Rainbow knowledges: adolescence and mental health in post-apartheid South Africa

Global models based on western cultural values and biomedical approaches have influenced the social constructions of adolescence and mental health in post-apartheid South Africa. The expansion of western cultural norms and the hegemony of biomedicine have also contributed to the marginalization of local adolescent and mental health knowledges as illegitimate, irrational and inferior. This research explores the interaction between global and local adolescent and mental health knowledges in an attempt to understand the degree to which some normative elements of adolescence and mental health are applicable to South African society. In doing so this research argues in support of developing more socially- and culturally-informed interventions that may help to re-establish pertinent local knowledges displaced by hegemonic frameworks and address adolescent and mental health issues at the local level.