Summit
The Institute for Adolescent Mental Health and Well-being at Northwestern University is proud to host its first Bi-Annual Summit in Evanston, Illinois in the Spring of 2027.
The Mission
We are dedicated to advancing the mental health and flourishing of adolescents and young adults through rigorous, interdisciplinary, and translational science. We harness empirical research to build understanding of the complex factors that shape the well-being of adolescents and young adults. By bridging the gap between research and practice, we aim to support evidence-based interventions for young people on Northwestern's campus and beyond. Our mission is to foster resilience and holistic well-being in young people, ensuring that every adolescent and young adult has the opportunity to meet their potential and live an engaged, meaningful life.
Multidisciplinary Approaches
The Institute is supported by generous philanthropic support and designed to study and implement multidisciplinary approaches (including those from psychology, psychiatry, marketing, digital health, biostatistics, cancer research, HIV prevention research, human development, and social policy) to understand and intervene in challenges faced by adolescents during the transition to young adulthood.
Empirical Approaches to Direct Interventions
This Institute is unique as it aims to translate empirical approaches to direct interventions with the most pressing problems faced by adolescents transitioning into young-adulthood (e.g., loneliness and isolation, disillusionment, imposter syndrome, social anxiety, suicidality). To accomplish this goal, we include researchers engaged in the most cutting-edge work in this area in a dynamic partnership with student services on the Northwestern campus, allowing us to host speakers, workshops and summits, conduct trainings, and implement and study interventions to support the mental health and well-being of the students at the University.
Dedicated Faculty and Staff
The Institute includes faculty fellows and more than 30 affiliated faculty as well as a team of dedicated staff, and supports graduate and postdoctoral trainees, all working on collaborative projects to address this need. The institute also hosts prestigious international awards, engages in forward-facing policy work (collaborating on white-papers and interacting with policy makers), and holds a biyearly summit, where global thought leaders and innovators present work, discuss issues, and develop new initiatives.
Multidisciplinary Approaches
Explore how the Institute applies multidisciplinary approaches through research, partnerships, and initiatives that put knowledge into practice.
It is in adolescence and young adulthood that we begin to tell the stories of our lives — those grand narratives we compose to explain to ourselves and to others who we are and how we have come to be the person we are becoming.”
Institute affiliate Dan P. McAdams
Empirical Approaches to Direct Interventions
Discover how the Institute uses empirical approaches to develop interventions that directly address the most pressing challenges faced by adolescents.
Learn about
Student Services
The Institute collaborates with Student Services, helping shape their programming with the latest insights from emerging research on adolescent mental health and well-being.
Training
The Institute is committed to supporting graduate and postdoctoral training for emerging scientists and supporting advanced researchers through workshops and training for students.
The adolescent brain is uniquely poised to learn, and the memories adolescents make can last a lifetime. Adolescence is a formative window when experiences leave lasting impressions on the mind and brain.”
Katie Insel, Institute Fellow
Dedicated Faculty and Staff
Meet the Institute’s dedicated faculty, affiliated scholars, staff, and trainees who collaborate to drive research, develop initiatives, and expand global impact.The Institute unites top scientists from a wide range of disciplines, all committed to helping young people thrive.”
Vijay Mittal, Institute Director
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
The Institute supports work underway within the Department of Psychology as well as intentional collaboration with relevant research from other Northwestern departments, connecting initiatives from bench science to implementation.
By breaking out of traditional silos and harnessing interdisciplinary collaborations, researchers can yield meaningful integration from the level of bench science - including problems at a molecular and cellular level - all the way through sociological and anthropological research, focusing on groups, societies, and culture. Through the support of the Institute, we apply this range of research to the most pressing challenges relating to mental health in emerging adults.
Numerous researchers, labs, departments, and organizations in Weinberg College and across the University are important contributing partners in this developing field.
Impact and Applications
We have the unique ability to implement research findings and analyze the results to inform future research. Northwestern researchers will partner with the Office of Student Affairs and their student life professionals, in a few key ways:
Advance knowledge through deep assessments of the population
In recent years, we have seen cutting-edge research seeking to follow entire first-year classes, from their first day all the way through (and after) graduation.
This work utilizes surveys, interviews, experiments, and smartphone technology to assess students’ physical activity, autonomic responsivity, and social activity. By assessing and tracking wellbeing, stress and resilience, mental illness, and outcomes, we can gather unparalleled levels of invaluable data and novel perspectives. Implementing this research at Northwestern will enable us to learn from and better serve our students.
Understanding factors that give rise to well-being and long-term success
Northwestern researchers can examine the complex factors that affect well-being or, alternatively, poor outcomes.
By implementing the complex research approaches needed, our affiliated faculty can model early life-factors, stressors, strengths, peer networks, relationships, and vulnerabilities, as well as modulating factors such as outlook, identity, and personality. This knowledge will help develop targeted interventions for adolescents and young adults tailored to address both serious clinical issues and general well-being.
Immediate impact on a national crisis
College students everywhere are experiencing a mental health crisis.
Real-time data allow us to not only understand the scope and depth of the problem, but also to identify serious issues like isolation and suicidality early, and to connect students with the most appropriate campus resources. By working in coordination with student life experts on campus, our researchers can test theories through carefully honed research methods involving observation, experimentation, and analysis, and review and reassess with campus leaders. Eventually, this work will yield interventions that can be adopted and tailored to other college campuses and mental health organizations.Meaningful Collaboration
The Institute fosters new and meaningful collaborations and, in turn, address the complex challenge of mental health and wellbeing in young adults.
By harnessing the diverse expertise of faculty across the university and serving as trusted partners to colleagues in student affairs, Northwestern will accelerate both knowledge of and solutions to this pressing local and global problem.
As an institution, Northwestern remains committed to rigorous academic pursuits: deep research, fundamental science, and interdisciplinary study. It is also a place of unique and spirited community, with a devotion to the growth of its students in a holistic fashion. We have an opportunity to cultivate these strengths to best bolster and boost each other: brilliant research for the betterment of students.
