development and health economist, focuses on the demand-side and behavioural factors in health outcomes, particularly maternal and reproductive health, gender economics, and adolescent well-being. Kathryn, with a background in sociology, is interested in child and adolescent well-being and holistic perspectives on human development over the life course.
The depth and breadth of The Asenze Study data have given us a great deal of inspiration. We have several collaborative papers in the pipeline through which we hope to continue exploring the relationship between context and mental health, a field that is relatively new to both of us.
What are the biggest challenges of working in this field?
One of the biggest challenges, especially in lower- and middle-income countries, is getting longitudinal quality data on a national level. Very few data sets allow us to track mental health outcomes over time and draw causal conclusions about what affects these health outcomes. The Asenze Study provides us with an opportunity to explore the interplay of mental health and social determinants, albeit for a small area in South Africa. The study has gathered data from multiple measures on caregiver, child and adolescent mental health across four prior waves, providing an in-depth perspective on mental health trajectories. The fifth wave of Asenze data collection is currently underway. This latest phase investigates the impact of changes in social determinants of health on adolescent and young adult mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What have been the most notable changes in your field in the last 5-10 years?
There has been increased attention to social and environmental factors influencing mental health outcomes. This interest has been brought into sharp relief by the COVID-19 pandemic and is particularly salient in adverse contexts, such as areas affected by poverty, conflict, or natural disasters.
Where do you hope the field goes over the next 10 years?
We hope that an increased understanding of the social determinants of mental health feeds into holistic approaches to intervention that consider the interactions between a person’s environmental inputs, their mental health, and broader human development outcomes. We hope for the integration of these insights into public policy and community-based prevention strategies.
We hope that an increased understanding of the social determinants of mental health feeds into holistic approaches to intervention that consider the interactions between a person’s environmental inputs, their mental health, and broader human development outcomes…
PLOS Mental Health is proud to provide a platform for communities and research efforts such as this. Understanding community-specific and individual needs is crucial for shaping interventions that support our future generations. You can take a look a some of our other papers that tackles similar topics…
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