The paradox of endless options and unrealistic expectations: understanding the impact on youth mental health

ABSTRACT

There is substantial evidence pointing towards a rise in mental health problems among young people worldwide. A recent survey showed that, compared to older age groups, Faroese young people aged 18–24 struggled the most with symptoms of psychological stress, depression, and loneliness. They also worried more about their economic and housing conditions compared to their older counterparts. The reasons for the higher degree of young people´s mental health challenges, however, remain unclear. The aim of this study was therefore to gain insight into the contributors to young people´s mental health. Six semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with 28 people aged 18–34. Through the thematic analysis, three main themes were identified: 1. Too many options, 2. High expectations and 3. Limiting small-scale living. We interpret these themes as being intricately connected to the recent societal changes, and we address the importance of understanding young people´s mental health considering this context.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth
• mental health
• small-scale societies
• educational pressure
• stress

Introduction

Public awareness of mental health in general has risen markedly in recent years, and young people´s mental health has drawn the attention of the public eye. The growing number of young people suffering from mental problems indicates a problematic course that leads to suffering for the individual and his or her relatives,¹ functional impairment, exposure to stigma and discrimination, and enhanced risk of premature death (Patel et al., 2007; WHO, 2021). Research in young people´s mental health provides us a gloomy look into the future. In their review of 14 community epidemiological studies of young people aged 12–24, Patel et al. (2007) found prevalence rates of mental disorders ranging from 8% to 57%, meaning that at least one out of every four to five young people in the general population will suffer from at least one mental disorder in any given year (Patel et al., 2007). The World Health Organization (WHO) points to depression as a leading cause of disability, and to suicide as the fourth leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds worldwide (WHO, 2021). The tendency of deteriorating mental health status among youths implies to be a global phenomenon and is also apparent in the Nordic countries (Birkjær, 2019; The National Board of Social Services in Denmark, 2022; Reneflot & Evensen, 2014). Indeed, in Norway, a 40% increase in the number of young people seeking help for mental problems has been shown (Reneflot, 2018). Also, in Denmark, mental well-being for all age groups has displayed an impairment since 2010, especially for young people aged 16–24 (Jensen et al., 2022), and in Finland, a third of all deaths among young people aged 15–24 is caused by suicide (Wrede Jantti, 2017). Moreover, gender differences appear to be related to depressive symptoms: In Iceland, 9% of women aged 15–23 years reported feeling depressed compared to 3% of age-matched males. Compared to other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), Iceland had the highest number of young women feeling depressed (Birkjær, 2019). Results from one of the few studies on young people´s mental health in the Faroe Islands revealed the same tendencies: Compared to other age groups, young people aged 18–24 years struggled the most with symptoms of stress, depression, and loneliness. In addition, they were also more worried about their economic and housing conditions than the older age groups (The Faroese Board of Public Health, 2022).

The factors associated with increased mental health problems among young people remain unclear, and ways of understanding them are versatile. From an aetiological view, mental health problems are highly complex and multifaceted and can be induced by biological, psychological, and social risk factors such as genetics, personality traits, adverse experiences in childhood, poverty, parental mental disorder, bullying and discrimination, marginalization, or other negative life events (Jensen et al., 2022; Patel et al., 2007; Spinhoven et al., 2011; Vervoort et al., 2022; WHO, 2021). The reciprocal interaction between risk factors and protective factors can be difficult to entangle, which makes it difficult to state clearly what causes mental problems per se. Along with individual factors and life circumstances, societal change and governmental practices may play a key role in understanding the emerging mental health problems for especially young people. Some authors also see the focus on individual opportunism (Kelly, 2007; Lemke, 2001; Pykett, 2016) and social acceleration (Rosa, 2003) as sources of psychological strain being put on people, which contributes to the acceleration of mental health problems. Since young people are seen as entrepreneurs in their own lives, they become responsible for social risks such as illness, poverty, and mental health problems (Kelly, 2007; Lemke, 2001; Macan Ghaill, 2019; Madsen, 2018). Thus, some young people may be vulnerable to a new and more complex position of marginalization, which, according to Görlich et al. (2019) occurs when the individual is exposed to significant pressure in several life arenas simultaneously. They see new marginalization as a complex cultural and social phenomenon that manifests in young people experiencing pressure, elevated expectations, and high demands to perform and achieve, which can manifest as symptoms of psychological stress, depression, and anxiety (Görlich et al., 2019; Katznelson et al., 2021, 2022).

The Faroe Islands consist of 18 small islands, situated in the North Atlantic between Great Britain, Iceland, and Norway. With a population of around 54,000 inhabitants, living in small villages and towns spread over the islands, the Faroes are characterized as a small-scale society. Life in small-scale societies is characterized by multiple close relations between inhabitants, a high degree of intimacy, and numerous overlapping connections and networks (Hayfield, 2022). In small communities such as the Faroes, with a high level of mutual acquaintances and a lack of anonymity, it is a challenge to be private (Hayfield, 2022; Pugh, 2007). If you for instance are a young person struggling with mental health problems, public knowledge about your problems can increase the risk of stigmatization (Pachankis, 2007).

Faroese children begin elementary school at the age of 7; the initial 9 years are compulsory and year 10 is voluntary. Most students proceed to high school which qualifies them for higher education and university admittance, or to vocational education and training (Volckmar, 2019). The Faroese school system resembles the Danish system, e.g. with regular national tests and a 7-point grading scale in tests and examinations (Ministry of Children and Youth, 2022). Because of the limited available university educations in the Faroes, it has for several decades been common for Faroese high school graduates to study at foreign universities, primarily in Denmark (Studni, 2022). The University of the Faroes has; however, recently established several bachelor’s and master’s degrees, making it possible for young people to study in the Faroes (University of the Faroe Islands, 2022). Compared to university students elsewhere, university students studying in the Faroes are typically older and have other obligations such as small children, mortgage loans, etc. Compared to Danish students, Faroese students have lower financial support, and poorer access to student housing, meaning that most students must work next to their studies.

Research in mental health among Faroese youth is sparse and attempts to understand the causes of young people´s mental health problems are equally sparse. Focusing on young people´s mental health is crucial since a large part of mental health problems have their onset in adolescence (Kessler et al., 2007), and the way we understand mental health problems can guide us in addressing them. Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the conditions in young people´s lives that may contribute to their mental health.

This article is based on results from a qualitative study with focus groups with young people aged 18–34. The reason for initiating the current qualitative study is linked to the results from the Public Health Survey Faroes 2019 (PHSF19), which is a national study of the health and well-being of the general population, repeated every fourth year in the Faroes (Honnudottir et al., 2022). The results from the 2019 survey showed that young people aged 18–24 years struggled the most with symptoms of stress, depression, and loneliness. Respondents aged 25–34 also struggled with the same mental health symptoms. In addition, both age groups were more worried about their economic and housing conditions than the older age groups (The Faroese Board of Public Health, 2022) (see Appendix Table A1 and A2).

Materials and methods

We used focus groups with young Faroese people aged 18–34 years to obtain knowledge about their experiences with mental health themselves and among their peers. The advantage of focus groups compared to individual interviews was, e.g. that the group interaction could create knowledge about agreements, disagreements, and interpretations of mental health among Faroese youth (Halkier, 2018), and get different understandings on the topic (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009), which an individual interview could not give us.

Focus groups organization

Results from the PHSF19 aided the organization of the focus group interviews in this study, both in terms of recruiting participants and the interview guide. Because the results showed that the age groups 18–24 and 25–34 struggle the most with mental health problems, we found it important to have both age groups represented in the interviews. The findings from the PHSF19 also revealed that students reported struggling the most with mental health problems. Therefore, two focus groups of students in the Faroes and Denmark were included. As part of the focus groups, we presented results from PHSF19 to see if the participants could recognize the results among themselves and their peers.

Data collection

We conducted the semi-structured focus groups (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) from April to July 2021. Because the study was made in the Faroe Islands, which is a small-scale society characterized by high mutual acquaintances, ‘Snowball sampling’ (Halkier, 2018) was used to recruit participants. To ensure geographical diversity, we contacted 6 professionals in the outermost parts of the researchers’ network in various parts of the country, and they recruited participants for the groups in their area. This could to some extent ensure the researchers were not too closely linked to the participants and ensure a diversity of the groups. All interviews took 80–90 minutes, were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. All participants were anonymized, given pseudonyms, and local places and names were anonymized. All interviews were conducted in neutral places, such as offices. The first and last authors facilitated all interviews but one, which the first author facilitated alone.

Interview guide

We used a semi-structured interview guide that comprised three parts. The first part addressed mental well-being in general with questions such as: ‘What affects your mental health?’. In the second part, the researchers presented the mental health results from the PHSF19 (see Appendix Tables A1 and A2) and asked the participants to reflect upon the result, e.g. by asking if something took them by surprise. In the third part of the interview, participants could produce suggestions to promote mental health among young Faroese people.

Analysis

The scientific theory of our study was phenomenological, meaning that we sought to understand mental health and the reasons for mental health problems among young people through their understanding and experiences (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The transcribed texts were analysed using inductive semantic thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021). We were interested in analysing the young people´s experiences inductively without imposing any theoretical lens on the data. In the thematic analysis, we sought to follow an analytic progression from a description of patterns to an interpretation of patterns. The interpretation was an attempt to theorize the significance, broader meaning, and implications of these findings towards previous literature (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Through the thematic analysis of the data, the six phases of analysis were used in a recursive process: 1. Familiarizing with the data, 2. Generating initial codes, 3. Searching for themes, 4. Reviewing themes, 5. Defining and naming themes, 6) producing the scientific article (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The first and last author coded the interviews separately first, and then jointly searched for, reviewed, defined, and named the themes.

Ethical considerations

All participants volunteered for the interviews. No official ethical approval was required according to the Faroese Ethical Board. The participants were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any time. All participants were guaranteed anonymity and were encouraged to respect group confidentiality.

Findings

We conducted six focus group interviews with 28 Faroese young individuals – 15 women and 13 men (see Table 1). The participants represented a broad range of young people. Eighteen participants were aged 19–24 and 10 participants were aged 25–34. To the extent possible, the participants represented different gender, parental statuses, geographic areas, ages, and educational levels. We also included Faroese full-time students abroad in this study because a large part of Faroese people aged 19–34 study abroad (Studni, 2022). Focus groups with young people who study in both Denmark and Faroes could display some differences and similarities in terms of experiences, challenges, being a student, and living in each country with different cultures and possibilities.

Table 1. Focus group participants.

Focus group	Description	Number and age of participants	Facilitator/s
1	A group of Faroese university students from different educations and two different faculties.	Seven students, three women and four men, aged 22–29.	First and last author
2	A group of Faroese university students studying in various locations in Denmark.	Four students, three women and one man, aged 23–26.	First author
3	Families with children, where the mother is on parental leave.	Five parents with 1–3 children. Two women with their partners (who are men) and one woman without her partner. Aged 23–33.	First and last author
4	A group of young people from the capital in the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn.	Four young people, three men and one woman, all aged 20.	First and last author
5	A group of young people from a smaller city outside the capital.	Five young people, two men and three women aged 19–23.	First and last author
6	A group of young people from a larger city outside of the capital.	Three people, two women and one man, aged 30–34.	First and last author

Through the thematic analysis, we identified three main themes in relation to young people’s perception of conditions with an impact on young people’s mental health: 1. Too many options, 2. High expectations and 3. Limiting small-scale living.

Too many options: ‘Am I enjoying my youth enough, or should I hurry up more?

All focus groups address the wide range of life choices as a driving factor that affects their mental health. They appreciate the many possibilities because they enable them to make their own decisions, instead of being directed by other factors such as family history and societal norms. The endless possibilities, however, also put a certain pressure on the participants, not only in making the right choice but also at the right time.

To participants from every focus group except the group of 25–34-year-olds, this pressure produces a feeling of being in a hurry that can be frustrating and stressful. Lily, a 23-year-old student in Denmark, puts it this way:

We are always at a sort of a crossroad, or we always have choices to make(…) What should I study? Or oh, I´m getting older, when should I have children? Or a partner? (…) Am I too slow, or am I too fast? Am I enjoying my youth enough, or should I hurry up more?

There are different aspects of the challenges of having a wide range of choices. The young people experience that at an early age, they must make decisions that affect their lives many years ahead, and they experience it as both difficult, stressful, and scary. To Lily, it is not only the number but also the nature of the decisions, which frustrates her because they are life choices that are defining for her future.

Barbara, a 23-year-old student in Denmark, describes the process of deciding what to study like this:

There were so many options, and I had to choose, and it felt like I had to choose my entire future, and I could choose everything. And it just made it worse. If someone told me ‘Ok, you can … I don´t know … work with sheep or you can do this,’ I had two options, and that would be it.

Barbara longs for a simpler choice between A and B because it to her seems less stressful to navigate in. Barbara finds these decisions difficult, and she feels like she is opting out of everything else if she chooses one study over another. To Lena, a 20-year-old unskilled worker who graduated from high school last year, making the wrong choice equals failing, and that makes her choices important to her:

I think it is a really good thing to have many possibilities. But it is also very stressful to have so many possibilities. (…) And just like, don’t choose wrong, and don’t (…) like fail or something like that. I think, I feel, I am a bit pressured by, like, making the wrong decision.

The risk of failing puts Lena under intense pressure, and this perspective is shared by several of the other participants in the interviews. The wide range of life choices is positive only to a limited extent. To Lily, Barbara, and Lena, it seems impossible to be undecided or to, e.g. try one study or job and see how it goes. The feeling of constantly being in a hurry, the ambitions to succeed, and making the ‘right’ life choices cast a shadow on the possibility of being in doubt, trying, or being undecided, which contributes to feeling under pressure and stressed. Jessica, a 24-year-old woman who recently graduated from a Danish university, introduces a different path when she reflects upon her own way through the educational system. She feels she finished her university degree too young:

… you have to hurry to it [get an education], instead of you yes, I don’t know, go out on the labour market, work for some years, or just for some months, and then find out what you definitely not want to do or what you want to do, instead of you having to hurry.

Jessica questions the norm about hurrying to get a higher education and thinks waiting a little longer and getting some life experiences could have been positive for her. Following the norm and graduating at an early age makes her feel insecure and not mature enough to enter the labour market. Questioning the norms that young people experience today was a topic in every interview. Lena is critical towards the way society seems to conceptualize ‘the good life’:

It´s like life is a task that you have to complete, and then you retire, and then it´s over. Then you can relax (…) But it´s not necessarily like that.

Lena and Jessica´s statements indicate that they do not recognize themselves in the norm that society creates in terms of being in a hurry with a feeling of living life like it is a task to complete because they know there are other possibilities for a good life. However they are influenced by the norm, and following another path does not seem simple. The pressure to choose a higher education affects the young people already when they are in elementary and high school. Peter, a 20-year-old high school graduate, living in a small town, puts it this way:

On the other hand, if you don’t know what you are going to do, then you don’t know which grades you need, so you have to aim at 12 [the highest grade possible], so you don’t exclude yourself from any possibilities later in life.

Peter addresses the importance of getting the highest average grade that keeps all educational possibilities open, in line with Barbara, who found it difficult to choose one study over another, because that would mean that she opted out of the potential ‘right choice’. Getting the highest average grade, however, is not possible for all students. There thus seems to be a dilemma in the participants’ experience of too many options, and the risk and fear of limiting themselves from possibilities later in life, if they for instance do not try to achieve the best grades in school. Six of the Faroese students see the academisation in the educational system as part of the pressure, that some young people experience. Amanda, a 24-year-old studying mother of one, says:

For example, the education to be a teacher, educator, or nurse. These are practical educations that society somehow tries to academize, and with it more and more people fall behind.

Amanda believes that those students, who do not want to take an academic education, feel pressured to do so because society values academic education more than practical education. Simultaneously, practical educations tend to be increasingly academicized and thus more demanding to complete. According to Amanda, some of the students, who – if they followed their personal motivation or ambitions – would take a practical education, struggle to finish an academic education, because they feel obliged to do so.

It is evident that the young people in the focus groups appreciate their many options, but there is also a downside of having too many options because it complicates the process of deciding or choosing something over something else. Most of them have a feeling that they should hurry through life and feel a pressure to excell academically and personally, which leaves little room for being in doubt or experimenting with different options.

High expectations: ’You must have a real job, you must have a family, and you must have a tidy home’

Intricately linked to options are high expectations, which also was a prevalent theme in the focus groups. The expectations are coming from society, family, social media, or from the young people themselves but most of them highlight expectations from several arenas simultaneously. Sarah, a 34-year-old nurse, and mother of two, talks about the pressure coming from society:

I think that today´s society has tough demands [on young people], and that affects, can affect, mentally. Quite a lot. (…) You must have a real job, and you must have a family, and you must have a tidy home.

According to Sarah, expectations to work and family achievements, materialistic achievements, and appearance, make it difficult for young people to be content with their own lives. Sarah also talks about expectations, which originate from herself, and refers to a high personal standard that can be difficult for her to live up to. The expectations are both external and internal and can affect the participants’ mental health because they put them under excessive pressure. Ruth, a 30-year-old mother of one with a higher education, talks about the negative effect the expectations can have on your mental health, even though you have good grades, and all possibilities are open to you:

‘I think some people are easily affected by it [the pressure], yes. (…) I also think that if you get good grades, then you feel that ’I have to study medicine‘ (…) instead of thinking ‘what do I really want to study?’. (…) I think it can have a negative effect, that you actually compromise with what you really want.

Although young people do live up to the expectations of getting good grades in high school, they only meet new expectations. Others expect them to use their high grades for the ‘right’ education and it seems unacceptable to let their interest, and not their grades, determine the decision. It seems that following their own interests, and not the expectations, brings about more insecurity and self-doubt than doing what is expected of you.

The sources of expectations are several, and for some young people, the expectations are related to a comparison to others. Especially the youngest participants aged 19–24 (with and without children) emphasize social media as a substantial source of expectations. It is predominantly women from the capital and those studying abroad, who highlight the negative effects of social media. According to Barbara, there is a much bigger pressure on young people today, and social media is playing a key role in creating and maintaining expectations that put them under pressure:

‘Everything is broadcasted on the Internet, everything good and stuff. And also just yes, grades and who has the most fun, and who does what and stuff. (…) You can compare yourself to everybody and everything.

Barbara talks about how she not only fights her own expectations, but social media introduces easy access to the standards and expectations of others, so she´s fighting those as well. Lena thinks social media has a negative impact on especially young women, and that the impact can be difficult to notice because social media has been imbedded in their life from an early age:

So you just grew up with everything having to be, everything just has to look perfect on the outside. I think many girls have problems following girls [on social media], who just look perfect and maybe with a certain body shape and a certain lifestyle… And then you assume, that it is the ideal you should fit into, even though you might not at all be able to fit into that ideal.

According to our interviews, there seems to be a pressure caused by expectations in more arenas than before, and social media is a new one that has consequences for young people´s mental health. Especially the women emphasize the negative effects of social media, in terms of unrealistic ideals and expectations that can be difficult or impossible to live up to. They also address a tendency for the young women to internalize the effects, causing self-doubt, a feeling of individual failure, and of not being good enough. The young people living in Denmark and in the greater cities in the Faroes seem to be more negatively affected by social media than the young people from a smaller part of the Faroes. Peter thinks that social media has less impact on the young people there because they to a lesser extent are exposed to social media´s idea of ‘the good life’:

…because we are fewer people, then there are fewer pictures posted, that show how good life is here. Then you can maintain a normal everyday life to a greater extent instead of trying to strain yourself to appear better than others.

All three young women from the same small town highlight that they not only have a less strained relationship to social media but also experience fewer expectations to their own and their peers’ appearance in their high school compared to the high school in the capital, which indicates there are several factors involved. Although the young women in our study know the posts on Instagram only show the great moments of life, and they know everything is ‘polished’ as some of them refer to it, it seems easy to compare yourself to others on social media. Barbara thinks your state of mind can affect how receptive you are:

…If you have a bad day, then it is like you suddenly can’t really see it anyway [how polished it is].

Some of the young people believe that society has changed a lot during the last years, with many expectations from different arenas that are straining young people today. Levi, a 22-year-old university student in the Faroes, puts it like this:

You can also say that in general, it is very different today compared to generations before us. Social media (…) and many expectations to high school … This social pressure, that appears, and that has not been there before in the same way. It is exhausting today.

Overall, the young people in our study address multiple sources of expectations coming from the young people themselves, from parents and other family members, peers, from society and, to a large part, from social media, because it allows easy access to especially others´ accomplishments. These standards of achievement can be difficult to live up to and co-create the pressure that some young people experience. There seems to be a tendency that young people in the smaller towns are less exposed to the pressure caused by social media.

Limiting small-scale living: ‘There are very few things going on here’

All the participants in this study were living or had lived in the capital or small towns across the Faroes with 1,000–22,000 inhabitants, and our findings also illustrated how living in small and close communities can affect young people´s mental health. The young people living on remote islands not only experience the endless opportunities and expectations from others to, e.g. get an academic education. They also feel that their choice of education depends on whether they intend to move back to their hometown after graduation, which most of them do. Maria, a 19-year-old high school graduate, living on a remote island, puts it this way:

For example, yes, I once considered being [a specific profession] but then I just thought that I can never use it here because there already are two and it would never work with three. So, then I just thought that I can never move back to my hometown if that was my plan. So, you have to think about that too.

The young people living outside the capital and in the smaller parts of the Faroes thus experience a different educational pressure, because they at an early age not only have to decide, if they want to move back to the Faroes (if they study abroad) but also whether they intend to move back to their hometown. In the case of the latter, their choice of education depends on the job opportunities on their islands. They thus find themselves having the same wide array of options, but their choice of career is defined by opportunities in their hometown that they cannot influence. This creates a different pressure, which might make them more vulnerable than the young participants living in the capital or in Denmark because the ‘wrong’ choice of education might limit their opportunities to move back home.

As one factor affecting the mental health of young people in the smaller cities, the young people address the lack of possibilities for social or leisure activity. Martin, a 30-year-old man with a higher education living in a smaller city, relates the lack of leisure activities to loneliness. There are few people Martin´s age, who, like himself, do not have children and there are only a few activities for people his age who do not fit in the already established communities such as football or congregation:

… if you don´t have a family or this with going to congregation. If you aren’t in those groups which are, then it is…then it can become lonely.

Because most people their age have family and other close relations living nearby, it is easy for those that do not have the same social support, to fall in between. This is a greater challenge outside the capital because there are fewer social groups to be part of. Kyree, a 20-year-old high school graduate, living in the capital, thinks it can be difficult to find people, who are like you when you live in a small society, and it is difficult when you do not fit into the norm. Martin emphasizes the importance of having something to go to:

For those of us, who do not have a family at least, then it would mean a lot to have several things to go to (…) Because there are very few things going on here.

The importance of having a community or a social group is addressed in five out of six focus groups, and the limited possibilities for leisure activities and places to hang out with peers are especially emphasized by the participants living outside the capital. The lack of activities and social groups is experienced as a threat to young people´s mental health and as a risk factor for loneliness. Throughout all interviews, the topic of finances and housing is highlighted as another important factor that affects young people´s mental health. The young people find the housing possibilities across the whole country very limited and student housing almost does not exist. These challenges affect some of the participants, who study abroad to such an extent, that they only consider moving back to the Faroes. Faroese university students are older than in other countries, which means that several students have a family to take care of, a house, and bills to pay when they study. Emma, a 25-year-old university student in the Faroes mentions good social support as critical for students to make ends meet:

I take my hat off to those in my class at least. Because almost all of them are mothers, and I only have myself to take care of, I can barely get the ends to meet. (…) So I think, the Faroes, maybe good social support is the reason why most manage (…) what do the ones do, who might not have good social support?

In summary, there are certain stressors specifically related to living in a small-scale society. Together with expensive living conditions and inadequate housing possibilities, limited leisure activities and lack of prospects for academic employment are some of the stressors that affect these young people´s mental health negatively.

Discussion

Building on results from the PHSF19 (The Faroese Board of Public Health, 2022), in which young adults in the Faroes, compared to older age groups, reported worse mental well-being, this study aimed to gain a better in-depth understanding of the results from the young people themselves. In our analysis of data from 6 semi-structured focus groups with 28 young people, we found three main themes affecting these young people´s mental health: 1. Too many options, 2. High expectations, and 3. Limiting small-scale living. These three themes are therefore likely to be paramount for mental health and well-being in young adults in the Faroes.

Compared to earlier generations, most young people today have a wide array of options, especially when it comes to educational choices or decisions. This is mostly considered to be positive because young people can choose based on their individual motivation, which is a crucial factor for academic achievement (Amrai et al., 2011; Goodman et al., 2011). To the young people in our study, however, the multiple options also posed a significant threat to their mental health status, because they brought with them stress and self-doubt, a loss of control or influence, and a fear of failing, not only in the educational system but in life. The feeling of psychological stress and fear of failing seems to be internalized by the young people, which corresponds with research that underlines the tendency to individualize mental health problems (Kelly, 2007; Lemke, 2001; Macan Ghaill, 2019; Madsen, 2018). Other authors have addressed, how recent societal development has increased the pace and complexity in life in general, and for young people in particular (Katznelson et al., 2021; Krogh & Madsen, 2023; Rosa, 2003), introducing a new form of marginalization that occurs across social layers and backgrounds (Katznelson et al., 2021, 2022). The new form of marginalization is a complex cultural and social phenomenon that increasingly produces demands and expectations to individual performance across life arenas, which unintentionally increases the focus and pressure on the individual young person (Katznelson et al., 2022).

Almost every participant in our focus groups experienced educational choices to have a negative impact on their mental health because the expectations created an educational pressure that they did not consider favourable. The Nordic education model has evolved over the past few decades making the education system more individualized and with an increased focus on pace, time, and skills (Carlgren et al., 2006; Katznelson et al., 2022; Volckmar, 2019), which has also been based on a political will to make the educational system accessible to all young people (Görlich & Katznelson, 2013; Ministry of Children and Youth, 2022; Skaale & Davidsen, 2017). Although these changes undoubtedly have been helpful to students, that otherwise did not enter the educational system, the backside of the changes seems to manifest in young people when they experience high pressure to perform, which in turn can contribute to deteriorating mental health.

The young people in our study also enhanced social media as a particular contributor to the expectations of pursuing ‘the good and polished life,’ which can be difficult to live up to and has a negative effect on especially young women’s mental health. The effects of comparison to others, which the use of social media creates, is in accordance with earlier studies showing that students using social media think that others are happier and have better lives and that they tend to envy others (Chou & Edge, 2012; Krasnova et al., 2015).

Living in a small-scale society also has some effects on young people´s mental health, positively and negatively. The positive effects seem to be a higher occurrence of social support. Living in more remote areas also seems to protect some young people from constant exposure to social media, because there are fewer people in their social network. The protective effect, expressed as a more relaxed approach to appearance and achievements in our study, has been addressed in previous research that associated urbanicity with poorer mental health (Berry, 2007; Marchionatti et al., 2022). The negative effect of small-scale living is connected to the limited possibilities to engage in meaningful communities, which has been found to strengthen the individual´s mental health (Donovan & Anwar McHenry, 2016; Santini, Jose, Cornwell, et al., 2020; Santini, Jose, Koyanagi, et al., 2020). The participants living in small towns or islands experience an extra layer of strain when it comes to their choice of education because their choice depends on the prospects for employment on their island. This finding is supported by a new Faroese study which points out that, especially for young people, small islands are often places where people out-migrate, but feelings of place-belonging is a strong factor for settlement despite the absence of job opportunities (Hayfield & Pristed Nielsen, 2022). The gap between place-belonging and prospects for employment creates a pressure that is more noticeable among islanders in this study. The young people living in the capital or in Denmark place a greater emphasis on the high expectations and the polished reality that social media can create. However, whether the participants lived in a town, in the capital, or in Denmark was not of importance when it came to the many options and elevated educational expectations, because all participants pointed out these as some of the main causes for the emerging mental health problems among youth.

Adequate housing is a global problem, leaving young people at a risk for social marginalization (Clapham et al., 2014; Mackie, 2016; Mental Health Europe, 2022), and the rising inflation, energy prices and cost of living affect in particular young people without a stable income (Bobeica et al., 2017; Roy-Mukherjee et al., 2022). In this study, the poor housing conditions, and inflated costs of living makes it difficult to be a student in the Faroes, especially if you have a family to take care of, and if you do not have strong social support. The same factors made some of the Faroese students in Denmark doubt if they wanted to move back, which means that well-educated Faroese youth might choose to permanently out-migrate which can be problematic for the future demographical distribution.

As before mentioned, this study was initiated because results from the PHSF19 left us with questions as to why young people report poor mental health in a time and place where the prerequisite for a happy and fulfilling life historically never has been better, and how we can understand the global trend of young people suffering. The strength of the qualitative approach in this study lies in the pointers that the young people give us, which the quantitative study in its nature cannot give us. However, most of the research on young people´s mental health is based on large surveys and quantitative trends. Some of the limitations of this study are connected to the way of recruiting participants for the study. Snowball sampling made it impossible to determine sampling error and possibly made our sample homogenous, thereby limiting the transferability of the results (Halkier, 2018; Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015; Shenton, 2004). Furthermore, the young people in our study were mostly people with higher education or with ambitions to complete a higher education, which also limits the transferability of our findings because they represent a certain social category. Research has found that achievement demands, which was a central topic in our findings, vary among class, gender, and other social categories (Krogh & Madsen, 2023). Beyond the psychological pressure created by the abundance of opportunities and expectations difficult to realize, our findings point to a multiple-layered strain unique to young people living in small-scale societies. Further studies could explore the nature of this strain on young people from other social categories.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the young people in our focus groups, who shared valuable information and insights about young people´s mental health and the people who helped us recruit participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data from the Public Health Survey Faroes 2019 are the property of the Faroese Board of Public Health. Access to data from the Public Health Survey 2019 can be granted by the Faroese Board of Public Health (now called ‘Faroese Health Authority’), please contact Vár Honnudóttir: [email protected].

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2023.2242475.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Faroese Board of Public Health.

Notes on contributors

Monika Mohr

Monika Mohr, Master of Arts in psychology and health promotion and health strategies. Head of Section at the Faroese Health Authority and project manager for a mental health promotion project called ABC’s of mental health in the Faroe Islands (also called “Act Belong Commit”). Research interests: Mental health, mental health promotion and mental health challenges.

Vár Honnudóttir

Vár Honnudóttir, Master of Science (MSc) in Public Health. An academic researcher at the Faroese Health Authority and responsible for the Public Health Survey Faroes. Research interests: Public health, social inequality in health, health promotion, and disease prevention.

Magni Mohr

Magni Mohr, PhD, Dean, Professor in Exercise Physiology, Pro-rector of Research and Enterprise, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of the Faroe Islands. Professor at the University of Southern Denmark. Research interests: Skeletal muscle fatigue during high-intensity intermittent exercise using manipulations such as fitness training, drug and nutritional supplementation, exercise intensity, exercise mode, exercise duration, recovery, heat stress, hypoxia etc. Exercise as prevention and treatment of lifestyle diseases - Exercise as Medicine concept. Physical activity and public health.

Annika Helgadóttir Davidsen

Annika Helgadóttir Davidsen, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of the Faroe Islands. She has a PhD in psychology and has clinical and research experience with young people´s mental health and well-being. Other research interests are psychotherapy and psychosocial working environment.

Notes

1. In January 2023, the Faroese Board of Public Health was incorporated into a newly established entity: ‘the Faroese Health Authority’, under the Ministry of Health.