The youth mental health crisis is a significant increase in mental health conditions among adolescents and young adults worldwide. The trend emerged in the early 2010s and escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key indicators include rising rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide. The advancement of technology and social media has played a large role in these issues, with data showing that adolescent girls are disproportionately affected.
Prevalence In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and the Children's Hospital Association (CHA) jointly declared a "national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.". Two months later, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy published a rare public health advisory, sounding alarm at a "devastating" decline in mental health faced by young people in America. According to the report, while the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend, the sharp drop in youth mental health had already begun ten years prior. Due to the increasing number of youth mental health issues after COVID, the CDC noted that 55% of U.S. Adolescents reported that they discuss their mental and emotional health with a healthcare professional. Compared to the past, youth, parents, and professionals today are more likely to talk about mental health issues, and this can result in better outcomes. Between 2014 and 2024, the suicide rate for young Americans aged 10–24 years has risen by 56%, with Black youth experiencing a particularly sharp rise of 78%. Other signs of mental health distress, such as self-harm episodes, major depressive episodes, and anxiety, have also shown similar growth. 32% of teens say social media has a negative effect on people their age. When asking parents their opinions on their child’s social media usage, 28% say their child(ren) struggle with anxiety and depression. Contributing factors to this crisis also include academic pressure, social isolation, economic stress, and increased exposure to digital environments, all of which can negatively impact young people's emotional well-being.
Demographic disparities Research indicates that the youth mental health crisis does not affect all groups equally. Adolescent girls in the United States and several European countries report higher rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm than boys, a pattern that has widened since the early 2010s. Some studies in the United States have shown that non-farm rural youth have a much higher risk than those rural youth that live on farms. Racial and ethnic disparities also play a role; for example, suicide rates among Black youth in the United States have risen more sharply than those among white peers. LGBTQ+ adolescents consistently report higher rates of psychological distress, bullying, and suicidal ideation compared to heterosexual and cisgender youth. As well as socioeconomic factors such as poverty, unstable housing, and limited access to mental health services.
Demographic Disparities: LGBTQ+ Youth of Color A 2025 study published to the International Journal of Adolescent and Youth involving 1,972 participants identified that non-heterosexual youth were more often victims of bullying and cyberbullying. Sexual diversity has been associated with unique experiences of discrimination that negatively impact youth mental health, with sexual minoritiesexperiencing a higher prevalence of both bullying and cyber bullying. According to Meyer's 1995 minority stresstheory, the existence of "stressful events that are related to stigmatization, internalized homophobia, discrimination, and violence towards he non-majority sexual orientation" produce stress in individuals who experience them. This coincides with other research that indicates that a non-heteronormative sexual orientation poses as a risk factor for bullying amongst youth. Additional qualitative research that conducts qualitative interviews with LGBTQ adolescents between 14–19 years old demonstrate that around 70% described at least one instance of enacted stigma, calling for efforts to address diverse forms of discrimination and their effects on youth. These unique stressors and prejudices mediate associations between identity and depression, suicidal tendencies, and substance use.
Intersections between biased bullying among queer youth contributes to mental health disparities. Informed by intersectionality theory as stated by Kimberlé Crenshaw identifies how multiple social identities such as race, gender, class, and sexuality interact to create a unique compound system of oppression. Further research on bullying examines the bias-based bullying victimization of LGBTQ youth. Bivariate results point to LGBTQ+ youth holding other marginalized identities and in turn report higher rates of bias-based bullying expanding on the basis of Crenshaw's intersectionality theory. Experiencing any form of bias-based bullying is harmful to overall mental well being, with the prevalence of this class of individuals falling at more than a third of the sample researched in this study.
Very little research addresses the narratives of youth who are both racial and sexual minorities, as existing literature focus on race and sexuality as two separate groups. A study published to the Journal of School Health discusses the results of a bivariate analysis administered to assess mental health, school climate, and bullying rates among Asian LGBTQ students and white students. It finds that lesbian and gay students report significantly higher rates of mental health disparities and bullying, exemplifying 55.2% of Laotian LGBTQ students reporting higher rates of suicidal ideation in comparison to 49.7% of white LGBTQ students. Transgender students additionally report significantly higher bullying rates, finding that the intersection of identities maintain larger disparities. Results such as these contribute to the literature examining the experiences of LGBTQ students, and taking into consideration their multiple forms of identities to study the mental health disparities among queer youth.
Possible causes A 2021 report by the U.S. Surgeon General suggested that "messages through the media and popular culture that erode [adolescents'] sense of self-worth" may be responsible. Similarly, in a 2023 statement, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) recognised the risks of "excessive use of social media", but also called attention to social and political malaise, as well as anxieties over climate change.
The 2024 best-selling book The Anxious Generation by American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, argued that the rise of "phone-based" childhood and overprotective parenting has disrupted social and neurological development of adolescents. The book highlighted several negative factors, including social anxiety, attention fragmentation, sleep deprivation, and addiction. Others have disputed Haidt's theory.
A survey conducted by Politico in April 2024, involving 1,400 medical and mental health professions, identified the following factors as the primary drivers of mental health issues in children: social media (cited by 28% respondents), external events such as school shootings, climate change, war, and political instability (14%), social isolation (13%), and lack of skills to be more independent (12%).
A Pew Research Center poll concluded that teenagers are worried about social media's impact on adolescents' mental health. Nearly half of teens believe that social media harms their peers. Additionally, 45% of teens think social media negatively impacts their sleep, while 40% state it harms their productivity. Teens' reported effects of social media differ by gender. About 25% of girls believe social media negatively impacts their mental health compared to 14% of boys. Additionally, girls are twice as likely to state that social media hurts their confidence. Overall, girls are more worried about teen mental health. 48% of girls compared to 28% of boys reported being highly concerned about teen mental health. Teenagers are not the only ones concerned about social media. Parents are also worried about the effects of technology on their teenagers' health. 44% of parents believe social media is the biggest threat to teens' mental health, while 22% of teens identified it as the main factor.
Although young adults report that social media negatively affects their sleep, productivity, and confidence, many teens believe it boosts their creativity and connection with friends. A review of 36 studies from 2002 to 2017 indicated that social media benefits teens' socialization. Technology gave them an avenue to express their affection towards friends and schedule hangouts. Although many parents and teens attribute adolescents' declining mental health to social media, studies have found inconclusive evidence of technology's effects on mental health. For example, a 2017 study of 120,000 UK teenagers found no correlation between moderate digital technology use and negative mental health. Slight negative effects were observed in children with high levels of engagement.
Candice Odgers, a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, suggests that negative online experiences are largely predicted by teens' vulnerabilities offline. Socioeconomic position influences adolescents' online activity. U.S. teens from low-income families, earning less than $35,000 a year, spent around twice as much time online compared to children from families with incomes exceeding $100,000.Rideout, V. (2015). The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens. Another survey across seven European countries found that lower-income families are less likely to moderate their children's online activity than wealthy parents.Mascheroni, G., & Ólafsson, K. (2014). Net Children Go Mobile: Risks and opportunities. Ultimately, Odgers concludes that children from low-income families are more likely to experience negative effects of social media, such as social media spillover, in which online events lead to in-person confrontations. Children who are already facing adversity offline are more susceptible to negative experiences online. Social media itself might not be the perpetrator of the teen mental health crisis; rather, it reflects teens' existing vulnerabilities.
David Wallace-Wells of The New York Times suggested that the spike in mental illness may at least partly be attributed to "changing methods of measuring and addressing mental health and mental illness."
According to the CDC, adolescents may have experiences that support or harm their mental health. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic experiences, such as experiencing violence, abuse, neglect, or suicide in your younger years, that may affect mental health or substance abuse problems in the future. Positive childhood experiences (PCEs) are experiences in childhood that support children’s upbringing in safe and nurturing environments. The more PCEs a child has in their life, the less likely they are to be diagnosed with mental health issues.
Social solutions Strong social connections at school have been shown to mitigate poor mental health during public health emergencies. During COVID-19, youth mental illness notably increased, likely due to rapid changes to the community as well as other stressors like economic uncertainty, isolation, and illness. The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory to research the relationship between social connections and adolescents' mental health. Teens who reported feeling connected to home or school were more likely to have better mental health. Fostering strong school connectedness can benefit students' mental well-being.