Susan Swearer, department chair and Willa Cather Professor of Educational Psychology, was one of three contributing authors to the World Youth Report: Youth Mental Health and Well-being released in February 2026 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Swearer, whose research expertise centers on bullying prevention and intervention among school-aged youth and who is listed on Stanford’s top 2% of scientists worldwide, was the lone contributing author from the United States, joining the late George Patton and Nicola Reavley from the University of Melbourne in Australia. Swearer noted that the project was a global effort.
“Research efforts across several years contributed to this international report and included expert convenings, extensive literature reviews, survey data, and interviews with youth across the globe.”
“It was an honor to work on this project,” Swearer said. “One of the most important parts of this report is that it’s a global analysis of youth mental health and well-being. The report focuses on youth mental wellness worldwide, and it was interesting to see how different countries approach assessment and treatment of youth mental health.”
The development of the report involved an expert group meeting; an online questionnaire available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish completed by close to 3,000 individuals between the ages of 15 and 29 from 137 countries; and targeted focus groups with 148 young people from around the world. Swearer’s contributions focused on bullying behaviors, technology and the digital environment as it relates to youth mental health.
The World Youth Report highlights the varied experiences of youth worldwide and identifies social determinants that significantly impact mental health, including education, poverty, family dynamics, employment, society and community, and technology and the digital environment. It concludes with recommendations for proactive mental health strategies shared by the young people who participated in the research that led to the Report’s findings, concluding that “an inclusive approach to youth mental health and well-being is a fundamental aspect of social development that leaves no one behind.”
College of Education and Human Sciences
Educational Psychology
