Children’s mental health is the biggest concern among their parents post-pandemic, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.
The study was conducted between Sept. 20 and Oct. 2, 2022, among a nationally representative sample of 3,757 U.S. parents with children younger than 18, using the Center’s American Trends Panel.
It found that 4 in 10 U.S. parents are extremely or very worried about their children struggling with anxiety and depression at some point, followed by 35 percent who are similarly concerned about their children being bullied.
“These items trump parents’ concerns about certain physical threats to their children, the dangers of drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy, and getting in trouble with the police,” the study noted.
According to the center, 28 percent of parents were concerned about their children being kidnapped or abducted, 25 percent fret over their children being attacked or beaten, and 22 percent of parents were concerned about their children getting shot.
Just 14 percent were worried about their kids getting in trouble with the police, the study found.
The study follows reports of a growing mental health crisis among children, exacerbated further by the pandemic, which saw a swift move to remote learning and “virtual connections” formed among school students.
In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared a national state of emergency in children’s mental health, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated a previously existing situation.
According to the coalition, which together represents more than 77,000 physicians and 200 children’s hospitals, rates of childhood mental health concerns and suicide rose steadily between 2010 and 2020, and by 2018 suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10–24.
Separate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that suicide rates increased by 30 percent between 2000–2018 but declined in 2019 and 2020.
However, it was still the leading cause of death in the United States, with 45,979 deaths in 2020. It was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10–14 and 25–34 in that same year, according to the CDC.
Meanwhile, mental health-related visits to emergency departments among children between March 2020 and October 2020 soared, according to a separate CDC study.
That study found that mental health-related ED visits for children aged 5–11 increased 24 percent in mid-March 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 and continued into October. During that same time period, mental health-related ED visits among those aged 12–17 also increased by 31 percent, according to the study.
However, Dr. Katherine Williamson, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told CNN that doctors were already seeing a rise in the number of children dealing with anxiety and depression prior to the pandemic.
“I would say over the last 10 years, since I’ve been practicing as a general pediatrician, I have seen a shift both in the amount of patients and of all ages dealing with anxiety and depression. And their parents being concerned about this is a key issue,” said Dr.Williamson. “Even before the pandemic, we were seeing skyrocketing numbers of kids and adolescents dealing with mental health issues, and that has increased exponentially since the pandemic.”
Williamson added that gun violence represents a real risk to children today, noting that is “both being killed by somebody else as well as suicide in the face of the mental health issues that we’re seeing today.”
However, Duncan Young, the CEO of Effective School Solutions, believes the decline in mental health among children may also be linked to the rise in technology and social media.
Multiple studies have found evidence suggesting a growing link between increased social media use and reports of depression symptoms.
Young told The Hill that the mental crisis among children “has actually been probably 15 years in the making” but appears to have grown with increased use of smartphones and social media websites among kids.