Adolescence is a time of emotional and psychological highs and lows. But poor mental health can have a long-lasting impact.
Listening to the young people in your life when they talk about their feelings can help. You can also help create protective relationships by providing stable, safe and affirming environments.
Family and Community
In some cases, family and community factors increase the risk of mental health challenges among adolescents. These include having a caregiver with mental illness; living in poverty; and experiencing violence or bullying.
Psychologists are identifying and disseminating solutions that can address these risks. They’re working with families, schools and state governments to help normalize conversation about mental health, create connections to resources and inspire action.
They’re also supporting children and youth, including those with specialized needs, to find and use the right services for them. For example, NYC Teenspace is a free tele-mental health service that allows New York City teenagers to connect with licensed therapists via video or text.
Other programs provide support to adolescents who live in humanitarian and fragile settings; or those who are pregnant, adolescent parents or orphans; those with an intellectual disability or chronic illness; or those who belong to minority ethnic or sexual groups that face discrimination. These efforts aim to address the root causes of barriers that affect youth mental health and resilience.
School
The school environment plays a significant role in a young person’s mental health. Anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts or behaviors are common among adolescents. These symptoms are exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been rising over the decade.
Developing strategies and solutions to address teen mental health is essential. Invest in community-driven partnerships that engage young people and families. Strengthen and expand school-based mental health programs and telehealth. Prioritize data and research with at-risk youth populations, including racial and ethnic minority youth, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, youth involved in the juvenile justice system and those with disabilities.
Learn more about the resources that New York City has to offer to support youth mental wellness and coping with stress, anxiety and depression. Explore family resources, including a step-by-step toolkit to help families begin the conversation with their teens.
Social Environment
Adolescence is a period of rapid brain development and emotional regulation, a time when social connections are particularly important. Research suggests that the decline in mental health among adolescents may be linked to a loss of supportive peer relationships and community belonging.
A number of studies have found that objective environmental characteristics, such as the presence of green spaces, road design, and land use mix, can be associated with youth mental health. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating subjective environmental measures into neighborhood-level intervention strategies, especially those targeting vulnerable populations (e.g., adolescent mental health).
However, existing research demonstrates that the impact of these objective environmental factors is dependent on their perceptual context. This argues for future studies to explore the nuances in the relationship between perceptual environmental measures and youth health. In particular, investigations should seek to address the confounding effects of residential self-selection in assessing neighborhood environmental perceptions. Further, interventions that target young people should aim to foster meaningful and supportive social connections, and to increase their access to community-level resources and facilities.
Media
Many believe social media is one of the biggest contributing factors to our current youth mental health crisis. In fact, adolescents spend over five hours per day on average scrolling through apps like TikTok and Instagram, almost double the amount of time they spend doing homework. This significant increase in screen time has had a profound impact on teen mental health, for better and worse.
Studies have shown that social media usage is related to lower self-esteem, more suicidal thoughts and a higher risk of victimization. Additionally, it is easy to access information online that encourages suicide, which has been shown to be linked to increased rates of self-inflicted harm and even suicide.
Experts agree that it’s important for parents, teachers, mental health and medical professionals, and technology companies to work together to provide young people with the tools they need to stay healthy on social media. To help, Charlie Health has created a customizable Family Media Plan and resource to support healthy digital and media literacy practices.