Youth mental health worse, especially among girls, pandemic-spanning survey shows
CTV
According to a survey conducted in both 2019 and 2023, mental health among adolescent girls has gotten worse as they've grown into young adults.
According to a survey conducted in both 2019 and 2023, mental health for adolescents has gotten worse as they've grown into young adults — especially among girls.
Statistics Canada released new results from the 2023 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youththis week, which followed up on the same survey conducted in 2019, before the pandemic. The survey asked youth to gauge their own mental health using one of five options: "excellent," "very good," "good," "fair" or "poor."
In the original survey, 12 per cent of the group aged 12 to 17 rated their mental health in the two lowest categories. By 2023, when the group was 16 to 21 years of age, that percentage grew to 26 per cent.
In 2019, among girls aged 12 to 17, only 16 per cent rated their mental health "fair" or "poor." Among the same group of individuals, when surveyed again four years later, that number was up to 33 per cent.
Over the same time span, the proportion of boys self-rating their mental as "fair" or "poor" went from seven per cent to 19 per cent.
Alisa Simon, executive vice-president, e-mental health transformation and chief youth officer with Kids Help Phone, said those statistics don't surprise her.
Kids Help Phone connects young people with telephone, text message and online mental health support in Canada. Simon said last year, the service had the highest number of connections in the organization's history.
