Preventing Anxiety and Depression in Emerging Adults: A Case for Targeting Help-Seeking Intentions and Behaviors

Efforts to prevent anxiety and depressive disorders are considered a public health priority. However, emerging adults (ages 18–25) have traditionally been overlooked in the prevention literature. Recent suggestions to improve the design and evaluation of prevention programs propose a shift toward targeting and assessing changes in underlying mechanisms and protective factors that might buffer against the onset or worsening of symptoms and promote emotional well-being. In this conceptual paper, we aim to further this discussion on the optimal targets and goals of prevention programs and how best to tailor these programs to meet the needs of emerging adults. We first provide a brief overview of the prevention literature for depressive and anxiety symptoms among emerging adults. We then present an argument for expanding the focus of prevention programs to include an emphasis on factors affecting help-seeking intentions and behaviors as explicit targets. We argue this could improve the effectiveness and long-term impact of prevention efforts and provide a way to tailor programs to the unique developmental period of emerging adulthood. We propose that prevention programs should strive to target both mechanisms underlying depressive and anxious symptomatology, as well as those affecting help-seeking behaviors to arm emerging adults with the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively manage their mental health needs. To this end, we outline a number of processes to prioritize and target in order to promote help-seeking in the context of prevention.