Young adults talk about their problems

What is it about?

This study aims to explore how young adults in psychotherapy and young adults in general describe their problems and how their problem formulations change over time. Two matched samples from longitudinal prospective studies were compared using thematic analysis. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted at baseline, 1.5 years after termination of psychotherapy (N=12) in the clinical sample and 3 years after baseline in the non clinical sample (N=12). Inductive thematic analysis revealed six themes: problems associated with one-self, family, intimate relationships, sense of belonging, occupation, and social roles. The psychotherapy sample was characterized by problems with oneself closely related to other problematic areas, at both pre-treatment and at follow-up 1.5 years after termination, while problematic sense of belonging was a general theme only prior to psychotherapy. However, they were less troubled by their problems after psychotherapy. Problems with oneself decreased considerably in the non clinical sample, while problems with intimate relationships were twice as frequent at follow-up. In the psychotherapy sample, the initial experience of being passively trapped within their problems was transformed into an experi-ence of being an active agent in their own life. However, considerable differ-ences between the psychotherapy sample and non clinical sample still persisted at follow-up.

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