Mental health of children, adolescents and young adults

Summary

Most Utrecht children and adolescents are doing well. The following groups lag behind or fall further behind in mental health:

• Girls
• Youth growing up in single-parent families
• Youth in families with low income
• Adolescents with gay or bisexual feelings
• Children from Vleuten-De Meern and Leidsche Rijn

Children and adolescents are especially stressed by school or homework, everything they have to do and what others think of them. Stress is related to children's school performance, among other things.

The mental health of young adults is under great pressure. A quarter of them have moderate to severe mental health problems. Young adults experience a wide range of health complaints or problems, such as concentration problems and depressive symptoms. Three-quarters of young adults experience stress (very) often. Many young adults also experience (fairly) high performance pressure.

During the COVID pandemic period, there have been unfavourable developments in the mental health in part of Utrecht's youth. Before the pandemic, there were already concerns about the mental health of adolescents and young adults. The COVID pandemic period and the measures taken have not helped in alleviating these concerns, quite the contrary. It is still unclear whether Utrecht youth will "bounce back" to better mental health after the pandemic period. Monitoring mental health among Utrecht youth thus remains necessary.

Conclusion and recommendations

Most Utrecht children and adolescents are doing well. During the COVID pandemic period, there have been unfavourable developments in the mental health in part of this group. The mental health of Utrecht's young adults is under great pressure. Before the pandemic, there were already concerns about the mental health of adolescents and young adults.

The COVID pandemic period and the measures taken have not helped in alleviating these concerns, quite the contrary. The COVID pandemic period has brought greater attention to mental health broadly in society. It is still unclear whether Utrecht youth will "bounce back" to better mental health after the pandemic period. Maintaining that focus on mental health is therefore important. Monitoring mental health among Utrecht's youth is part of that attention, and thus remains necessary.

Improving the mental health of youth is not easy and requires changes broadly across society. For example, it is important to move towards a society where there is more emphasis on mental well-being and less emphasis on having to perform. Even if youth report putting pressure on themselves, this may be an internalisation of the societal norm of achievement. And it is important as a society to make mental problems more discussable and help youth from an early age to become sufficiently resilient and adaptable.

Improving mental health is important for all youth, as there is no health without mental health. Utrecht results show that some groups need extra attention because mental health disparities are large or have increased. These groups require unequal investment for more equal opportunities. Groups falling behind or falling further behind are:

• Girls
• Young adults
• Youth growing up in single-parent families (stress due to financial concerns and other challenges in these families play a role in this)
• Youth in families with low income
• Adolescents with gay or bisexual feelings
• Children from Vleuten-De Meern and Leidsche Rijn

National research also shows that several of these groups have less favourable mental health.