Evidence · Mental health
Is children's mental health getting worse?
Teen sadness climbed for most of a decade and peaked in 2021, and the newest federal data show real improvement from that peak.
The short answer
Over the past decade, yes. In 2025, 33% of U.S. high school students reported persistent sadness or hopelessness, up from 30% in 2015. That share peaked at 42% in 2021 and has fallen since. A second federal survey shows depression among ages 12 to 17 also fell after 2021. The rise began years before the pandemic, and researchers point to several possible drivers. Sleep, physical activity, time outdoors and strong ties at school all go along with better mental health.
What the CDC's student survey shows
The CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey asks a national sample of high school students about their health every two years. In 2025, 10,710 students in public and private schools took part. One question asks about sadness or hopelessness almost every day for two weeks or more. It counts students whose sadness made them stop some usual activities.
In 2025, 33% of high school students said yes. The share stood at 30% in 2015, 31% in 2017, 37% in 2019, 42% in 2021 and 40% in 2023. The CDC rates the 10-year change as worse and the change since 2023 as better.
Girls report far more distress than boys. In 2025, 43% of girls and 24% of boys reported persistent sadness or hopelessness. The share of all students reporting poor mental health fell from 29% in 2023 to 23% in 2025.
Suicide risk measures also improved. The share of students who seriously considered suicide fell from 22% in 2021 to 14% in 2025.
Many students who struggle still go without help. Among students with persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2025, 29.6% received counseling or therapy. Another 28.8% needed it but did not get it.
What other federal data show
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, run by SAMHSA, measures major depressive episodes among ages 12 to 17. That rate rose from 9.0% in 2004 to 15.7% in 2019.
SAMHSA changed how it collects the survey after 2020. Its newest report says current estimates do not compare with 2020 or earlier years, so it uses 2021 as the starting point. On that basis, major depressive episodes among ages 12 to 17 fell from 20.8% in 2021 to 15.1% in 2025. That 2025 figure still equals about 3.7 million young people.
Hospital data point the same way. For ages 12 to 17, emergency visits for suspected suicide attempts fell from 99.6 to 78.9 per 10,000 visits from 2021 to 2025. The CDC notes a small rise from 2024 to 2025.
The school closure period
The rise in teen sadness started before 2020. The CDC survey shows it climbed from 30% in 2015 to 37% in 2019. The peak still came in 2021, during and just after the long period of closed and partly open schools.
A CDC survey of parents in fall 2020 compared children by type of schooling. Parents of children in virtual school reported worse mental or emotional health in 24.9% of cases, compared with 15.9% for in-person school. Those parents also reported less physical activity and less time outside. The CDC authors state that this one-time survey cannot show cause.
A systematic review in JAMA Pediatrics covered 36 studies from 11 countries during the first pandemic wave. It linked school closures with emotional and behavioral problems in children and teens. The authors could not separate the effect of closures from wider lockdown rules.
Emergency departments saw new patterns too. Among girls ages 12 to 17, the share of visits for eating disorders doubled during the pandemic compared with 2019. The share for tic disorders roughly tripled. For the effect on learning, see how much children lost when schools closed.
Less free play and less time outdoors
Peter Gray, David Lancy and David Bjorklund summarized decades of research in a 2023 paper in The Journal of Pediatrics. They argue that children lost much of their freedom to play, roam and act without adults watching. They make the case that this loss is one cause of the long rise in youth anxiety and depression. They state that most of the evidence is correlational.
Time in nature may also matter. A Danish study in PNAS followed more than 900,000 people from childhood. Children with the least green space near home had up to a 55% higher risk of a later psychiatric disorder. The authors adjusted for urban living, socioeconomic status and parental mental illness. They note that the link is a correlation.
Heavy social media use
In 2023, 77.0% of high school students used social media at least several times a day. Among these frequent users, 42.6% reported persistent sadness or hopelessness. Among less frequent users, the figure was 31.9%. By 2025, 36% of students used social media every hour or more.
A national study of 6,595 U.S. adolescents in JAMA Psychiatry tracked use over time. Teens who spent more than three hours a day on social media faced higher risk of internalizing problems, such as anxiety and depression. These studies show associations, not proof of cause. Our page on phones, social media and children covers this research in depth.
What helps
Sleep comes first. Only 24% of high school students got at least 8 hours on a school night in 2025, down from 27% in 2015. The CDC states that teens who lack sleep are more likely to have poor mental health. In 2023 survey data, students who slept 8 hours or more had lower rates of every mental health and suicide risk measure.
Physical activity helps a little, and it costs little. A JAMA Pediatrics meta-analysis pooled 21 studies of 2,441 children and teens. Exercise programs cut depressive symptoms by a small amount. The effect shrank when the authors removed outlier studies. In 2025, only 25% of high school students were active for 60 minutes every day.
In-person bonds at school matter. CDC researchers found that students who felt connected at school had lower rates of all four risk measures. The data come from a single survey year, so they show a link and not a cause.
Evidence on phone-free schools is still early. A Norwegian study in the Journal of Human Resources found that middle school smartphone bans reduced bullying. Girls also used less mental health care after the bans. The same study found no average effect on mental health for all students. An English study of 1,227 students in 30 schools found no wellbeing difference between strict and loose phone rules. That study did find that more time on phones and social media went with worse wellbeing and sleep.
What Restore Childhood is doing
Restore Childhood is a 501(c)(3) that makes films, reporting and tools for everyone who cares about children. Its film 15 DAYS covers America's pandemic school closures. It publishes reporting on its Substack.
If a child or anyone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or visit the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
What you can do now
- Protect sleep. Keep phones and tablets out of bedrooms at night.
- Make room for free play and time outdoors every day, with less adult direction.
- Encourage at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, through sports, walking or play.
- Ask your school how it limits phone use during the day and how it tracks the results.
- Help children build close ties with adults and friends at school and in the community.
- Learn the warning signs of distress, and save 988 in your phone.
Related
We update this page as new data comes out. If you see an error, please contact us.