Psychological and Health Challenges Among Disadvantaged Children and Young People
A special issue of European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (ISSN 2254-9625).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 1379
Special Issue Editors
Interests: health psychology; young people’s well-being; atypical development; neurodevelopmental disorders; palliative care; pediatric palliative care; gender inequalities
Interests: childhood disabilities and rare diseases; childhood anxiety; neurodevelopmental disorders and early interventions; parenting; family-based interventions; youth well-being
Interests: adolescents; young adults; risk behaviors; psychopathology conceptualization; well-being; distress; addiction; semiotic and psychodynamic framework
Interests: personality and social context; identity and personal narrative; self-determination; mental health and well-being; subjective well-being; resilience
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Many children and young people currently live in disadvantaged conditions. Nearly 240 million children worldwide experience some form of disability (UNICEF, 2025). There were 36 million migrant children (aged under 18) in 2020 (UNICEF, 2021), and the estimated number of young migrants (aged 15 to 24) reached 31.7 million in 2020 (i.e., 2.6 % among youth globally; UN DESA, 2020). Disadvantaged children and young people experience greater obstacles in accessing resources, services, and opportunities due to economic, social, or structural inequalities, such as poverty, gender discrimination, a lack of education, or social exclusion. Disadvantaged children and young people include, but are not limited to, people with disabilities, women (mainly young girls), racial or ethnic minorities, low-income populations, migrants, left-behind children, and internally displaced people. Often, these conditions are intersectional: multiple factors such as gender, age, poor parenting, socioeconomic status, or ethnic minority can affect a single individual. Therefore, a person's psychological development and health can be severely compromised by a plurality of interacting risk factors with long-term negative outcomes. In this case, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is inadequate to promote social development and mental health. Creating inclusive environments aimed at enhancing individual psychological well-being requires a focus on specific subjective experiences and ways to explain distress, tailored to individuals over their lifespan.
Thus, we welcome original articles, including evidence-based studies and methodological papers, as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses that follow the PRISMA 2020 statement. These papers should focus on the psychological health of disadvantaged populations of children and young people, the promotion of their well-being, effective intervention strategies, and expectations in different countries. We especially welcome articles focusing on children and young people who face humanitarian crises, are migrants, or have been forcefully internally displaced.
Dr. Massimo Ingrassia
Dr. Loredana Benedetto
Dr. Simone Rollo
Dr. Narine Gagik Khachatryan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- mental health (internalizing/externalizing disorders)
- long-term developmental outcomes
- global crises and adversities (war, famine, migration, internal displacement, etc.)
- post-traumatic growth
- resilience and protective factors
- social inequalities
- stigma
- disparity access to primary health care
- educational life (school achievement, school drop-out, etc.)
- relational conflict (bullying, social exclusion, etc.)
- early intervention and prevention
- family-based intervention
- intersectionality
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