Parents also affected by the mental-health crisis among teens

An insightful study has shed light on the crisis in teen mental health during the pandemic era, revealing that parents are also experiencing similar difficulties. The study, conducted by Harvard researchers and released recently, found that both teenagers and parents are reporting nearly equal levels of anxiety and depression. The survey showed that 18 percent of teens, 20 percent of mothers, and 15 percent of fathers reported anxiety. Similarly, 15 percent of teens, along with 16 percent of moms and 10 percent of dads, reported depression.

The study estimates that over one-third of teens have a parent suffering from anxiety or depression, and 40 percent of teens expressed concerns about their parent’s mental health. “There is a largely untold story about parent mental health in America,” said Richard Weissbourd, the senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the lead author of the report. He emphasized the strong connection between the mental health of parents and teenagers, stressing the need for better support and promotion of parents’ mental well-being.

The findings, which are based on surveys conducted in December, were published in a report titled “Caring for the Caregivers: The Critical Link Between Parent and Teen Mental Health.” The report is part of Making Caring Common, a project of Harvard’s education school.

Teen mental health has been on a steady decline for over a decade, and the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of high-school students reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness rose from 28 percent in 2011 to 37 percent in 2019. By 2021, 42 percent of high-school students and nearly 60 percent of high-school girls reported chronic sadness or hopelessness, with almost a quarter of girls admitting to having made a suicide plan.

Until now, researchers have largely overlooked the mental health connection between teenagers and their parents. For this recent report, hundreds of parents and teenagers from the same families were interviewed. The study found that depressed teenagers are five times more likely to have a depressed parent, while anxious teenagers are three times more likely to have an anxious parent. The report states that when both a teenager and one or both parents are depressed or anxious, it can further compound the harm and negatively impact each other.

Depressed teenagers are also less likely to seek support from their parents, preferring to turn to their friends instead. The report revealed that 56 percent of depressed and anxious teenagers seek help from friends, compared to only 32 percent who reach out to their parents.

Recommendations in the report include parents seeking guidance on how to effectively listen to their teenage children, how to support them through anxiety and depression, and how to address their own mental health challenges. It also highlights a positive finding from the research, as the rates of teen depression and anxiety were lower than those reported by the CDC.

According to Harvard researchers, 24 percent of teen girls and 12 percent of boys reported anxiety, while 22 percent of girls and 8 percent of boys reported depression. In contrast, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that three-fifths of female high-school students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in 2021.

The difference in results could be attributed to the timing of the surveys. The CDC data was collected in the spring of 2021, when teenagers were still facing the challenges of the pandemic. The Harvard survey, on the other hand, was conducted at the end of 2022, when the worst of the public-health crisis had passed.