"The decline in mental health among teenagers was intensified by the Covid pandemic but predated it, spanning racial and ethnic groups..."

"... urban and rural areas and the socioeconomic divide.... 'Young people are more educated; less likely to get pregnant, use drugs; less likely to die of accident or injury,' said Candice Odgers, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine. 'By many markers, kids are doing fantastic and thriving. But there are these really important trends in anxiety, depression and suicide that stop us in our tracks.'... The crisis is often attributed to the rise of social media, but solid data on the issue is limited, the findings are nuanced and often contradictory and some adolescents appear to be more vulnerable than others to the effects of screen time. Federal research shows that teenagers as a group are also getting less sleep and exercise and spending less in-person time with friends — all crucial for healthy development — at a period in life when it is typical to test boundaries and explore one’s identity. The combined result for some adolescents is a kind of cognitive implosion: anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviors, self-harm and even suicide. This surge has raised vexing questions. Are these issues inherent to adolescence that merely went unrecognized before — or are they being overdiagnosed now?"

From "'It’s Life or Death': The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens/Depression, self-harm and suicide are rising among American adolescents. For one 13-year-old, the despair was almost too much to take" (NYT)