Evolution of Young People’s Mental Health: Food for Thought and a Call to Action – EQSJS 2022‑2023

🔍💡 Youth mental health in Montréal: distress is rising, especially among girls, closely tracking social gradients – a strong signal to rethink how we act in schools and neighbourhoods. #SantéMentaleJeunes #InégalitésSociales
🧠📊 Less flourishing mental health, more distress and anxious‑depressive diagnoses: this brief offers hard numbers and concrete collective levers for school and community settings. #Éducation 

🔍➕ FIELD RELEVANCE
For school leadership teams, youth centres, community organisations or school health teams, this document provides a very concrete picture: levels of distress, anxiety, diagnoses and psychosocial skills, with clear gaps by gender and socioeconomic status. It objectifies what practitioners are already sensing (“things are getting worse”) and helps set priorities: disadvantaged schools, girls, and young people in families under financial strain. Professionals can use it to support local health assessments, justify priority‑setting and resources, adjust interventions and interrogate current practices (campaigns, universal programmes, self‑help messages, etc.) 

Source :     📒 Évolution de la santé mentale des jeunes : matière à réflexion, appel à l’action – EQSJS 2022-2023

  📜🔗LIEN 

1. ANALYTICAL SUMMARY

Context, populations and observed trends

The document draws on the 3rd EQSJS cycle (2010‑2011, 2016‑2017, 2022‑2023) to describe trends in mental health among Montréal high‑school students, systematically distinguishing girls and boys. It shows a decline in flourishing mental health (35% in 2022‑2023 vs. 44% in 2016‑2017) and a sharp rise in high psychological distress (23% in 2010‑2011, 32% in 2016‑2017, 42% in 2022‑2023), particularly among girls. Symptoms of generalised anxiety concern 34% of students (49% of girls, 20% of boys), and self‑reported diagnoses of anxiety, depression and eating disorders rise mainly among girls and in disadvantaged contexts. The brief highlights a clear social gradient in mental health linked to school deprivation, parental education level and students’ perception of their family’s financial situation. It connects these evolutions to structural drivers (income inequality, cost of living), residual effects of the COVID‑19 pandemic and broader “megatrends” (climate crisis, social media, performance pressure, social polarisation). In parallel, it shows a deterioration in personal and social skills and perceived social support across life settings, again more marked for girls.

Concrete contributions for practice

The document gives school, community, youth and public‑health actors operational indicators: distributions of positive mental health, distress, anxiety and diagnoses by gender and socioeconomic conditions, explicitly tied to protective factors and social determinants. It structures recommended action around three axes: evolving prevention‑promotion practices (caution regarding individual‑centred campaigns and universal programmes), developing collective and participatory approaches (sense of community, arts‑based practices, youth co‑production), and prioritising intersectoral strategies targeting social inequalities in mental health (redistributive policies, “health in all policies”). The brief also points to concrete resources: the Épanouir school mental‑health framework, the “ça se cultive” platform, youth co‑design tools, the CollectiForce toolkit, and RAPS tools on polarisation, alongside methodological guidance on interpreting EQSJS data. It highlights potential unintended effects of some strategies (psychiatrisation of suffering, reinforcing identity‑based defensive postures in schools, subgroup‑specific adverse effects of group programmes) and calls for systematic evaluation. Finally, it argues for validating young people’s distress without over‑medicalising it and stresses the need to share power with youth in setting priorities and designing interventions.

2. KEY POINTS FROM THE DOCUMENT

Flourishing mental health is declining, distress is surging
In 2022‑2023, only 35% of students report flourishing mental health, compared with 44% in 2016‑2017, with the significant drop concentrated among girls.[file:1 p.6] At the same time, the share of students with high psychological distress rises from 23% in 2010‑2011 to 42% in 2022‑2023, with 58% of girls affected versus 28% of boys.[file:1 p.8]

Rising anxiety‑depression diagnoses and eating disorders, especially among girls and in disadvantaged settings
Self‑reported diagnoses of anxiety disorders, depression and eating disorders increase over the survey cycles, more strongly among girls (23% of girls vs. 8% of boys report an anxiety disorder in 2022‑2023).[file:1 p.11‑13] These diagnoses are more frequent in disadvantaged schools, among youth whose parents have low education levels and those who see their family as less well‑off than classmates.[file:1 p.11‑13]

Personal–social skills and social support are eroding
The proportion of youth reporting high levels of self‑esteem, self‑efficacy, problem‑solving, self‑control and interpersonal skills decreases between 2010‑2011 and 2022‑2023.[file:1 p.14‑15] Perceived social support in family, school, community and among friends follows the same downward trend, with a clear decline among girls while levels for boys stay stable or even rise.[file:1 p.15]

A strong social gradient and a structural public‑health crisis
The brief documents a mental‑health social gradient: the more adverse the socioeconomic situation (objective or perceived), the higher the risk of distress, anxiety and diagnoses, and the lower the likelihood of flourishing mental health.[file:1 p.7‑9,17‑18] These findings are interpreted in light of the international literature, which frames the deterioration in youth mental health as a “global public‑health crisis” driven by intertwined megatrends rather than just improved diagnostic practices.[file:1 p.16‑18]

Limits of individual‑focused approaches and the centrality of collective, intersectoral strategies
The document flags risks associated with some interventions: well‑being‑promotion programmes that may worsen symptoms for some subgroups, awareness campaigns that feed into psychiatrisation of suffering, self‑help messaging that widens inequalities.[file:1 p.20‑24] It recommends prioritising interventions that strengthen environments (school climate, relationships, arts‑based projects), meaningfully involving youth in co‑construction, and leveraging redistributive policies and “health in all policies” approaches to address social and structural determinants.[file:1 p.20‑25]

3. ACTIONABLE PATHWAYS FOR LOCAL ACTORS

Use EQSJS indicators to sharpen local diagnoses and priority‑setting
Deploy EQSJS indicators (flourishing mental health, distress, generalised anxiety, diagnoses, psychosocial skills, social support) in local health assessments, always cross‑tabbed by gender, school deprivation, parental education and perceived family finances.[file:1 p.4‑9,14‑15] In CLSCs, school boards or youth tables, this evidence can identify priority subgroups (girls, disadvantaged schools, youth perceiving themselves as “less well‑off”) and underpin targeted resource allocation.[file:1 p.7‑9,18]

Re‑focus school actions on climate, relationships and environment
In school settings, favour interventions that act on classroom climate, student‑adult relationships, recognition and belonging rather than multiplying universal individual‑skills programmes.[file:1 p.14‑15,19‑21] Use the Épanouir framework and the “ça se cultive” platform to structure whole‑school mental‑health plans, especially in disadvantaged schools prioritised since 2024.[file:1 p.19‑20,35]

Strengthen collective, arts‑based and community approaches
Co‑develop, with youth, collective projects (community gardens, arts workshops, creative projects, youth‑led events) that foster hope, belonging and meaning, echoing the WHO report on arts and health.[file:1 p.21‑22] These initiatives can be hosted by community organisations, youth centres, libraries or municipal cultural services, in partnership with schools and youth mental‑health services.[file:1 p.21‑22]

Embed youth participation in governance and programme design
Draw on the CollectiForce toolkit and other co‑design resources to set up mixed youth‑adult spaces (joint committees, youth juries, participatory workshops) where young people help define priorities and co‑create mental‑health actions.[file:1 p.21‑22] Take care to include under‑represented youth (by gender, origin, socioeconomic status), going beyond the “usual suspects” in student councils.[file:1 p.21‑23]

Act on social determinants through local intersectoral work
At municipal or regional level, use the documented mental‑health social gradient to feed “health in all policies” initiatives on housing, food security, access to services, income and study/work conditions.[file:1 p.18,24‑25] Public‑health departments, cities, school boards and CI(U)SSSs can co‑lead intersectoral plans to reduce inequalities (e.g. support to families, cost‑reduction measures for extracurriculars, facilitated access to free psychological support).[file:1 p.18,24‑25]