OCMH Senior Research Analyst Amy Marsman spotlights recent articles, resources, and research findings impacting youth mental health.
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Small 5-Year Decline in Children with ACEs
Nationally, the percentage of children who have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience declined from 39.8% in 2018 to 37.5% in 2023. According to Child Trends, there were wide variations between states. Wisconsin’s rate of 37% reflects the national average, and, regionally, Wisconsin was higher than Minnesota and Illinois but lower than Indiana and Michigan.
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Treatment-Resistant Depression
In this cohort study of 21,192 twins, each additional Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) exposure was associated with a higher risk of treatment-resistant depression, independent of familial factors. Physical neglect and sexual abuse in particular showed a greater magnitude of associations, with each ACE conferring a higher risk of treatment-resistant depression compared with no ACE. The finding that ACEs are associated with increased treatment-resistant depression risk suggests that ACE history may help identify individuals with major depressive disorder at high risk for treatment resistance.
Patterns and Predictors of Social Health in Adolescence
Research from the TEEN Lab at UC Davis shows teens who are lonely and those who experience conflict in their home life are more likely to act aggressively toward peers or become victims themselves. Prior research has shown that teens who have positive relationships tend to have better mental health in adulthood and even manage negative stress better. In this study, which used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, researchers have expanded the understanding of teens’ social lives by looking at multiple variables of teens’ social health.
ADHD Medications May Offer Protection Against Psychotic Disorder
Methylphenidate is the leading pharmacological treatment for ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) in childhood and adolescence. Brand names of this medication include Ritalin and Concerta. Individuals with ADHD may have a higher risk of psychosis, but the long-term relationship between this treatment and the risk of developing psychotic disorders is unknown.
This large cohort study did not find an overall difference in the long-term risk of psychotic disorders in children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD who were treated with methylphenidate. Instead, for those diagnosed with ADHD in childhood (younger than age 13), there was a potential protective effect of sustained methylphenidate treatment against subsequent risk of psychotic disorder.
Use of Generative AI for Mental Health Advice Among US Adolescents and Young Adults
In the past year, 40% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who had a major depressive episode received no mental health care. Alongside the increase in youth mental health conditions, is the rise of virtual care options – and corresponding difficulties in establishing and using standardized benchmarks for evaluating AI-generated mental health advice as well as the limited transparency about the datasets training these models. This study examines how often adolescents and young adults (ages 12-21) use generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) for mental health advice and how helpful they find it. Using survey data from a national representative data set of 1,058 young people, the researchers found that 13% reported using gen AI for advice when sad, angry, or nervous; this rate increased to 22% for young adults (ages 18-21). The vast majority (93%) of youth rated gen AI as somewhat or very helpful and two thirds (65%) used it at least monthly. Differences by age and race were found, signaling potential cultural competency gaps in gen AI models.
Most Parents Know Little to Nothing about AI Safety Features for Teens
According to a new Common Sense report, Generation AI: What Kids and Families Think About AI, many parents lack awareness of AI safety features. A solid majority (58%) of parents know little to nothing about the safety features in AI products that a teen might use. Just over a third (35%) say they know a lot or some about these safety features. Parents of younger children generally feel more informed, while a large majority (73%) of parents of children 18+ say they know only a little or nothing at all. Youth strongly support policies like required safety testing for minors and required labeling of AI content. A video discussion is also available.
Psychiatric Documentation and Management with AI Scibes
Psychiatric News explains the health care industry is rapidly embracing AI scribes for clinical documentation, but a lot is still unknown about the risks and benefits they pose for psychiatrists and their patients. This analysis examines how documentation and management of psychiatric symptoms in primary care outpatient visits are different using artificial intelligence-driven ambient scribes vs. human or no scribes. Using a cohort study of more than 20,000 routine annual visits, the researchers found ambient scribe use was associated with modestly greater documentation of neuropsychiatric symptoms but less likelihood of a depression-related intervention or diagnostic code. They concluded that the extent to which use of ambient scribes may be associated with altered response to psychiatric symptoms by clinicians merits further investigation.
Suicide Data and Graphs Available
The Suicide Prevention Resource Center released new visualizations of the latest data on suicide, including up-to-date information on suicide deaths and attempts, suicidal thoughts, and serious mental illness in the U.S. The data visualizations include suicide rates by age, showing the decline among young people (ages 15-24). Data by race show persistently high suicide rates for Native Americans, though their rates are declining. Free PowerPoint slides using these charts and graphs are also available at the bottom of the above link's web page.
New RAPID Survey Amplifies Pediatric Healthcare Providers' Voices and Experiences
The Standford Center on Early Childhood is launching a national RAPID-Pediatrics survey in Spring 2026. This new survey builds upon existing RAPID surveys of parents of children under age 6 and child care providers.
The RAPID-Pediatrics survey aims to document the voices and experiences of pediatric healthcare providers, including pediatricians, family medicine physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other medical professionals who work directly with families with young children. In expanding their ongoing efforts to understand and support the well-being of young children and families, the new survey will gather insights from pediatric healthcare providers to inform policies and programs that promote healthy early childhood development.
The first analyses from the RAPID-Pediatrics survey are expected in Fall 2026.
Infant Social Withdrawal and Rapid Infant Weight Gain
Rapid infant weight gain (RIWG) and infant social withdrawal are important early markers of risk of subsequent overweight/obesity and mental health problems, respectively. While overweight and mental health problems are linked later in life, it remains unclear if this association is present already in infancy. This study examined whether infant social withdrawal is associated with subsequent RIWG independently of an array of known risk factors.
The researchers found that children showing signs of social withdrawal had 1.19 higher odds of RIWG compared to children showing no signs of social withdrawal. RIWG was also more likely among boys, firstborns, children born small-for-gestational age, and those with mothers who smoked during pregnancy or had higher pre-pregnancy BMI. In contrast, higher birth weight and breastfeeding four months or more were protective factors. The research expands understanding of the developmental origins of excess weight gain and its association with early childhood mental health.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has updated the WISH injury mortality module with 2024 data. The module provides data on injury-related deaths of Wisconsin residents from 2000-2024. Users can select data for type of death, region, county, and more in the mortality module. Users can also examine the teen birth rate over time, prenatal care, and more in WISH (Wisconsin Interactive Statistics on Health).
SEL Skills That High School Graduates Need Most for Future Readiness
Students’ success in school, career, and life depends on deep interplay between academic knowledge and social and emotional competencies – which include skills such as communication, adaptability, self-management, empathy, and responsible decision-making, according to CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning). Although employers increasingly seek these skills in employees, persistent gaps remain between the competencies most valued in postsecondary settings and those that applicants demonstrate. This gap underscores the importance of intentionally prioritizing social and emotional competency development integrated with academic content throughout K-12 education. This report analyzes 272 district-level Portraits of a Graduate published over a 10-year period across 36 states to identify and examine the prevalence of social and emotional, workforce-relevant, and academic and technical competencies. It offers bright spots for the use of Portraits as a means for schools, districts, and states to promote long-term student success and thriving.
Parents Contact Their Children at School Despite School Phone Restrictions
The purpose of this study, Parent-Reported School Phone Policies: Prevalence, Components, and Violations, was to assess parent perspectives on school smartphone policies. The cross-sectional online survey recruited 2,500 parents of youth ages 12–17 whose child attended in-person school and had a smartphone. A third of the sample had children with an ongoing health condition or disability. Many parents reported contacting their child via their smartphone daily (25%) or multiple times daily (38.5%). The likelihood of reporting that their child had violated school policy was significantly increased among children with an ongoing health condition or disability, and among parents who contacted their child at school more frequently.
Findings illustrate that despite widespread school smartphone policies restricting student use, parents contact their children frequently during the day, and policy violations may be connected to this behavior. The authors argue that parent involvement in the development and implementation of such policies is critical to policy success.
Teens Spend Nearly a Third of the School Day on Smartphones
Smartphones are a pervasive feature of adolescents’ daily lives, raising concern about how smartphones are used in contexts such as school that require sustained attention and self-regulation. This cross-sectional study aimed to describe youths’ smartphone use during each hour of the school day and examine whether smartphone use during school is associated with poorer cognitive control, a key developmental process underlying academic success. The average age of students was 15 years.
The researchers found that the students used their smartphones during every hour of the school day, spending one-third of their school day on their smartphones – and that their use was associated with reduced cognitive control.
The authors conclude that frequent smartphone use during school reflects broader challenges in self-regulation with implications for learning and cognitive development. The findings highlight the need for school-level policies and digital literacy programs that address not only overall screen time, but also habitual smartphone-checking behaviors that fragment attention.
Family Partnership Program Boosts Attendance and Reduces Suspensions
TalkingPoints is a research-based platform designed to improve student outcomes by building purposeful school family partnerships. This evaluation examines the impact of TalkingPoints usage on student outcomes, including attendance, behavior, and achievement in a large urban school district. The two-year study found that when educators used TalkingPoints to communicate with families, student attendance increased (12% higher high school attendance) and suspensions decreased (43% fewer suspensions in early and middle grades) compared to a control group. The decrease in suspensions was statistically significant. High school students gained three extra weeks of learning time per year compared to peers.
Teachers and school staff use TalkingPoints through a web or mobile app to send two-way messages to families, individually or in groups, with built-in two-way translation in 150+ languages. They use the platform to share updates, gather feedback via translated polls, send images or videos with translated captions, and access best-practice message templates, tips, and scheduling tools to save time and strengthen family partnerships.
Families receive messages by default as simple text messages on any phone; no apps, downloads, or Wi-Fi required. Those who prefer can use the free TalkingPoints for Families app, which offers additional support like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, embedded education glossaries, and “Help Me Understand” tools that clarify message content and context – all in their home language.
Milwaukee Study Finds Partnership Matters in School Based Mental Health
This analysis examines the structure of partnerships between school districts and community-based mental health clinics to provide school-based mental health. Particular aspects of the structure of the partnership such as type of contracted services agreed to by the mental health provider and resources brought to the agreement by the school including administrative support, office space and funding were investigated. The analysis included process and outcomes of 59 schools across Wisconsin which were receiving outside mental health services through Children’s Wisconsin.
The findings revealed that each aspect of the partnership enhanced detectability of emotional and behavioral problems in students, including historically hard to reach diagnoses, increased collaboration between the school team and the community mental health provider, and grew parental involvement in their child’s care. The authors conclude that thoughtful planning of the structure of such public/private partnerships can have implications for the mental health care of children and may help align objectives between the education and mental health systems which already have a shared interest in certain indicators of childhood functioning.
Declining Prenatal Care Trend in U.S. between 2021-2024
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics released a Data Brief on changes in timing of prenatal care initiation that occurred between 2021 and 2024. Early prenatal care initiation – care that begins within the first trimester – can improve the health of the mother and baby, including their mental health outcomes.
This report describes trends in the timing of prenatal care initiation from 2016 (the first year for which national data are available based on the 2003 birth certificate revision) to 2024. Changes by maternal age, race and Hispanic origin, and late (third trimester) or no care by state of residence also are shown from 2021 to 2024. A key finding is that after increasing from 2016 (77.1%) to 2021 (78.3%), prenatal care beginning in the first trimester decreased to 75.5% in 2024. Additionally during this timeframe, late or no care increased in 36 states and D.C.
Meta-Analysis on the Long-Term Trends in Pediatric Self-Injury in High-Income Countries Finds a 3.5% Annual Increase
This systematic review and meta-analysis found an increase in the annual rate of self-injury visits to health care and self-reported self-injury over a 25-year period. A total of 42 studies with a combined population of 234,054,520 individuals at study midpoints were conducted in 12 high-income countries; 35 studies used health care encounter data, and 7 studies used self-reported surveys.
Based on health care encounters, there was a 3.5% relative annual increase in self-injury over the study period (2000-2024), which was higher for females (3.6%) than males (1.2%). For self-reported surveys, there was a 2.5% relative annual increase in self-injury. The authors conclude that large-scale prevention initiatives are urgently needed to curb the rise in self-injury within high-income countries, particularly among females.
Sleep Routines and Tiredness Among Children
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics released a Data Brief on sleep routines for U.S. children. Adequate sleep is associated with improved mental and physical health. This report uses 2024 National Health Interview Survey data to describe the percentage of children ages 2-17 years with regular bedtimes, as well as the percentage of children who complain of being tired during the day. Estimates are presented by age group, sex, disability status, family type, and family income. One notable finding is that children with disabilities (22%) are 3.5 times more likely to report being tired most days compared to children without a disability (6%).
Drop in Overdose Deaths in Wisconsin and the Nation – Notable Youth Decline
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics released a Data Brief on changes to the drug overdose rate in the U.S. between 2022 and 2024. Drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of injury death in adults. Drug overdose death rates, including those involving synthetic opioids (such as fentanyl) and stimulants (such as cocaine and methamphetamine) rose over the past several decades, becoming a topic of national importance. In recent years, rates have leveled off and then declined from 2022 to 2023.
This report presents rates of drug overdose deaths from the National Vital Statistics System by demographic group and by the type of drugs involved, specifically opioids and stimulants, with a focus on changes from 2023 to 2024. Every racial group and age group declined, though younger age groups showed larger declines. The overdose rate for youth (ages 15-24) dropped from 13.5 deaths per 100,000 to 8.5 deaths, the largest decline (37%) in the study.
In related reporting from KFF, all states had declines in opioid overdose death rates from 2023 to 2024, but the size of the decline varied widely. Wisconsin recorded an impressive decline in opioid deaths, more than neighboring states of Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. In fact, Wisconsin’s 44% decline was second only to West Virginia’s 46% drop. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services' opioid death dashboard has further data for public use.
Bans on Flavored E-Cigarette Lowers Use Among Young Adults – but not Youth
Research has established that e-cigarette flavors play a major role in appealing to teens and young adults. In this cross-sectional study, researchers examine whether state-level bans on flavored e-cigarettes impacted the number of young people who start smoking, or initiate e-cigarette use. The analysis included 72,170 adolescents, young adults, and adults who reported never using e-cigarettes. They found that flavor bans led to significant reductions in initiation among young adults (ages 18-24) but not for the adolescent group nor the adult (ages 25+) group.
Subgroup analyses indicated that policy outcomes were concentrated among subpopulations typically considered to experience greater societal advantage, including whites, young adults with higher household incomes, those without psychosocial distress, and those who were not members of sexual minority groups, highlighting potential equity concerns for flavor policies.
Family Connection in Adolescence Aids Social Connection in Adulthood
Loneliness and perceived social isolation, with their negative health impacts, are increasing. It is not known whether adolescents with greater levels of family connection experience greater social connection as adults. In this cohort study, among US adolescents, those reporting higher family connection had higher levels of social connection as adults up to 20 years later. These findings suggest that increasing family connection during adolescence may help reduce the burden of adult social disconnection.
The Cambridge Handbook of Loneliness Theory, Research, and Interventions
This handbook explores why people of all ages can become lonely and features steps that can be taken by individuals, communities, and entire societies to prevent and alleviate loneliness. Chapters present rigorous scientific research drawn from psychology, relationship science, neuroscience, physiology, sociology, public health, and gerontology to demystify the phenomenon of loneliness and its consequences. The volume investigates the significant risks that loneliness poses to health and the harmful physiological processes it can set in motion. Using accessible terminology understandable to a non-medical audience, the guidebook can serve social science scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners alike.
Young People on Masculinity and the Need to see the Nurturing Father
In this Teen Snapshot, researchers find that the representation of men and focus on the male narrative in the media is important to young people. Across all age groups, joyful fatherhood was the single most requested portrayal of masculinity, with nearly 60% of young people specifically asking to see more fathers who openly show love and enjoy parenting.
Adolescents in the West are much more likely to want to see more caring and connected portrayals of men than adolescents in any other region. Aligning with developmental norms, younger adolescents show the strongest demand for seeing caring fathers onscreen, but even older adolescents clearly want to see more of them. Half of respondents wants to see men seeking mental health care on screen.
OCMH Research and Data Resources
Key Facts in Youth Mental Health:
https://children.wi.gov/Pages/ResearchData/KeyFacts.aspx
Fact Sheets:
https://children.wi.gov/Pages/ResearchData/FactSheets.aspx
Data Sources:
https://children.wi.gov/Pages/Resources/DataSources.aspx
Research News in Youth Mental Health:
https://children.wi.gov/Pages/OCMHNewsletters.aspx
Youth Mental Health Initiatives:
https://children.wi.gov/Pages/Resources/ChildrensInitiatives.aspx
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