Life pressures put Chinese youth at risk of mental illness

With mounting family, school and life pressures, Chinese children and adolescents are facing a mental health crisis, with experts calling for greater attention and multifaceted support for the issue.

The overall prevalence of mental disorders among Chinese children and adolescents exceeds 10 percent, according to the latest research published in The Lancet Regional Health — Western Pacific in September, with anxiety, depression and impulse-control disorders posing the greatest burden.

The China Youth Development Report, released by the China Youth & Children Research Center in 2021, indicates that approximately 30 million children and adolescents under the age of 17 in China experience various emotional and behavioral problems.

Michael Phillips, specially appointed director of the Crisis Intervention Research Office at the Shanghai Mental Health Center, said: "Studies examining the causes of these disorders suggest that the physiological maturation of contemporary adolescents occurs about 2 years earlier than 20 years ago, while psychological maturity is now delayed until around age 25. This mismatch between body and mind is expanding the risk window during adolescence."

Adolescents appear more mature than before, but their emotional regulation and interpersonal conflict resolution skills have not developed in parallel, leading to increased psychological vulnerability, he said, adding that this asynchrony makes it harder for adolescents to maintain emotional stability when facing setbacks, academic pressure and relationship changes. "Part of this stress also comes from overprotective families," he added.

A patient diagnosed with bipolar disorder, referred to as Wang, said: "I am used to the tolerance of my grandparents and parents, and the fulfillment of my needs. I feel disappointed, even hopeless, when faced with the strict environment and competition system at school."

The increasing use of social media has also changed how adolescents interact with others.

Shi Yu, founder of Beijing's Mentaverse Psychological Service Studio, said: "The social media platforms expand adolescents' social networks but weaken their real-world interpersonal and conflict-resolution skills. This deficiency makes it harder for them to cope with stress from both online and offline environments."

She added that exposure to unfiltered online content — including those that promote success anxiety, peer comparisons and the spread of negative information — is shaping adolescents' perceptions of themselves and their futures.

Although mental health resources are increasing, policies and public opinion still often equate psychological crises with depression or mental illness.

Phillips said that this tendency may hinder effective intervention. "If severe mental issues are entirely medicalized, many social factors may be ignored, such as family pressure, interpersonal conflict and perceived social injustice," he said.

He said that structural social pressures and changes in family relationships remain key triggers for adolescent psychological crises.

Shi said, "Beyond family factors, schools also play an important role in adolescent mental health."

In Guangzhou, Guangdong province, the regulations for promoting mental health in primary schools specify that each class must have at least one mental health education lesson every two weeks, and at least one themed mental health class meeting per semester.

Counseling rooms must remain open during fixed hours each day outside of school holidays, with no fewer than 10 hours per week for extracurricular access.

However, several experts note that China's psychological counseling industry still faces challenges, including "inconsistent qualification standards and insufficient supervision", which significantly affect the construction of adolescent mental health interventions.

"China needs to establish its own long-term adolescent mental health monitoring and research cohorts," Phillips said.

He said that it would be socially beneficial if a longitudinal research model could be built. This would be a model based on data collected at the beginning of primary or middle school, and continuously tracking emotional, family, behavioral and health changes among a large number of children and adolescents.

"Only through long-term follow-up can we identify changing risk factors, evaluate the impact of social transformation, and find effective ways to intervene in mental disorders," he said.