Urban adolescence under pressure? Understanding affective symptoms and substance use within a complex urban social landscape

Adolescence is a period of rapid emotional and social change, and for young people growing up in cities, these changes unfold within environments that offer both opportunities and significant stressors. This dissertation examines how urban conditions relate to adolescents’ affective symptoms and substance use, drawing on ecological theory, network analysis, and longitudinal data from the Amsterdam Born and their Development (ABCD) study. Across four interconnected studies, the research focuses on adolescents aged 16–19 years and considers both objective neighborhood characteristics, such as safety and poverty, and subjective perceptions of the urban environment.
The first study shows that higher levels of daily and problematic social media use are associated with increased alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco use, and that parental rules may buffer these associations only when online engagement is not yet problematic. The second study uses network models to reveal how urban stressors—such as noise, crowding, and perceived unsafety—cluster with symptoms of anxiety, depression, and substance use, with social safety emerging as a key factor. The third study highlights the central role of discrimination, which is linked to reduced feelings of neighborhood safety, greater emotional distress, and higher cannabis and tobacco use. The fourth study shows that while urban stressors and low perceived safety are associated with higher overall symptom levels, they do not predict short term changes over time. Together, the findings suggest that adolescent mental health and substance use in cities are shaped by interacting digital, social, and neighborhood influences.