One quarter of high school students report depression

Almost a quarter of high school-aged New Zealanders reported significant symptoms of depression in a national survey conducted last year.

These findings highlight a significant decline in emotional wellbeing and increased distress among high school students. The Youth19 Rangatahi Smart Survey surveyed 7890 young people as part ongoing monitoring of youth health and wellbeing in the Youth2000 survey series. While more than two-thirds reported good wellbeing, 23 percent reported the depression symptoms – up from a level of 13 percent in 2012.

Symptoms were higher among female students, Māori and Pasifika students, Asian students, those in lower income communities and those from sexual and gender minority groups.

“This generation were in their early childhood when the global financial crisis happened, they are facing climate change, and have grown up with social media exposing them to unrealistic expectations,” said Dr Terryann Clark, an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Auckland and co-lead on the study.

“These and many other experiences have shaped how they respond to their communities, it is no wonder they are distressed,” she said. “We have to be visionary and brave and make some big system changes if we want to address mental health and improve equity for all of our rangatahi and future generations.”

The increase in distress is important, said study co-lead Dr Terry Fleming, who is a senior lecturer in population health at Victoria University and an honorary senior lecturer in Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland. “Local and international research tell us important factors are increased social media use and increased loneliness, the impact of poverty, discrimination or harmful environments, social pressures and the impact of serious future worries from climate to jobs and housing security,” Fleming said.

Supporting youth mental health requires a range of strategies, from encouraging youth to have fun and spend more time connecting with family and friends, to big picture issues of addressing poverty, employment and equity.

A multi-disciplinary group of mental health and youth development representatives met last week to discuss these findings and look at solution and how parents, schools, and communities can improve youth wellbeing. This recorded discussion and other results are available online at www.youth19.ac.nz