Mental health disorders on the rise among Quebec teens, statistics institute data shows

New data shows high school girls in Quebec have a higher rate of mental disorders than boys, with the exception of attention deficit disorders, and that diagnoses among both genders are on the rise.

The Enquête québécoise sur la santé des jeunes du secondaire report, unveiled on Wednesday by the Institut de la statistique du Québec, shows a significant increase in mental disorders confirmed by health professionals between 2010-2011 and 2022-2023.

The gap between girls and boys is particularly stark in the use of medication: 8 per cent of female students have taken medication for symptoms of anxiety or depression, compared to 3.8 per cent of males. As for medication for symptoms of attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADD/ADHD), 19 per cent of boys took it compared with 12 per cent of girls.

According to Dr. Tina Montreuil, professor and researcher in the department of educational and counselling psychology at McGill University, beyond the biological differences between girls and boys, education probably plays an important role in these results.

"Educating girls gives them more of a right to feel things. It's as if it creates an openness to dwell on the emotional aspect which, ultimately, can be perceived as a risk factor. Boys are probably more suppressive and don't dwell so much on the more emotional aspects," she said.

Worrying trend

The increase in mental disorders among young people in secondary education, regardless of gender, is cause for concern. Anxiety disorders, which affected 9 per cent of young people in 2010-2011, will now reach 20 per cent by 2022-2023.

The proportion of young people suffering from depression has risen from 4.9 per cent in 2020-2011 to 7 per cent in 2022-2023. As for ADD/ADHD, cases have almost doubled, rising from 13 per cent in 2010-2011 to 25 per cent in 2022-2023.

Though many believe the pandemic is responsible, the study shows that the increases in all cases were much greater between 2010-2011 and 2016-2017 than between 2016-2017 and 2022-2023.

However, Montreuil is reluctant to say they are absolute increases.

"Yes, indeed, there may be an increase because life is fast-paced, there are a lot of demands, social media have an influence. But I think there's also the fact that we're more aware, that the public is more aware of what a generalised anxiety disorder is, of what an obsessive disorder is. This probably means that parents and teachers will refer young people more quickly," she said.

"It's possible," she concludes, "that we're doing a better job of identifying and therefore capturing a larger proportion of the population who were experiencing distress than in the past."

Eco-anxiety and self-esteem

For the first time, the survey measured the eco-anxiety of young people in high school — the anxiety specifically caused by various environmental threats — and found that 34 per cent of them felt no anxiety at all, 41 per cent felt it sometimes, 17 per cent felt it often and 8 per cent always or almost always.

Here, too, girls are more affected than boys, with 37 per cent of them experiencing eco-anxiety often or almost always, compared with 14 per cent of boys.

They are also more likely to experience self-esteem problems, but self-esteem is also declining among boys. For both sexes, the proportion of students with a high level of self-esteem has fallen from 20 per cent in 2010-2-11 to 12 per cent in 2022-2023.

Among girls, 15 per cent had a high level of self-esteem in 2010-2011 and only 7 per cent in 2022-2023. And while more boys have a high level of self-esteem, their proportion has nevertheless fallen from 25 per cent in 2010-2011 to 16 per cent in 2022-2023.

"If only 7 per cent of girls have high self-esteem, this opens up risk factors for 93 per cent of the others," said Montreuil, who was careful to point out that there is no causal relationship between self-esteem and mental disorders. But there is a correlation nonetheless.

"Self-esteem is a protective factor against mental health problems. The more self-esteem problems you have, the greater the risk of increasing the incidence of mental health problems," Montreuil said.

Lots of screens, little sex

The data published on Wednesday shows that one in four high school students typically spend four hours or more per day in front of a screen for communication and leisure. Almost half of them (48 per cent) tend to sleep less than the recommended amount of time during the school week. In both cases, more girls spend more time in front of screens and do not get enough sleep.

Fewer young people are having sex, with the proportion who have had at least one consensual sexual encounter falling from 37 per cent in 2010-2011 to 33 per cent in 2016-2017, and then to 30 per cent in 2022-2023. However, the number of those who have used contraception remains stable.

Finally, young people are less inclined than they were to behave recklessly or rebelliously. Around a quarter (26 per cent) of young people in secondary education in 2022-2023 had engaged in at least one reckless or rebellious behaviour in the year before the survey (going out for a whole night without permission, being questioned by the police, running away from home). This proportion is significantly lower than the 36 per cent in 2010-2011.

There was also a decline, but much less marked, in delinquent behaviour (property offences, acts of violence against people, membership of a gang that has broken the law): 37 per cent of students had engaged in at least one of these behaviours in the 12 months preceding the survey, compared with 41 per cent in 2010-2011.

Throughout the interview with La Presse Canadienne, Montreuil repeated that we need to improve prevention and offer more psychotherapy services to students. This investment will pay off in the long run, she insists, but it still has to be made.

"Let's use this energy, this emotion that it creates in us to see these incidences (of mental health problems) on the rise to mobilise ourselves into action to rehabilitate our young people and above all to prevent the next generation. Rather than becoming paralysed by the anguish this creates for us, let's take preventive action," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Nov. 27, 2024.