Key takeaways from IMH’s National Youth Mental Health study

Anxiety was the most common mental health problem experienced by young people in Singapore. More than one in four youth (about 27 per cent) had severe or extremely severe symptoms of anxiety, such as feeling worried, tense and restless, most of the time.

Around one in seven (nearly 15 per cent) felt severe to extremely severe levels of depression, including feeling sad, empty and a lack of interest and pleasure in activities, most of the time.

Around one in eight (nearly 13 per cent) felt severe to extremely severe levels of stress, including being unable to relax or feeling upset or irritable, most of the time.

More than one in four (27 per cent) use social media excessively – which is more than three hours a day, as defined by the study. Those under the age of 30 and females were more likely to do so. Young people with excessive social media usage were 1.6 times more likely to be severely stressed, and 1½ times more likely to have severe symptoms of depression.

Around one in five (20.2 per cent) have moderate to severe body shape concerns, such as excessive concerns about body shape that are typically associated with eating disorders. Those aged 20 to 29 and females are more likely to experience such concerns. Young people with such concerns are 4.9 times more likely to have severe symptoms of depression.

Around one in five youth (21 per cent) had been cyber bullied through receiving mean, aggressive or rude messages online. Young people who had experienced cyber bullying were about twice as likely to have had severe or extremely severe symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress, compared with those who had not.

Apart from excessive social media use, body shape concerns and cyber bullying, other factors such as vaping, smoking and adverse childhood experiences were also found to be associated with severe or extremely severe symptoms of depression or anxiety.

One in three youth (30.9 per cent) did not seek help, despite having severe or extremely severe symptoms.

Those who did not seek help thought that specialists would not be able to help them, were worried about what other people may think, and were worried about issues of privacy, confidentiality or being left with a permanent record.