Mental Health in an Era of Change: Risks, Benefits, and Equity

Contemporary societies are undergoing rapid and profound transformations. The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, smartphones, social media, changing patterns of work and education, urbanization, demographic shifts, evolving family caregiving arrangements, and the restructuring of health and social services are reshaping how people live, learn, work, interact, and seek support. These changes create new opportunities while also transforming the nature and distribution of mental health risks.

Emerging and persistent risks may include problematic or dependent technology use, digital and information overload, algorithmic influence, cyberbullying, privacy concerns, social comparison, fragmented attention, employment insecurity, caregiving burden, social isolation, and deteriorating community environments. At the same time, family support, social connection, community resources, supportive urban and residential environments, educational opportunities, accessible care, psychological resilience, and digital literacy may help individuals adapt to change.

These risks and protective resources are embedded within interconnected family, school, workplace, community, digital, and institutional environments. A social-ecological perspective is therefore needed to understand how risks accumulate, how protective resources operate, and how societal change reshapes mental health trajectories.

This Research Topic aims to examine the risks, benefits, and equity implications of mental health in an era of change. We are particularly interested in how technological, social, environmental, and institutional transformations generate new mental health risks, intensify existing vulnerabilities, or reproduce familiar risks in new forms.

The Topic also considers the positive possibilities created by change, including new forms of social support, improved urban and community environments, stronger family and caregiving resources, digital mental health support, educational and employment opportunities, and resources that promote adaptation, recovery, and resilience.

Rather than asking only whether a particular change is beneficial or harmful, we seek to identify who is most likely to be affected, under what conditions, which resources can buffer risk, and who is best positioned to benefit from social and technological progress.

Equity is a central concern. People do not enter or experience the same era of change on equal terms. Differences in age, gender, socioeconomic position, cultural background, health status, and place of residence may shape exposure to risk, access to resources, technology use, and opportunities to receive professional support. This Topic therefore asks who benefits, who is disadvantaged, and who may remain overlooked, excluded, or invisible.

We welcome contributions from psychology, psychiatry, public health, social work, education, communication, urban studies, human–computer interaction, social policy, and implementation science. Relevant themes include:

1) Artificial Intelligence, smartphones, social media, digital platforms, and algorithmic environments;
2) Digital overload, information overload, cyberbullying, social comparison, privacy risks, fragmented attention, and social disconnection;
3) Childhood adversity, family conflict, caregiving burden, academic and occupational stress, employment insecurity, social isolation, community disorder, and environmental stressors;
4) Family support, social connection, peer support, community resources, urban design, green space, caregiving resources, resilience, and digital literacy;
5) AI-assisted support, remote and hybrid care, school- and workplace-based programs, peer support, and community interventions;
6) Inequalities in risk exposure, resource access, technology use, service access, intervention effectiveness, and mental health outcomes;
7) Overlooked, underserved, or insufficiently visible populations;
8) Policies, practices, and interventions that reduce risk, strengthen protective resources, and promote mental health equity.

We welcome Original Research, Brief Research Reports, longitudinal and intervention studies, qualitative and mixed-methods research, Systematic Reviews, Scoping Reviews, Policy and Practice Reviews, Perspectives, and theoretical or methodological papers.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Mental Health Equity, Digital and AI-Related Risks, Social-Ecological Risk Factors, Protective Resources and Resilience, Mental Health Innovation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.