The stability and latent profiles of mental health problems among Dutch young adults in the past decade: A comparison of three cohorts from a national sample

The aim of the study reported here was to assess whether the prevalence of mental health problems (MHP) among Dutch 19–24 year old adults increased in the past decade and/or whether the distribution of latent profiles of mental health problems changed over the years. For this purpose, data was extracted from the LISS panel, based on a representative national sample of the Dutch population. We focused on three exclusive groups who were 19–24 years old in 2007 (n=383), 2012 (n=351) or 2017 (n=362). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that the 2012 and 2017 group did not have more MHP according to seven mental health-related indicators including mental health services utilization. Latent profile analysis identified 4 classes of MHP profiles,
labeled "healthy" (82.2%), "at risk" (9.6%), "clinical" (4.2%) and "treatment" (3.9%). The 2007, 2012 and 2017 cohorts were equally distributed across these four classes. However, females had systematically more health problems than males and more often belonged to the "at risk", "clinical" and "treatment" class. In sum, our findings do not support concerns about an increase in MHP or that problems have become more complex among Dutch young adults over the past decade.