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New research identifies four key drivers behind youth mental health crisis
Jul 15, 25
A major new Youth Futures report highlights financial insecurity, deteriorating sleep quality, social media use and cuts to children’s and youth services as the leading factors contributing to the recent alarming decline in mental health among young people in England.
A sharp rise in youth mental health problems is driving a troubling increase in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), now reaching nearly one million – equivalent to one in eight.
Unlike the post-2008 financial crisis, when most young people who were NEET were actively seeking work, today’s spike stems from a surge in long-term sickness, with mental health conditions the most prevalent cause.
In response, as England’s What Works Centre for youth employment – we have commissioned the first of its kind research to uncover the underlying factors fuelling this crisis and provide vital evidence to tackle the growing challenge.
Conducted by researchers from the University of Manchester and UCL Understanding drivers of recent trends in young people’s mental health offers a comprehensive analysis of the factors behind the three-fold increase in the number of young people presenting to primary care with mental health problems between 2000 and 2019. The findings cast doubt on the idea that the sharp rise is due to an increased awareness of mental health conditions and symptom recognition or due to overdiagnosis, as some commentators have suggested.
The research examines ten potential causes for the increase, chosen in consultation with experts spanning psychology, psychiatry, education, epidemiology and economics. The findings contrast a growing narrative that social media is the only driver of increased prevalence of mental health conditions amongst young people, identifying three additional key factors with the strongest evidence bases:
- Employment precarity and affordability pressures: Financial insecurity has increasingly impacted young people since 2010. This appears to be driven by lower access to stable jobs and careers, and affordability pressures, in particular housing.
- Declining sleep quality: Markers of young people’s sleep quality have deteriorated, and robust evidence links poor sleep to higher rates of depression and anxiety symptoms.
- Social media and smartphone use: The most robust evidence indicates that social media and smartphone use has a small negative impact on mental health, contributing to recent trends given their wide-spread adoption since 2010.
- Reduced children and youth services: Funding for youth services in England declined by 73% since 2010 and evidence suggests that these and early intervention services were previously having a positive effect on young people’s mental health.
Importantly, the research was designed to investigate claims that rising mental health issues have been due to changes in the way young people are reporting their mental health through several in-depth analyses. These showed that patterns in how young people have responded to mental health surveys are consistent over time, indicating that questions relating to specific symptoms are being interpreted similarly today as in the past.
Analysis of links between poor mental health and some of its consequences, such as being out of employment and education, have also remained consistent or become more severe over time.
The research indicates that young people’s response to common stressors has remained largely stable over time, suggesting no overall decline in resilience to adversity. However, the negative impact of financial insecurity has intensified.
Given young people’s worsening mental health is a key driver of the growing NEET rate, it is crucial we better understand what is causing the increasing rates of youth mental health issues; because if we don't understand what’s driving this, we can’t meaningfully design and invest in interventions that we know will work for young people and which they so desperately need.
Crucially, the analysis confirms there is a real problem, and secondly that the drivers are far more complex and wide-ranging than popular narratives suggest, spanning financial security, sleep quality, social media, and deterioration of children's and young people’s services and more.
There is much more we as a country will need to understand, but this research has made an important foundational start in plugging the missing evidence gap. We very much hope these insights will spur further investigation and start to enable better integrated public policy and practice solutions for young people.
Barry Fletcher, CEO at Youth Futures Foundation
The report was launched with a parliamentary event this morning attended by key stakeholders from across the sector including Baroness Luciana Berger, Former Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health and Chair of our independent Mental Health Advisory Group.
With young people’s mental health deteriorating at such a significant level, the case for action has never been clearer. Some claim the rise in youth mental health problems is purely the result of increased awareness and reporting and a culture of declaring mild, everyday symptoms as mental illness. This study stands as an unequivocal rebuttal to that charge that we must take seriously. In particular, we must have a national conversation about declining sleep quality and how important it is for young people’s mental health.
Baroness Luciana Berger, Chair of Youth Futures Foundation’s independent Mental Health Advisory Group and former Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health
As part of the event, Dazo, a member of our Future Voices Group, shared a powerful speech on the role of trusted adults in supporting young people to develop the confidence and motivation they need to obtain good work, and called on the Government to invest in youth and mental health services to tackle the crisis that we’re seeing.
Youth services are more than support – they are our safety nets. They catch us before we fall, they build us before we break, they walk with us through the mess, through the healing, and into growth. It’s that trusted person who listens without judgement and who sees our potential even when we can’t. For me, that person didn’t always wear a suit or sit behind a desk – sometimes they were a youth worker equipped with the relevant training, who simply took the time to ask: ‘How are you, like really?’”
DAZO, Future Voices Group Ambassador
