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1. Introduction

2,4,4,5, Despite the significant economic, health and educational advantages that exist for young people living in high income Westernised countries today when compared to previous generations, there is an increasing body of evidence suggesting that the psychological wellbeing of young people in these environments is in decline [ 1 3 ]. A selection of generational data on mental health for instance, points towards an increase in the amount of psychological health issues experienced by young people in Western contexts over the preceding decades [ 3 5 ]. Though such findings are not without limitation, with the influence of population growth and changes in self-report metrics relevant contributors, researchers argue that they deserve greater attention [ 3 6 ]. 7, In response to this data indicating a potential decline in young people’s mental health, some research has pointed towards a number of cultural shifts in Western environments that may be impacting upon these statistics [ 5 6 ]. Specifically, the increasing ‘individualisation’ of Western societies is thought to be one potential contributor to this challenging cultural climate facing young people living in such settings [ 6 8 ]. Individualism is defined by Triandis and Gelfand [ 9 ] as an orientation towards independence and self-reliance, pursuing personal goals, maintaining relationships when the costs do not outweigh the benefits, and having the freedom to express oneself. This is in contrast with the dynamics surrounding collectivism—whereby societies are oriented around shared groups, identities and goals. Oyserman and colleagues [ 10 ], provide a further distinction to these definitions, stating that attaining personal goals, happiness and personal control are assumed central to wellbeing within individualism, whereas carrying out obligations and duties are assumed central to wellbeing within collectivism. Individualistic values are said to be largely unique to Western countries, whereby greater economic, political and social liberties allow for high levels of individual autonomy, and social behaviours and values are influenced accordingly [ 11 12 ]. Young people living in high income, Westernised societies are shown to be particularly likely to adopt individualistic social orientations [ 13 14 ] with this trend shown to have increased over the past few decades [ 8 ]. In reviewing generational data collected from American College students from 1966 to 2009, Twenge and colleagues [ 8 ] for instance show that the millennial generation (those born between 1982 and 2003) are less caring towards others, and more oriented towards individualistic values and behaviours when compared with previous generations. The authors point to cultural influences specific to American society (and Western society more generally) as being responsible for this shift in social orientations, citing increasing economies and the resultant freedoms they allow for certain demographics of young people to make important life decisions, as important contributors. 17, The cultural dynamisms of individualism and collectivism have served as a key social distinction when exploring wellbeing and life satisfaction outcomes across differing cultures. Cross-cultural research has shown that the economic and libertarian advantages that accompany individualistic cultures leads to positive associations between individualistic countries and subjective wellbeing when compared with collectivist cultures [ 15 16 ]. Further research has shown individualistic societies to associate with enhanced human rights, self-determinism and economic opportunities [ 10 18 ]. Ahuvia [ 19 ] theorises that it is these associations that have allowed individualism to liberate the individual from the bounds of pure collectivism and class hierarchy and enhance one’s social liberties, which in turn equates to increased quality of life outcomes.

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24,24, Despite these positive associations between individualistic cultures and wellbeing when contrasted with collectivistic cultures, research on individualism and wellbeing conducted at the personal level of analyses provides a contrasting set of findings. Studies that have focused on how orientations towards individualism relate to wellbeing at the personal level (rather than across cultures) show individualistic values to be associated with higher levels of isolation [ 20 ], suicidal tendencies [ 21 22 ] and poorer psychological health [ 23 ]. As a means of gaining clarity on these seemingly conflicting findings between individualism and wellbeing that exist between the cultural versus personal level of analyses, a number of studies have broken the concepts down into differing sub-traits [ 23 25 ]. In particular, studies have largely drawn on Triandis and Gelfand’s [ 9 ] ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ dimensions of individualism and collectivism. These distinctions define firstly horizontal individualism as emphasising uniqueness and autonomy, yet rather than aspiring to stand out, people instead focus on becoming independent. Vertical individualism similarly defines a focus on independence, but also embodies traits of extreme self-sufficiency and competitiveness as well. Horizontal collectivism then emphasises common goals and cooperativeness between an individual and their community, while vertical collectivism is defined as a complete submission and dutifulness to the authorities of one’s community. Germani et al. [ 24 ] note that studies applying this horizontal and vertical distinction to examining individualism and collectivism warrant greater attention, as they provide greater comprehension around the previously acknowledged association between individualism and positive wellbeing outcomes. Indeed, whilst individualistic environments allow for increased personal freedoms to pursue one’s own personal goals [ 15 18 ], recent findings drawing on these sub-definitions of individualism indicate that socially orienting oneself in a highly individualistic way may also comprise a range of subtle detriments. This is specific to the traits of self-sufficiency and competitiveness individualistic values can lead to, that can in turn be harmful to one’s psychological wellbeing [ 23 25 ]. In line with this evolving body of research, as well as the findings indicating that young people are shown to be more individualistic than previous generations, we aim throughout this review to give an updated account on the literature of how the cultural concept of individualism relates to the psychological wellbeing of young people living in Westernised environments. By reviewing studies according to their level of analysis (i.e., cross-cultural or individual), our review aims to bring clarity to the relationship individualism has on the wellbeing of young people living within noted individualistic environments. This review will employ a focus on empirical literature, published in English, that explores the association between individualistic values and wellbeing amongst youth living in Westernised environments. We choose to focus our review on Western environments, as research suggests that the relationship between individualism and wellbeing operationalizes very differently in Eastern versus Western cultures [ 26 ]. This is said to be due to the differences in socioeconomic, political and social circumstance that can exist amidst these differing environments [ 26 ]. Further, according to Hofstede’s [ 12 ] cross-cultural indicators, high-income Western nations are shown to score particularly high on individualism when compared with Eastern countries that tend to be more collectivistic, making Western contexts a good case study to focus our investigation on.

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