Youth mental health worse, especially among girls, pandemic-spanning survey shows – CTV
Sept. 12, 2024
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.
