Young people growing up in deprived coastal areas of England have poorer mental health in early adulthood than those who lived in similarly deprived inland areas. This study followed adolescents for more than a decade and found that while coastal communities face multiple environmental disadvantages, the main drivers of poorer mental health were families’ socioeconomic circumstances rather than the physical features of places themselves. The findings suggest that improving young people’s mental health in coastal areas requires tackling household poverty and inequality, alongside wider investment in deprived coastal communities.
Emily T Murray et al. | Is it the place or the people in the places? Exploration of why young people in deprived coastal communities of England have worse mental health than their peers inland | Wellbeing, Space and Society, 2025