Towards a Psychosociopolitical Approach to Mental Health: Individual and Societal Determinants of Mental Illness and Health in Adults

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Factors and Global Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 202

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC), Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: risk and protective factors of mental health and illness; chronic pain; behavioral medicine; contextual-behavioral science; sexual and gender minorities' mental health; clinical psychology

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Guest Editor
Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC), Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: social representations; political psychology; science and health communication; healthcare; socio-ecological frameworks; anti-democratic risks; social psychology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The World Health Organization describes mental health not as merely the absence of mental illness, but as a state of mental well-being where a person is able to successfully cope with the stresses of life, to live fully and according to personal values and abilities, and to engage in learning, working and contributing well to their community. Mental health is determined by the interaction and/or compounding effects of multi-level factors, including individual (e.g., genetic risk factors, inflammatory conditions, emotional regulation skills); interpersonal (e.g., social support, emotional validation by others, interpersonal stressors, social competence), and structural sociopolitical (e.g., security, poverty, generational wealth, job security, income inequality, political conflicts). Additionally, individual beliefs on mental health and illness, on evidence-based mental health solutions, as well as social representations of mental health and illness, contribute to individuals’ knowledge and/or perceptions of available mental health resources, and to their attitude towards mental health care professionals and services.

With this Special Issue, we aim to contribute to a multi-level and socio-ecological understanding of mental health and illness, and the associated protective and risk factors. Studies that are conducted within a biopsychosocial framework, and integrate neurobiophysiological correlates of psychological processes and mental health indicators, are encouraged, as are studies adopting a socio-ecological approach to the mental health of individuals from minoritized communities.

Studies that are within the scope of this Special Issue:

  • Theoretical and position papers and reviews on multi-level socio-ecological approaches to mental health and illness, especially, but not limited to, the mental health of individuals from minoritized communities and/or vulnerable people;
  • Quantitative studies that present a multi-level approach to mental health and illness (e.g., that integrate genetic, biological, psychological, and/or sociological outcomes);
  • Qualitative studies on personal beliefs, social representations, and societal attitudes towards mental health and illness, and/or towards evidence-based psychological practice;
  • Studies on mental health and illness literacy, including correlational and longitudinal psychosocial factors associated with mental and illness literacy;
  • Studies that explore sociopolitical determinants of mental health and illness, and/or sociopolitical determinants of access to or efficacy of mental health interventions;
  • Cross-cultural studies of mental health and illness, and the comparative efficacy of psychological interventions (including studies on treatment integrity and cultural sensitivity);
  • Psychometric studies of new or adapted measures of psychosociopolitical factors associated with mental health and illness in samples of individuals from minoritized and/or vulnerable groups.

Dr. Sérgio Carvalho
Dr. Teresa Forte
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mental health
  • socio-ecological models
  • psychosociopolitical risk and protective factors for mental health
  • evidence-based practice
  • social representations of health(care)
  • vulnerable populations

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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