The recent release of ‘Adolescence’ has sparked much debate about online misogyny and mental health. The four-part series is inspired by real-life media reports of knife crimes perpetrated by teenage boys and the dangers young people face online from the safety of their bedrooms (1). Whilst mental health is not the primary focus of the series, it undoubtedly plays a role in the events which unfold and it takes a front seat in episode 3, when a Clinical Psychologist assesses 13-year-old Jamie. If Jamie’s story is taken as a case study, it is worth asking, what is going on at a population level? What is the state of young people’s mental health in the digital age? What impact does the household environment have? What are the consequences for schooling?
The Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) survey can answer some of these questions(2). Launched in 2017, this large-scale, longitudinal survey has collected data every few years since, regarding the mental health of 8 to 25-year-olds living in England. It goes a step further too, reporting on education, socioeconomic circumstances and other issues which impact young people. The most recent wave of data collection occurred in 2023 and includes the voices of 2,370 young people and some of their parents.
What mental health data was collected?
The MHCYP reports on likelihood a young person has a mental health disorder, using three categories: “unlikely”, “possible”, “probable”. It is important to understand that neither medical records nor prior diagnoses were used to categorise the participants. Instead, a popular and well-validated survey tool called the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to estimate the likelihood that each young person had a mental disorder(3).
What did it say about young people’s mental health?
In 2023, one in five adolescents had a probable mental disorder.
Rates were lowest in 8 to 10-year-olds (16%), gradually increasing across the teenage years and peaking in late adolescence (23%). Notably, rates were similar across genders until late adolescence, at which point mental health was found to be doubly as prevalent in women. This MHCYP finding is contradictory to a large body of literature which reflects a gender gap in adolescent mental health, whereby females are significantly more likely to be affected, although not because they are innately more susceptible (4–6). For both genders, prevalence of mental health increased between 2017-2020 and then remained largely stable, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Young people with probable mental disorders were more than three times as likely to report challenges with sleep or self-harm.
Does the household environment play a part?
Complex and challenging circumstances at home were more frequently reported by children with a probable mental disorder and their parents.
These young people were more than two times as likely to live in a household:
1) which had fallen behind with rent, bills or mortgage payments
2) where sufficient heating could not be afforded
3) where essential items and activities could not be afforded
Parents of these children reported significantly greater financial worry than parents of children unlikely to have a mental disorder – although, even in this latter group, financial worry was still commonly reported (39%).
What are the consequences for schooling?
1) Higher absence rates
Children with a probable mental disorder were seven times more likely to have missed more than 15 days of school in Autumn term 2022, compared to those unlikely to have a mental health disorder.
2) Negative attitudes towards school and learning
Children with a probable mental disorder had more pessimistic perspectives on school. They were less likely to report friendships and feelings of safety and authenticity at school. Notably, these young people were half as likely to report enjoyment of learning, compared to those unlikely to have a mental disorder.
3) Greater strain on school-based mental health support services
In 2023, young people and their parents who sought support for mental health listed education services as the most frequent source of help. In both groups, this came before friends and family. More than three-quarters of secondary school pupils reported knowing how to access support, and 65% agreed the support they received was helpful. Boys were more likely than girls to find the support useful.
What does all this mean?
Evidently, mental health is a significant problem for young people, with short and long-term consequences for the individual and their wider ecosystem (i.e. schools). Much of this is cyclical. For example, absence impacts attainment, sense of belonging and mental health, all leading to more absences and a repeated cycle. These effects are compounded by the household environment, austerity, the digital world, and other pressures young people face.
What about online misogyny and violence against women and girls?
Although beyond the scope of this blog, it is essential to note that as in Adolescence, online misogyny is a significant problem. In 2023, the same year the MHCYP survey conducted its fourth wave of data collection, a charity called Hope not Hate found that 80% 16-17-year-old boys had watched Andrew Tate’s videos online. In contrast, less than 60% had heard of the British Prime Minister at the time (7).
Teachers too, are extremely concerned. In a survey of 200 UK secondary schools, 76% of secondary teachers and 60% of primary teachers reported significant worry about the influence of online misogyny in their classrooms. Nearly all secondary school staff surveyed (90%) expressed a need for dedicated teaching materials to address this challenge (8). Certainly, there is an urgent need to do more to combat this issue – which research has found can act as a risk factor in the development of mental health illness, particularly in girls(9).
This blog post is part of a series exploring the domains of the Evolve Development Tracker (EDT), written by Isabella Rubens. Isabella is a PhD Candidate at University College London. She is co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Evolve.
References
1. Is ‘Adolescence’ a True Story? Plot, Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Photos – Netflix Tudum [Internet]. [cited 2025 Apr 3]. Available from: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/adolescence-cast-release-date-photos-news
2. NHS England Digital [Internet]. [cited 2025 Apr 3]. Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2023 – wave 4 follow up to the 2017 survey. Available from: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2023-wave-4-follow-up
3. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Research Note – Goodman – 1997 – Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry – Wiley Online Library [Internet]. [cited 2025 Apr 3]. Available from: https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01545.x
4. Knowles G, Gayer-Anderson C, Beards S, Blakey R, Davis S, Lowis K, et al. Mental distress among young people in inner cities: the Resilience, Ethnicity and AdolesCent Mental Health (REACH) study. J Epidemiol Community Health [Internet]. 2021 Jun [cited 2025 Mar 4];75(6):515–22. Available from: https://jech.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/jech-2020-214315
5. Demkowicz O, Jefferson R, Nanda P, Foulkes L, Lam J, Pryjmachuk S, et al. Adolescent girls’ explanations of high rates of low mood and anxiety in their population: a co-produced qualitative study. BMC Womens Health [Internet]. 2025 Feb 4 [cited 2025 Mar 13];25(1):49. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03517-x
6. Patalay P, Demkowicz O. Debate: Don’t mind the gap – why do we not care about the gender gap in common mental health difficulties? Child Adolesc Ment Health [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2025 Mar 6];28(2):341–3. Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/camh.12647
7. Who is Andrew Tate? [Internet]. HOPE not hate. [cited 2025 Apr 3]. Available from: https://hopenothate.org.uk/andrew-tate/
8. Over H, Bunce C, Baggaley J, Zendle D. Understanding the influence of online misogyny in schools from the perspective of teachers. PLOS ONE [Internet]. 2025 Feb 26 [cited 2025 Mar 10];20(2):e0299339. Available from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0299339
9. Bentivegna F, Patalay P. The impact of sexual violence in mid-adolescence on mental health: a UK population-based longitudinal study. Lancet Psychiatry [Internet]. 2022 Nov 1 [cited 2025 Apr 14];9(11):874–83. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215036622002711
