A Sense of Security and Cohesion: Exploring Social Support and Mental Health in Adolescence

Abstract

Mental health issues are increasing in the young population, which emphasizes the need for health-promoting initiatives. Social support is argued to be important in promoting mental health among young people. The aim of this study was to explore how young people experience social support in their everyday lives, and how such support helps them navigate mental health issues. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with participants aged 13 to 16 years. A thematic analysis identified two main themes: (1) relationships with significant adults, including the sub-themes “struggles and responses” and “trust and safe spaces,” and (2) relationships with peers, including the sub-themes “friendships and self-reflection” and “peer support and community.” The findings nuance how adult and peer relationships differ and complement each other, and illustrate how these relationships can contribute to an experience of coherence. The findings can inform the development of initiatives aimed at enhancing social support in various contexts.

Introduction

In recent years, the mental health of young people has received increased attention, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Media coverage has brought mental health issues to the fore, resulting in discussions and the development of national plans to tackle mental health issues among young people (Ministry of Health and Care Services, 2023; World Health Organization, 2021a). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental disorders account for approximately 13% of the global burden of disease among this segment of the population (World Health Organization, 2021b). In Norway, there has been a noticeable increase in the reporting of symptoms associated with mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety (Bakken, 2021). This increase underscores the importance of developing mental health-promoting initiatives. Research and practice regarding the mental health of young people, in both Norway and other countries, has mainly focused on the treatment and prevention of mental disorders (Skogen et al., 2018). Research on youths’ perceptions of mental health tends to be limited to clinical samples, and there is uncertainty surrounding the general mental health status of young people, their own understanding of mental health, and what they determine as effective strategies for promoting mental health (Hellström & Beckman, 2021). Thus, it has been argued that mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders, and, according to Mittelmark et al. (2022), understanding the positive aspects of mental health can add value to the knowledge base, beyond what can be obtained through solely focusing on risk reduction.

Among other aspects, social support is seen as crucial in promoting mental health. Social support can buffer stress reactions, enhance self-esteem, and improve self-regulation (Lakey & Cohen, 2000). Adolescence is a critical period of transition from childhood to adulthood, including fundamental physical and emotional development (Madsen, 2019). During this period, both parents and adults beyond immediate family, such as teachers, can be important confidants. Nevertheless, peer relationships become increasingly important, and friendships play a crucial role in shaping young people’s sense of belonging and identity (McMahon et al., 2020; Mittelmark et al., 2022).

Research indicates that various types of social support and relationships play a role in shaping young people’s mental health. McMahon et al. (2020) argue that the quality of the relationships has often been overlooked, particularly for young people. A recent study identified both individual (e.g., skills and strengths, identity aspects, behaviour) and environmental (e.g., family, school, peer groups) factors as determinants for the quality of peer relationships (Mitic et al., 2021). Additionally, a recent study by Prideaux et al. (2024) explored how young people overcame stressors in their everyday lives, concluding that young people appreciated relationships and experiences that provided them with emotional support and the informational resources to cope with their stressors. After the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, Cooper et al. (2021) discovered that young people who felt they had a close relationship with their parents reported lower emotional distress during and after lockdown, thereby underscoring the importance of familial bonds in relation to stressful events. Furthermore, school belonging and student–teacher relationships have been established as being positive for mental health, suggesting the school context as a promising context for health promotion (Long et al., 2020), which was also highlighted by Mitic et al. (2021). In a similar vein, trust has also been argued to be important for young people seeking support or help (Lynch et al., 2020), highlighting the need for reliable and trustworthy adults in the lives of young people.

Theoretical Framework

To better understand mental health promotion among young people, we have applied a salutogenic approach (Antonovsky, 2013; Mittelmark et al., 2022). The salutogenic approach is based on the question “What creates health?”— a question that can enhance our focus on exploring positive mental health determinants. Salutogenesis includes the core concepts of general resistance resources (GRR) and sense of coherence (SOC). These concepts are closely related and the GRRs are described as the resources of a person, a group, or a community that are seen as important for developing a strong SOC. A strong SOC means that a person will experience different stressors in their life as meaningful, manageable, and comprehensive (Antonovsky, 2013). Furthermore, the salutogenic approach relates mental health to the social dimension, where questions of belonging are regarded as being especially influential for young people. Social support is a key term related to SOC, and is described as an important GRR (Lindström & Eriksson, 2010). It has been proposed that stable social support can reflect a stable community, which leads to a strong SOC. For young people, the experience of stable social support can entail having access to support, information, and tangible care (Mittelmark et al., 2022). In this study, Salutogenesis is applied as a theoretical framework and analytical lens, which enables us to explore both relational and contextual resources contributing to young people’s mental health.

The knowledge Gap

As mentioned, previous research has largely focused on the treatment and prevention of mental disorders. However, there is still limited knowledge about how everyday experiences of social support—across family, peer, and school contexts—can buffer stress and promote young people’s mental health. To address this gap, this study applies a salutogenic framework and aims to explore how young people experience social support in their everyday lives, and how such support helps them navigate mental health issues. In doing so, we seek to provide nuanced insights that can inform the development of health-promoting initiatives and foster sustainable support systems in line with young people’s needs and preferences

Materials and Methods

This study is part of an ongoing project concerning mental health promotion among young people in Norway. The research team consisted of occupational and physical therapists holding master’s and PhD degrees. The study adopted a qualitative design, emphasizing interviews and thematic analysis, in line with Braun and Clarke (2022).

Recruitment and Sample

Middle-school students were invited to participate in our interview study. To ensure the inclusion of young people with different experiences related to mental health, information about the study was shared both openly on social media and through health professionals working in primary healthcare in the eastern part of Norway. Parents contacted the first author on behalf of the participants to schedule interviews. All participants were unfamiliar to the interviewer, and prior to the interviews, the first author remained unaware of whether the participants had experiences with mental health challenges.

In line with Malterud et al. (2016), the adequacy of our sample was continuously assessed throughout the research process using the concept of information power. We included 12 young people aged 13 to 16, comprising 4 boys and 8 girls. They lived in both rural and urban areas of Norway and represented diverse family, school, and social contexts. Some had experiences of seeking professional support for mental health, whereas others had not. This diversity was considered valuable for capturing different perspectives relevant to our study aim. Given the narrow and clearly defined focus of the study and the quality of the interview dialogue, the sample was considered to hold sufficient information power.

Ethical Approval

Approval for the study was granted by the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (SIKT) (ref. 879123) and the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REK) (ref. 173007). Informed written and oral consent was obtained from participants and their parents before interview conduction.

Conducting Interviews

A semi-structured interview guide, refined with input from two young individuals, was developed and piloted. This resulted in changes to the wording of some of the questions, and the incorporation of follow-up questions for the open-ended questions was also suggested to help the participant along in case the questions were hard to understand. The pilot interview was not included in the data material. The interview guide encompassed topics such as daily life, social relationships, and perceptions of mental health, including questions such as “What contributes to your well-being?”.

The first author conducted 12 semi-structured interviews between January and June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, interviews were conducted via video chat. Participants were alone in a room, typically their bedroom, during the interviews. All the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim after their completion. The interviews lasted 45 to 65 min.

During the interviews, some of the participants shared that they had experienced mental health issues. This was information that the participants shared openly, without having been specifically asked by the researcher. They also explained how they had dealt with these issues, including by conversing with professionals (e.g., psychologists or school nurses) or with support from parents and friends.

After conducting twelve interviews, we observed information power: the answers provided by the participants largely reflected recurring themes, with subsequent interviews offering variations rather than fundamentally new insights (Malterud et al., 2016). Given the exploratory aim of the study, we regarded the sample size sufficient for addressing our research questions.

Analysis

Comparing and contrasting participants’ experiences, we analysed the empirical material thematically, utilizing Braun and Clarke (2022) six-step analysis to assess the data. The process entailed: (1) familiarizing ourselves with the data, (2) generating initial codes, (3) searching for themes, (4) reviewing the themes, (5) defining and naming the themes, and (6) producing the report.

For the initial three stages, NVivo (Lumivero, 2022) proved to be a useful coding tool, facilitating the organization and navigation through different data levels. It also allowed for easy reference to the broader context of coded segments when needed. These stages of the analysis were inductive, aiming for a bottom-up empirical approach that respected participants’ experiences. Codes were mostly semantic, where coded segments were given labels based on words and phrases used by the participants. After coding all the interviews and reviewing the codes, the first author organized the codes that were relevant to the research question. Then, all the authors worked together to discuss the codes and reorganized them into groups.

Early in this process, we discovered that the participants had talked about relationships across different contexts, elaborating on the significance of both peers and adults when navigating mental health issues. The codes were sorted under two preliminary main themes: “adults” and “peers”, with some overlapping codes (e.g., a code concerning openness). In the further analysis, the codes were reviewed and sub-themes were developed. The preliminary main themes were largely kept as they were, as we found them to illuminate the research question in an appropriate manner. In other words, the analytical process was primarily inductive. However, the salutogenic approach gained significance in interpreting the findings in the final rounds of analysis. This theoretical interpretation helped to abstract the participants’ experiences beyond their own self-understanding, which enabled us to grasp the meaning of their experiences in terms of health-promoting nuances.

Results

The participants regarded social relationships as being crucial for their mental health. They shared experiences regarding the importance of different relationships within the various contexts they were a part of. They emphasized their relationships with peers and significant adults as being crucial, albeit underscoring the importance of the quality of these relationships. However, preferences varied among participants regarding whether they preferred to confide in adults or peers. Nevertheless, they collectively recognized the importance of having someone to discuss matters with, regardless of their nature, related to their mental health. This consensus persisted despite their diverse experiences with mental health challenges.

We will elaborate on these results in two main themes, with two sub-themes: (1) relationships with significant adults, including the sub-themes struggles and response and trust and safe spaces, and (2) relationships with peers, including the sub-themes friendships and self-reflection and peer support and community.

(1) Relationships with Significant Adults

All participants noted their relationships with significant adults in their lives, which could include parents, teachers, leaders in leisure activities, or other adults they encountered in their daily lives. These adults seemed to assume diverse roles and cater to various support needs of the participants. However, two aspects were emphasized. Firstly, the participants highlighted the importance of the adults’ understanding and response when they opened up about their feelings or talked about a challenging situation. Secondly, they emphasized the significance of trust within these relationships.

Struggles and Responses

Many participants expressed difficulty in confiding in adults when faced with personal challenges. They described a sense of frustration stemming from the adults’ apparent lack of understanding of their experiences. Moreover, some felt that they had to offer extensive explanations when discussing their concerns, which added to the perceived challenge of opening up. Kristoffer put it this way:

“It’s not that adults don’t understand anything, but it just takes so much effort to explain things to them. They kind of lack the insight required to comprehend it [. . .] it’s a bit too much to try to convey it to them. I think this applies to most adults."

In a similar vein, others told how they found that adults tended to respond in ways that made the problem bigger or that they felt forced to fix the issue at hand. Some recalled situations where they had opened up about something that was bothering them. All they wanted was to receive some support, but they found that the adult’s response seemed disproportionate to the situation. Some also just wanted space to process and figure it out on their own. Tuva had this advice for adults:

“I would say give them some space to manage and sort their thoughts, but don’t be afraid to ask them questions or inquire about how they're doing, or if there’s something they’re thinking about that’s difficult [. . .], because it’s very important."

In addition, participants recognized the importance of sharing their concerns to receive the necessary help and support. They recounted instances where sharing difficult thoughts had proved to be beneficial. Tuva said: “Even though it may not necessarily be the most enjoyable [talking to adults], it’s one of the only ways you can manage to fix something, because communication is everything, regardless.” Ultimately, the participants underscored the complexities of intergenerational communication but acknowledged that there were times when it was necessary to share their feelings, despite the adult response.

Trust and Safe Spaces

Many participants articulated the factors that would encourage them to share. Lene, for example, talked about how her teachers had made a good effort to build trust:

“I believe that it’s very important that you build a sense of security around the students, that you can build trust with a person so that you can open up to someone. Because it can also be difficult if you meet a person for the first time and then you have to start talking about your mental health.”

The significance of building trust in the school context, was also described by Helene. She emphasized the importance of initiatives where pupils were invited to talk to their teachers about what was on their minds. She found comfort in the availability of designated times for this, even amidst the rigours of a typical school day.

Ingrid, however, had sometimes found it hard to talk about her issues and advocated for normalizing conversations about mental health from the outset, emphasizing the benefits of being able to address issues openly and candidly. She suggested that always having an open line of communication could facilitate the integration of adults into conversations regarding their mental health. Kari, for example, had experienced how adults around her had helped her to open up because she felt safe, and she described how important this was for her health:

“It’s quite possible that I wouldn’t have been well if I hadn’t had someone to share my thoughts with. It’s likely that talking to the school nurse and telling her everything I’ve been thinking has helped a bit, and I know I can talk to mum and dad if I want to.”

This quote underscores the importance of fostering a supportive relationship with someone who is sufficiently trusted to confide in, implying that the absence of such a connection could negatively impact well-being.

(2) Relationships with Peers

Participants highlighted the importance of their relationships with peers for their mental health. Friendships and being part of a group were acknowledged and highlighted in different ways. Most of the participants had friends that they could talk to about their thoughts and feelings. However, there were differences in how often they talked about issues concerning mental health. Some only addressed these when having experienced difficult situations or if they suspected that a friend might be struggling with something.

How much and how easily they engaged in conversations about mental health appeared to be related to the culture and the social environment that they were a part of. In addition, their reflections on friendships also revealed insights into how they related social connections to their personal development.

Friendships and Self-Reflection

The participants reflected on the profound importance of friendships to their self-perception—a sentiment that was particularly emphasized by several of the female participants. Anne, for instance, shared her experiences of how friendships served as a promoter for self-appreciation, where the recognition from others was reflected in her sense of self-worth. Similarly, Lene articulated a viewpoint underscoring the importance of her social circle, noting that unhealthy relationships could breed insecurity and a sense of identity loss. Lene articulated it in the following manner:

“If I have good people around me, then I also feel quite good. If I hang out with the wrong people, I can become a bit more unsure about myself and not have such good confidence in myself. But it depends on who I’m with [. . .] I’m very focused on just being with people who I find it nice to be with, who I can be myself with, in a way. If you have the wrong people around you, you also start to become a bit unsure about yourself and you forget that you have things to say”.

Several participants exemplified similar experiences, elaborating on how they had eventually become selective in terms of who they would be hanging out with or not. Reflecting on these matters in the interviews, the participants seemed to be aware of how their relationships played a role in their development. Ingrid, for example, gave her friends credit for how they shaped her as a person:

“The people I’m with, and their influence on me, kind of shape who I am as a person, so their personalities make me who I am. So, I think they should get some credit for that".

In a similar vein, Ida elaborated on how she had learned through experience how to distinguish between nice and bad people: nice people seemed to serve as role models shaping her sense of self:

“I feel the people you hang out with have a lot to say because I feel that when you hang out with a person, you become that person a few months later, you become like the person you hang out with. If you hang out with very bad people, you become a bad person too. If you hang out with very good people, you become a very kind, nice person."

Both Ingrid and Ida talked about how their friendships shaped them as individuals in a health-promoting manner, provided they could decide which friends to hang out with.

Peer Support and Community

Participants acknowledged the importance of peer support and community in promoting their mental health, albeit in varying ways. The girls emphasized the deep and continuous connections to their friends and communities, whereas the boys acknowledged how interacting or doing activities with friends offered a break from hardships, granting them immediate comfort and solace. For example, Andreas was one of several participants to mention how gaming with friends helped him when he was feeling down.

Elaborating on these matters in the interviews, the boys would also typically mention specific situations where they needed support or advice from friends on how to resolve matters. Andreas, for example, explained how he would occasionally discuss specific challenges with friends, as well as how to solve:

“I usually try to discuss things—about how one should be and what to do in certain situations if you’re struggling with something, and stuff like that. So we used to discuss things a bit on the way home from school and stuff, but it doesn’t happen so often because, well, those kinds of things don’t usually happen so often.”

Whilst Andreas emphasized communicating with friends as a means of solving specific problems, Ingrid exemplified her relationship with a close friend with whom she could share everything. According to Ingrid, it felt good to have someone who remained informed and supportive:

“She knows everything, and then it’s easier to just, you know, add on if something else happens. But it’s more difficult with mum and dad—if they don’t have the whole story, it would feel weird for them to suddenly learn something that’s completely irrelevant to them in their minds but that makes perfect sense to me. So, I’ve basically told things to those I feel comfortable updating if something negative were to happen.”

For Ingrid, as highlighted in this quote, the continuous connection and possibility to share things seemed crucial. In a similar vein, participants talked a lot about having a community with peers, where they felt understood and felt safe to share things if they wanted to. Being part of a group where they felt safe and could be themselves seemed to be of importance for the participants’ mental health. Anne’s experiences with her scout group exemplify a supportive community devoid of judgement. She highlighted the inclusivity of the group, where individual differences were embraced rather than scrutinized. She talked about a sense of belonging akin to that of a family:

“It’s not that I feel that others are judging me all the time, but it’s, I don’t know, it feels different in the scouts, in a way, than other places [. . .] Well, I think it’s because everyone in the scouts is actually so different, and how should I put it, it’s sort of a family, and not just like classmates [. . .] Everyone has become a group in a way, and it’s not just small groups that are very segmented, where there’s one group here and one group there, but it’s very, sort of, very cohesive.”

Describing the role of her scout group, Anne underscored the importance of peer support and community that other participants also highlighted in their interviews.

Discussion

This study aimed to explore how young people experience social support in their everyday lives, and how such support helps them to navigate mental health issues. Our findings show, unsurprisingly, that the participants first and foremost experienced social support and their relationships as being important for their mental health in general. According to Lakey and Cohen (2000), social support plays a crucial role in buffering individuals against stressors and in promoting mental health, which also aligns with Antonovsky’s (2013) writings about GRRs and SOC. All our participants seemed to experience social support in their everyday lives. However, our findings nuance the contextual nature of how social support is experienced in different ways.

Sense of Coherence and Contextual Determinants

Our goal has not been to measure or assess the participants’ level of SOC; however, we argue that the components of SOC, that is how meaningful, manageable, and comprehensive a stressor is experienced, are clearly noticeable in our findings. How Lene and Helene described the ways in which adults around them had made safe spaces to encourage conversations, and how Kristoffer and Tuva experienced adults’ responses when they had shared their challenges, are two vivid examples of how, in different ways, social support can potentially help to buffer the experienced stress or challenge, helping to make the situation meaningful, manageable, and comprehensive. The first example highlights the positive impact of an available, safe, and open environment, which are characteristics of the GRR of social support within the salutogenic framework (Mittelmark et al., 2022). The second example, however, illustrates how the response from adults was not always experienced as supportive, but instead added more stress to the situation. This is an interesting finding, as it can guide adults to adapt their responses when young people reach out. Trying to understand the situation and context that the young people are a part of can help to bridge communication gaps and enhance the experience of mental health support. Similar findings have also been shared by Hellström and Beckman (2021), who found that some young people experienced adults’ efforts to fix their problems sometimes could disable them to find their own coping strategies.

Experiences with adults’ understanding, communication skills, and safe environments as enhancing social support have also been found by other studies (Kaarakainen et al., 2025; Lynch et al., 2020; Prideaux et al., 2024). In relation to such findings, the importance of trust has been further highlighted (Hellström & Beckman, 2021; Lynch et al., 2020). In their review, Lynch et al. (2020) found that young people could be reluctant to seek help (referring to professional help) if they experienced a lack of trust or confidentiality, noting that trusting relationships for young people seem to be built on confidentiality. The question about confidentiality is not highlighted in our findings, but trust-building seems to be an important issue for the participants, as noted by, for example, Lene and Kari.

Promoting Community Cohesion

A recent study regarding young peoples’ resilience by Prideaux et al. (2024) illuminates how young people engage in activities in community spaces, such as churches, to feel connected and reveal stress. In our findings, the scout group mentioned by one of our participants, Anne, can serve as an example of this, and shows how finding and belonging to a community or a peer group that you feel connected with and comfortable in can be important. This finding aligns closely with Antonovsky’s (2013) description of SOC and the notion of the importance for young people to feel a sense of belonging (Lindström & Eriksson, 2010). Our findings further imply that experiences of social support are closely linked to the social relationships within different contexts, which underscores the importance of promoting community cohesion in mental health promotion (Antonovsky, 2013; Lindström & Eriksson, 2010). As mentioned earlier, stable social support might reflect a stable community, leading to a strong SOC. However, this entails that young people have available support, information, and tangible care (Mittelmark et al., 2022). The issue and importance of availability of relevant (social and physical) resources are also highlighted in other studies (Bauer et al., 2021; Hellström & Beckman, 2021).

During adolescence, the sense of belonging noted above will be connected to the experience of friendships and relationships with peers, as these relationships become more prominent during this phase (Mitic et al., 2021). In our findings, participants’ experiences regarding how they felt about themselves seem to be linked to their relationships with their friends. Other studies have in different ways established that relationships with friends can both hinder and help young people’s well-being (Hellström & Beckman, 2021; Kaarakainen et al., 2025; Prideaux et al., 2024; Sjølie et al., 2023). In our findings, the participants explained how their social relationships could be experienced as both negative and positive with regard to how they looked at and felt about themselves, arguably having an impact on their mental health and experience of social support. Friendships were explained as a form of mirror for self-reflection, with positive relationships promoting self-esteem and negative ones leading to insecurity, as pointed out by both Lene and Ingrid. Similarly, previous studies have highlighted how social media and digital interactions can shape these feelings in various ways (Hellström & Beckman, 2021). However, the social world of young people is changing, and a large part of young peoples’ social world today includes digital interactions. Some have shared concerns about this development, but evidence on the impact of digital interactions related to mental health remains inconclusive (Kaarakainen et al., 2025; Sjølie et al., 2023).

Gender Differences

One of our prominent findings illuminates the apparent difference between girls and boys when it comes to experiences with friends, both when it comes to talking about mental health and how to navigate or handle mental health issues. Whilst the girls in our sample were more concerned with their closer relationships and regular dialogue, the boys tended to attribute more importance to being together or doing an activity as help in itself. Moreover, the boys did not talk as much about the importance of relationships compared to the girls during the interviews. From other studies, we can see similar differences between boys and girls. Hellström and Beckman (2021), for example, found that it was perceived as being more acceptable for girls to talk about mental health issues. However, they also described how boys in the study advocated for initiatives aimed at fostering greater openness among boys. Another study found that girls reported better relationship quality than boys, and that girls tended to value peer relationship quality more than boys. This study also supported the notion that boys might centre their friendships more around activities (McMahon et al., 2020). These notions underscore the importance of being conscious of gender differences when developing initiatives and talking about mental health for young people.

Strengths and Limitations

A strength in this study is the diverse background of the participants, allowing exploration of diverse experiences related to navigating mental health issues, which has been argued as a limitation in previous research on mental health among young people (Hellström & Beckman, 2021). In addition, the qualitative method adds to previous research, giving in-depth descriptions of how young people experience social support. There are, however, some contextual limitations worth considering, implying that our findings might not be directly transferable to other settings or cultural contexts (Braun & Clarke, 2022). Indeed, the Norwegian context as a welfare state with universal access to education and healthcare might limit generalisability of the results. At the same time, several of the dynamics identified—such as the different experiences of peer and adult relationships—are likely to resonate beyond Norway, making the insights transferable to other contexts. Another strength is that the study includes both peer and adult relationships, which makes it possible to explore similarities and differences in the relationships, adding to previous research (McMahon et al., 2020).

The interviews were conducted during a lockdown period in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is conceivable that this somewhat “abnormal” situation may have influenced both the participants’ answers and the questions asked by the interviewer. However, it can be argued that the lockdown situation provided the participants with new insight into the importance of social relationships. It should also be mentioned that a possible limitation could be that the interviews were conducted digitally. Conducting interviews digitally can make it harder for the interviewer to catch non-verbal cues and body language (Archibald et al., 2019). It should however be mentioned that the interviewer did not experience this, and the participants seemed comfortable talking and sharing on screen. This might be because digital interactions were something that they were used to at the time, due to home schooling and engaging in other social interactions online.

Implications for Research and Practice

In line with others, our findings suggest that mental health-promoting measures focused on enhancing social support systems can play a role in improving the mental health of young people. Fostering strong, trusting relationships and creating inclusive environments can help young people to navigate mental health issues in their everyday lives. Such findings imply that schools, families, and community organizations should prioritize the building and sustaining of supportive social environments. These implications align with a salutogenic perspective on health promotion, which emphasizes the creation of cohesive communities to support overall mental health and well-being (Antonovsky, 2013; Lindström & Eriksson, 2010). Furthermore, the application of the salutogenic framework offers a theoretical and methodological contribution by illustrating its relevance and implications analysing and developing new insights into social support and the promotion of young people’s mental health in an everyday context.

Taken together, the findings in our study add new insights regarding how contextual support, trust-building, and peer dynamics are key components in navigating mental health challenges. Future research should explore the nuances of contextual support and peer dynamics further, aiming to develop targeted interventions that address the specific needs of young people. Looking ahead, future research could investigate specific contexts, such as the school environment, which holds promise for interventions (Bauer et al., 2021; Mitic et al., 2021). Aligning with others (Hellström & Beckman, 2021), one suggestion is to focus on the school context, introducing and researching mental health education in school curricula. Our study did not include aspects of social media or the participants’ experiences with online social interaction and support. Exploring the dynamics of online social interaction and support, particularly through social media, should be further investigated given its evolving nature and its impact on young people’s social lives and mental health (Sjølie et al., 2023).

Conclusion

In conclusion, our study underscores the significance of social support in shaping young people’s mental health experiences. By exploring the complexities of the participants’ relationships and the implications for mental health-promotion practice and future research, our findings add new insights regarding the understanding of how young people experience social support in their everyday lives and how they navigate mental health issues. We have uncovered how adult and peer relationships differ from and complement each other. Seen together, these relationships can help to buffer stress, foster positive self-image, and contribute to an experience of coherence. Our findings can be useful for professionals working for and with young people across different contexts and in the development of initiatives aiming to enhance social support.