Hvordan har vi det i dag?: Flere perspektiver på måling af mental sundhed hos børn og unge

Today, young people are used to being asked how they are (feeling). The parents would ask them when picking them up from nursery, researchers as well as the Ministry of Education are asking them, and often they ask themselves. Feeling good or bad is the central focal point for communicating about well-being in the press, social media and in society as a whole which might lead to a culture of unnecessary worry. This hedonistic self-centered approach was modern in the ‘well being’ research half a century ago, but given the intermediate development in the understanding of mental health, there are reasons to develop the concept and to work on a common understanding. In this article we argue for the use of the resilience approach to widen the focus from self-centeredness to an assessment of the function of the child in different social settings. Additionally, we emphasise the need to strengthen the resilience of children and young people through the exposure of small amounts of stress during childhood in a controlled setting. This might serve as a mental counterpart of the traditional child vaccinations.