Depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents worldwide. To address this urgent public health concern, our research project aims to generate high-quality longitudinal evidence on how individual and combined stressors contribute to the onset of depressive symptoms in young people.
This groundbreaking study is being conducted in Pakistan, Indonesia, and Colombia in collaboration with young individuals with lived experience of mental health challenges.
Lead Institute
Global Institute of Human Development, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Pakistan
Partner Institutes
- Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- The George Washington University, USA
- Kings College London, UK-PI of ALIVE Consortium
- Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
- Juan Castellanos- War Child, Bogota, Colombia
- Innovations for Poverty Action, Botoga, Colombia
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK
- UNICEF
Collaborators
- The Global Health Network (TGHN), University of Oxford, UK
- National Ministry of Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Pakistan
- The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia
Lived Experienced Experts
Study Objectives
Examine how primary and secondary stressors interact to influence mental health:
- Poverty (primary stressor)
- Educational expectations
- Childhood adversity, trauma, and exposure to violence
- Investigate the psychosocial and biological pathways contributing to depression.
- Explore the role of immune and inflammatory markers as early indicators of risk for depression
- Adapt and evaluate a risk prediction model to identify young people at higher risk of developing depression.
- Implement and assess an indicated preventive intervention aimed at reducing youth depression in Pakistan
Being Research Excellence Hub
