From economic crisis and climate change through COVID-19 pandemic to Ukraine war: a cumulative hit-wave on adolescent future thinking and mental well-being

Since 2008 socioeconomic crisis, the tacit certainty of a progressive, never-ending economic improvement (by which each generation aspires to an increased well-being and welfare in comparison to the previous one) has received a tangible hit. Climate changes are increasingly perceived as a progressively more imminent threat. COVID-19 pandemic and consequent school closures and lockdown exposed adolescents and young adults to an unprecedented stress test. Lastly, although wars have never ceased worldwide after WWII, the recent, ongoing, conflict in Ukraine, has induced global geopolitical fibrillation, with consequent shock-waves across Western and Eastern countries, and the latent threat of further escalation into a global, third-world war or a widespread nuclear conflict. Each of these worldwide phenomena engenders established risk factors for adolescent mental health and well-being, and the burden of their cumulative effects on mental health might be severe, especially in terms of epidemiological increase of psycho-pathological manifestations and transgenerational impact.