UK study offers ‘stark picture of youth mental health’

ByRose Weldon

Fact checked byCarol L. DiBerardino, MLA, ELS

Key takeaways:

Over 80% of participants with mental health problems reported a history of self-harm.
Half of all participants met criteria for problematic smartphone use.

Sleep issues, self-harm and high levels of social media and smartphone use were prevalent among young people with mental health conditions, according to research published in PLoS One.

Most young people have a mobile phone and use it to access online content, particularly social media, one of the authors told Healio.

“There are a lot of concerns around the implications for their mental health and risk of self-harm,” Amanda Bye, PhD, AFHEA, a fellow in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry in the School of Academic Psychiatry at King’s College London, told Healio. “We do not yet know enough, though, and it is important that we are designing the types of studies that can explore patterns in usage and changes in mental health over time.”

To examine patterns and associations between social media and smartphone use and self-harm in young people, Bye and colleagues conducted the 3S-YP study with the help of a U.K.-based mental health charity called YoungMinds. They recruited youths aged 13 to 25 years who required mental health care, and participants were administered questionnaires at baseline and followed for 6 months. The researchers linked the self-reported data with participants’ electronic health records.

Among 362 young people enrolled in the study, over 80% reported a history of self-harm, according to clinical (81.5%) and broader definitions (81.8%). At baseline, there were high levels of moderate to severe anxiety (67.4%), depression (70.4%) and sleep disturbances (47.2%).

In addition, over half used social media (54.4%) and smartphones (59.4%) after midnight on weekdays, and more than two-thirds used them on weekends (66.6% and 72.7%, respectively). Half also met the researchers’ definition for problematic smartphone use, at 48.9%.

“Our findings present a stark picture of youth mental health,” Bye said. “The high prevalence of self-harm in young people with prior interactions with mental health services serve as a reminder that there needs to be increased investment in prevention and early intervention services for those at risk.”

Bye added that the study provides “a wealth of exciting opportunities to further our understanding for the benefit of children and young people.”

“I think it's important to empower young people to manage their well-being, and give them the tools to do that,” Bye said. “It's about having conversations with young people and then thinking about a personalized approach as to what support that younger person might need, what potential risks there are, what [solutions] might fit and what might need to be modified, in conversation with a young person and their family.”