Older teens more likely to turn to friends for mental health support

Older teenagers are more likely to turn to friends or try to resolve problems on their own without the help of parents or counsellors.

Their parents, though, still hope to be their first line of support and are also willing to engage professional help, according to a survey commissioned by philanthropic organisation The Majurity Trust (TMT) to find out what kind of help youth prefer.

Mr Leon Lim, TMT's director of research, said that the findings indicate a gap between what parents and older youth want in terms of mental health support.

"It also raises the question of whether parents are equipped with the skills and competencies to have conversations about mental health and support their children's mental health," he said.

The survey was done in September and October last year through face-to-face interviews. It was conducted by Singapore-based social enterprise Research for Impact, and funded by TMT's Musim Mas BlueStar* Fund.

About 1,000 people - comprising those aged 10 to 18 and their parents - were involved.

About 60 per cent of the youth said they would turn to immediate family members, like parents or siblings, and friends when under stress. But a prominent view among those aged 15 to 18 was that they would not seek support, because they should be able to resolve problems on their own.

Sixty per cent of them felt this way, compared with 40 per cent for the group aged 10 to 14.

TMT's report noted that youth participants in focus group discussions gave reasons such as not wanting to burden their parents, not wanting to look "vulnerable", or that their parents would not take them seriously.

"Older youth were also insistent that they would not seek mental health support outside the family if this required parental consent."

A majority of parents - about 80 per cent - said they would encourage their children to turn to them for help. The same proportion said they would also allow their children to approach a counsellor.

The report stated that parents recognised that peer relationships and social media were important to young people, but were concerned about how these might be sources of mental stress too.

Mr Lim said that as children get older, they tend to be more likely to turn to friends for help. The survey found that 66 per cent of 15-to 18-year-olds would go to their friends, compared with 56 per cent of the younger ones.

The older group also felt concerned about trust and confidentiality issues in reporting about their mental health, while younger ones were not too sure of who or where to turn to for help.

Thirty-six per cent of the older group said they would turn to a teacher, and 29 per cent would go to a school counsellor, lower than 49 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively, for the younger ones.

In addition, the older ones preferred online sources and social media for mental health support.

Mr Lim said youth are likely to want more independence as they get older.

"The adolescence period is always turbulent… I don't think there's a clear understanding about when teenage problems become mental health problems, but we do know that this is a period we should be talking a bit more about," he said.

"One thing we have discovered from research is that those who reported having mental illness or signs of it actually had a history, and the history dates back to when they were teenagers."

He said the findings show that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to supporting young people's mental health, as their needs and preferences evolve over time.

"The report reinforces the role that friends play… It also validates that it's not meant to be an either/or situation.

"But there seems to be some disconnect, which seems to be playing a role in preventing older youth from getting the mental health support that they feel they need."

Mr Charles Tan, TMT's director of philanthropy, said: "We're really hoping that the findings can help to shape the way social service programmes are designed and delivered. We hope we could skew some of the attention towards supporting (youth when they are) younger so that hopefully, in time, we can see a bit of a slowing of the increase in mental health conditions that we're all seeing creep up."