Okay, But Why Are Kids Struggling With Their Mental Health?

Kids today have a lot to worry about. Getting through adolescence was hard enough in generations past, but these days, kids have more anxieties than ever. And who can blame them? There were 83 school shootings in 2024 and gun violence is now the number one cause of death for kids.

In 2023, 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and that increases to 53% when you just ask girls. And if you ask LGBTQ kids, that number goes all the way up to 65%. Even sadder, suicide has become the second-leading cause of death for kids between 10 and 14.

There’s a lot of concern about kids’ phone use, especially social media, and that certainly plays a role. But some experts believe that just two things are primarily to blame for most mental health crises: poverty and violence. And of course the Trump administration has been making both of those issues worse, catering to the NRA and cutting programs that support working families. He closed the White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention and, just last month, approved the sale of “forced reset triggers” that allow normal guns to fire like machine guns.

Trump also cut $1 billion in funding for student mental health services. Yes, one billion dollars taken away from helping kids with their mental health.

There’s no lack of internet opinions about parenting, and when it comes to things like social media, you know your own kids best. But we know how to improve outcomes for kids across the country: funding for mental health services, better gun safety laws, assistance for families who need help with food or housing, and protection for kids who live with domestic abuse. The Trump administration has been moving us backwards on every one of these issues and it’s on us to speak up for kids.

Transcript

Okay, But Why Are Kids Struggling With Mental Health?

CLIP: Reporter talking to 3 students at school.
Reporter: “Raise your hand if you’ve been depressed.”
Student: “I think the last few weeks have been hard for me for sure.’
Reporter: “What do you want other kids at home to know about why it’s important to talk about your mental health?”
Student: “It's not good to keep it bundled together because you will literally lose your mind. Because it's happened to me before and it's not a good feeling.”

Narrator: Kids today have a lot to worry about. Getting through adolescence was hard enough in generations past, between succeeding at school, fitting in with your friends, and figuring out who you are. But these days, kids have more anxieties than ever - and many of them are completely valid. There were 83 school shootings in 2024, and gun violence is now the number one cause of death for kids. 

The anxieties go on. The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t just mean a pervasive sense of fear and, for many kids, the deaths of loved ones. It also meant physical separation from friends and teachers. And kids can see what’s happening to the planet because of climate change. They see the wildfires and hurricanes and rising temperatures – in the news and in their own backyard - and even worse, they don’t see adults taking real action to stop it. In a recent survey of teenagers, almost 60 percent said that they felt “very worried” or “extremely worried” about climate change. Meanwhile, 5.6 million kids who are U.S. citizens live with the fear that an undocumented family member will be taken away.

Then there’s smartphones and social media, which many people believe are making our kids miserable. The science and opinions from child psychologists is a little more mixed, showing both good and bad effects. Social media can make anxious kids more anxious, but for kids who are struggling to find friends who understand them, like some in the LGBTQ community, it’s a chance to connect with other kids who share their experiences but might not live in their town. On the other hand, teenagers with the highest levels of social media use also report the highest rates of loneliness. Body image and self-esteem can suffer when kids are presented with perfect, curated images on apps like Instagram. It’s a complicated issue, with data and well-meaning experts on both sides.

But what we can agree on is the overall trends aren’t looking good. In 2023, 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and that increases to 53% when you just ask girls. And if you ask LGBTQ kids, that number goes all the way up to 65%. Even sadder, suicide has become the second-leading cause of death for kids between 10 and 14. Those rates are twice as high in rural areas, for a variety of reasons that include social isolation, the prevalence of firearms, poverty, racism, and limited access to mental health services.

This all feels pretty sad and overwhelming, but that last statistic gives us a clue about what might help. It’s not just TikTok that’s making our kids unhappy. It’s poverty. It’s guns. It’s racism and homophobia. And it’s a lack of access to support. We can help our own kids navigate the pitfalls of social media, setting limits and encouraging open communication. But if we want to help all kids, we need to look at the bigger picture.

According to psychologist Dr. Mathilde Ross, “there is a mental health crisis out there, but it’s mostly not what people are talking about. The root cause of most serious mental health problems is poverty. Second to that, it’s trauma, child abuse, and violence.”

Let’s start with the poverty. According to a 2013 study, economically disadvantaged kids are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop mental health conditions than those whose families have a higher income. The Biden administration passed an unprecedented number of laws to help families, like an expansion of the Child Tax Credit and keeping over 8 million families from homelessness by providing aid through the Emergency Rental Assistance program. Unfortunately, the Trump budget (yes, the “big beautiful bill") is great for billionaires and terrible for working families. It raises taxes for the poorest 10% of Americans while cutting taxes for the richest 10%. And don’t forget about the billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.

Then there’s the factor of violence. Kids are worried about being shot in school. So let’s do something about it. There are organizations like Moms Demand Action who are fighting for legislation that’ll help protect kids from gun violence. Or you can look for a TroubleNation group in your area that’s working to prevent gun violence on a local level. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has been doing the exact opposite, starting with shutting down the White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention. They rolled back safety measures that keep domestic abusers from buying guns. And just a few weeks ago, on May 16th, the administration approved the sale of forced reset triggers, which allow normal guns to fire like machine guns. If we really want to protect kids, both physically and mentally, we need to stand up against gun violence. As Democrat Chris Murphy pointed out on the Senate floor, when we take action, we see results.

CLIP: Senator Chris Murphy: “We literally are seeing the results, the fruits of the labor of these groups. And not just about saving a life or two. We’re talking about 30 and 40 percent reductions in violence in these cities. And what will happen is unmistakeable. You stop funding these groups that are doing the mental health work in the schools, that are doing the anti gun violence work, and these rates will start to go back up again.”

Narrator: Across the country, schools have been working hard to support their students. Teachers are often the first to notice if a kid is struggling and connect them to counselors, nurses or administrators who can help. But last month, Trump issued an executive order that cut $1 billion in funding for student mental health grants. Yes, one billion dollars taken away from helping kids with their mental health. And that isn’t even to mention the one million children around the world who will now go untreated for severe malnutrition because of Trump’s cuts to US-AID. Remember that hunger, poverty and violence are the root cause of most mental health crises.

In some ways, the situation with kids’ mental health isn’t as bad as the clickbait headlines and mommy blogs want you to believe. Yes, the pandemic affected us all. Yes, smartphones have drastically changed the way we interact with each other. But there’s another theory among child psychologists we haven’t even mentioned yet: that it’s a lack of independence and free time to play that’s making our kids more anxious. Kids’ mental health has been declining for decades, after all – not just since the pandemic or the introduction of smart phones. In 2023, the Journal of Pediatrics published a study arguing that the rise in mental health disorders in kids can be explained by the decline of independent, unstructured activities that are fun and build resilience.
  
If you’re a parent yourself, you can make of all of these studies whatever you want. There’s no lack of people on the internet trying to tell you how to raise your kids! But we know how to improve outcomes for kids across the country (and the world, for that matter): funding for mental health services, better gun safety laws, assistance for families who need help with food or housing, and protection for kids who live with domestic abuse. The Trump administration has been moving us backwards on every one of these issues, and it’s on us to speak up for kids.









Sources

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