BACKGROUND
There has been growing interest in the stalled transition to adulthood in the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) and its consequences for young people’s socioeconomic
outcomes. However, little is known about how important life transitions relate to youth
psychosocial well-being in the region.
OBJECTIVE
Drawing on a life course framework, we estimate the associations between making
transitions in education, employment, and marriage with changes in mental health
among young people in Egypt.
METHODS
We descriptively analyze mental health scores, measured via the Self-Reporting
Questionnaire-20 and disaggregated by gender, for a panel of young people first
surveyed in 2009 at ages 13–29 and followed up in late 2013 and early 2014. We
regress change in mental health scores against indicators of making different
transitions.
RESULTS
Young women experience worse mental health than young men overall. Lower school
achievement was associated with poorer mental health; being out of the labor force was
an additional risk factor for young men. While average mental health scores improved
over time, over a quarter of the sample experienced worsening mental health, related to
failure to marry and find a job among older men, and failure to finish schooling among
younger women.