Teenagers today are more depressed than a decade ago, but use drugs less

Teenagers always felt vulnerable. They have to make decisions that are going to impact their entire lives and they have to deal with stress about school, their changing bodies, new feelings towards other people from their age group and many other different things. Scientists from UCL and the University of Liverpool say that young people today are more likely to be depressed and to self-harm than they were 10 years ago.

Scientists analysed data from two different groups of people – 11,000 14-year-olds born across in 2000-01 and over 5,600 14-year-olds who were born in 1991-92. Obviously, data was collected when these people were 14. Scientists paid attention to mental health, sleep behaviour, substance use and many other different factors. They found that the depression levels rose from 9 to 14 % and self-harm increased from 12 to 14 % in that decade. At the same time, substance use and antisocial behaviour declined, but these issues were simply replaces by other big problems.

Teenagers of today sleep less, eat more unhealthy food, exercise less and are generally more obese. In fact, rates of obesity among young people had almost doubled over a decade, rising from 4 to 7 %. And not only teenagers are becoming more obese, they are also considering themselves less attractive. Body image is declining significantly in teenagers, which may be contributing to poor mental health statistics. Negative changes in teenager mental health and health-related activities can be observed in all socioeconomic levels, genders and ethnicities. It just seems like people born in 21^st century are less happy and less active, which may become a public health concern in the future.

Scientists say that poor sleep, obesity and negative body image could all be linked to increasing numbers of depression cases in teenagers. Understanding these factors could help creating guidelines both for the teenagers and their parents. However, scientists say that more research needs to be done into the causes of the increase of the depression in order to develop effective intervention strategies.

Dr Praveetha Patalay, co-author of the study, said: “Striking increases in mental health difficulties, BMI and poor sleep related behaviours highlight an increasing public health challenge. Identifying explanations for these high prevalence and changing trends are key for preventing further poor physical and mental health for future generations of young people”.

These unhappy teenagers are going to become unhappy adults. This issue is going to continue unless we start doing something about it. Teenagers need support and to understand that what is happening to them and around them is normal. They need to be encouraged to be more physically active and to sleep a healthy amount every night.

Source: UCL