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Credit: Pexels \/ Cottonbro Studio<\/p>\n
Top Takeaways<\/p>\n
More California youth report poor mental health compared to 2023. <\/p>\n
Top stressors include housing affordability, gun violence, climate change and discrimination against immigrants.<\/p>\n
Social media harmed and helped California youth, with the majority reporting both negative impact on body image and positive impact on social connectedness. <\/p>\n
A new survey paints a difficult but optimistic picture of California\u2019s youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
About 94% of young people in the state said they experience regular mental health challenges \u2014 up from 87% in 2023<\/a>, with one-third reporting their mental health as \u201cfair\u201d or \u201cpoor,\u201d according to a new report<\/a> by Blue Shield of California and Children Now.\u00a0<\/p>\n The survey polled 750 young people age 14 to 25 between April and June of this year across California. Other key findings include:<\/p>\n About 98% who reported poor mental health are youth of color\u00a0<\/p>\n 25% of those reporting poor mental health are LGBTQ+<\/p>\n Top stressors include gun violence, housing affordability, discrimination and climate change<\/p>\n More than a third say they felt too embarrassed to seek professional help<\/p>\n Top stressors\u00a0<\/p>\n Young people pointed to socioeconomic issues as weighing on their mental health, according to the survey, with 87% concerned with the cost of housing, 84% worried about the price of groceries and 73% citing the ability to find a good job as a top concern. About 85% cited concerns about gun violence, and 78% cited climate change and racism as top issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n Youths in Los Angeles, where communities faced devastating wildfires and ongoing immigration raids, reported the highest levels of poor mental health in the state. About 90% of L.A. youths cited housing affordability as a top issue, with\u00a085% citing both climate change and discrimination against immigrants as key stressors.<\/p>\n At a recent student mental health conference in San Diego called Wellness Together, school leaders and student mental health professionals discussed the survey. Nicole Stelter, director of behavioral health at Blue Shield of California, said the results can be a tool for parents and schools to better treat mental health among young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe data shows youth are deeply affected by the world around them, from climate anxiety and safety to social media pressures,\u201d said Stelter. \u201cIt\u2019s more important than ever that clinicians, educators, policymakers and caring adults listen to what our youth are saying and treat this seriously for what it is \u2014 a youth mental health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n Social media\u2019s positive and negative effects<\/p>\n More than half of the young people in the survey said they spend more than four hours a day on social media, and most said there were trade-offs to being online. More than 40% said social media was beneficial to their mental health, with nearly 90% saying social media helped them stay connected to others.\u00a0<\/p>\n Parents should know that social media is not \u201call doom and gloom,\u201d Stelter said. It was a lifeline for young people who missed out on key social-emotional development during the pandemic, she said, and that reliance is likely reflected in the new data.\u00a0<\/p>\n But social media can also seem like \u201ca safer way\u201d to connect for students who never really made it out of their physical isolation, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere can be some good validation on social media, where kids feel, \u2018I\u2019m not the only one that feels this way,\u2019 but sometimes that validation is not enough,\u201d said Stelter. \u201cMost of that co-development and growth happens in real-world friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly a third of young people said that social media was harmful to their mental health. Also, about 1 in 3 said they have been cyberbullied on social media, and about 7 in 10 said that social media contributed to a negative body image.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stelter pointed to young people\u2019s exposure to graphic videos on social media, such as the recent recorded murder of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk. When young people repeatedly witness traumatic events online, from school shootings to climate disasters, the psychological toll can be more pronounced, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the conference, experts addressed the role of social media platforms on youth mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies are preying on our young people for profit,\u201d said Lishaun Francis, director of behavioral health at Children Now, who conducted the survey with Blue Shield. \u201cThere is an algorithm that knows exactly how old your child is and targets them with content that makes them feel bad about themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Francis described one student she worked with who kept seeing advertisements for Pilates classes, which the student felt targeted her insecurities about body image, despite muting certain harmful content.\u00a0<\/p>\n Parents tend to look at social media in terms of restricting how much time young people are on it. But Willough Jenkins, a child psychiatrist and clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego, said parents should ask children, \u201cHow do screens make you feel?\u201d to help recognize unhealthy attachments to social media on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you notice they\u2019re staying up late, or are more anxious after they use screens, pulling away from real-world friendships, more irritable, or they\u2019re saying they\u2019re depressed or anxious \u2014 please take that seriously,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cChildren start to make that connection to how they\u2019re emotionally responding to their use of screens, and that\u2019s where we can help them to make changes to these behaviors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Barriers and hope persist\u00a0<\/p>\n More than a third of young people in the survey who wanted professional help for their mental health care said that feeling \u201cembarrassed\u201d was the main reason they did not seek it. More than a fifth said they could not afford mental health care and did not know where to find help.\u00a0<\/p>\n As barriers to care persist, students can still find some meaningful support in each other, especially in service to their communities,\u00a0Stelter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are into beach cleanup, go do that. If you are into volunteering at a pet shelter or animal shelter, do that,\u201d Stelter said. \u201cYou will meet people there who have that common interest and common purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n About two-thirds of young people said they were optimistic about the future, engaging in efforts like exercise and hobbies to protect their mental health, and advocating for change. About 99% of those concerned about climate change, for example, said they were taking pro-climate action themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Young people] are not passive. They want to be in the driver\u2019s seat for their future, and they\u2019re clearly taking action,\u201d Francis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Pexels \/ Cottonbro Studio Top Takeaways More California youth report poor mental health compared to 2023. 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