This descriptive phenomenological study aimed to evaluate the perception and experiences of adolescents with mental disorders and their parents about the use of and adherence to psychotropic medications. A total of 12 semi-structured interviews with adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 who were attending an outpatient psychiatric clinic for children and adolescents and 12 interviews with parents were conducted between October 2021 and January 2022 in Manisa, Turkey. Colaizzi’s phenomenological interpretation method was used for the analysis of the participants’ statements. Our study highlights the main positive effects of psychotropic medication and barriers to medication intake and adherence. Positive effects included symptom management and health improvement. Barriers varied from those directly linked to medication effects (e.g., negative side effects or lack of perceived effect) to personal barriers (e.g., forgetting to take medication or feelings of not being oneself due to medication intake) and societal barriers. In general, the barriers were reflected in concerns related to long-term consequences, such as medication dependence, and in concerns about diminished life prospects. Possible recommendations to improve the use of and adherence to psychotropic medication among adolescents include educating adolescents and parents not only about treatment options but also about mental disorders.

Objectives: Discrimination poses a threat to the mental health of university students, especially those affected by social inequality, yet understanding its intersectional impact remains limited. This study examines the intersection of social inequalities with perceived discrimination to explore differences in mental health among students in Germany.Methods: Data from the cross-sectional project “Survey on study conditions and mental health of university students” (n = 14,592) were analysed using Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA). Depressive symptoms, cognitive stress symptoms, and exhaustion were examined across 48 intersectional strata based on gender, first academic generation, family care tasks, and perceived discrimination.Results: The MAIHDA analysis revealed substantial between strata variance, with most of it explained by additive rather than intersectional interaction effects. Perceived discrimination, diverse or female gender, first academic generation, and family care tasks (for exhaustion only) were associated with worse mental health outcomes.Conclusion: The profound associations between perceived discrimination and the mental health among university students call for urgent attention and intervention within university settings. Adopting an intersectional lens is key to identifying and addressing inequalities.

University dropout is often preceded by a phase of doubt whether to continue studying, either in general or just the given subject. Mental health problems might be interrelated with this phase of doubt. Counselling services at German universities could provide help, but do not seem to reach students in need. To explore the phase of doubt and possible (inter-)relationships with mental wellbeing among university students in Germany as well as their consultation-seeking behaviour, a qualitative interview study was conducted (2017–2018). Participants were students casting doubts on their studies (n = 14) and counsellors (n = 16) working with this target group. Examples of reasons for doubts were insufficient information, unfulfilled expectations concerning the subject, subjectively poor study conditions, performance problems, and lacking future perspectives. Mental health problems were subjectively intertwined with doubts, considered as both cause and effect. Counselling services were evaluated as hardly helpful by students and as being in need of improvement by counsellors. Suggestions as how to improve such services comprise a more specific and proactive way to approach students. By considering the phase of doubt before dropout, German universities can improve their support services to be more responsive to students and, thus, prevent dropout and mental health problems.

Gender-sensitive interventions in alcohol-prevention that target adolescents often lead to binary tailoring for girls and boys. However, increased societal and legal recognition of sexual and gender minorities as well as research with this age group demand a broader understanding of gender. Therefore, the present study addresses the question of how interventions should be further developed to include sexual and gender diversity by exploring LGBTQIA+ adolescents’ perceptions of gender portrayal and gender-tailoring using Virtual LimitLab—a virtual-reality simulation for training refusal skills under peer pressure to consume alcohol. Qualitative interviews with 16 LGBTQIA+ adolescents were conducted after individual simulation testing. Using a thematic analysis with reflexive orientation, four themes were identified: Statements on relevance of gender, opinions on tailoring- and flirting options, and opinions on characters. Participants called for greater diversity representation among the characters, regarding gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as for representing, e.g., racialised peers. Moreover, participants suggested expanding the simulation’s flirting options by adding bisexual and aromantic/asexual options. Divergent views on the relevance of gender and wishes for tailoring options reflected the participant group’s heterogeneity. Based on these findings, future gender-sensitive interventions should conceptualise gender in a complex and multidimensional manner that intersects with further diversity categories.

Technology and screen media has its place in every home, yet the influences of the same are less known. This research aims to explore the vulnerabilities that prompt the mothers to use screen media for their children, prior to a diagnosis of autism for their child. It also aims to explore literature the influence of screen media on speech and language development in children. This study combined semi-structured interviews with 16 mothers of autistic children in Southern India and a scoping literature review that resulted in 24 articles. The literature refers to a positive influence when co-viewing with the child, and it predominantly highlights improvements in speech and not in language. The interviews revealed that screens were used as a means of support, a language and learning development tool, or as a calming technique. Thus, the study shows that the mothers resorted to screen use for their children more out of helplessness, and not as an informed choice. Mothers of autistic children clearly express their vulnerabilities and indicate feelings of being lost without advice, with regard to use of screen-time. This suggests a need for more research into how they can be supported.

Background: Universities are key social institutions that shape student health, wellbeing, and future trajectories. However, they are also embedded in, and contribute to, existing social inequities. Students holding marginalised positions consistently report experiences of discrimination within higher education. Such experiences adversely affect their mental health, sense of belonging, and academic trajectories. Much of this research relies on single-axis analyses, failing to capture the complexity of discrimination. Therefore, this study takes an intersectional, qualitative multi-level approach to explore how university students in Germany experience discrimination during their studies and how this shapes their mental health and wellbeing. Methods: Fifteen semi-structured, problem-centred interviews were conducted with university students who reported experiencing discrimination. Data were qualitatively analysed using the Intersectional Multilevel Analysis (IMA) framework by Winker and Degele, linking individual meaning-making and self-positioning to symbolic representations and social structures. Our approach combined inductive reconstruction of students’ self-positionings with deductive contextualisation of how discrimination operates across interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels. Results: Students experienced discrimination as an embodied process shaped by microaggressions, institutional rigidity, and unequal power relations – particularly within student–lecturer dynamics. These dynamics involved intersecting forms of inequity, including racism, sexism, xenophobia, classism, language-based exclusion, ableism, caregiving discrimination, and ageism, experienced not as isolated categories but as overlapping, context-dependent processes. Participants described how the experienced discrimination settled into the body through emotional, cognitive, and physical manifestations expressed as fear, anger, exhaustion, and burnout, accompanied by existential questioning and disrupted identities. These embodied effects were not isolated reactions but ongoing responses to inequity. Alongside these harms, students exercised agency through strategies of endurance, withdrawal and resistance as forms of embodied survival work in response to persistent inequities. Overall, discrimination emerged as a relational and institutional process involving fluid interpersonal dynamics and contextual negotiations through which students’ academic trajectories and relationships to power are continuously (re)produced. Conclusion: Discrimination in higher education must be recognised as not only a social issue, but also a critical public health concern determining students' mental health and wellbeing. Addressing its embodied consequences demands institutional accountability and policies that move beyond symbolic diversity rhetoric toward meaningful structural and cultural transformation.