Mental Health in Transitional Life Phases

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of four contemporary comics from the Faroe Islands, Norway, and Sweden, in which the mental health of children, adolescents and young adults is a central theme. Collectively, these works offer diverse approaches to mental health across different life phases – childhood, young adulthood, and adulthood. Our analysis examines how the comics relate mental health to life phases, social contexts, and community, and how they employ the formal features of the comics medium to explore the complexity of mental health during transitional periods. A key finding is that comics provide an engaging and socially grounded medium for portraying mental health as it relates to the experiences of children, adolescents, and young adults. These portrayals challenge conventional understandings of mental health as primarily illness and offer nuanced perspectives on how mental health issues can be experienced and addressed.