How does mental ill-health and violent behaviour develop in children and youth?
Niklas Långström researches how mental ill-health and violent behaviour develop in children and youth. He hopes that his studies of the causal mechanisms behind serious psychiatric and behavioural disorders, including norm-breaking or antisocial behaviour, will help improve interventions for children and youth with destructive lifestyles.
Text: based on Karin Tideström text for KI’s installation ceremony booklet 2025
The work involves children in psychiatric inpatient care, those placed in compulsory residential care by the social services, and those sentenced to penal detention. For example, he examines potential long-term effects of these interventions. By collaborating with healthcare services and research colleagues in other countries, he aims to increase knowledge of how to detect risks and reduce negative development, in order to improve the prospects of affected youth. The goal is better coordinated and effective care involving healthcare, social services, schools, and the legal system.
Niklas Långström was also Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet from 2010 to 2016.