More young people in California struggle with anxiety, stress and social media, study finds

A new survey paints a difficult but optimistic picture of California’s youth.

About 94% of young people in the state said they experience regular mental health challenges — up from 87% in 2023, with one-third reporting their mental health as “fair” or “poor,” according to a new report by Blue Shield of California and Children Now.

The survey polled 750 young people age 14 to 25 between April and June of this year across California. Other key findings include:

• About 98% who reported poor mental health are youth of color 
• 25% of those reporting poor mental health are LGBTQ+
• Top stressors include gun violence, housing affordability, discrimination and climate change
• More than a third say they felt too embarrassed to seek professional help

Top stressors

Young people pointed to socioeconomic issues as weighing on their mental health, according to the survey, with 87% concerned with the cost of housing, 84% worried about the price of groceries and 73% citing the ability to find a good job as a top concern. About 85% cited concerns about gun violence, and 78% cited climate change and racism as top issues.

Youths in Los Angeles, where communities faced devastating wildfires and ongoing immigration raids, reported the highest levels of poor mental health in the state. About 90% of L.A. youths cited housing affordability as a top issue, with 85% citing both climate change and discrimination against immigrants as key stressors.

At a recent student mental health conference in San Diego called Wellness Together, school leaders and student mental health professionals discussed the survey. Nicole Stelter, director of behavioral health at Blue Shield of California, said the results can be a tool for parents and schools to better treat mental health among young people.

“The data shows youth are deeply affected by the world around them, from climate anxiety and safety to social media pressures,” said Stelter. “It’s more important than ever that clinicians, educators, policymakers and caring adults listen to what our youth are saying and treat this seriously for what it is — a youth mental health crisis.”

Social media’s positive and negative effects

More than half of the young people in the survey said they spend more than four hours a day on social media, and most said there were trade-offs to being online. More than 40% said social media was beneficial to their mental health, with nearly 90% saying social media helped them stay connected to others.

Parents should know that social media is not “all doom and gloom,” Stelter said. It was a lifeline for young people who missed out on key social-emotional development during the pandemic, she said, and that reliance is likely reflected in the new data.

But social media can also seem like “a safer way” to connect for students who never really made it out of their physical isolation, she said.

“There can be some good validation on social media, where kids feel, ‘I’m not the only one that feels this way,’ but sometimes that validation is not enough,” said Stelter. “Most of that co-development and growth happens in real-world friendships.”

Nearly a third of young people said that social media was harmful to their mental health. Also, about 1 in 3 said they have been cyberbullied on social media, and about 7 in 10 said that social media contributed to a negative body image.

Stelter pointed to young people’s exposure to graphic videos on social media, such as the recent recorded murder of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk. When young people repeatedly witness traumatic events online, from school shootings to climate disasters, the psychological toll can be more pronounced, she said.

At the conference, experts addressed the role of social media platforms on youth mental health.

“Companies are preying on our young people for profit,” said Lishaun Francis, director of behavioral health at Children Now, who conducted the survey with Blue Shield. “There is an algorithm that knows exactly how old your child is and targets them with content that makes them feel bad about themselves.”

Francis described one student she worked with who kept seeing advertisements for Pilates classes, which the student felt targeted her insecurities about body image, despite muting certain harmful content.

Parents tend to look at social media in terms of restricting how much time young people are on it. But Willough Jenkins, a child psychiatrist and clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego, said parents should ask children, “How do screens make you feel?” to help recognize unhealthy attachments to social media on their own.

“If you notice they’re staying up late, or are more anxious after they use screens, pulling away from real-world friendships, more irritable, or they’re saying they’re depressed or anxious — please take that seriously,” Jenkins said. “Children start to make that connection to how they’re emotionally responding to their use of screens, and that’s where we can help them to make changes to these behaviors.”

Barriers and hope persist

More than a third of young people in the survey who wanted professional help for their mental health care said that feeling “embarrassed” was the main reason they did not seek it. More than a fifth said they could not afford mental health care and did not know where to find help.

As barriers to care persist, students can still find some meaningful support in each other, especially in service to their communities, Stelter said.

“If you are into beach cleanup, go do that. If you are into volunteering at a pet shelter or animal shelter, do that,” Stelter said. “You will meet people there who have that common interest and common purpose.”

About two-thirds of young people said they were optimistic about the future, engaging in efforts like exercise and hobbies to protect their mental health, and advocating for change. About 99% of those concerned about climate change, for example, said they were taking pro-climate action themselves.

“[Young people] are not passive. They want to be in the driver’s seat for their future, and they’re clearly taking action,” Francis said.