OCMH Senior Research Analyst Amy Marsman spotlights recent articles, resources, and research findings impacting youth mental health.
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What State-Level Data Show about ACEs Prevalence and the Protective Power of PCEs
Research demonstrates that positive childhood experiences — supportive caregivers, afterschool activities, a sense of belonging, relationships with caring adults — significantly reduce the odds of developing anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions, even among children who have been exposed to significant adversity.
Arizona has emerged as one of the nation's most active states in tracking both adverse and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) at the population level. The Arizona Department of Health Services launched an ACE/PCE Surveillance dashboard recently, and the work was recently highlighted by PACEs Connection.
By integrating PCE assessments and preventive strategies into its public health frameworks, Arizona is helping to demonstrate how states can identify, mitigate, and begin to reverse the long-term neurological and social impacts of early trauma — at scale.
Majority of Americans Support Banning Social Media for Kids Under 16
A survey from the Pew Research Center found 56% of U.S. adults support social media bans for children younger than 16 years. This support spans demographic and partisan groups. Parents with a child under age 18 were the most supportive group, with 65% in favor of the ban.
Body Image and Social Media
A new parenting tip sheet on body image and social media use points out that research suggests up to 90% of young people report at least some dissatisfaction with their physical appearance. While social media use is not a sole causal factor in negative youth body image, research indicates it can play an important role in amplifying idealized body types and encouraging negative self-comparison. This guide explains why positive body image is important – especially in adolescence – and how social media affects body image, along with tips for parents.
Addictive Social Media Use and ADHD
Using data from the national Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, this cohort analysis of 11,000 youth followed kids over five years, annually surveying the kids and their parents. The researchers found addictive/problematic social media use among adolescent boys was linked to worsening ADHD symptoms. The reverse was not found; that is, ADHD symptoms did not seem to lead to increased rates of problematic social media use (PSMU). PSMU has similarities to a substance-based addiction, including symptoms of withdrawal and fixation on the next use. The study did not find a clear link between PSMU and ADHD among girls.
Research at a Glance: Social Media and Youth Mental Health
A summary of the latest research on how social media may affect young people's mental health and well-being has been updated. Children and Screens provides a concise, visual summary of current research along with key research findings, and insights for families and educators. How social media can promote social connection and positive identity is also covered.
Preventing Child Abuse Through a Brief Parenting Intervention
Child abuse is associated with lifetime risks for psychiatric disorders. This study evaluated 30-month effects of Safer Kids, a parenting program designed for rapid implementation after suspected child abuse. In the randomized controlled trial, families reported for child abuse to Swedish child welfare agencies and were randomized to Safer Kids or the usual intervention. The researchers found that Safer Kids was associated with fewer total reports and better child mental health at 30 months, suggesting preventive effects in families with suspected abuse. However, the Safer Kids intervention did not reduce the time until the next new abuse report.
The Impacts of Rising Temperatures on Psychiatric Functioning
While the impact of heat on physical health is well-known and discussed, researchers, clinicians, and individuals fail to recognize the severity of such heat on one’s mental health. Unfortunately, as temperatures are expected to continue rising, the potential consequences of neither recognizing nor effectively responding to this relation between mental health and extreme heat is problematic.
This article aims to provide an extensive review of this mental health vulnerability, addressing this critical therapeutic and research gap by proposing three distinct, but related, goals: 1) summarize the variety of psychiatric and cognitive impairments that stem from exposure to rising temperatures, in an effort to highlight the gravity of this relationship; 2) review a variety of biological, social, and cognitive causes, demonstrating various theories as to why heat exposure creates such significant psychiatric impairment; and 3) identify and review a variety of moderating, yet important, facets that either exacerbate or reduce one’s emotional vulnerability to rising temperatures.
U.S. Gun Suicides Hit Record High Amidst Declining Gun Homicides
The latest federal data finds U.S. gun deaths dipping slightly overall, but rates of firearm-related suicides reached a record high. An analysis by Johns Hopkins researchers found increases in rates among certain demographics, particularly Black females. Overall, gun violence remains the leading cause of death for young people ages 1–17 in the U.S.
The report analyzes 2024 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results show that death by guns in 2024 decreased 5% from the year prior. The overall decrease in gun fatalities in 2024 was largely due to a 15.8% drop in the homicide rate. However, the report finds the gun homicide rate for Black females rose by 63% from 2015 to 2024. During the same time period, rates of gun-related suicide soared by 169% among Black females, by 57% among Hispanic females, and by 51% among Asian females.
Gun deaths per year in the U.S. peaked in 2021, amid the social disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and have been decreasing slowly since. The 2024 figure represents a roughly 9% decline from that peak. However, gun deaths remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Parent Peer Crisis Survey Results
The Parent Peers in Crisis Services: Results of a 2025 State Survey report has been published. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) conducted the survey to learn more about parent peer support across the state, specifically parent peer support in crisis services. The survey was intended for adults who identify as a parent peer. The data collected from the survey will support the ongoing work to expand the use of parent peers in crisis services across Wisconsin. Data highlights and a variety of easy-to-read graphics are provided throughout the report.
Risk and Protective Factors for Suicide Mortality in Youths
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, researchers found mental disorders, particularly acute conditions such as schizophrenia and mood disorders, and prior self-harm, were associated with suicide mortality. Prior health care contact (e.g., psychiatric admission) and a range of social determinants (e.g., maltreatment, out-of-home placement, and social disadvantage) were also associated with higher risk, whereas family stability (e.g., living with both parents) was associated with lower risk. The analysis therefore concluded that youth suicide stems from both psychiatric vulnerability and social adversity. The authors recommend integrated prevention strategies combining early intervention with population-level prevention approaches targeting social determinants.
Trends in Involuntary Commitment
A study on involuntary psychiatric detentions in Ontario found involuntary admission increased by 3.3% over the last 10 years. The research revealed that recent and long-term immigrants had significantly higher odds of involuntary admission. Being Indigenous was associated with three times greater likelihood of psychiatric assessment. Other social determinants such as housing instability and socioeconomic status were also linked with involuntary commitments. Postsecondary education lowered the risk for involuntary psychiatric admission.
Certain Daily Experiences Linked with Developmental Well-Being at Age 3
Child Trends released a new brief examining how everyday experiences are associated with developmental well-being for 3-year-olds in the U.S. The findings suggest that daily experiences play an important role in supporting children's early language and math skills, social-emotional development, self-regulation, motor skills, and physical health. Several daily experiences are associated with a child being “on track” on the Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRTL) measure, including:
- 2+ hours of outdoor play each day
- Enrollment in preschool
- Limiting screen time to ≤1 hour per day
- Daily singing, storytelling, and reading
This brief is the first in a series that explores factors associated with developmental well-being among 3-year-olds. Upcoming briefs will examine family characteristics, health care access, and neighborhood conditions.
Healthy and Ready to Learn Data Dashboard Updates
The Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRTL) dashboard has been updated with new data and features, making it easier to explore data on young children’s developmental well-being across the U.S. Based on the HRTL measure developed for use in the National Survey of Children’s Health, the dashboard presents five developmental domains: early learning skills, social-emotional development, self-regulation, physical health, and motor skills. This provides a holistic view of whether young children are developmentally “on track”. This dashboard update adds new data for 4- and 5-year-olds, building on the existing data for 3-year-olds. The expanded data range—from two years (2023–2024) to three years (2022–2024)—provides more reliable state estimates, and new indicators highlight which states differ from the national average.
In Wisconsin, 71% of young children are considered HRTL, compared to 63% nationally, For the social emotional domain, Wisconsin's score (89.9%) is statistically higher than the national average (82.8%).
Affordability Tracker Data Tool
Americans are struggling to afford essentials like food, health care, child care, and housing – all of which impact mental well-being. The Urban Institute’s American Affordability Tracker provides data on Americans’ finances and essential daily expenses, including electricity and gas prices. Their research has found that half (49%) of American families don’t have the resources to cover essential expenses to live securely in their community. A companion brief outlines policy solutions for local, state, and federal policymakers.
See related OCMH Fact Sheet on Financial Hardship’s impact on children’s mental health.
State of the Safety Net
For people and families with low incomes, help may be available from one or more of the government programs that make up the U.S. “safety net”—programs that either provide cash or that support specific needs like food, housing, or health care. But many who are eligible for benefits do not receive them. The Urban Institute found, across six programs providing monthly cash aid or help with expenses for food, housing, heating, and cooling, participation rates ranged from under 20% to a high of 58%, with wide variation across states. Users can explore the safety net program data, which includes child poverty.
See related OCMH Fact Sheet on Financial Hardship’s impact on children’s mental health.
School Strategies for Digital Well-being and Suicide Prevention
As schools face increasing demand for interventions and services to address students’ mental health needs, education leaders are looking for practical tools to strengthen student well-being.
To support this need, REL Northeast & Islands added two fact sheets to its series on using Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to promote student mental health. These fact sheets offer evidence-based strategies for two critical areas: supporting digital well-being and strengthening suicide prevention efforts within schools. Applying an MTSS approach to mental health promotion efforts can help schools and districts better identify student needs, align resources, and monitor how supports are working.
Meta-Analysis: The Effectiveness of Universal School-Based Mental Health Programs
The objective of this meta-analysis was to review the literature on universal school-based mental health programs delivered directly to children and youth and evaluate program effectiveness for internalizing and externalizing mental health symptoms. The analysis found evidence of some effectiveness of universal school-based mental health intervention programs in reducing internalizing symptoms, particularly with CBT programs.
For externalizing symptoms, programs delivered in elementary and middle school were associated with marginal reductions, with slightly stronger effects in higher socioeconomic status elementary samples. The effects for high school were inconclusive. These results and prior research provide support for the effectiveness of school-based CBT for depression and anxiety, particularly in targeted approaches.
These findings differ from those found by others who reported no significant effects of universal mental health programs on broad internalizing symptoms. This may be, in part, due to the larger number of studies in the current meta-analysis. Further, as CBT was developed as a psychotherapeutic intervention to treat clinically significant anxiety and depression symptoms, school-based universal mental health programs grounded in CBT may be more tailored to the needs of targeted populations, specifically children and youth with elevated internalizing symptoms.
In addition to greater program effects for CBT interventions, multicomponent programs were also comparatively more effective. Multicomponent programs typically utilized a variety of social or emotional strategies (e.g., mindfulness, emotion regulation). These programs often target skill development in social, emotional, and behavioral domains, all of which are relevant to mental health.
A Pragmatic Measure of Student-Reported School Climate: How Low Can You Go?
A new research paper in the Journal of School Psychology notes that there is great interest in efficient and valid methods for assessing school climate for both research and practice purposes. To help advance pragmatic measurement, the paper distills a previously validated 30-item measure into a simplified version of the three core domains of Safety, Engagement, and Environment, consistent with the U.S. Department of Education model.
Using data from a sample of 69,513 students, machine learning (ML) and item response theory (IRT), the researchers derived two shorter measures out of the original 30-item measure: a 9-item and 3-item measure. The results suggest that the 9-item measure may be most useful for research and school-district assessment, whereas the 3-item measure may be potentially more useful as a collection of single-item indicators of Safety, Engagement, and the School Environment.
High Prevalence of Suicidal Thinking Among Trans Youth
A new analysis of data from the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, which included more than 92,000 transgender people, was recently released. For the first time, researchers were able to analyze findings for those aged 16 to 17. The analysis found 58% of trans respondents ages 16-17 reported suicidal thoughts in the past year – far higher than the 14% of older respondents in the survey and the 5% of adults in the general population. Physical violence against trans individuals as well as online harassment were both linked with very high rates of suicidal thinking. Among trans youth who had attended a conversion therapy program, 85% reported suicidal thinking.
Loneliness Among Youth and Young Adults
Frontiers in Psychiatry released a series on loneliness and youth in a recent Research Topic, a collection of 12 articles on loneliness and its impact on youth mental health. Collectively the research presents loneliness as a foundational mechanism through which social, psychological, and behavioral forces converge, shaping young people’s mental health, academic trajectories, and risk behaviors. Loneliness, these researchers argue, is a central organizing force in the mental health landscape of young people today. Understanding what loneliness is doing in young people’s lives, and how to address it, requires drawing on the full breadth of perspectives the field has to offer. The accompanying editorial argues that to address youth mental health, we must address loneliness.
Improving Adolescent Trends in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health
Federal data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual survey of behavioral health among people ages 12 and older in the U.S., shows promising trends for youth mental health. SAMHSA highlights the decline in a number of substance use and mental health indicators from 2021 to 2025, though there were slight increases in youth suicidality from 2024 to 2025.
Former NICU Parents Struggle With Anxiety Years After Discharge
Studies have found that parents of children who require intensive care, including newborns who require treatment in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), experience rates of post-traumatic stress disorder almost three-fold higher than other parents. Greater socioemotional burdens associated with NICU admission have also been associated with long-term effects of mental illness such as social isolation and workplace absenteeism.
In this study and accompanying video abstract, researchers evaluated the prevalence of anxiety over two years in parents of infants admitted to the NICU. Mothers were particularly impacted. Nearly one-in-five parents reported anxiety two years after NICU discharge. Moreover, the rates of anxiety remained roughly stable over time in both mothers and fathers, demonstrating the persistence of mental illness following NICU discharge. The authors argue that these findings emphasize the importance of systematic, long-term mental health screening and support for both parents independent of their infant’s medical complexity.
In a related post from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), it is noted that infants who require high-risk neonatal care are disproportionally born to low-income and marginalized families. There are stark social inequities in neonatal health outcomes and quality of care. A new AAP clinical report provides clinicians with evidence-based strategies to address these social inequities within the high-risk neonatal care setting.
Value of Depression Screening in Wisconsin
According to the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality, improved depression screening rates helped the state avoid $59 million in healthcare costs. Their report notes that depression screening for Wisconsin’s rural underserved populations is improving but declining in urban areas. The statewide improvement goals are to screen all patients 12 and older for depression with a focus on adolescents; screen electronically; and integrate behavioral health into primary care. Depression costs $800 million a year in the state.
Wisconsin Self-Harm Data Dashboard – Updated
The Wisconsin Self-Harm: Data Dashboard has now been updated with 2025 data. Emergency Department (ED) and hospital patient data are presented separately. The data can be viewed by age, sex, race and ethnicity filters. Continuing the trend from prior years, youth ages 15-17 and females are most likely to self-harm.
Trust in Nonprofits and Philanthropy
According to recent research, nonprofits remain the most-trusted institutions in America, even as trust in government, corporations, media, and philanthropy remain significantly lower. Nonprofits stand out as rare points of common ground amid continued political polarization; they’re seen as unifying institutions that are transparent, engage directly, and focus on tangible community impact.
State of the States Report
A new report covering 31 metrics for all 50 states was released by the State of the Nation Project, a bipartisan organization, which also ranked the states. Wisconsin ranks 8th in the nation. The Wisconsin Policy Forum shared their breakdown of Wisconsin’s report noting that while Wisconsin ranks highly, it is worsening relative to the nation on three of four measures in the “children and families” category, both measures in the “violence” category, and two of four measures in one of its traditional areas of strength: the “work and labor force” category. Low birthweight, which can be linked with developmental delays and behavioral problems, is one of the indicators that Wisconsin is not doing better on.
They concluded, for a state that has long prided itself on being family friendly and boasting a high quality of life, these trends are worthy of attention. The report covers metrics on the economy, education, health, safety and wellbeing.
Screen Viewing Time from Age 1 to 8, Subsequent Academic Performance and Working Memory
Screen time is associated with children’s academic and cognitive outcomes, but longitudinal studies are scarce, hindering identification of the most sensitive age periods of childhood. This longitudinal study assessed the associations of single and cumulative average screen viewing time with academic performance and working memory.
A graphical abstract shows that early childhood screen time was linked with poorer academic performance and poorer working memory. The study also found that cumulative average screen time was associated with lower academic performance (but not working memory), with the strongest effect sizes seen for single screen viewing time occurring in early infancy.
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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