Young peopleʹs mental health in context: Comparing life in the city and small communities in Siberia

The study compares young peopleʹs mental health in the major Siberian city of Novosibirsk with small communities of the surrounding region, at the end of the statutory period of secondary education. Data are drawn from a school-based questionnaire survey of ninth graders and semi-structured interviews. In line with the findings of international comparative studies, general health profiles are not good by Western standards, but extending such findings, general health appears even poorer in small communities and is differentiated further by the rural householdʹs impoverished socio-economic circumstances. However, despite poorer general health among rural youth, the study finds the opposite for more specific profiles of mental health, which are worse among city youth. In this, distinctive social factors are associated with mental health differently in the large city and small communities of the region. In the relatively affluent city of Novosibirsk, self-worth and depression are differentiated by family background and engagement with the education system. By contrast, in small communities social capital associated with family support and kin-based networks become important resources instead. Positive mental health is bound up with the local cultural context, centred on the family household and ‘traditions’ of rural society.