“The majority of studies that have captured teen health at that level have been parent-reported surveys. We wanted to fill that gap and understand teen health from the teens themselves,” he said, “so we asked parents and teens the same questions.”
The questions are: How often do you get the social and emotional support you need? (Parents were asked similar questions about their children’s needs.) Response options were “always,” “usually,” “sometimes,” “rarely,” and “never.”
The survey results revealed a startling disparity: While more than three-quarters of parents (77%) said their teens always got the social and emotional support they needed, only 28% of teens said the same.
“We expected there would be differences of opinion between parents and young people,” Zablodsky says, “but we were surprised to see the level of disagreement, and to see differences across the board in the various subgroups we surveyed. … If there’s such a big disconnect, it’s worth having a conversation about.”
Young people who said they “sometimes,” “rarely” or “never” got the support they needed were more likely to experience anxiety, depression and other negative health effects, Zabrostky said. “They were also more likely to report lower life satisfaction and more likely to report poorer sleep quality,” he added.
Zablotsky said the report raises new questions that the team hopes to answer, and because the study didn’t clearly define social-emotional support, additional qualitative research is planned “to better understand what teens are thinking about when answering these questions.”
The age group surveyed has experienced heightened mental health crises for years and has received increased public attention and concern since the onset of the pandemic. A 2021 CDC report found that 42% of U.S. high school students said they felt persistently sad or hopeless, and 29% reported experiencing worsening mental health. Levels of social isolation among young people have also been steadily increasing, leading the U.S. Surgeon General to issue recommendations last month emphasizing the importance of social connections and community.
Tamar Mendelson, professor and director of the Center for Adolescent Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the mental health crisis is even more severe for children in vulnerable communities, a fact highlighted in recent research analyses.
“In marginalized communities, a lot of young people suffer from trauma symptoms, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and related mental health issues because they’re having to deal with food insecurity, housing insecurity, community violence, issues that kids shouldn’t have to deal with,” she said. “We have growing economic disparities in this country, and for young people who live in poverty and who are impacted by structural racism, this is a really serious mental health issue, and I think we tend to forget about that.”
The new report also reflects the disproportionate impact on certain teen demographics: Girls, Black and Hispanic teens, and those who identify as LGBTQ are some of the least likely to say they “always” or “usually” get the support they need. Lower household income and lower parental education levels were also associated with lower rates of perceived emotional and social support.
Mendelson said he wasn’t surprised that the survey revealed differences of opinion between teens and their parents.
“That’s a big discrepancy, and it’s concerning, because obviously this is a very important developmental period when parents can support their children,” Mendelson said. But “adolescence, in particular, is a time when young people are becoming more independent. … If they’re struggling socially, if they’re having mental health symptoms, if they’re having problems, a lot of young people are not going to confide in their parents.”
She said she hopes the findings will draw attention to what parents can do to engage more meaningfully with their teens, which can be difficult at this age.
“The hard thing about being a parent of a teenager is that they send you conflicting messages,” she says. “They might say, ‘It’s OK,’ or ‘No, I don’t want to talk about it,’ or ‘No, I don’t want to hang out with you on Saturday.’ Part of their job is to push you away because they’re growing up, but part of your job as a parent is to not let that discourage you from really being with your teen.”
Many parents are constantly connected to their children electronically, and many children have less independence and free time than previous generations. Mendelson noted that this type of oversight and overscheduling is different from supportive engagement.
“In some ways helicopter parents stress kids out – ‘You need to be involved in all these activities and constantly be performing or achieving,’ which is a very different message,” she said. “I think there’s a big difference between parents providing supervision and structure and providing support.”
She suggests parents be open-minded and create opportunities to start conversations with their teens. Many parents told her they find it easier to talk with their kids in a more relaxed setting, such as in the car, where they’re more relaxed and aren’t sitting across from each other.
“this [survey] “It’s a reminder to not give up and assume that you’re giving your child the support they need,” she says. “What I’ve learned from it, as a parent and as a researcher, is that we need to slow down and really check in on our kids and not assume that we know what’s going on with them.”
