The Impor­tance of Youth Men­tal Health

Youth men­tal health is a grow­ing pub­lic health pri­or­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly as teens and young adults nav­i­gate chang­ing social, aca­d­e­m­ic and dig­i­tal land­scapes. In recent years, ris­ing aware­ness around ado­les­cent emo­tion­al well-being and more open con­ver­sa­tions about men­tal health have encour­aged increased support.

Youth men­tal health sta­tis­tics reveal a trou­bling pic­ture: Large num­bers of ado­les­cents are report­ing symp­toms of anx­i­ety, depres­sion and stress-relat­ed con­di­tions. Pol­i­cy changes, shift­ing social norms, tele­health access and school-based ser­vices save helped reduce stig­ma and may ulti­mate­ly improve access to care. Still, bar­ri­ers per­sist, espe­cial­ly among young peo­ple from low-income com­mu­ni­ties, LGBTQ groups and youth of color.

Key Men­tal Health Trends

Progress is mixed accord­ing to the lat­est youth men­tal health sta­tis­tics. While some indi­ca­tors reflect mod­est improve­ments in recent years, oth­ers high­light increas­es in report­ed men­tal health conditions.

Over­all, the lat­est Nation­al Sur­vey of Children’s Health data reveal that near­ly 1 in 3 (31%) youth ages 12 to 17 had a men­tal, emo­tion­al, devel­op­men­tal or behav­ioral prob­lem in 2022–2023, slight­ly high­er than the pre­vi­ous 30% esti­mate. Sta­tis­tics for select­ed con­di­tions are pro­vid­ed below.

Depres­sion

Near­ly 1 in 5 (18%) youth ages 12 to 17 have had at least one major depres­sive episode in the past year — about 4.5 mil­lion ado­les­cents — accord­ing to a 2023 fed­er­al sur­vey. A larg­er share, almost 1 in 4 (23%), had either a major depres­sive episode or a sub­stance use dis­or­der in the pre­vi­ous year.

While these rates reflect youth who meet the cri­te­ria for clin­i­cal diag­noses, oth­er teen men­tal health sta­tis­tics indi­cate that far more young peo­ple are strug­gling with emo­tion­al prob­lems. For instance, the lat­est 2023 CDC Youth Risk Behav­ior Sur­vey found that 2 in 5 (40%) high school­ers report per­sis­tent feel­ings of sad­ness or hope­less­ness, with rates par­tic­u­lar­ly high for girls (53%) and LGBTQ+ youth (65%). While the 40% fig­ure for 2023 is a slight improve­ment from 42% in 2021, the 10-year trend shows an alarm­ing 10 per­cent­age point spike from 30% in 2013.

Anx­i­ety

Anx­i­ety remains among the most com­mon­ly report­ed men­tal health con­cerns, with 20% of U.S. ado­les­cents ages 12 to 17 indi­cat­ing they expe­ri­enced symp­toms of anx­i­ety (e.g., being both­ered by per­sis­tent wor­ry­ing or nervous/​anxious feel­ings) in the past two weeks, based on a 2021–2023 sur­vey. Anoth­er nation­al sur­vey found an 18% increase between 2020–2021 and 2022–2023 in the share of young peo­ple ages 3 to 17 who were told by a provider that they have an anx­i­ety prob­lem (9.1% to 10.7%).

OCD

Obses­sive-com­pul­sive dis­or­der (OCD) affects approx­i­mate­ly 3% of youth, accord­ing to a 2025 Pedi­atrics jour­nal arti­cle. Often co-occur­ring with anx­i­ety and depres­sion, OCD symp­toms begin before age 17 for the major­i­ty (57%) of peo­ple with this con­di­tion. Dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, OCD preva­lence increased, and symp­toms wors­ened for ado­les­cents.

PTSD

Post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD) con­tin­ues to impact youth exposed to com­mu­ni­ty vio­lence, abuse, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters or oth­er trau­mat­ic events. The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics reports that near­ly half of young peo­ple under age 18 have expe­ri­enced one such event in ear­ly child­hood. Stud­ies esti­mate the preva­lence of PTSD by age 18 at about 8%, accord­ing to a 2024 book on this con­di­tion. Sup­port for youth after trau­ma is crit­i­cal, as it can increase or reduce the like­li­hood of devel­op­ing PTSD.

Sui­cide and Self-Harm

Sui­cide remains a lead­ing cause of death among ado­les­cents. In 2023, 1 in 5 (20%) U.S. high school­ers report­ed seri­ous­ly con­sid­er­ing sui­cide, and 9% report­ed attempt­ing sui­cide in the past year. Although pub­lic aware­ness has increased and wide-rang­ing pre­ven­tion and out­reach strate­gies have grown, gaps in cri­sis response per­sist and cer­tain groups of youth remain at espe­cial­ly high risk.

Read More About These Issues in Gen­er­a­tion Z and Men­tal Health

Access to Men­tal Health Care

Ear­ly inter­ven­tion pro­grams and men­tal health screen­ings in schools have expand­ed, which could help youth access care soon­er. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, though, a major­i­ty (54%) of U.S. youth ages 12 to 17 still have dif­fi­cul­ty get­ting need­ed men­tal health care, accord­ing to the lat­est Nation­al Sur­vey of Children’s Health data in 2022–2023. This fig­ure wors­ened slight­ly from 52% in 2021–2022.

Among ado­les­cents who expe­ri­enced a major depres­sive episode in the past year and arguably are in seri­ous need of treat­ment, 40% still did not receive men­tal health care, as report­ed by a 2023 fed­er­al sur­vey. The most com­mon rea­son youth say they don’t receive care? They think they should be able to han­dle their issues on their own (report­ed by 85%). Oth­er com­mon rea­sons include: wor­ry­ing about what peo­ple will think if they get help; wor­ry­ing about their pri­va­cy; think­ing treat­ment won’t help; not know­ing how to get care; and think­ing no one would care if they got better.

Many schools are strug­gling to meet the grow­ing men­tal health needs of young peo­ple. A 2024–2025 sur­vey from the Nation­al Cen­ter for Edu­ca­tion Sta­tis­tics found that:

  • Just over half (53%) of pub­lic schools report­ed a rise in the share of stu­dents seek­ing school-based men­tal health ser­vices com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year.
  • But only 52% of pub­lic schools said they are effec­tive in pro­vid­ing men­tal health ser­vices to all stu­dents in need.

Com­mon bar­ri­ers schools face in pro­vid­ing ser­vices include inad­e­quate fund­ing, a lack of qual­i­fied men­tal health care providers and a need for more trained school staff to sup­port stu­dents with emo­tion­al health chal­lenges, among oth­er chal­lenges. When youth do not receive help, their men­tal health prob­lems get worse.

Fac­tors Influ­enc­ing Youth Men­tal Health

Men­tal health research regard­ing youth shows that emo­tion­al well-being is shaped by a wide range of inter­con­nect­ed fac­tors. For exam­ple, social, eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions, cul­tur­al expec­ta­tions, sys­temic bar­ri­ers and fam­i­ly and per­son­al expe­ri­ences all can affect a young person’s men­tal health. In addi­tion, fac­tors like biol­o­gy, devel­op­men­tal changes dur­ing ado­les­cence, chron­ic health con­di­tions and learned pat­terns of think­ing also shape youth men­tal well-being.

Envi­ron­men­tal, Eco­nom­ic and Social Influences

Pro­tec­tive envi­ron­ments with safe, sta­ble com­mu­ni­ties and strong social sup­port are asso­ci­at­ed with bet­ter men­tal health. Con­verse­ly, issues like unsta­ble hous­ing, food inse­cu­ri­ty, a lack of social sup­port and com­mu­ni­ty vio­lence are linked with high­er rates of men­tal health chal­lenges. Young peo­ple in under-resourced neigh­bor­hoods face com­pound­ed stres­sors that often go unaddressed.

Cul­tur­al and Soci­etal Pressures

Cul­tur­al stig­ma around men­tal health, par­tic­u­lar­ly in some com­mu­ni­ties of col­or, remains a bar­ri­er to seek­ing and receiv­ing treat­ment. Addi­tion­al­ly, social media com­par­isons, aca­d­e­m­ic pres­sure and body image issues can con­tribute to youth anx­i­ety and depression.

Learn More About How Social Media Affects Teen Men­tal Health

Major Life Events and Traumas

Events like parental sep­a­ra­tion, death of a loved one, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters or involve­ment in the juve­nile jus­tice or child wel­fare sys­tems — often called adverse child­hood expe­ri­ences or ACEs — can lead to trau­ma and long-term men­tal health effects, as not­ed in the PTSD sec­tion. Research has also shown that pre­ven­tion efforts to sta­bi­lize fam­i­lies and reduce parental stress (e.g., eco­nom­ic sup­ports and ear­ly child­hood pro­grams) can reduce ACEs and poor men­tal health outcomes.

Chil­dren, Youth and Young Adults With Men­tal Health Challenges

This sec­tion includes inter­ac­tive data tools for users to explore child and youth men­tal health statistics.

Explore Child and Youth Men­tal Health Data

Choose a view to explore the lat­est trends for your state:

  • 🔽 Table View — Com­pare report­ed emo­tion­al, behav­ioral, or devel­op­men­tal con­di­tions dur­ing 2019 to 2023 by state and nation­al­ly using an inter­ac­tive dropdown.

  • 🗺️ Map View — See how these men­tal health con­di­tions vary across states and iden­ti­fy region­al dis­par­i­ties at a glance.

  • 📈 Trends View — Track changes over time using line graphs show­ing your state with U.S. comparisons.

  • 📊 Bar Chart View — Ana­lyze dif­fer­ences in anx­i­ety and depres­sion by race and loca­tion through a clear, com­par­a­tive bar chart display.

Access all men­tal health data on the KIDS COUNT Data Center

Def­i­n­i­tion and Sources

Def­i­n­i­tion: For this post, men­tal health sta­tis­tics include the per­cent­age of indi­vid­u­als ages 3 to 24 (exact age range depends on the indi­ca­tor) with symp­toms of a con­di­tion or with a men­tal health con­di­tion, includ­ing depres­sion, sub­stance use dis­or­der, anx­i­ety, PTSD, OCD and sui­ci­dal ideation or behavior.

Sources: Nation­al Sur­vey on Drug Use and Health, Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC), Nation­al Sur­vey of Children’s Health and oth­er pub­lic data sources select­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter.